TITLE: Is $n = p-q$ equivalent to Goldbach's Conjecture?
QUESTION [10 upvotes]: One open conjecture is that every even integer greater than two is the difference of two primes. (Some superficial discussion here.)
Goldbach's conjecture states that every even integer greater than two is the sum of two primes.
The big question: are the two equivalent? That is to say, do these conjectures imply each other? I spent a bit of time pursuing this question, and I did not find a satisfactory answer.
I now suspect that the two are actually not equivalent -- if they were, then I think it would suggest a symmetry on the prime numbers that I don't think they have.
Anyway, I'd be glad to  hear your input on the matter.

REPLY [6 votes]: Close to nothing can be said rigorously about your question, but I believe the following heuristics:

It's hard to imagine the exact solution of either conjecture not leading to substantial progress in the resolution of the other. This is because the current methods that handle structural results about primes have similar limitations for both problems. See Terence Tao's blog.
There is a sense in which the two problems have different flavor, if you look at their "approximate" versions. We can show results about differences of primes falling in certain bounded intervals, while no analogous result is known about sums of primes. See Terence Tao's blog.