Algorithmic Improvements Give Bitcoin Mining an AsicBoost
Timo Hanke, a mathematical researcher and cryptocurrency expert, in collaboration with Sergio Demian Lerner, a renowned security expert, has developed a new Bitcoin mining method that can increase mining revenue by up to 20 percent, translating to an increase of $30 million in annual profits if used by one of the biggest mining pools. The patent pending....
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Peter Todd, backed by Matt Corallo, has proposed hard-fork changes to the bitcoin network to make “useless” patent pending algorithmic improvements which give mining an Asicboost of 20%, leading to increased profits of some $30 million if used by one of the biggest mining pools. In a striking post to the bitcoin mailing list, Todd states: “As part of the hard-fork proposed in the HK agreement we’d like to make the patented AsicBoost optimisation useless, and hopefully make further similar optimizations useless as well.” Arguing that the patent pending optimization may lead to mining....
Bitcoin gained $40 in two hours on Wednesday evening as news broke that a bug was allowing miners - specifically Bitmain - to unfairly economize on costs. Through the use of so-called AsicBoost technology, Bitmain’s miners were able to exploit a loophole in Bitcoin’s proof-of-work system. Jihan Wu, the company’s CEO, is a known staunch opponent of Segregated Witness as a solution to Bitcoin’s scaling problem, with sources now asserting that the AsicBoost benefits could lie at the heart of his position. The vulnerability was first discovered and relayed to Core members by Blockstream’s Greg....
According to the statement posted by one of the Bitcoin Core developers, this change will be made to fight the centralization of Bitcoin mining. An interesting statement was posted on Twitter by Olivier Janssens, as he explained an upcoming change in the Bitcoin Core client software. A patented optimization for ASIC mining – called AsicBoost – will be made obsolete in the next client update. That news did not go over well with a lot of members for sure. Bitcoin Core Developers Dislike AsicBoost. This news is part of a substantial debate on Reddit for the past few days, as the AsicBoost....
In a post on the Bitcoin development mailing list today, Blockstream CTO and long-time Bitcoin Core contributor Greg Maxwell laid out the case that an unnamed Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer is using a flaw in Bitcoin’s proof-of-work implementation to gain an efficiency advantage of up to 30 percent over other miners. Moreover, this could explain why Segregated Witness (SegWit), the Bitcoin protocol upgrade proposed by the Bitcoin Core development team, is blocked by some miners. Many therefore suspect the hardware manufacturer in question is Bitmain, whose CEO Jihan Wu is a staunch....
Bitcoin Core contributor, Peter Todd, announced that a hard-fork had been proposed to negate attempts to patent the ASICBoost method. According to a message sent out by Peter, this proposed idea sprang from an agreement made at a Bitcoin-oriented round-table in February. The round-table was attended by a slew of representatives from the Bitcoin development and industry, and focused on a variety of different subjects. The intent of this fork is to make ASIC boost optimisation useless, and ideally the change would be SPV compatible. However, according to Peter, if a change to SPV clients....