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Members of the open source development community of ethereum tentatively agreed on Friday to implement a new algorithm that would block specialized mining hardware, or ASIC, awaiting further testing of the proposed code.
If accepted by the network of users running the ethereum software, the code change, dubbed "ProgPoW", would block ASICs, such as those produced by major mining companies like Bitmain. In its place, the new software would allow generic use or hardware of the GPU, which is usually eliminated by the ASIC, to compete for prizes on the platform.
ASICs have been developed for ethereum as early as April 2018.
Today, Martin Holst Swende, head of developer security, said he would prefer the move because it will help ensure the security of any ethereum transition to the game test, a new system where users extract cryptocurrency by not burning electricity, but putting aside the coins they hold.
"Today we know that Ethhash has flaws that are currently being targeted, so that's why I would like to pass as soon as possible to give us time to pass the game test," said Holst-Swende.
Concluding the conversation, the Ethereum Foundation's communications officer, Hudson Jameson, seemed to have categorized the consensus as if it had been achieved on the proposal.
Jameson said:
"We seem to have come to an agreement that we are going forward temporarily with ProgPoW, which means we are moving forward unless there is a big problem with the tests or things of this nature." We will go on with ProgPoW. "
This means that, unless developers encounter unexpected problems with the change, ProgPoW will be released as part of a standalone system-level upgrade, or a difficult fork, within the next two to four months. In addition to ProgPoW, no software updates will be included in the update, the developers said.
The news comes at a time when Constantinople, the fifth major update of the platform, is getting closer to activation. Speaking at the call, Afri Schoedon, Parity's release manager, said that according to the current blocking times, Constantinople should activate "10 minutes after 12: oo UTC on Wednesday, [Jan.] 16th. "
Originally scheduled for November, Constantinople brings a series of design changes to simplify the platform code. It also attempts to delay the so-called "difficulty bomb" – a code correction designed to request frequent updates – for 18 months, reducing the remuneration for the extraction of the 3 ETH to 2 ETH per block.
The developers also said that a further hard fork, dubbed Istanbul, should be planned for the month of October, after a period of nine months. Proposed by Afri Schoedon in today's call, this would be part of a cycle of periodic updates designed to maintain regular updates.
However, the times for PropPoW, which deviate from the periodic update cycle, are not yet clear, with developers agreeing to question update times in the next developer call on January 18th.
"Let's do some homework until the next core dev call and see how people can implement [ProgPoW] in their schemes and perhaps we can talk about timing in two weeks, "said Holst Swende.
Bitcoin mining farm image through CoinDesk archives
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