8082 sats \ 3 replies \ @billiam 21 Mar

"Bitcoin network is secure, and peer-to-peer transactions are confirmed by Bitcoin miners who use specialized computers and complex algorithms to solve math problems; the first miner to solve the problem wins the block and receives newly minted Bitcoins as a block reward”

Miners do not solve "complex math problems"! They brute force a certain sha256 hash pattern by trying out numbers.

I really don't get why people are so prickly about this. Complex is subjective, but miners DO solve a math problem: find X, where X is a number as an input to a function where the output of a function is < a difficulty requirement.

It is solved via brute force, but that doesn't make it any less solved.

This is not "complex math problem solving". It's just trial and error by putting a value in a pretty simple hash function algo which can be executed by hand. An extreme case of a complex math problem is Fermat's Last Theorem which took Andrew Wile's decades to solve or supercomputers solving difficult calculation problems.

You're technically correct, but try explaining all of this to a lay person or politician with no interest in mathematics or computer science. "Solving complex math problems" is a good enough explanation for them.

Don't mess with Texas