I have a feeling that quantum computing is like those perpetual motion machines people keep trying to make with complicated arrangements with magnets. No matter how much you try to iron out the errors you never actually get there. I suspect there is, like the laws of thermodynamics, a deeper truth in there somewhere. Something like: there is no way to find out things any faster than it is possible through normal means, because it is not possible to access other universes, even if they do exist.

This is also wonderful. Feynman was such a great, yet humble, man. Something we should all aspire to.

Horizon - 1981-1982: The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - BBC iPlayer

All elliptic curves are modular functions, therefore there are no whole number solutions to x^n+y^n=z^n where n>2. 🤯

Horizon - 1995-1996: Fermats Last Theorem - BBC iPlayer

With all the talk about XRP recently, given my experience with nChain I thought I would take a look to see what Ripple Labs were doing in patents. At least as far as patenting activities in Europe goes, it looks like they are not really making much of an effort. Searching for Ripple Labs as applicant provides only 6 results (link below). It turns out that only one of these is pending, the rest having been dropped or refused. The one currently pending is a divisional of one that was previously refused, which doesn't sound very promising. Compared to nChain with their 640 cases and over 140 granted European patents, this is small beer indeed.

European Patent Register

Twenty five years ago today I (as Mark Anthony) was married to Cleopatra by Elvis in Las Vegas. Still going strong.

Any idea why the number of GB patent applications filed by nChain would suddenly fall from an average of around 70 per year to only 3 so far in 2024?

During oral proceedings at the EPO this week, the other side's attorneys made a couple of assertions. I have my own views but I'm not an expert in this field and would like to see what others think. The first assertion was that all transactions in Bitcoin inevitably contain an unlocking script. The second was that Ethereum doesn't have locking and unlocking scripts. These turned out to be irrelevant to the validity of the patent we were discussing (which got revoked anyway), but made me wonder whether the other side knew what they were talking about.