Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has published an article titled “Memory access is O(N^(1/3)),” challenging the existing understanding of arithmetic operations and memory access time. Buterin argues that while these operations, like addition, multiplication, and division for fixed-size numbers, are typically thought to take a single time unit, memory access isn’t accurately perceived to be as fast. He explains that both in theory and practice, memory access requires O(N^(1/3)) time. For instance, if the memory size increases eightfold, read and write operations double. This insight has significant implications for cryptography and algorithm optimization. Buterin calls for future computational models to better reflect the hierarchy of memory and physical limitations, suggesting that current models fall short in accounting for these factors. His goal is to foster more realistic computational frameworks that can address the complexities of memory access in various technological applications.**