Before Bitcoin, the largest computer in the world was a cooperative global internet connected compute called GIMPs on a network called PrimeNet.

The project is the latest evolution of a 300+ year old search for the largest Mersenne prime number (2^n -1)

Many people devoted their entire lives to the search for a single prime number. It’s so valuable that as computers and networks were invented, people with capital immediately pointed it towards this effort.

The ability or inability to factor a large number is the basis for what we know as cryptography. It would be smart for Bitcoiners to study this part of human history.