ETH Dev Suggests Moving to ‘ASIC-Friendly Algorithm’ After ProgPoW Decision

[PRIBO247]

An Ethereum (ETH) code contributor has suggested that Ethereum
developers ‘embrace’ specialized mining hardware (ASICs) in a
reply on Ethereum developer forum Ethereum Magicians, Jan. 7.

As Cointelegraph reported last week, Ethereum core developers
have tentatively decided to implement a new proof-of-work (PoW )
algorithm, dubbed ProgPoW, which would decrease the efficiency
divide between ASICs and GPUs, while rendering current Ethereum
ASICs obsolete.

According to another developer on Ethereum Magicians, David
Vorick, ProgPoW would favor larger ASIC producers because the
more complex hardware needed would exacerbate the economies
of scale involved.
Following Vorick’s comment, a developer named Alexey Akhunov
stated in a response post:

“If we want to obsolete the current EtHash mining devices,
but at the same time not to induce more secretive
behaviour on the part of ASIC manufacturers, we need to
‘embrace’ it and switch to an ASIC-friendly algorithm now
instead of an ASIC-unfriendly algorithm. Which the
opposite of what we are doing.”

Ethereum devs’ general rationale behind objecting to using ASICs
to mine ETH is that specialized hardware has no natural
distribution, no reserve group, a high barrier to entry, production
centralization and backdoor potential.

The rationale was gently challenged by Vorick, who asked “what
needs to be done in order to bring ProgPoW hardware peacefully to
the Ethereum community?” Vorick continued:

“Nobody has interest in making enemies or being
hardforked and invalidated, yet multiple groups have
interest in making special purpose Ethereum mining
hardware, which at this point means targeting ProgPoW.”

The developer argued that the amount of money at stake
guarantees that at least some hardware producers will choose to
keep new ASICs secret to prevent a new hard fork making the tech
obsolete. Vorick then poses the question:

“If a hardware developer manages to create a ProgPoW
ASIC that outperforms GPUs by a surprising margin [...] is
it better for that manufacturer to keep their discovery secret
and mine secretly, or is it better for that manufacturer to
sell openly?”

Linzhi, a Chinese mining hardware producer, had already released
a call to Ethereum developers to “publish rules for what
constitutes a good ProgPoW ASIC maker.” The company declared
that it is currently designing an Ethash mining machine,
announcing:

“We reject arbitrary enforcement of rules, and request clear
and equal guidelines to be established for all hardware
makers. Today we are calling upon the Ethereum
developers to publish rules and requirements for what
constitutes a good ProgPoW ASIC maker.”

Akhunov commented on Twitter today, Jan. 8, that it would be
great to establish a transparent dialogue between developers and
an ASIC manufacturer, such as Linzhi. According to him, Ethereum
core developers lack the kind of expertise of such producers, and
open information about ASIC capabilities would be useful to them.
As Cointelegraph reported today, the Ethereum Classic ( ETC ) team
had tweeted that anomalous activity on the ETC network might be
attributed to Linzhi’s testing of new 1,400Mh machines meant for
the Ethash algorithm — the PoW algorithm currently employed by
both Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. Following the statement,
Linzhi Shenzhen's director of operations denied these claims in a
Tweet that has since been deleted.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/