The Moser circle problem reminds us of the importance of working with solid foundations and avoiding unfounded assumptions. In both mathematics and life, assuming without verifying can lead to erroneous conclusions or suboptimal solutions. As Karl Popper used to say, falsifiability is key to progress: we must always strive to test (and refute, if necessary) our ideas with clear evidence.

That’s why I believe there is a certain degree of ignorance in statistical problems. It’s evident that a private key has no relation to prefixes, but this doesn’t interfere with the probabilities of how often a prefix is more likely to be found. A classic example is the correlation between ice cream sales and the number of people at the beach: when temperatures rise, both increase, but this doesn’t mean they are directly related. This distinction highlights the difference between correlation and causation.