Re: Is Bitcoin infrastructure too Chinese? What should be done technically?
Would it be wrong to believe that Bitmain and some other ASIC maker are doing their research to make ASICs for ProgPow?
Yes, it would be absolutely wrong. It is not rational to make a specialized device f0r 10-20 percents more efficiency. It won't ROI.As of your interest in "maintaining the same hash power", it is very important to note that security and essentially the value of bitcoin is not dependent on the network total hash rate unlike what people say carelessly, it is about the total amount of resources consumed mainly labour (human resources) and electricity/energy consumption. For instance a jump in ASIC manufacturing process won't make bitcoin more secure!
What?
I suppose by 'what?' You mean 'How is that?'
Yes of course. But out of confusion.
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Once an adversary decides to do anything bad against a network he doesn't ask about technical details, he asks about the costs, yes?
A smart adversary would plan everything all the way to the end, including the costs.
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What makes bitcoin secure is not an index, say the required hashrate, it is the costs to achieve that hashrate. Suppose we got these two coins ACoin and CCoin, checking their network status we find out that ACoin has a total hashrate of 1 penta hash while CCoin is secured by like 100 terahash power, now which coin is easier to attack? We don't know! They enjoy different algorithms and we need to do a research about the costs of hiring the required power to attack each coin, don't we?
Most authors, realizing the above fact, measure the security of a network correctly by the costs of renting the required hashpower for a 50%+1 attack (for instance from Nicehash) and what I'm saying is about this cost, essentially determined by electricity and human resource consumption.
Most authors, realizing the above fact, measure the security of a network correctly by the costs of renting the required hashpower for a 50%+1 attack (for instance from Nicehash) and what I'm saying is about this cost, essentially determined by electricity and human resource consumption.
But in mining the network honestly, miners would also find the most efficient way to mine a coin. ASICs are the most cost-effective way to mine and we will always go back to the debate, "if a cryptocurrency is successful, ASICs will be developed".
Let's go back to this topic in due time. But the evidence today shows that ASICs are always made for the most successful coins. Plus they always get better.