Physical simulations on a blockchain

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4 years ago

Hello, I recently published a peer-reviewed research article in the UK's Royal Society of Chemistry flagship journal, Chemical Science, Titled: "Computational chemistry experiments performed directly on a blockchain virtual computer".

Although the work was done using the Ethereum network, I thought that this might also be of interest to some of you here. The article details the first instance of a computational physics simulation being performed entirely within a blockchain virtual machine. In this case the experiment was a proof-of-principle study using a simple harmonic potential to model the trajectory of a vibrating carbon monoxide molecule. I have also discussed the potential benefits of this type of calculation in terms of censorship resistance, reproducibility, and provenance in theoretical scientific work.

From a more philosophical perspective, I also find it interesting to consider that, depending on your definitions, this represents the first example proving that a small slice of the physical world can be simulated entirely within a computational environment that operates using a decentralized consensus mechanism in order to determine the history of that simulation.

Article: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340820303_Computational_chemistry_experiments_performed_directly_on_a_blockchain_virtual_computer
And: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2020/sc/d0sc01523g

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$ 0.10 from @RufusYoakam

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