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This has turned into an interesting question since some coins now are specifically designed to be resistant to ASICs. The downside for those coins is that botn
by the_real_sparky 9y ago
This has turned into an interesting question since some coins now are specifically designed to be resistant to ASICs. The downside for those coins is that botnets or general purpose hardware (that can be purchased or rented for an attack and then resold for other uses later) are a serious threat to the network. A potential benefit for Bitcoin is that the network may actually be more secure with custom ASICS because the people investing millions into developing the custom hardware stand to lose everything if they attack or seriously harm the network. That equipment would be useless for any other purpose, and that same dominating hardware makes the Bitcoin network immune to attack from general purpose hardware.
- cwyers 9y agoIf you need a relatively small handful of people to control the ecosystem to make it secure from large numbers of decentralized users, then what the heck do you need Bitcoin for?
- the_real_sparky 9y agoI think that the mistake here is believing that the miners control the network, when most likely the miners simply work for the decentralized network. When the miners become centralized there is little they can do that the users/nodes can’t unwind with a software update, even up to the point of firing those miners completely if necessary (changing the proof of work so that their current hardware is worthless). I think that long-term the incentives are aligned for them to simply do their job.