Author: Timo Hanke 2016-04-08 20:58:57
Published on: 2016-04-08T20:58:57+00:00
Timo Hanke announced a new algorithmic improvement to the Bitcoin mining process which has never been discussed in public before. Marek Palatinus believes it is purely a software thing and cannot be detected from outside if miner uses this improvement or not. Mustafa Al-Bassam suggested that it will cause a sudden increase of Bitcoin mines in countries where the algorithm is not patented, possibly causing a geographical decentralization of miners from countries that already have a lot of miners like China (if it is patented in China). Peter Todd asked what steps are going to be taken to make sure that this improvement is available to all ASIC designers/mfgs on an equal opportunity basis as the fact that it has been patented could be a centralization concern depending on the licensing model used. The use of this improvement can be detected by looking at the I/O of the chip, on-board micro-controller, or even at the system I/O because all the communication including the mining pool protocol is different.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T04:41:39.965318+00:00