<oembed><type>rich</type><version>1.0</version><author_name>npub1e46n428mcyfwznl7nlsf6d3s7rhlwm9x3cmkuqzt3emmdpadmkaqqjxmcu</author_name><author_url>https://nostr.ae/npub1e46n428mcyfwznl7nlsf6d3s7rhlwm9x3cmkuqzt3emmdpadmkaqqjxmcu</author_url><provider_name>njump</provider_name><provider_url>https://nostr.ae</provider_url><html>📅 Original date posted:2016-05-10&#xA;📝 Original message:Replies inline.&#xA;&#xA;On 05/10/16 21:43, Sergio Demian Lerner via bitcoin-dev wrote:&#xA;-snip-&#xA;&#xA;&gt; But some ASIC companies already have cores that are better (on power,&#xA;&gt; cost, rate, temperature, etc.) than competing companies ASICs. Why do&#xA;&gt; you think a 10% improvement from AsicBoost is different from many of&#xA;&gt; other improvements they already have (secretly) added? Maybe we (?)&#xA;&gt; should only allow ASICs that have a 100% open source designs?&#xA;&#xA;One is patented and requires paying a license fee to a group, or more&#xA;likely, ends up with it being impossible to import hardware from other&#xA;jurisdictions into the US/western world. The other requires more&#xA;investment in R&amp;D, and over the long run, there is no guaranteed&#xA;advantage to such groups.&#xA;&#xA;&gt; If we change the protocol then the message to the ecosystem is that ASIC&#xA;&gt; optimizations should be kept secret.&#xA;&#xA;To some extent, this is the case, but there is a strong difference&#xA;between a guaranteed advantage enforced by the legal system and one that&#xA;is true due to intellectual superiority. In the long run, I am confident&#xA;the second will not remain the case. For example, AsicBoost was&#xA;independently discovered by at least two companies/individuals within a&#xA;year or two.&#xA;&#xA;&gt; It is fair to change the protocol&#xA;&gt; because we don&#39;t like that certain ASIC manufacturer has better chips,&#xA;&gt; if the chips are sold in the market and anyone can buy them? And what&#xA;&gt; about using approximate adders (30% improvement), or dual rail&#xA;&gt; asynchronous adders (also more than 10% improvement) ? How do we repair&#xA;&gt; those?&#xA;&#xA;As far as I&#39;m aware neither of these are patented. Is this not the case?&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Disclaimer: I have stake in AsicBoost, but I&#39;m not sure about this.&#xA;&gt;  &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 5:27 PM, Tier Nolan via bitcoin-dev&#xA;&gt; &lt;bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&#xA;&gt; &lt;mailto:bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&gt;&gt; wrote:&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;     The various chunks in the double SHA256 are&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;     Chunk 1: 64 bytes&#xA;&gt;     version&#xA;&gt;     previous_block_digest&#xA;&gt;     merkle_root[31:4]&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;     Chunk 2: 64 bytes&#xA;&gt;     merkle_root[3:0]&#xA;&gt;     nonce&#xA;&gt;     timestamp&#xA;&gt;     target&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;     Chunk 3: 64 bytes&#xA;&gt;     digest from first sha pass&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;     Their improvement requires that all data in Chunk 2 is identical&#xA;&gt;     except for the nonce.  With 4 bytes, the birthday paradox means&#xA;&gt;     collisions can be found reasonable easily.&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;     If hard forks are allowed, then moving more of the merkle root into&#xA;&gt;     the 2nd chunk would make things harder.  The timestamp and target&#xA;&gt;     could be moved into chunk 1.  This increases the merkle root to 12&#xA;&gt;     bytes in the 2nd chunk.  Finding collisions would be made much more&#xA;&gt;     difficult.&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;     If ASIC limitations mean that the nonce must stay where it is, this&#xA;&gt;     would mean that the merkle root would be split into two pieces.&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;     On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 7:57 PM, Peter Todd via bitcoin-dev&#xA;&gt;     &lt;bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&#xA;&gt;     &lt;mailto:bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&gt;&gt; wrote:&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;         As part of the hard-fork proposed in the HK agreement(1) we&#39;d&#xA;&gt;         like to make the&#xA;&gt;         patented AsicBoost optimisation useless, and hopefully make&#xA;&gt;         further similar&#xA;&gt;         optimizations useless as well.&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;         What&#39;s the best way to do this? Ideally this would be SPV&#xA;&gt;         compatible, but if it&#xA;&gt;         requires changes from SPV clients that&#39;s ok too. Also the fix&#xA;&gt;         this should be&#xA;&gt;         compatible with existing mining hardware.&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;         1)&#xA;&gt;         https://medium.com/@bitcoinroundtable/bitcoin-roundtable-consensus-266d475a61ff&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;         2)&#xA;&gt;         http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2016-April/012596.html&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;         --&#xA;&gt;         https://petertodd.org &#39;peter&#39;[:-1]@petertodd.org&#xA;&gt;         &lt;http://petertodd.org&gt;&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;         _______________________________________________&#xA;&gt;         bitcoin-dev mailing list&#xA;&gt;         bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&#xA;&gt;         &lt;mailto:bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&gt;&#xA;&gt;         https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt;     _______________________________________________&#xA;&gt;     bitcoin-dev mailing list&#xA;&gt;     bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&#xA;&gt;     &lt;mailto:bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&gt;&#xA;&gt;     https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; _______________________________________________&#xA;&gt; bitcoin-dev mailing list&#xA;&gt; bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&#xA;&gt; https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev&#xA;&gt;</html></oembed>