ASIC Resistance Is Faulty And Flawed In Light Of Ethereum ProgPoW According To Developer

A Programmatic Proof-of-Work (ProgPoW) developer named Kristy-Leigh Minehan, in an interview with Dr. Corey Petty of BlockChannel discussed about ProgPoW mining and Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) resistances offered to cryptocurrencies.

ASIC is a chip designed to perform a specific function while a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) has vivid functions . For cryptocurrencies, ASIC is intended for specific algorithm mining. ASIC resistance for a cryptocurrency means to develop a complex and difficult algorithm so that to mine it the required hardware parts are limited to procure.

Dr. Petty who hosted the interview with Minehan said that making a hardware capable of running a specific algorithm is easy and a matter of success for any person. For most people building a machine which is fast in terms of processing an algorithm and also efficient in terms of power consumption and cost is an enormous task.

Dr. Petty stated that Ethereum ProgPoW was aimed to develop an algorithm to match hardware requirements at optimum costs. For example they could create algorithms for matching GPUs so that making ASIC becomes an economic struggle. However this will not be impossible with sufficient funds.

Minehan called ASIC resistance in regard to ProgPoW a myth and faulty as ASIC is needed in some form or the other in a PoW. A PoW is about saving on hardware as well as energy which can be mathematically proved. She added on that

“Ethash as an algorithm couldn’t capture a big part of hardware expense; instead the computing engine is the mathematical proof which captured only memory interface.”

As the GPU cores are utilized the use of power is more. This was primarily brushed aside by Ethash as this required high expertise in assembly level GPU architecture as well as in hardware.

Minehan argued that ASIC generates higher number of hashrates which in turn consumes more power although these made a more-secure network. For a miner doesn’t consider the cost of consumption with respect to energy for generating a higher number of hashrates to make the network more secure, Minehan is confident on the fact that ETH ProgPoW will be able to minimize this cost and energy efficiency gap.