I just thought I'd float this idea: In his science fiction novel of a few years ago Digital Fortress, Dan Brown describes a supercomputer built by the NSA to crack complex codes like public-private key encryption. We know now from the Snowden revelations that they've been doing a lot of funky stuff - some involving code cracking - some more focussed on back dooring, intercepting and hacking.
But Bitcoin - this technology of unknown origin... It involves an ever increasing amount of computer power computing hashes at an exponentially increasing rate. Vast bespoke computers of unprecedented power are now dedicated to this. Its driven phenomenal advances in bespoke computer power - pushing advances in GPU and bespoke ASIC hardware. I guess the two questions that spring to mind are:
1) Who is really behind bitcoin? Anarchists? Bankers? Con Men? Aliens?... The NSA???
2) Could we have helped (lured by a few riches) build a vast Digital Fortress style global computer to help our government security guys crack the most complex codes. I dunno - is this eveb possible?
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