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The cryptocurrency industry is constantly under development as the technology underpinning blockchain is still very new. One such project can undergo an important update to its mining algorithm Ethereum.
On January 4, members of Ethereum's open-source development community came from a preliminary agreement to implement an important new algorithm that blocks specialized mining hardware, or ASICs.
The proposed algorithm change would block ASIC miners, which are primarily used by large mining operations such as Bitmain.
Bitmain will be prevented from mining Ethereumand would like to be decentralized system.
ProgPow Mining Algorithm
The proposed algorithm change is called "ProgPow."
As this code change blocks ASIC miners, it allows space for general purpose or GPU hardware to mine. GPU hardware can be used to mine Ethereum today, but powerful ASIC miners have pushed this method out as it is not as profitable as using ASICs.
ASICs were developed for Ethereum as early as April 2018, and have been dominating the mining space. While it has been a great issue other than the centralization of mining, it could pose problems for Ethereum's eventual transition to Proof-of-Stake.
Security-lead, security-lead Martin Holst Swende said to switch to ProgPow
As stated by Swende:
We know today that Ethhash has flaws which are currently being targeted. So, that's why I would like to switch to Proof-of-Stake.
For those who do not know, Proof-of-Stake is a new system of cryptocurrency but without the burning of electricity. Instead, users set aside coins, they already hold and stake them for the mining of new blocks.
To conclude the discussion between the open-source Ethereum developers, the Ethereum Foundation communications officer, and Hudson Jameson, who have been tentatively agreed to implement the new algorithm.
Jameson said:
Sounds like we are trying to come together with ProgPoW, which means we are going ahead unless there is a problem with the testing or things of that nature. We will be going forward with ProgPoW.
Unless the developers face issues during testing, ProgPow is expected to be implemented in the next 2 to 4 months as a standalone system-wide upgrade (hard fork).
Other Upgrades
In addition to the proposed ProgPow code change, Ethereum is set to undergo a major system upgrade, Constantinople, on January 16. This will be Ethereum's 5th major upgrade and was originally scheduled for November 2018.
This is an example of an array of design changes including improvements to the streamline of the Ethereum's code and the delay of Ethereum's difficulty bomb.
This upgrade will also reduce the Ether reward from 3 ETH to 2 ETH per block.
Another hard fork, dubbed "Istanbul," which is different from the ProgPow upgrade, is planned for October 2019. The Istanbul upgrade is part of a periodic upgrade cycle.
Regarding the timing and exact date of the ProgPow upgrade, it is uncertain. However, we can expect to update the next time.
As stated by Swende:
Let's do some homework until the next core dev call and see how people can implement [ProgPoW] into their frameworks and maybe we can talk about timing in two weeks.
Do you think this is ProgPow upgrade is necessary? What do you think about Ethereum's future with these upgrades and changes? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
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