The top student must be diligent

Simply put, it is to develop a protocol that can ensure secure multi-party communication and transactions across blockchains, and to prove the security and feasibility of this protocol.

After all, there are so many banks and countries in the world now. There is a problem of mutual distrust between different banks. Of course, there is also a problem of mutual distrust between different countries. Everyone is doing their own thing and setting up their own blocks. Chain, of course, there are so many blockchains in the world.

According to Professor Kleinrock, the number of blockchains in the world may exceed 1,000 in 2023.

Therefore, the World Bank, as a specialized agency under the name of the United Nations, took the lead and hoped to develop a public protocol for such a complex situation to facilitate secure information communication and transactions between individuals who do not trust each other. .

It's like there are so many millionaires who want to compare their assets without revealing their secrets.

The multi-party security algorithm is for this purpose.

"This is a big project."

After listening to Kleinrock's story, Terence Tao couldn't help but exclaimed.

"Yes." Kleinlock nodded and said, "Of course, there are quite a lot of project teams participating in this project, such as Massachusetts, Princeton, etc., and there are also many people who contribute money. Those blocks Chain companies are very supportive of this research, after all, it is convenient for them.”

"In short, that's it. With this old face, I also applied for a project fund of 200,000 US dollars. If our results are finally selected, they will receive a reward of 10 million US dollars."

"So I came here this time to ask Professor Tao if he would like to join, but..."

Kleinlock looked at James Maynard and Xiao Yi, and he smiled and said, "Professor Maynard, and Xiao Yi, do you want to join us?"

Terence Tao, Xiao Yi and Maynard were all surprised when they heard this amount of funds.

Just by applying for the project, I was able to get US$200,000 in funding.

Although it may not seem like much, for their type of project, it is not a small amount. As expected of Professor Kleinrock, at such an old age, he can still attract 200,000 yuan in funding.

Not to mention that once completed, they will receive a reward of 10 million U.S. dollars. If the four of them divide it equally, each of them can have 2.5 million.

Of course, this high bonus did not fascinate them immediately. After all, Professor Kleinrock also said that the premise is that their plan can finally stand out among a large number of plans in order to obtain the final prize. award.

Winner takes all.

God knows if any of their competitors are more awesome.

Xiao Yi and Maynard looked at each other, and the former said: "Well... I really don't have any foundation in computers, such as blockchain technology, and I don't know much about it. In addition, Professor Kleinlock , you should also know that I will not stay here for long."

Maynard also nodded: "Me too. After attending the academic conference organized by AMS at the end of the month, I will prepare to return to Oxford."

Maynard was able to come with Terence Tao mainly to participate in the upcoming academic conference held by AMS.

This academic conference of AMS is also called the JMM Joint Mathematics Conference. In addition to awarding various awards such as the Cole Algebra Prize, it will also hold a series of mathematical seminars.

Maynard has received an invitation to report at this joint data conference.

Of course, Xiao Yi did not receive the invitation.

Who told Princeton to move quickly?

After hearing what the two said, Kleinrock smiled and waved his hands, saying, "Don't worry, for our subject, it doesn't matter where we study it."

"The most important thing about this subject is the logical thinking of pure mathematics, so your mathematical ideas and the unique rigorous logic of your mathematicians are the key."

"It's just like what Xiao Yi showed on the millionaire issue just now."

Under Kleinrock's persuasion, Xiao Yi and Maynard agreed to join the project without hesitation.

Of course, there is no need to mention Terence Tao. After all, he and Kleinrock are from the same school, so it is easier for them to cooperate.

In this way, their topic was added to the original x^2+1 prime number problem.

So there was one more project in their schedule.

The first day was about x^2+1 prime numbers, and the second day was about the protocol for cross-blockchain transactions.

Of course, it’s not discussed every day.

After all, how can there be a research group that holds group meetings every day?

…

A week passed quietly.

"Hmm... Regarding the role of classification screens in cracking cross-blockchain encrypted transactions, we need to come up with a countermeasure..."

In the student dormitory where Xiao Yi lives temporarily.

Facing the pieces of draft paper, he fell into thinking.

Looking back on the research of the past few days, he finally figured out what blockchain is. Similarly, he also has a deeper understanding of the contents of cryptography.

The core technology of blockchain is cryptography.

The core foundation of cryptography is mathematics, especially number theory.

Cryptology and number theory are closely related. The simplest example is RSA encryption technology, which uses the difficulty of factoring large prime numbers to achieve encryption. This is exactly the same as the prime number problem that people like to study most in number theory.

Like the famous Bitcoin, it is the world's first application of blockchain. The simplest understanding of Bitcoin mining is to use computers to continuously factorize those extremely large numbers. As long as the result is calculated, Bitcoin can be obtained.

"If you think about it this way, if those miners use my classification screen, will the mining speed become faster?"

Xiao Yi thought so in his heart.

To improve the mining speed, either improve the performance of the hardware or optimize the algorithm.

For Bitcoin, if the classification screen is used to optimize the algorithm, it will definitely greatly increase the mining speed.

"Maybe I can make money this way?"

He couldn't help but have such an idea.

Just like those bitcoin mining software, the software provides algorithms, and then miners use the algorithms of the software to mine and pay commissions, which are generally 1% of the mining income. Bitminter, a mining software, charges in this way.

"Maybe I can try, but the premise is that I can write such software and algorithms. Of course, I should be able to directly build an html webpage, and there is no need to develop software or anything."

He can even directly build a blockchain by himself. Anyway, this thing is decentralized, and you can start by building a small server. At present, many people who are engaged in blockchain have made a lot of money, such as the Russian who is engaged in Ethereum.

The only problem is that the blockchain he has created needs to be widely recognized. It is definitely impossible to copy the Bitcoin myth. After all, it is the first blockchain application.

To a certain extent, this is a kind of stock. The higher the trust of investors in this thing, the higher its price. Bitcoin can be worth so much money, and it must be promoted by a lot of international financial black hands in secret.

Chapter 113 Xiao's polynomial expansion

Just thinking about it, Xiao Yi suddenly slapped his head.

"What are you thinking about now... Let's think about this problem first."

"Cross-blockchain encrypted transactions... Classification screening... Protocol..."

[Millionaire's problem].

He wrote these words on the draft paper again.

In the process of solving the millionaire's problem, it is also necessary to build a protocol first, and then solve it.

In this process, no third party is involved, which ensures the security of the transaction.

"But... what if one of the two millionaires is not honest, or both want to know the other's property?"

"This will become a semi-honest model..."

"But it involves prime numbers..."

"And the most important thing is that this transaction does not occur within the blockchain, but between cross-chains."

Xiao Yi pinched his eyebrows with a headache.

If it is just a transaction within the blockchain, it will not be so troublesome at that time, but the problem is that this is a transaction between cross-blockchains. Bitcoin is Bitcoin and Ethereum is ETH, so in cross-chain transactions, it is necessary to implement the process of exchanging Bitcoin for ETH.

Therefore, in addition to the atomicity of cross-chain transactions as mentioned earlier, security must also be guaranteed.

It is precisely because of the need for "cross-chain" that the problem arises. A third party appears in the process of the transaction, generally speaking, it is a cross-chain trading platform. In the well-known CSGO jewelry transaction, NetEase BUFF is equivalent to this cross-chain trading platform.

And this process may lead to the embezzlement of the trading platform, of course, it is also like hacker attacks, etc. In fact, these two types of things have already happened in the process of cross-chain transactions.

This is also the main reason why many institutions, including the World Bank, want to make this agreement.

And now, due to the risks brought by the classification screen, according to Professor Kleinrock, the investors, that is, the World Bank and other banks, plus the requirements of the blockchain companies that invested money, the encryption method of this cross-chain protocol also needs to be able to avoid the algorithm of the classification screen attack.

For this requirement, probably every group participating in this project in the world will feel a headache.

Including Xiao Yi.

After all, he has just come up with the classification screen, and the classification screen has become his best tool. Not only has it successfully cracked the twin prime conjecture, but it has also made good progress in the x^2+1 prime problem.

As a result, he was asked to come up with something that could make the sorting sieve ineffective.

Isn't this like asking himself to deal with his own child?

If the sorting sieve could open its eyes and mouth, it might say to him: "How presumptuous of you?"

"If it were you, I would just switch to elliptic encryption algorithms. Why bother with RSA?"

The elliptic encryption algorithm is ECC, and its mathematical basis comes from the difficulty of calculating the elliptic discrete logarithm on the Abelian additive group formed by rational points on the elliptic curve. It is much more difficult to crack it than RSA.

However, Xiao Yi finally sighed. Obviously, this is not realistic, because the mathematical difficulty of ECC is much higher than that of RSA. RSA uses the difficulty of factoring large prime factors. Anyone with a certain mathematical foundation can understand it. As for ECC, as for the previous paragraph, it is estimated that unless you are a mathematics major, how many people can understand it?

Therefore, RSA has already covered the encryption system worldwide because of its simplicity and ease of use. Naturally, it is impossible for ECC to completely replace RSA encryption. Even on some old devices, ECC encryption may have incompatibility issues because the systems of those old devices do not support ECC encryption.

Considering this, it is still necessary to target the classification screen.

"So, I still have to deal with the theory I came up with myself."

Xiao Yi rubbed his face and said to the classification screen in his heart: "Sorry, baby."