A sequence of topics to give some understanding of complexity, that no all problems are created equal, etc.
Complexity is a boring, complex, mathy topic. We should be careful here.
Here's the idea:
- Start with Sibyl attacks. They are easy to explain, easy to empathize with. Someone is not playing fair after all.
- Show how proof of work ("dig a hole 1m deep") can sidestep the problem.
- Captchas. But what about robots (AIs)? If Weyland corporation creates a super-captcha-cracking robot is it fair that they can do Sibyl attacks? (This connects maths to ethics and calls for a story.)
- Are there problems that are equally hard for everyone?
- What's "brute force"? Are there any problems that can be solved only by brute force?
- Factorization to primes.
- Discrete logarithm.
- Eliptic curves. These three are intrinsically mathy, but it should be possible to give an intuitive explanation without going into too much details.
- We don't know whether these problems are really hard. A story about Schor/quantum computers.
- Are there any alternative crypto systems? Yes, but they are not used. A story about conservativism in cryptography.