I'm wondering if the cost of computational speed is worth the mangling of every random key and/or does it just complicate things by the factor of whatever additional operations were added.
No need to wonder, it's obviously just another complicated way to slow down the search.
There is a bounty of 0.1 BTC for whoever speeds up the currently best known method of solving (and actually proves it, instead of fantasizing), but there isn't one for whoever manages to slow it down.
As a reminder, the fastest and most efficient way to solve any address-only puzzle is pretty simple:
- scan ranges sequentially (doesn't really matter how you pick the ranges, as long as you take care not to pick a range that was already scanned, which is trivial)
- halt when the key was found.
Whatever is being added on top of this can only have one single possible effect: slow down the process. Whoever doesn't agree should be reminded that there's a 0.1 BTC reward if they prove the contrary. Personally, I'd say it's a waste of time to even attempt, but this conclusion is formed by professional experience, so anyone is free to do what they want with their time and life. If brute-forcing is proven to be sped up by classical computing, then the consequences are far beyond we might ever imagine.