Author: Kevin 2014-06-03 14:43:39
Published on: 2014-06-03T14:43:39+00:00
In an email to the Bitcoin-development mailing list, a Freenet project developer named 'xor' raised concerns over the potential breaking of SHA256d, which is used by Bitcoin for encryption. The developer suggested that if SHA256d is broken, it would pose a significant issue for miners who have invested millions in hardware designed specifically for mining Bitcoin using this algorithm. He proposed that the altcoin concept of having multiple hash functions in a chain be introduced whereby if SHA256d is broken, it is chained with a new hash function and miners will still need ASICs which can solve the old SHA proof of work. This would allow existing ASIC owners to amend their code to do SHA256d using the ASIC, and then the second hash function using a general-purpose CPU. The developer also suggested that difficulty migration could be achieved smoothly with this method.
Updated on: 2023-06-08T23:32:01.818522+00:00