Author: Luke Dashjr 2014-07-04 20:38:30
Published on: 2014-07-04T20:38:30+00:00
In a discussion about application-specific devices versus general purpose computers, Jorge Timón wrote that anything that can be done with software can also be done with hardware. He believes that algorithms are better in an application-specific device than in a general purpose computer, and if there is an algorithm that performs best on one specific platform, then that platform will be the de facto application-specific device. Timón assumes that this should be obvious for anyone who knows what a Turing machine is. He criticizes people who waste their time pursuing the "anti-ASIC" myth, stating that they are cultists who need to provide a counterexample. Instead of pursuing anti-ASIC, people should look for "ASIC already widely owned." Therefore, a sufficiently memory-hard PoW would really be "RAM is the ASIC," but it remains a question whether it is possible to make this or not. The discussion ends with a final question: Is it really a desirable property to have people capable of mining who have not given any indication of interest?
Updated on: 2023-06-09T00:39:43.511104+00:00