High-frequency trading by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Video 1.
High Frequency Trading by WEED e.V. (2014)
Source.
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There are no known eukaryotes which never had mitochondria by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Known eukaryotes without mitochondria, which are very rare, have lost mitochondria they previously had.
Having mitochondria appears to be a requisite for being an eukaryote. This is one of the central thesis of Power, Sex, Suicide by Nick Lane (2006).
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ELF Hello World Tutorial / Generate the example by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Let's break down a minimal runnable Linux x86-64 example:
hello_world.asm
section .data
    hello_world db "Hello world!", 10
    hello_world_len  equ $ - hello_world
section .text
    global _start
    _start:
        mov rax, 1
        mov rdi, 1
        mov rsi, hello_world
        mov rdx, hello_world_len
        syscall
        mov rax, 60
        mov rdi, 0
        syscall
Compiled with:
nasm -w+all -f elf64 -o 'hello_world.o' 'hello_world.asm'
ld -o 'hello_world.out' 'hello_world.o'
TODO: use a minimal linker script with -T to be more precise and minimal.
Versions:
We don't use a C program as that would complicate the analysis, that will be level 2 :-)
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ELF Hello World Tutorial / ELF header by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Running:
readelf -h hello_world.o
outputs:
Magic:   7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Class:                             ELF64
Data:                              2's complement, little endian
Version:                           1 (current)
OS/ABI:                            UNIX - System V
ABI Version:                       0
Type:                              REL (Relocatable file)
Machine:                           Advanced Micro Devices X86-64
Version:                           0x1
Entry point address:               0x0
Start of program headers:          0 (bytes into file)
Start of section headers:          64 (bytes into file)
Flags:                             0x0
Size of this header:               64 (bytes)
Size of program headers:           0 (bytes)
Number of program headers:         0
Size of section headers:           64 (bytes)
Number of section headers:         7
Section header string table index: 3
Running:
readelf -h hello_world.out
outputs:
Magic:   7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Class:                             ELF64
Data:                              2's complement, little endian
Version:                           1 (current)
OS/ABI:                            UNIX - System V
ABI Version:                       0
Type:                              EXEC (Executable file)
Machine:                           Advanced Micro Devices X86-64
Version:                           0x1
Entry point address:               0x4000b0
Start of program headers:          64 (bytes into file)
Start of section headers:          272 (bytes into file)
Flags:                             0x0
Size of this header:               64 (bytes)
Size of program headers:           56 (bytes)
Number of program headers:         2
Size of section headers:           64 (bytes)
Number of section headers:         6
Section header string table index: 3
Bytes in the object file:
00000000  7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |.ELF............|
00000010  01 00 3e 00 01 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |..>.............|
00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |........@.......|
00000030  00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00  00 00 40 00 07 00 03 00  |....@.....@.....|
Executable:
00000000  7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |.ELF............|
00000010  02 00 3e 00 01 00 00 00  b0 00 40 00 00 00 00 00  |..>.......@.....|
00000020  40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  10 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  |@...............|
00000030  00 00 00 00 40 00 38 00  02 00 40 00 06 00 03 00  |....@.8...@.....|
Structure represented:
# define EI_NIDENT 16

typedef struct {
    unsigned char   e_ident[EI_NIDENT];
    Elf64_Half      e_type;
    Elf64_Half      e_machine;
    Elf64_Word      e_version;
    Elf64_Addr      e_entry;
    Elf64_Off       e_phoff;
    Elf64_Off       e_shoff;
    Elf64_Word      e_flags;
    Elf64_Half      e_ehsize;
    Elf64_Half      e_phentsize;
    Elf64_Half      e_phnum;
    Elf64_Half      e_shentsize;
    Elf64_Half      e_shnum;
    Elf64_Half      e_shstrndx;
} Elf64_Ehdr;
Manual breakdown:
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Organization developing electron on helium quantum computer by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Yanis Varoufakis by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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He beats the The European Union is a failure drum pretty well.
Video 1.
Political Economy: The Social Sciences Red Pill by Yanis Varoufakis (2016)
Source.
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Knuth reward check by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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N-V center quantum computer by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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ecash by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Cool data embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain / Prayer wars by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Figure 1.
Saint Eligius by Petrus Christus
. Source. Off-chain image for illustration. Eligius pool is named after Saint Eligius, patron of goldsmiths and miners[ref]
These are some of the earliest inscriptions in the blockchain, and therefore extremelly visible.
Although the prayer verses appear contiguous in ASCII dumps, Eligius was not actually mining every block: it is just that in those early days, miners still hadn't started adding advertisement messages to every block, so only Eligius shows up and appears contiguous.
At some point, opponents noticed these messages, and started adding atheist mockery graffiti replies, which appear interspersed in ASCII dumps with the prayer.
The first prayer is the Latin version of the Divine Praises, a Catholic prayer composed in 1797 in Italian by Luigi Felici for the purpose of making reparation after saying or hearing sacrilege or blasphemy. Luke claims he was referring to anything in particular that came prior in the blockchain: twitter.com/LukeDashjr/status/1749182637569122434. There arent many earlier inscriptions at all to refer to in any case! The prayer and correspondong interrupts (in transaction outputs, not by other miners) ordered by block are:
  • 139690 (2011-08-05) prayer: "Eligius/Benedictus Deus. Benedictum Nomen Sanctum eius."
  • 139717 prayer: "Eligius/Benedictus Deus. Benedictum Nomen Sanctum eius.'
  • 139758 interruption: ***************************************************. This is not a Coinbase message: www.blockchain.com/explorer/transactions/btc/23befff6eea3dded0e34574af65c266c9398e7d7d9d07022bf1cd526c5cdbc94. This Bitcoin input script appears to spend a standard P2PKH output, but it first adds an extra value to the stack which contains the ***.
  • 139792 prayer: "Benedictus Iesus Christus, verus Deus et verus homo.'
  • 139831 prayer: "Benedictum Nomen Iesu.'
  • 139838 (2011-08-06) interruption: "I LIKE TURTLES" (tx 78eb16507b3d3df615e3b474e853db4667f4b11954ec6d918b1ded0fca7ad25a)
  • 138898 prayer: "Benedictum Cor eius sacratissimum."
  • 139904 prayer: "Benedictus Sanguis eius pretiosissimus."
  • 139921 prayer: "Benedictus Iesus in sanctissimo altaris Sacramento."
  • 139942 prayer: "Benedictus Sanctus Spiritus, Paraclitus."
  • 139954 interrupion: "aC-C-C-COMBO BREAKER" (tx 138c024a76df99ecafd2236d5429cf574b7778a3c6508bd83f116c832f3c6980)
  • 139960 prayer: "Benedictus Sanctus Spiritus, Paraclitus."
  • 139977 prayer: "Benedicta excelsa Mater Dei, Maria sanctissima."
  • 139990 (2011-08-06) prayer: "Benedicta sancta eius et immaculata Conceptio."
Then comes:
and various others + output message interruptions.
Then at last come the first miner message interruptions. Luke explained on Twitter[ref] that they were also made by Eligius pool, as there was a system in which contributors besides Luke could submit their own strings:
followed by more prayers and interruptions such as tx ec92d245822fa1ff862f3314b9102f36fe1eb8bc055865674c75323540aedef6:
FFS Luke-Jr leave the blockchain alone!
Oh, and God isn't real
The last Luke prayer appears to be on block 143822 (2011-09-03)
... the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth labourers into his harvest.
Then there is a bit of radio silence, until finally Slush Pool started self advertising for the first time on block 163970 (2012-01-26):
/P2SH/BIP16/slush/R,
They had been mining for a long time by then (December 2010 according to en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Slush_Pool), but this is when they decided to add a human readable ASCII message as well.
From then on, miner messages would be forever polluted with ads, and Luke's multi-miner message feat would never again be reproduced.
The non-obvious interruptions are all well known memes/anime references:
Bibliography:
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Linked list by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Intermediate filaments by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Why is COVID-19 more serious than the flu? by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Cool data embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain / Illegal content of block 229k by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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These can be viewed at bitcoinstrings.com/blk00052.txt and are mostly commented on the "Wikileaks cablegate data" section of Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain by Ken Shirriff (2014).
Soon after block 229991 uploaded the Satoshi uploader, several interesting files were added to the blockchain using the uploader, and notably some containing content that might be illegal in certain countries, as a test to see if this type of content would make the Bitcoin blockchain illegal or not:
So basically, this was the first obviously illegal block attempt.
None of this content is particularly eye-popping for Ciro Santilli's slightly crazy freedom of speech standards, and as of 2021, the Bitcoin blockchain likely hasn't become illegal anywhere yet due to freedom of speech concerns.
Furthermore, it is likely much easier to find much worse illegal content by browsing any uncensored Onion service search engine for 2 minutes.
Ciro Santilli estimates that perhaps the uploader didn't upload child pornography, which is basically the apex of illegality of this era, because they were afraid that their identities would one day be found.
Bibliography:
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Cool data embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain / Bibliography by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Other Bitcon analysis:
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Computational protein folding implementation by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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GlobalFoundries by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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AMD just gave up this risky part of the business amidst the fabless boom. Sound like a wise move. They then fell more and more away from the state of the art, and moved into more niche areas.
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TSMC by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2026-05-27
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One of the companies that has fabs, which buys machines from companies such as ASML and puts them together in so called "silicon fabs" to make the chips
As the quintessential fabless fab, there is on thing TSMC can never ever do: sell their own design! It must forever remain a fab-only company, that will never compete with its customers. This is highlighted e.g. at youtu.be/TRZqE6H-dww?t=936 from Video "How Nvidia Won Graphics Cards by Asianometry (2021)".
Video 1.
How Taiwan Created TSMC by Asianometry (2020)
Source. Some points:
  • UCM failed because it focused too much on the internal market, and was shielded from external competition, so it didn't become world leading
  • one of TSMC's great advances was the fabless business model approach.
  • they managed to do large technology transfers from the West to kickstart things off
  • one of their main victories was investing early in CMOS, before it became huge, and winning that market
Video 2.
The Early Years at TSMC by Asianometry
. Source. 2023.
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Alibaba Cloud by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Atomic clock by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
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Video 1.
How an atomic clock works, and its use in the global positioning system (GPS) by EngineerGuy (2012)
Source. Shows how conceptually an atomic clock is based on a feedback loop of two hyperfine structure states of caesium atoms (non-radioactive caesium-133 as clarified by the Wikipedia page). Like a quartz clock, it also relies on the piezoelectricity of quartz, but unlike the quartz clock, the quartz is not shaped like a tuning fork, and has a much larger resonating frequency of about 7 MHz. The feedback is completed by producing photons that resonate at the right frequency to excite the caesium.
Video 2.
Inside the HP 5061A Cesium Clock by CuriousMarc (2020)
Source.
A similar model was used in the Hafele-Keating experiment to test special relativity on two planes flying in opposite directions. Miniaturization was key.
Contains a disposable tube with 6g of Caesium. You boil it, so when it runs out, you change the tube, 40k USD. Their tube is made by Agilent Technologies, so a replacement since that opened in 1999, and the original machine is from the 60s.
Detection is done with an electron multiplier.
youtu.be/eOti3kKWX-c?t=1166 They compare it with their 100 dollar GPS disciplined oscillator, since GPS satellites have atomic clocks in them.
Video 3.
Quick presentation of the atomic clock at the National Physical Laboratory (2010)
Source. Their super accurate setup first does laser cooling on the caesium atoms.
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