Zen and the Art of Crypto-Mining

Above: Fractals -- visual representations of simple crypto algorithms

Cryptography, specifically crypto-mining, is an art form.

Of course, “Art is in the eye of the beholder.”

‘When I look at the compounding mathematics of the Blockchain and see an elegance in design rivaled only in its complexity and purpose, I see nature and its own magnificence reflected back at me.’

‘Where you see chaos, I see structure. Where you see danger, I see safety. Where you see complexity, I see simplicity.’

These are the words of a former colleague of mine who was introduced to cryptography and the decryption of codes during his service in the US Navy.

He found that work particularly exciting as he could visualize the mathematics of cryptography as a form of knot tying, which he mastered as a child.

‘No matter the complexity, the code always came back to the same, simplistic knots arranged in patterns that would bring mental images of complex laces as well as simple decorative edgings commonplace on sea-going vessels of old.’

“Think of crypto-currency mining as different ways to tie a knot. If you take two strings of numbers and perform many small, simple knots, you can come out with amazing, complicated and even beautiful knot work.

“Take the simple bow knot. If you tie two strings with a simple bow knot… and then again with the same knot, you get a granny knot, but if on the second tie, you reverse your direction, you wind up with a square knot. The math associated with cryptology is exactly the same and describes which functions happen, in which order.

“Now think of the Bitcoin Blockchain as a large loom… each of the threads starts out as a single thread, being spun by a single computer working a spinning wheel, but by taking each of those threads and placing them into the block-chain, woven together, you get a fabric.

“Crypto-mining is all about the fabric. Ones and zeros matter, but the solution is written in the pattern, not in the material. It’s the same with Bitcoin’s SHA-256, Scrypt, X11, X13, and all of the other crypto-coin algorithms out there.

“To make things more clear, remember that Bitcoin mining isn’t binary; it is base 256. Think of the thread … a binary thread only has 2 thicknesses…on, or off.

“The thickness of the thread in base 256 can be a tiny, tiny thread… or the thickness of a heavy rope.

“Now, put those into your fabric pattern, and you get some pretty amazing results, and all of this started from a form of math, designed to describe things that are constantly changing, from weather patterns to the orbits of planets, to the motions of electrons and even the electrical impulses that our brain performs when we feel emotions — Calculus.”

“An ASIC, or Application Specific Integrated Circuit… or, in our analogy, a factory loom, is simply an attached device that does one thing, it performs the same mathematical knots over and over again to any number you feed it.

“You can imagine the CPU of your PC as an old woman knitting, knit-1, pearl-2, knit-2, pearl-3, etc, as opposed to the factory machine where each knot is worked on separately.

“The block eruptor takes a number and ties it in 256 dimensions to come up with a specific pattern. If that pattern matches the block chain start and finish pieces, it’ has found a‘share’. If it doesn’t, the ASIC takes the next number and tries again.

“That little ASIC is 10x faster than your whole high-powered computer system at finding shares. Your computer can perform 2 billion different operations per second, but that ASIC can perform 20 billion of the same pattern of 256 individual commands.

“The Scrypt-mining algorithm describes a pattern that is 1024 dimensions, it produces a pattern that is completely different. For this analogy, instead of blankets, you’re weaving lace doilies or patterned fabrics, with intricate, almost fractal designs.

“Mining Bitcoin simply means you are performing the calculations for maintaining the Blockchain. Mining Litecoin or Dogecoin or other Alts is simply following the protocol for those different blockchains, in the patterns required by that coin.

“Bitcoin and several other crypto-currencies use SHA-256 algorithm. Litecoin and Dogecoin and others use Scrypt.

‘When I first started tying knots as a boy scout, I saw the ways different patterns looked. I saw that simplicity is the base for everything in nature, and many years later I found that in that simplicity lies the secrets of happiness. The rest of the universe then simply unfolded outward from that child’s understanding.’

“People outside of the Bitcoin community often call for more rules and regulations on Bitcoin. Do not be deceived, consumer protection laws only protect the banks from their consumers, not the other way around.

“Lawmakers wish to make laws and government controls for Bitcoin. Again, do not be deceived, a free people control their government, not the other way around.

“While the calculus of science can predict what parts of your brain light up when you feel emotion, the numbers themselves do not have emotions; they simply are. Zen teaches us that the secret to being happy, is to simply enjoy being.

“If you feel the need to be protected from yourself. If you fear mistakes before you make them, then you will learn nothing, and you will not find your Zen.

‘The math is Zen. The Blockchain is math. The Blockchain is Zen.’

“On the Blockchain, all you need is the wallet address to view or deposit your Bitcoins. In order to spend them, however, you need the account number and the account key, or more accurately the key cypher. Remember, we are still dealing with math here.

“Here too, the analogy of tying knots also works with the key cypher; the bank account number can be untied into letting the owner use the money inside. The knot of course, being fashioned in 256 dimensions, is a little more complex than simply pulling on the two loose strings of the bow knot, but you get the idea.

“The Blockchain wallet key is simply an instruction set to a 256-dimensional cypher that, when paired to its wallet address allows the user to send a single coded instruction to the network: ‘Pay x amount, from this wallet account, to another wallet account.’

“Please remember that limited, binary-thinking computers are maintaining this open ledger of the Blockchain, and like a colony of bees, maintain this set of books only because each of them has a very small set of simple binary instructions that it is able to follow.

‘It is this simplicity that makes it so astounding.’

“Each worker, following their instructions, collects one of these cyphers off the Internet and decodes it.

“If the decoding returns gibberish, the transaction is deemed an “invalid transaction” and is kicked out of the network.

“Presuming that the encoding is correct, and a readable transaction is in the encoded message, the next step, is to then verify that x amount of Bitcoin is actually in that wallet account on the public ledger.

“If it is not, the transaction is deemed a “double spend” and is likewise kicked out of the network.

“If it is both readable, and is a valid amount, then the cypher is compared to a pre-set collection of rules for a block, before it is passed to the network.

“If it does not yet form a complete block then it is mixed with other transactions until the cypher does, in fact, form a completed block, then the whole thing is forwarded on to the block-chain as a completed block and is verified by other workers on the network.”

‘The math is Zen.

The Blockchain is math.

The Blockchain is Zen.’