Author: Lonero Foundation 2021-03-12 16:54:49
Published on: 2021-03-12T16:54:49+00:00
Andrew, from the Lonero Foundation, has submitted a draft proposal to upgrade the hashing algorithm and cryptography of Bitcoin. He hopes to receive a BIP number for the draft before implementing it as a hard fork, which will take about 400 hours of his time. The proposed upgrade aims to tackle problems such as NP-Completeness or Halting that the BTC network could be vulnerable to in the future. Andrew believes that an upgrade regarding the hashing algorithm and cryptography warrants some discussion.He proposes a hybrid proof of space and time mechanism that fixes the Proof of Memory fallacy. He plans to integrate some form of NP complexity in regards to the hybrid cryptography he's aiming to provide which includes a polynomial time algorithm in the cryptography. Andrew has various research in regards to this area and works a lot with distributed computing. However, proposing a hard fork in the hashing algorithm will invalidate the enormous amount of capital expenditure by mining entities and disincentivize future capital expenditure into mining hardware that may compute these more "useful" proofs of work.The discussion revolves around the use of energy-efficient methods in regards to renewable energy or mining devices, with a proposal for a better cryptography layer to maximize hashing for validation. The paper shared by Ryan Grant argues that nothing is cheaper than proof of work, but Devrandom points out that it does not necessarily prove that energy expenditure has to be the primary cost for mining work. The negative externalities of energy expenditure are also discussed, with the possibility of them going away soon due to the move towards renewables.Andrew proposes a document and asks if he should use the Media Wiki format on GitHub to attach it as his proposal. The conversation takes place on the Bitcoin-dev mailing list.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T19:10:06.301081+00:00