Martin Holst Swende who joined the nonprofit Ethereum Foundation in 2016 as the lead security to ensure that any code change within the second largest blockchain platform for the development of decentralized applications do not halt operations in the blockchain had voiced his opinion against the use of ASIC miners in Ethereum mine.
In a meeting of developers that was held on Friday, Martin Swende said this is necessary since powerful ASIC miners had made some miners to make a huge gain of ether, in the ethereum blockchain.
It could be remembered in April this year when the issue of ASIC miners for Ethereum came up for debate, Ethereum founder, Vitalik Buterin made a Twitter poll for those that are for and against it.
The reason why some of the major Ethereum developers are against the use of ASIC chips for Ethereum mining is that it discourages other miners from participation, since they feel that there mining equipment can’t compete favorably with users of ASIC miners. More miners are needed in the ethereum ledger for the network not to collapse.
During the meeting, Swende said that the new software called ProgPoW, should be used “in parallel” with a larger, upcoming upgrade, “if the technical underpinnings are there.” This could destroy all codes used in ASIC chips for Ethereum mine.
He said:
“I think it’s a very good change and am for including it as soon as possible.”
Swende in an interview noted that the software upgrade will “not touch the EVM or state transition at all.”
The lead security at Ethereum Foundation Swende in his proposal also said that the software change could be done in a “separate hard fork which is decoupled from Constantinople.”
He added that:
“If we eventually decide to set both [upgrades] to the same [block] number, then fine, but that’s not a necessity.”
Antonio Salazar Cardozo upgrade that will help in maximizing cost of privacy on ethereum was also considered by developers even though they said that this could be geared towards could a subsequent hard fork along with the ProgPoW software shift.
The representatives of ProgPow developers cited “misinformation about hardware and how ProgPow actually works” after some developers requested they explain the software.
ProgPow co-creator, Def said that:
“The algorithm’s goal is not exactly to be ASIC-resistant.”
Def concluded by stating that the code of ProgPow is “to be friendly or very much tied to a single type of ASIC, which is a GPU,” so that miners could mine Ethereum at a cheaper cost and not to be ASIC resistant.
Def’s colleague, Kristy-Leigh said that it does not worth “wasting the man hours or the money” for “a project that would most likely be ignored.”
