Author: praxeology_guy 2017-04-06 20:12:21
Published on: 2017-04-06T20:12:21+00:00
This article discusses the recent controversy over the use of ASICBOOST technology in Bitcoin mining and the proposed policy changes to counter it. The article confirms the claim that covert use of ASICBOOST could result in $100 million USD per year profits. Miners and money owners have different motivations, with miners seeking short-term ROI and money owners wanting a decentralized PoW algorithm. Changing the PoW algorithm in a way that makes existing ASIC miner capital worthless is undesirable because it creates new opportunities for first to market optimizations to centralize mining. Gregory Maxwell's proposal does not make existing mining capital worthless; it only removes the advantage of using the patent encumbered optimization. The article recommends making it a policy that patent encumbered PoW optimizations are countered/prevented if possible while minimizing the disruption on the utility and availability of optimized mining capital equipment. Owners of Bitcoin should support and activate the proposed PoW policy change by Gregory Maxwell as soon as possible to counter the ASICBOOST patent encumbrance. Future ASICs and mining equipment should be made with the option to run without optimizations that make assumptions about policy that is subject to change in a future soft fork.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T23:48:40.386749+00:00