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There are very few things that are actually useful (socially or otherwise) but don't provide economic incentive. As pointed out by others primecoin isn't really
by kobeya 9y ago
There are very few things that are actually useful (socially or otherwise) but don't provide economic incentive. As pointed out by others primecoin isn't really a very good example. A good application to shoot for, if there are any budding cryptographers in the audience, is a ticking timelock encryption. A set of keys known in advance, and each block solves the next key. This would let you encrypt messages into the future, where the cost to decrypt is equal to the cost of minting that many blocks.
I've seen partial schemes for this, but no complete ones that would justify implementation. If a full and workable scheme could be devised, I would bet on it replacing sha256 based proof of work, eventually.
- SilasX 9y agoEvery public goods problem is mathematical research is a case where the solutions are socially useful but not saleable. The problem (pointed out by the sibling) with primecoin was that it worked too well, such that further solutions were uninteresting and past the point of diminishing returns. Edit: See my here for a model of how NP complete problems could fill the role of you could predict difficulty in advance. There wouldn't be double dipping because the person wanting the answer wouldn't pay both bounties. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15107653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15107653
- kobeya 9y agoNo the problem with primecoin is the mathematical "problem" it is solving isn't scientifically interesting.