📅 Original date posted:2015-10-02
📝 Original message:On Friday, October 02, 2015 8:02:43 AM Daniele Pinna via bitcoin-dev wrote:
> I am however interested in the dev-list's stance on potentially
> altering the bitcoin PoW protocol should an algorithm that guarantees
> protection from ASIC/FPGA optimization be found.
>
> I assume that, given the large amount of money invested by some miners into
> their industrial farms this would represent a VERY contentious hard fork.
>
> It is, however, also true that a novel optimization-resistant algorithm
> could greatly ameliorate decentralization in the bitcoin network due to a
> resurgence of desktop/cellphone mining.
>
> Where do the core devs stand on this matter, hypothetical as it may be?
Besides ASIC-proof being even tehoretically impossible, assuming we had a PoW
that worked using mere RAM-as-the-ASIC, this would probably not be good in
the long term for decentralisation, as it is only a matter of time until
botnets would bankrupt all the legitimate miners out of operation.
Restarting the mining with a new algorithm as a reaction and defence against
centralised hoarding of mining ASICs (as we are seeing now), would be
acceptable. It would not necessarily be contentions *to the economy*, as such
hoarding-miners do not participate in the economy in any meaningful way (they
do not accept payments from other bitcoin users).
Luke
Luke Dashjr [ARCHIVE] /
npub1tf…rfq0n
2023-06-07 17:42:18
in reply to nevent1q…m5cj
Author Public Key
npub1tfk373zg9dnmtvxnpnq7s2dkdgj37rwfj3yrwld7830qltmv8qps8rfq0nPublished at
2023-06-07 17:42:18Event JSON
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"content": "📅 Original date posted:2015-10-02\n📝 Original message:On Friday, October 02, 2015 8:02:43 AM Daniele Pinna via bitcoin-dev wrote:\n\u003e I am however interested in the dev-list's stance on potentially\n\u003e altering the bitcoin PoW protocol should an algorithm that guarantees\n\u003e protection from ASIC/FPGA optimization be found.\n\u003e \n\u003e I assume that, given the large amount of money invested by some miners into\n\u003e their industrial farms this would represent a VERY contentious hard fork.\n\u003e \n\u003e It is, however, also true that a novel optimization-resistant algorithm\n\u003e could greatly ameliorate decentralization in the bitcoin network due to a\n\u003e resurgence of desktop/cellphone mining.\n\u003e \n\u003e Where do the core devs stand on this matter, hypothetical as it may be?\n\nBesides ASIC-proof being even tehoretically impossible, assuming we had a PoW \nthat worked using mere RAM-as-the-ASIC, this would probably not be good in \nthe long term for decentralisation, as it is only a matter of time until \nbotnets would bankrupt all the legitimate miners out of operation.\n\nRestarting the mining with a new algorithm as a reaction and defence against \ncentralised hoarding of mining ASICs (as we are seeing now), would be \nacceptable. It would not necessarily be contentions *to the economy*, as such \nhoarding-miners do not participate in the economy in any meaningful way (they \ndo not accept payments from other bitcoin users).\n\nLuke",
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