Author: ZmnSCPxj 2021-05-18 12:58:19
Published on: 2021-05-18T12:58:19+00:00
The difficulty adjustment mechanism in Bitcoin allows for small improvements to PoW mining, and such improvements are expected to be common. However, large improvements pose a potential risk of centralization and extinction for Bitcoin. The number of possible circuit configurations is limited by physical constraints, which reduces the risk of black-swan events where new optimizations of SHA256d-on-Bitcoin-block-header massively centralize mining. Changing PoW should be avoided without serious study, but changing SHA256 for SHA3 on the txid and Merkle trees is more likely. Small improvements are anticipated to eventually spread widely due to the difficulty adjustment mechanism, while large improvements may not be cross-licensed and may enforce patents against small competitors.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T21:59:23.724223+00:00