BIP proposal: Inhibiting a covert attack on the Bitcoin POW function



Summary:

The implementation of a system that would invalidate covert asicboost is a contentious issue that will not be resolved without a fight. Miners may resist this change, as it could remove tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in mining revenue for those who have already invested in the technology. A UASF may also be more difficult with unique optimizations on one chain only. Any resistance from the hashrate during the early days of a UASF will inevitably cause large reorgs for older nodes and may not be much better than a hardfork. The difficulty of implementing such a change should not be underestimated, as it involves invalidating hardware or at least the optimized bits. Any proposal that is not simple and less contentious is already dead.


Updated on: 2023-06-11T23:42:52.531263+00:00