An Ethereum (ETH) code contributor has suggested that Ethereum developers ‘embrace’ specialized mining hardware (ASICs) in a reply on Ethereum developer forum Ethereum Magicians, Jan. 7. As Cointelegraph reported last week, Ethereum core developers have tentatively decided to implement a new proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm, dubbed ProgPoW, which would decrease the efficiency divide between ASICs and GPUs, while rendering current Ethereum ASICs obsolete. According to another developer on Ethereum Magicians, David Vorick, ProgPoW would favor larger ASIC producers because the more complex hardware needed would exacerbate the economies of scale involved. Following Vorick’s comment, a developer named Alexey Akhunov stated in …

Ethereum (ETH) core developers have reached a tentative consensus to implement a new proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm that would decrease the divide in efficiency between ASIC and GPU mining on the network. The development was discussed in a meeting today, Jan. 4. During the meeting, developer Hudson Jameson noted he had heard “very little dissent” to implementing “ProgPoW,” which has so far been trialed via client implementations running on the “Gangnam” testnet. As previously reported, a testnet is essentially a simulated version of the primary network that allows developers to try out upgrades or run smart contracts without having to pay …

Bitcoin (BTC) protocol developer Mark Friedenbach introduced a method for Bitcoin scaling he claims will not require a hard fork at a workshop in Tokyo October 5. The new concept presented at the Scaling Bitcoin workshop, entitled “Forward Blocks,” suggests a major on-chain capacity boost by means of a Proof-of-Work (PoW) alternation that is done as a soft fork, combined with use of alternative private ledgers. The proposal describes a method for scaling that claims to be able to increase “settlement transaction volume to 3,584 times current levels” and improve censorship resistance via sharding. During the presentation, Friedenbach suggested major …

Venezuelan state-owned cryptocurrency Petro has apparently plagiarized parts of its white paper from the GitHub repository of Dash. Core developer of Ethereum Joey Zhou pointed this out in a tweet posted Tuesday, Oct. 2. Zhou has tweeted that Petro, which has just been officially launched by president Nicolas Maduro, is "a blatant Dash clone." To illustrate this, he posted a link to the Venezuelan coin’s white paper, which had an exact copy of an image from Dash's repository on Github. An image from Dash’s repository on Github, added to p. 11 of Petro’s white paper with an added title in …

A blockchain system developed by Australia’s national science agency (CSIRO) and Sydney University claims to have set a benchmark of 30,000 transactions per second during a test on Amazon Cloud, according to CSIRO’s Tuesday, September 25 press release. The technology arm of CSIRO, Data61, and the Concurrent Systems Research Group at the University of Sydney created Red Belly Blockchain as a “graduate” from CSIRO’s Pre-accelerator program ON prime. CSIRO and the Concurrent Systems Research Group announced the first outcome of its experiment held on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure. Red Belly Blockchain was tested on 1,000 machines in 18 …

Ethereum (ETH) core developers decided on their regular YouTube meeting August 31 to delay the “Difficulty Bomb” by agreeing to include the code for such a change into the upcoming Constantinople hard fork. One of the prime objectives of the Ethereum Foundation lies in the adoption of a new consensus algorithm - Proof-of-Stake (PoS). In order to implement it, the developers came up with a solution called the “Difficulty Bomb,” which makes the production of new blocks more complex and unfavourable. Constantinople is designed to smooth the transition from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm to PoS. Last week, the developers …

Ethereum (ETH) core developers have held their regular meeting on YouTube August 24 on the progress of client implementation and tests of the Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP) for the upcoming Constantinople hard fork. The meeting started with a discussion of the latest updates on the processes of no-proof blockchain tests and the progress achieved on major ETH clients, with one of the devs explaining that there is a need to revamp some of the testing to avoid potential consensus issues. This week saw the release of a number of new features; however, the devs noticed one instability with a “huge” …

The Bank of Canada (BoC) has published a study on the “incentive compatibility” of blockchain technology this week, finding that double spending is an “unrealistic” outcome. The new BoC study focuses on a proof-of-work (PoW) protocol for blockchain technology, modelling the behaviors of a “honest miner” and a “dishonest miner.” The Canadian bank’s researchers modelled a system to check whether a digital ledger like blockchain was immune to types of “cheating” such as double spending, when users change records in the ledger for their own gain. The study writes that the main innovation of a digital ledger technology like blockchain …

They say it takes money to make money; in order to make a profit off Bitcoin mining, you have to buy mining equipment and pay your electricity bill first. As more miners join the Bitcoin network, some individuals fear that the amount of electricity consumed by mining will have a negative impact on the environment. Others believe that the benefits of Bitcoin mining outweigh the cost it takes to produce the digital currency. Bitcoin mining and energy consumption New Bitcoin are produced through a process called mining, where computers expend energy and computational resources to solve a difficult math problem …

Ethereum Classic (ETC) has now successfully implemented a protocol upgrade that will ensure that mining remains viable in future, according to ETC Block Explorer data yesterday, May 29. The fork, dubbed ECIP-1041, has removed the so-called “Difficulty Bomb” feature from the ETC network at block 5,900,000. The ‘bomb’ was a component of the original Ethereum (ETH) code that was designed to exponentially increase the difficulty of mining to the point where it would become impractically slow, thereby triggering the need to transition to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. This feature has commonly been referred to as the ‘Ethereum Ice Age,’ …

A Brazilian researcher has calculated that it could take just $55 mln to hack a major cryptocurrency network for $1bln profit in new findings, TNW reports Friday, May 22. Husam Abboud of FECAP University in São Paulo used the example of Ethereum Classic (ETC) to demonstrate the hackability of cryptocurrency networks using Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithms. “We can safely estimate The Cost of a 51% attack on Ethereum Classic today to be between 55 to 85 million [USD] (averaged $70 million),” Abboud reported. The findings seemingly contradict previously-held assumptions that conducting network attacks - successful 51% attacks to control hashpower - …

Tech giant IBM has filed a patent for an Internet of Things (IOT)-focused Blockchain configuration which would tailor the proof-of-work (PoW) protocol in order to address potential security issues in IoT networks, in an application published April 26. The patent proposes: “A method, comprising: determining a proof-of-work via an [IOT compatible] device; using a predefined set of nonce values when determining the proof-of-work; storing the proof-of-work on a blockchain; and broadcasting the proof-of-work as a broadcast message.” Nonces are used in PoW systems to vary the input to a cryptographic hash function so as to obtain a hash that fulfills …