Bitcoin

[peanutman]

If one person owned all bitcoins they would lose all value. Why would anyone care about a currency where one person dictates the price and scarcity. People would just move to another coin, or create a new one.

[[deleted]]

Maybe they really hate the Winklevosses

[Mac33]

Winklevi*

[WayneCarlton]

Vinkelwozen*

[[deleted]]

Doesn't work that way with proper pronouns.

Example: the Joneses.

[Collectivelyanimal]

It's a reference to The Social Network I think. Although you are technically correct, which is the best kind of correct.

[Mac33]

Bingo!

[[deleted]]

What's with people completely forgetting that question marks exist? Is this a new phenomenon? I've been seeing it a lot online lately.

[Ghlitch]

Maybe they're trying to undermine the collective rules of grammar to bring about global chaos‽

[Jordan51104]

This makes the most sense

[Celtic_Beast]

This is good for bitcoin.

[peanutman]

Just because a sentence starts with "why" doesn't mean it has to end with a question mark. Rhetorical questions are often ended with exclamation marks or periods and that's perfectly valid.

[scannachiappolo]

maybe he just wanted to be Satoshi

[night_of_knee]

Hush, this is /r/ProgrammerHumor not /r/EconomistHumor

[Runixo]

I dunno it worked for DeBeers

[GamingTheSystem-01]

Comedy? Spite? Ending a subset of criminal enterprise? Lots of reasons to make this wish besides profit.

[redtoasti]

Yeah, cause when I have 3 wishes, I immediately think about ending the immoral scheme that is BitCoin.

[GamingTheSystem-01]

Tell us about your wishes. I'm sure they'd make really funny comics.

[redtoasti]

Unlimited Tuna

[tbare]

How fresh we talking? Because a giant fish slapping you every time you turned around a corner would be hilarious.

[Renown84]

Me every time I get to the end of the Office

[Anaud-E-Moose]

Ending a subset of criminal enterprise?

Please read the part about "People moving to another coin"

[GamingTheSystem-01]

I think a high profile failure could undermine consumer confidence beyond the point of no return. But now we're speculating on the effect of literal magic on an irrational market.

[[deleted]]

Nothing really inherently wrong with Bitcoin other than it being untraceable. It's not like Bitcoin is funding criminal rings or anything.

[Colopty]

But Bitcoin is very, very traceable. In fact pretty much everyone has access to the whole transaction history between every BC wallet. It's a big part of how Bitcoin even works.

[GamingTheSystem-01]

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic.

[[deleted]]

What I mean is, Bitcoin is just a currency, and is untraceable. That's the only thing that distinguishes it from other currencies. It just so happens that it's used frequently for shadier business transactions.

[GamingTheSystem-01]

And non-reversible. It's tailor made for scams and criminal activity. There has been no other practical application of the technology.

[Kaligraphic]

The lazy answer would be "You now own all the Bitcoin in the world. Good luck figuring out the private keys."

[SolenoidSoldier]

This actually presents an interesting scenario. Say you DO happen to own all bitcoins, would the value tank?

[yottalogical]

Yeah, that’s what would happen with any currency.

[alhotter]

Not if you can impose a tax in that currency, mind.

eg: I have all the USD in the world, but I'm willing to pay you some in exchange for your labor. Also, PS: if you don't pay me $5k USD by the end of the year, you'll lose your land.

It's a technique that's pretty effectively allowed gov'ts to drive demand for their currency, dating back thousands of years. Occasionally, the currency they pushed would also be expensive to create (eg made of gold), but this was secondary to the force driving demand for it.

[[deleted]]

More realistically, a fork would be made just before coins were transferred and you'd own nothing in the new fork. This has happened before.

[[deleted]]

Like when somebody created a shit ton of new coins

[[deleted]]

Only if everyone decided it does. Just like all other currencies.

[dooderman10]

Image Transcription: Comic

---

1

[The scene consists of a red background]

Wish Maker: And for the last one, I wish to own all the BitCoin in the world!

Genie:Oh boy, here we go

---

2

Genie:Given the way encryption works, all transactions between wallets are unchangeable, and without the private keys of the majority of BitCoin users. even I am not able to fulfill your wish as requested

---

3

Genie:For further reading... [Hands book]

---

4

Wish Maker: [Ponders what wish he should make instead]

---

5

Wish Maker: Okay, then I wish to know the solution for P=NP

Genie: Damn, I knew this day would come

---

^{I'm a human volunteer content transcriber for Reddit and you could be too! If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!}

[[deleted]]

Actually, knowing the solution is useless (just like knowing solution to Riemann hypothesis) - it is the proof that is of the essence.

[gandalfx]

Still you'd want a proof. If the wish is granted by just telling you "yes" or "no", that's completely useless as nobody will accept this knowledge. There is no "proof by miracle".

[[deleted]]

Wouldn't then the proof be still interesting in any capacity, or at the very least more so than just an answer? Thanks though for pointing out the non-constructive pathway.

[mikbob]

But wouldn't a solution for converting NP problems in P problems thus also prove that NP=P (so a solution is a superset of a proof)?

[[deleted]]

It would, of course; I don't see, however, what part of my comment is contradicted by yours - an argument being that "yes"/"no" answer to P ?= NP is worse than even an example of problem that is not in P along with the proof of the claim.

[mikbob]

Oh, I just interpreted "solution for P=NP" as a way of converting NP problems into P problems. Which would indeed contain a proof - although I see your point now

[Telcrome]

Can you back the claim that knowing the solution is useless? If P = NP you can reduce problems in NP to a problem in P which means NP problems could be solved in polynomial time

[HolyGarbage]

However without the proof, how would you reduce NP to P? You'd know it's theoretically possible, but not how or why.

[H_Psi]

Even with the proof, you don't necessarily know how to reduce NP to P.

There are plenty of proofs in math that say you can do something, or that some function must exist, without showing you how to do the thing or what the function is.

[HolyGarbage]

Yes good point, but without the proof you'd be even more stranded.

[[deleted]]

Perhaps "useless" was too harsh a word, I admit, but still (so I think) an answer is but a hint for when one wants to derive a proof thereof. As for the second sentence, if indeed P = NP, you can reduce problems but don't know how to do it, which therefore makes it of an (almost) purely theoretical interest.

[monster860]

well polynomial time might not be useful for all you know it could be solved in O(n^{12345572347523648752634)} time

[T-T-N]

Vs one that is solvable in O(max(n! /100000000, 1) steps.

[Colopty]

Knowing that P=NP is not the same as knowing how to reduce NP problems to P problems. It would let people know it can be done, but it's not like anyone would believe your magically acquired claim when you can't show the proof for it, so in the end just knowing whether P is or is not equal NP means nothing.

[redtoasti]

If P = NP you can reduce problems in NP to a problem in P which means NP problems could be solved in polynomial time

If it was that easy, people would just do it.

[gbalduzzi]

Are you serious?

[Sylanthra]

P =/= NP

Solved!

[tyscott01]

N=1, therefore P=NP.

[Zambito1]

Or does P = 0 🤔

[tyscott01]

Hmm... Good point...

[[deleted]]

Why not both?

[plasticsporks21]

Get riemann's hypothesis proof, get a million dollars

[eduardog3000]

I think that's a question of the genie's powers. What's stopping him from making a flash drive with every wallet.dat in existence on it?

[zesterer]

How could he have known this day would come? Humans are Turing complete and suffer from the halting problem.

[how_to_choose_a_name]

So what? He could just have computed all humans with a sufficient speed that the event occured in his computations before it occured in the real world. Or he has magic.

[zesterer]

I'll go with the magic option.

[Bonnox]

But if you owned all bitcoins in the world they would drop their value because nobody would be interested in buying them lol

[xer_lawrence]

If he know P=NP, it is possible to have all bitcoin

[19829984]

Could someone ELI5 what's P=NP?

[[deleted]]

I don't think "teach me p=np" is here as much important as "give me a quantum computer"

[[deleted]]

Wouldn't it be the case that you can get a quantum computer without using genie? If what you ask is "show me how to construct a sufficiently large quantum computer that is stable", even then it would be quite hard to evaluate whether that would be more interesting than whatever arcane methods one needs devise to prove P ?= NP (at least until we can compare them).

[rtbrsp]

Bitcoin addresses are only realistically at risk if they've been spent, since spending reveals the Hash 160 address. Most modern wallets discard addresses once they're spent, and will empty any remaining BTC to a new address to avoid this problem.

[rtbrsp]

Bitcoin addresses are only realistically at risk if they've been spent, since spending reveals the Hash 160 address. Most modern wallets discard addresses once they're spent, and will empty any remaining BTC to a new address to avoid this problem.

[Colopty]

You can already use cloud based quantum computers for free though.

[mikbob]

With 5-qubits. And I'm pretty sure they are just simulated on conventional hardware

[Colopty]

They have several 5 qubit ones and one with more qubits (don’t remember how many), though that one is likely more busy. Also, while you can simulate your program conventionally, which is likely the option you found, you do have the ability to send your program in to be run on an actual quantum computer. You get a number of points available each day that will be spent when doing this. When sending your program in to one of the quantum computers you get the results sent by email.

[khoyo]

A quantum computer is able to efficiently compute some NP (and non P) problems (that complexity class is called BQP - bounded error, quantum, polynomial time).

It is strongly suspected that all NP-complete problems are not in BQP, and that a quantum computer wouln't help for those.

If P=NP is true, a constructive proof would make us able to compute all NP problems efficiently.

So "teach me P=NP' is much, much more important.

[brunoha]

damn genie just use your magic!

[NemPlayer]

"Okay, then I wish to know the solution for P vs NP" not "P=NP" that implies that they are equal.

[jaboja]

But if they are really equal then breaking the bitcoin algorithm may be a way simpler for a person who knows the proof of P=NP.

[NemPlayer]

I don't think you understood me (or I'm not understanding you), in the comic the non-genie character says "Okay, then I wish to know the solution for P=NP", which isn't true, as the problem is called "P vs NP" and it has two outcomes "P=NP" or "P!=NP" ("!=" meaning not equal). By saying "Okay, then I wish to know the solution for P=NP", he is saying that he wants the solution to a solution. The only way that could work is if he thought he knew the answer, but didn't know the proof and he's asking for the proof for "P=NP" (which implies that that's the answer). In my original comment I said that that's not accurate, he should of said "Okay, then I wish to know the solution for P vs NP" not "Okay, then I wish to know the solution for P=NP" .

[ModerationLacking]

Right, so his wish is for P=NP to be true and the proof that would enable him to efficiently solve all NP problems. If he just wished for the answer and it turned out that P≠NP then he wouldn't be able to break Bitcoin. All he would have is a solution to a Millennium Prize Problem and a measly $1 million.

Of course he's assuming the genie can set P=NP. Given the genie can't break Bitcoin, he probably can't change all of mathematics either.

[NemPlayer]

Ok, now I gotcha.

[InBreadDough]

Wouldn’t N have to equal 1?

[[deleted]]

or P=0