Author: Daniel Robinson 2017-04-06 15:41:32
Published on: 2017-04-06T15:41:32+00:00
In a Bitcoin-dev mailing list, Luv Khemani defended the idea of blocking covert ASICBOOST, not defending ASICBOOST itself. Another member Jorge Timón disagreed with Luv's argument that blocking ASICBOOST is unethical and compared it to various client optimizations like libsecp256k1 and Compactblocks which benefit users. In contrast, ASICBOOST only benefits some miners if not all miners use it and it harms miners who aren't using it, making them less profitable. Allowing ASICBOOST also makes the network less secure unless every single honest miner uses it because an attacker could use it against the network. Even if ASICBOOST was beneficial for users, this proposal doesn't disable it, only the covert form that cannot be proven to be used. Therefore, there are no rational arguments to oppose this proposal unless someone is a miner currently using or planning to use the covert form of ASICBOOST or an attacker using or planning to use it. Asicboost doesn't seek to reduce the efficacy of large miners and selfish mining and doesn't help with this in any way.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T23:42:46.072449+00:00