Any algorithm that executes on a commodity ASIC can have a specialized ASIC made for it most existing algorithms provide opportunities that reduce power usage and cost. FPGAs, GPUs and CPUs can themselves be considered ASICs. The security of proof-of-work is built on a fair, randomized lottery where miners with similar resources have a similar chance of generating the next block.įor Ethash networks – the release of Bitmain’s Antminer E3 Ethash ASIC enable’s certain participants to gain a much greater chance of generating the next block, and undermine the distributed security.ĪSIC-resistance is a misunderstood problem. The following is a proposal for an alternate Ethash proof-of-work algorithm - “ProgPoW” - tuned for commodity hardware in order to close the efficiency gap available to specialized ASICs.
