What is ProgPoW? Why and what algorithm will kill ASIC miners and rescue card

In early February, the developers of Ethereum integration algorithm ProgPoW. The project participants are not sure of the correctness of the decision, so long as want to wait for an audit from an independent company. This attitude towards the product among the developers themselves are different. What is ProgPoW? As he works his magic and as indicators of the efficiency of the ASIC miners? Understand.

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the Problem is ASIC miners

First, a little history. Miners Ethereum and other coins on the algorithm Ethash/Dagger Hashimoto quietly did their thing with graphics cards. Different models of GPU differed hasraton and performance, however these differences were in the appropriate range. No supercards with a hundred-fold advantage did not exist, so everything was kind of happy with the situation.

The Jokes came to an end in April 2018. Then Bitmain Antminer officially E3, which gave 180 mh/s with a consumption of 800 watts. Next to the production of ASIC joined other companies.

Source: 2Биткоина

It would Seem, what can be bad in high-productivity mining from ASIC miners? There are three things:

The owners of GPU farms significantly lose profit, and lose interest in the maintenance of the network; the

1. Hasrat and power concentrated in fewer hands;
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2. creates a threat to decentralization.

Of Course, a hundred or a thousand ASIC devices are not tightened on themselves, 51 percent Hasrat network Ethereum, but such a prospect is alarming. Where did the idea of the struggle with the ASIC. In the end, she gave birth to three important ideas:

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1. confrontation possible the centralization of the network;
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2. prevent monopoly among manufacturers of equipment for mining;
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3. able to build community without danger from the outside.

In addition will do without the tears of miners who have invested a lot of money in the farm and so far they are not paid for. The large number of ASIC in the network Ethereum may extend this already not a fast payback period.

Source: CCN

The Problem is ASIC is relevant for all algorithms GPU-mining. As developers struggle with them? By conducting hardforce first ASIC device from the network eliminated the programmers Bitcoin Z in the algorithm . The methods differ. For example, the creators of the projects at the same Equihash began to move EN masse on the algorithm Equihash 144.5 for which there is currently no ASIC. The developers of Monero make the forks a few times a year, and it's them .

Why spend big money to create ASIC devices, if in a few months it will be possible except to throw it away?

ProgPoW — more elegant solution. The algorithm does not make ASIC miners to the network, but will make them less effective, and probably completely razed to the GPU. In the end, spend a lot of money for small benefit hardly anyone wants, so a choice would be good old graphics card. The developers will achieve their goal, the GPU miners will be safe. Everything is beautiful and no blood. And now a theory.

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What is ProgPoW

ProgPoW — abbreviation of the phrase "Programmatic Proof Of Work". It is a complement to the current algorithm Ethereum Ethash and should make the card more competitive and reduce centralization. To cope with the task will help the two features:

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1. it makes the problem statement for mining unstable;
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2. ProgPoW uses all the resources of the graphics card and its potential.

The Latter is especially important, because ASIC has a big drawback. He even recorded in the acronym — "application-specific integrated circuit" or "integrated circuits for special purposes". ASIC miners are sharpened under the execution of one specific task.

Source: Cryptomining

This explains their excellent results in the selection of combinations for solving blocks. However, they no longer can do — can't play with those computer games. But the video card is flexible, so there are no such problems. Can and coins to dig and Counter strike to shoot.

In addition, new algorithm code published on GitHub. Everything is transparent and fair. For the memories we will understand who is responsible for code ProgPoW.

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Who created ProgPoW

For the algorithm development team IfDefElse. It consists of Ms. If Mr. Def and Mr. Else. Reminiscent of the plot of "reservoir dogs" Tarantino, but anonymity is a shell. The fact that miss If not hiding his personality and is quite a public, her real name is Kristy-Lei Minahan. The team is focused on mining-hardware and algorithms.

By the way, they have created a pill «OHGODANETHLARGEMENTPILL» for overclocking graphics cards Nvidia. Please read more about it .

How it works ProgPoW. Technical details

First, let's deal with the origin of the name. ProgPoW means that each inner loop memory accesses — i.e., one iteration in the search for a solution is randomly generated by the program based on the room block. Latest designed to work effectively on the usual graphics cards and requires the use of a larger part of the functionality of the GPU.

Source: Bitcoinist

Using a random sequence of tasks excludes the possibility of creating a fixed conveyor — as is happening with the ASIC miners. In other words, to work with ProgPoW need to be flexible, and ASIC devices do not know how.

ProgPoW regularly changes the conditions of the problem for mining. GPU adapt quickly and reduce the gap of performance compared toASIC.

ProgPoW out of the cards max and employ almost all components of the GPU. Exception — the graphics pipelines, and floating points. They need to give that the algorithm is suitable for different manufacturers ' equipment.

By the way, the team IfDefElse collaborated with engineers from Nvidia and AMD to guarantee impartiality. Representatives of both companies like the idea, because protection from ASIC miners makes the video card more important. Where is the relevance there, and with AMD and Nvidia now everything is not very rosy.

ProgPoW work better, "green" cards. Read

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Key innovations ProgPoW

With the principle understood, let's now discuss five supplements that ProgPoW different from the usual Dagger Hashimoto. Thanks to them, the algorithm relies on computing power, bandwidth, and memory.

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1. Replacement keccak hash function blake2s. optimized for the Latest 32-bit platforms, which is great for the architecture of graphics cards. While blake2s and blake2b provide almost the same security level, however, the second ground under 64-bit platforms.
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2. Enhanced mixed state. we are talking about the number of registers of the processor, in which you can store intermediate values. They are significantly faster RAM, because they are inside the CPU itself. Have ASIC miners chips are small, and the number of registers is losing the indicators of graphic coprocessors. In the end, to work with this feature, asik is forced to use RAM. It is at times slower, any potential benefits are negated.
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3. Add a random calculation sequence in the main loop. The chip makes it impossible to create ASIC devices with a fixed conveyor that could increase the speed or reduce consumption.
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4. Supported operations reading small amount of cache with a small delay, which supports random address. Cached reading compels ASIC to follow the rules of the hierarchy GPU memory. This also limits their ability and performance.
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5. Increase the DRAM from 128 to 256 bytes. Growth — support for graphics cards. Specialized ASIC is unable to optimize the memory controller for a small number of requests for improved performance.

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ProgPoW in practice

The Theory is over, let's get to practice. The algorithm is tested in real conditions: on six video cards from two manufacturers. Because ProgPoW uses almost the full potential of the GPU, the results resemble the effectiveness of the card when running games or applications for working with graphics.

Source: Rock Paper Shotgun

Hesreti cards on ProgPoW the following:

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1. AMD Radeon RX 580 — 9,4 MH/s;
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2. AMD Radeon Vega 56 is 16.6 MH/s;
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3. AMD Radeon Vega 64 to 18.7 MH/s;
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4. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 13.1 per MH/s;
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5. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 and 14.9 MH/s;
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6. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is 21.8 MH/s.

Now compare the efficiency of ASIC miners on ProgPow:

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1. GPU with GDDR on Ethash — x1;
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2. GPU with GDDR on ProgPoW — x1;
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3. ASIC with GDDR on Ethash — x2;
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4. ASIC with GDDR on ProgPoW — x1,2;
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5. ASIC with HBM on Ethash x4;
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6. ASIC with HBM on ProgPoW x1,5.

In the end, the advantage of ASIC miners is reduced up to 2.6 times. With results like these the owners of GPU farms just can't worry about tomorrow and possible centralization of cryptocurrency projects.

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Relationship to ProgPoW

Introduction ProgPoW discuss with August 2018. Among the developers of ETH Core picked it up January 4th. Overall, most of the leading programmers agree with the idea, but want more time for testing and implementation.

Source: Euronews

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Criticism community

You Need to list the arguments expressed by the opponents of integration ProgPoW. In their opinion, the implementation of the algorithm is the following:

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• blind advocacy Nvidia and AMD;
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• distraction from running Proof of Stake;
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• future hard forks of Ethereum and partitioning the network.

In addition, ASIC miners make the network more secure, and the evidence of the centralization of mining like as not. That is especially important — after activating ProgPoW manufacturers Asimov will continue to create a secret design and use them to mine coins. In other words, the situation is allegedly not going to change.

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Conclusion

The Idea of introducing ProgPoW seems great. The algorithm is not just "cold-bloodedly disposes of ASIC miners", but also leaves a niche of mining democratic. The threshold of the entrance to it will still be low, so decentralization does not become an empty shell. I hope the implementation ProgPoW in the Ethereum network will not drag on like it did with hardforum Constantinople.