There are computations that exist in the natural world. The stirring of coffee has provided a unique insight to a Stanford physician to analyze how cryptocurrency works. Stanford Physics doctoral student William Gilpin has published a study on 23 April in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
His central claim is that there are parallels between the inner workings of fluid dynamics and the mathematical functions that power cryptocurrency and understanding this parallel can help improve digital security.
Gilpin in his paper focused on Chaotic mixing principle and applied it on coffee stirring. It was found that if the creamer stirred the coffee in the same precise way with a spoon placed at the same angle and keeping the stirring rate same, then the creamer will create the same pattern each time with each swirling. Meaning a unique stir creates a unique swirling each time and they are unlike any others.
This unique pattern reminded Gilpin of cryptocurrencies. Gilpin draws a parallel of this with how hash functions that mathematically transform digital info into a unique output which also disguises the input.
Like an exact stirring creates same swirling effects so does exact input always creates same output with hash functions. A small change in stirring gives a new swirling pattern. The same goes for hash functions where a small input change will create different outputs with hash functions.
Similarly, a swirl never reveals how it was created like the speed or the angle of stirring. In the same way, a hash function also changes its input information so much so that it is almost impossible to identify.
My God. Feeling extra smart already that I got through that.