Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
October 01, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- Howard Chu is a
musician. He’s also a dedicated developer on the Monero network,
who spends most of his time trying to find ways to take ASICS out
of the crypto mining sphere.
Coindesk’s piece on the subject
talks about how Chu is working towards making the mining space fair
again, while also mentioning the importance of the creativity that
software developers put into the algorithms that they
make.
In terms of the first part of this
statement, what it all comes down to is that Chu has created an
algorithm that he thinks will keep ASICS away for good. If this
turns out to be true, then his creation just might be the best
thing for the crypto space, in terms of upholding its ideals of
decentralization.
Before jumping into exactly what
his creation is, it is first important to understand something very
specific about the Blockchain space. Overall, the creation of the
bitcoin network was not just about decentralizing our currency
system.
It can also be argued that at the
same time, it was also created with the aim of making the same
system fairer for the average person. To further clarify where this
goal began would require only a quick look at Satoshi’s original
white paper, in which it is said that our money system should be
fair in terms of all users owning the funds they have access to, as
well as in terms of all users having a similarly even chance at
earning currency through cryptocurrency mining.
Despite this, crypto mining has
evolved with its own level of centralization, which involves
ASICs.
If you are not well versed on the
current crypto mining climate, then before we go any further with
this discussion, it is important to first understand what an ASIC
is. When considered in the context of its usage for mining, it is
easiest to think of an Application Specific Integrated Circuit as a
highly powered Graphics Processing Unit or Graphics
Card.
Think of something so highly
powered that essentially nothing else stands a chance when compared
to it.
When ASICS are used at scale by
miners or mining firms with deep pockets like Bitmain, situations
like one company, which is effectively one user, attaining half of
the network’s hash power become commonplace.
Howard Chu’s argument appears to be
that unless we find a solution to stop the rise of ASICs, we will
be faced, time and time again with situations like this. In
response to this, he has recently come up with a new approach to
Proof of Work, called RandomJS.
This proprietary algorithm gets its
name from the fact that Chu has designed it to use random code,
which apparently refers to the practice of switching a consensus
algorithm’s code enough to prevent ASICs from being compatible with
it. According to Chu, this is because ASICS need a cryptocurrency
network’s consensus algorithm to stay static in order to attach
themselves to it.
All in all, as networks consider
RandomJS, its success will depend on all of their users adopting
it, above the current Proof of Work algorithms that these networks
run. If, on the other hand, a large amount of resistance comes to
pass, then it just might fall to the wayside instead of save Crypto
mining, like Chu wants it to do.
By: BGN Editorial Staff
News:
Monero
(XMR)
ASIC
Cryptocurrency
Mining