So I have had this idea for a LONG time now, and i am happy to see someone in 2014 having the same idea on Reddit, posting it to "NoStupidQuestions which we will now replicate in chainBB
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/2k5fb9/could_a_handwritten_handhashed_cryptocurrency_be/
"This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment." not anymore reddit you asshole, this is OUR thread now!
Could a handwritten, hand-hashed cryptocurrency be made? If so, how?
submitted 2 years ago by @bman214
There was a video posted recently of a guy doing 1 bitcoin mining hash with the SHA-256 algorithm. This is extremely inefficient, but could an entirely offline, handwritten cryptocurrency be made with an easier algorithm and more accepted outputs?
If so, how could it be proven that a hash was made by hand and not with a computer?
[–] @seifer666 3 points 2 years ago
yes, but it would be terrible. anything hash related you do can by hand would be cracked by someone with a laptop in about 10 seconds
[–] @bman214 [S] 2 points 2 years ago
Is there any way to prove that the hash was done by hand, though?
[–] @Koooooj 3 points 2 years ago
I'm not aware of any algorithm that could be done by hand in such a way that you're left with an effective solution.
The whole idea of a proof-of-work cryptocurrency is that the miners are looking for solutions to a problem where it is difficult to find a solution but trivial to check that a solution is correct. Hashcash style proof-of-work cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin) use a brute forcing of the first N bits of a cryptographic hash function.
If you tried to use a system like that but work it out by hand then you run into the unfortunate problem that the task just takes too long to verify. Checking a single hash would take several minutes, to say nothing of the other mathematics involved in checking a transaction.
It's maybe possible to look into a system that is based on a human-computer hybrid setup. Computers are really good at all of the database operations and public key cryptography that's needed to form the backbone of the network, so you would start with a system of computers networked together, passing data back and forth about transactions with each keeping track of a database of transactions.
From there you need protection against double spends, which is really the only major weakness of that system (there are a few other weaknesses, but double spends are by far the largest). Thus, you go with a blockchain approach like with Bitcoin and you use a proof of work model, but you seek to have a work function that is not algorithmic in nature—it's not a simple mathematical challenge that you have to meet. This work function has to have a few specific characteristics. It must be:
Unique. Each person performing "work" must be doing their own work. If everyone is trying to solve the same problem then the odds are broken. The fastest miner will always win and every other miner will always lose. If everyone is doing their own work then you have a system where a fast worker will win more races than a slow worker, but both have a chance of winning.
Quickly Verifiable. It's important that once you arrive at a solution it is very fast to check that solution for someone else. Otherwise it takes too long for people to verify it.
Tied to a specific set of transactions. The security of the network hinges on the idea that you are putting real resources towards championing a set of transactions for official membership in the permanent record. If you can take that work and reapply it to some other transactions then you have nothing at stake and the security crumbles. Hashcash is very good at this.
Not startable ahead of time. Similar to the previous point, it is important that you are not able to "save up" a bunch of work and release it all at once. If you could do this then you could take a small-time miner and put together a long chain of blocks that you release all at once in an attack.
Variable difficulty. If it takes too long to find a solution to the problem then blocks aren't released fast enough, but when more people start working the time between blocks drops. It's important that the work function has a way to regulate the speed of blocks by increasing or decreasing the problem's difficulty. Hashcash is also very good at this.
Autonomously issued. It is important that each miner is able to issue work to themselves without the coordination of a central authority. This precludes most distributed computing projects like Folding@home from making a decentralized currency (and a centralized currency is, in principle, trivial without mining). These requirements make finding different work functions very difficult, so it's no surprise that almost every proof-of-work currency is based on a Hashcash model. Some use different hash functions—SHA256d, Scrypt, X11, Keccak, Various other SHA3 candidates, etc—but it's all the same basic approach. It is not reasonable to make a human-hashed algorithm using this paradigm.
It is possible to abandon the idea of Hashcash and to use a different proof of work problem entirely. The first cryptocurrency to do this was Primecoin, which noted that there is a class of prime number search that can be made to meet all of the above requirements. If you want a human-mined cryptocurrency then you need to find a problem that meets all of those characteristics that is also something that a human can solve. If you can find something that a computer can verify but a human can solve then that's even better.
[–] @vladomanprobably drunk 2 points 2 years ago
Isn't using "cryptocurrency" and "offline, handwritten" in the same sentence kind of a contradiction?
[–] @bman214 [S] 1 point 2 years ago
No. A cryptocurrency is a currency run by a decentralized network. It doesn't have to be online.
[–] @VolundarkvioaRIPv2 In Peace 2 points 2 years ago
No, a cryptocurrency is a currency source that utilizes a cryptographic algorithm. Currently cryptographic currencies utilize decentralized networks, but cryptocurrency itself is simply a currency which utilizes cryptography to protect the validity of the currency.
[–] @bman214 [S] 1 point 2 years ago
And that doesn't have to be online.
(This is Us scooping up all these very interesting but ARCHIVED and thus DEAD posts on reddit!)
And they cant do shit! We can just get ALL OUR content back! WE are the users WE are just taking BACK WHAT IS OURS
This is like the creation of the British Empire through the destruction of the Spanish Armada!, reddit is the existing Spanish Empire, and we are about to go set their entire armada on fire with one flaming ghost ship(blockchain)!
THIS is the future STEEMIT where you can ALWAYS reply to a comment! (I am glad they fixed that because there was a time just a few months ago when you didnt have the ability to have forever comments ! right? they changed THAt shit fast didnt they! haha and now we can OFFER the ability to ALWAYS ad to a conversatioN! None of t he "archiving" shit! this is the blockchain! Never again will we allow someone to use "server space" as an excuse! reddit wasnt running out of server space! data storage is cheaper than ever! Its basically free when you run a website like reddit that makes FAr more than they would need to host all their data! Archiving is a LIE its an EXCUSE to CENSOR people! AND they think redditors will "move on" to NEW content which si what reddit makes money off! So they actually have the nerve to LOCK OUt their OWN USERS out of tHEIR OWN POSTS! Here on steemit ANYONE can comment and NOONE can just take away those comments like on reddit!
This may seem like I am going off on a tangent, and you want to hear about the paper hand written crypto currency !
SO we MUST come to terms with the FACT that a hand written crypto currency that was hand hashed, would have the weakness of anyone with any modern computer to crack it! WELL I know of a way we can get around that!
We already have signatures, and we have other codes a computer would not be able to crack! We can have very very very distorted Cursive for example, which only a human reader could decipher!
We could make it so there would be noting to "crack" without hours of going by hand through this hand written cryptocurrency!
Along the way we will actually encrypt things with computers as a final line of defense, but I believe it can be done without computers all by hand! It may even need something like analog form of encryption and decryption, maybe even some form of Tally Sticks , or other analog forms of encryption!
There HAs to be a way we can encrypt a PAPER crypto currency, with all hashing done by human computers by hand...there must be a way we could make this entire system completely free of computers, with no way to actually decode or decrypt this crypto currency without going through the pages by hand....
At Bletchley park during WW2 we saw the creation of the first digital COmputers "colossus" which could have software changed without having to rebuild hardware...we saw the use of different types of counting and punch card machines to aid and assist in the encoding of german Enigma military radio codes...
This would be the new Bitcoin Ledger Records....this would take the place of a Bitcoin node
And here would be our new "Miner" making a ttransaction by hand!
Looks like someone is busy generating some new wallet addresses!
And here is what our new QR coe generator will look like!
And I am kind of scared now because I was just making a joke about QR code generator and scanner....and the next photo from the Cryptography museum showed what LOOKS like a QR code!
Am I onto something here or what!?!?!!?
Here is an ultra rare Lorenz Cypher machine....
This is a great way to TEACh people about cryptography and to explain the POWER of bitcoin and its encryption! How Ethereum can be used to encrypt a file so much it would take an eternity to break into!
We can show how our modern computers can do the work of millions of whole office buildings full of people doing trillions of trillions of tasks! All integrated and coordinated from one central point! thats the power of modern computing and modern cryptography!
Maybe we need to show people just how much work this stuff used to be! how many Human "computers" had to sit there and do mindless calculations !
Someone get @stellabelle LOOK at all these women typing away! Strange how women were trusted with SO much raw data back then! Wow this is some Ghost In The Shell stuff
We are the Solid State Society!
Please continue this thread an add to my ideas! I could have kept going, and it was JUSt getting good actually! But I am burnt out! I need someone else to pick up the torch and actually map out HOW a paper base crypto currency would work, one that could not be scanned and collated and "cheated" using a modern computer....EVE just as a way to role play and pretend like youve traveled back in time, that would be a fun thing to do as well 9for a bunch pf people with Autism or Aspergers lol or just people who love math!)
We could have a phone number you could call or Radio Chanel to verify your "PaperCoin" or "TuringCoin" or "Enigma Coin"
I just know this could be a great gimmick, or if done correctly could become MORE than a gimmick!
We could use radios and CB and Ham real "dark" net backup internet networks like CBradio modems, to send and receive transactions just like how it is possible today to create a Radio Bitcoin node that sits there and listens for people who might send a signal to make a transaction over the bitcoin network!
PLEASE let me know ANY ideas on how we can make this a reality! So we can have a form of paper an analog validatable paper bitcoin systems or paper analog blockchains without any online verification needed! that may be a pipe dream but a Hand written hand calculated hand hashed cryptocurrency could till be a fun learning tool! I believe it has potential to become MORE especially if we incorporate brain passwords and brain wallets , lol Imagine a crypto currency that was all in your head ! This redditor @Koooooj seems very well educated on this subject and he brought up some amazing points about Primecoin and its use use Prime Numbers instead of the "hashcash" idea that is dominant in cryptocurrency land. But there are other "proof of Work" ideas to use things besides just craw computer power as the basis for the cryptography the coins "value" is based around!
Some believe having backups like this would be good practice incase we had a massive EMP or solar flare, coronal mass ejection, incase electronics were all wiped out (which is silly, like saying what happens if fire stops working) but still, its cool to know we could do everything without computers! An having a hand written han hashed crypto currency seems like something that COULD have maybe happened along time ago if someone would have come up with the idea back then!
Everyone into Cryptography during ww2 was also into the historical rumors of cyphers hidden in the works of Shakespeare that revealed their true author as Francis bacon who did hide cyphers in his books!
The idea of having a cypher that leads you to treasure is one level...but this next level is a paradigm sift, using the cryptography itself as money!
Here is a funny joke about BlethcyParks enigma decdooing machiens as "custom bitcoin mining rgs from world war 2"
I just find this subject so incredibly interesting! Are you not entertained?!?!
