Quote from: leopard2 on June 17, 2017, 02:25:30 AM

BIP148 fixes the ASICBOOST exploit. Sure they don't like that at Bitmain, as they have a monopoly on the Asicboost patent.

Well, the asicboost patent has been filed in 2014 with probable priority claim in 2013.
http://www.google.com/patents/WO2015077378A1?cl=en

It is not bitmain that owns it. It is a good improvement (at least in principle) of the hash calculation in the PoW scheme of bitcoin, in the same way that the standard algorithm already avoids recalculations, in the same way that introducing GPU outperformed CPU, and then ASICS outperformed GPU. It improves the ratio of proof of work over economic cost like all those other techniques did.

I don't see how bitmain, somewhat unfairly "has a monopoly on asicboost tech". What is fundamentally problematic, is that a patent exists, but that's in the fundamental problematic nature of proof of work itself. Proof of work being essentially a relationship between cryptographic results (small hash values), and a presumed necessary waste of economic resources, if there are legal ways to protect better relationships between proof of work (cryptographic result) and actual economic waste, there is of course a huge advantage for those legally allowed to do so. But that is the fundamental nature of intellectual property: the one detaining the rights, has "unfair advantage" over those legally forbidden to use it.
If a system wants to base its decentralized aspect on such a thing, like bitcoin, it is simply badly designed, that's all.