[Banana699]

Any person who thinks that a computer is going through symbolic formulas and selecting which one to substitute in to find a hash function nonce doesn't know a whole lot about what a blockchain fundamentally is and how computers make it possible. That's either the fault of the explanation they read\are reading (if it was falsely advertised) or the fault of the person (if they're biting on explanations beyond their level) or nobody's fault really because somewhat-hard concepts are somewhat-hard.

Any explanation of PoW worth its salt no matter how basic should - and does in my experience - repeatedly drive home the idea that PoW is inefficient, it's literally right there in the name, Proof of Work, jumping through hoops as an algorithm. If somebody doesn't understand that PoW is extraordinarily inefficient, they don't understand blockchains and why they are cryptographically secure modulo implementations and social engineering.

Nothing new is added or said by emphasising how inefficient PoW is, that's the entire point, that's why it's secure. The comment that started this chain basically said that in very simple terms, and the comment I replied to expressed disapproval about a very minor issue with the terms then re-said what its parent already said in more words that don't add any clarity.

Will people see 'mathematical' and assume the computer is integrating dy/dx by parts to get the next nonce ? You can assume that the average HN reader knows that when we say a computer is 'solving math' it's meant that it's crunching an aweful lot of binary strings. That's why we call classic AI "classic" or "symbolic". Everything a computer do is crunching numbers brute-force style except when said otherwise.