• The channel debated the concept of “information-theoretic death,” with Ralph Merkle’s definition (https://www.merkle.com/definitions/infodeath.html) cited as the canonical source; participants argued whether the boundary is a fixed physical limit or a moving technological judgment.

• maaku provided a physics-based refutation of “quantum archeology,” explaining that the second law of thermodynamics and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle set absolute limits on reconstructing a cremated body, equating complete cremation with zero retrievable information.

• TMA summarized a paper on ultimate computational limits: reversible computing can, in principle, perform arbitrarily complex calculations with zero energy cost because no bits are erased; irreversible entropy increase (bit erasure) is the only unavoidable energy cost.

• The same paper was said to conclude that the most energy-efficient “computronium” would be extremely hot and dense—comparable to a stellar core—contrasting with fenn’s expectation that ideal computation would occur near a cold black-hole horizon.

• Discussion pivoted to ultra-low-cost hardware when fenn linked a Hackaday article (https://hackaday.com/2019/04/26/making-a-three-cent-microcontroller-useful/) about repurposing 3-cent Padauk PMS150C microcontrollers, illustrating the trend toward disposable, minimal electronics.

• Privacy in cryptocurrency was examined: maaku argued that neither Mimblewimble nor the Lightning Network truly erases transaction logs because routing data and broadcast messages can still be logged; L29Ah countered that non-routed or trusted-node Lightning channels can approach privacy.

• abecedarius announced the imminent activation of Zcash’s NU5 upgrade (https://z.cash/upgrade/nu5/), introducing Halo 2 zero-knowledge proofs without a trusted setup; skepticism followed over Zcash’s prior trusted-setup inflation bug and alleged mishandling of audit logs.

• jrayhawk alleged that Zcash developers deleted trusted-setup audit logs, failed to disclose an inflation vulnerability for a year, and retaliated against whistle-blowers; abecedarius pointed to official remediation posts (https://electriccoin.co/blog/zcash-counterfeiting-vulnerability-successfully-remediated/) as counter-evidence.

• The conversation briefly compared project trajectories: jrayhawk claimed Zcash “went from legitimate to probable scam,” whereas Monero “bizarrely went from scam to legitimate,” highlighting the community’s scrutiny of governance and transparency in privacy-coin projects.