Author: Bram Cohen 2017-04-10 14:34:47
Published on: 2017-04-10T14:34:47+00:00
In a discussion on the bitcoin-dev forum, Erik Aronesty emphasized the importance of maintaining a level-playing field in Bitcoin mining to prevent centralization. He argued that state actor control and botnet attacks pose less of a risk than specialized manufacturing of "SHA-256 forever" hardware. While Equihash and Cuckoo have attempted to create custom hardware with no advantage over commodity hardware, they may still end up centralizing around a mining hardware manufacturer. Aronesty proposed using a proof-of-work (PoW) function whose best hardware implementation is straightforward and well understood. He suggested sha3 or blake2b as potential options, with sha3 being particularly resistant to asciboost-type attacks due to its sponge construction. Ultimately, the goal is to prevent centralization and maintain a fair playing field for all miners.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T23:58:20.553283+00:00