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He who wastes the most wins is not a description of the incentives in my opinion. Miners actually need to be efficient to win. It's why Bitcoin is driven by ASI

He who wastes the most wins is not a description of the incentives in my opinion. Miners actually need to be efficient to win. It's why Bitcoin is driven by ASIC chips right now. They are on the cutting edge of computational efficiency and you may not realize, but have been driving technology quite a lot especially chip technogy and "computer programs directly to chip" tech. And guess how much potential energy consumption that saves. Think overclocking a 386 cpu to 1ghz vs chip tech today. Now imagine how ASIC design can potentially cut that even further for general purpose computing.

imtringued 5y ago
ASICs just shift energy costs from energy spent on mining to energy spent on making ASICs. The economics don't change. If the reward is $60k you must destroy $60k.
- beiller 5y ago
  But what Im saying is the ASIC tech is applied to other chips not in the Bitcoin space making computing more efficient overall. This future savings dwarfs the current usage.
  - tablespoon 5y ago
    > But what Im saying is the ASIC tech is applied to other chips not in the Bitcoin space making computing more efficient overall. This future savings dwarfs the current usage. Is the development of bitcoin ASICs actually driving any general purpose advances? My understanding is they were just applying existing advanced technology to Bitcoin. The idea of an ASIC isn't new, and Bitcoin mining is niche compared to other areas (e.g. cell phone processors, desktop CPUs & GPUs)
    - beiller 5y ago
      We are venturing on my opinions now but yes, the ASIC development is important in my opinion. It really is exercising the "pipeline" for computer programs baked directly into chips. It is the direction the industry is moving and why you see so much activity in the RISC-V space for example. This tech is the future for faster computing / more efficient computing. I am not actually sure though if tech like RISC-V is used today in the ASIC miners. I think I'll look into that.

imtringued 5y ago

ASICs just shift energy costs from energy spent on mining to energy spent on making ASICs. The economics don't change. If the reward is $60k you must destroy $60k.

beiller 5y ago
But what Im saying is the ASIC tech is applied to other chips not in the Bitcoin space making computing more efficient overall. This future savings dwarfs the current usage.
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > But what Im saying is the ASIC tech is applied to other chips not in the Bitcoin space making computing more efficient overall. This future savings dwarfs the current usage. Is the development of bitcoin ASICs actually driving any general purpose advances? My understanding is they were just applying existing advanced technology to Bitcoin. The idea of an ASIC isn't new, and Bitcoin mining is niche compared to other areas (e.g. cell phone processors, desktop CPUs & GPUs)
  - beiller 5y ago
    We are venturing on my opinions now but yes, the ASIC development is important in my opinion. It really is exercising the "pipeline" for computer programs baked directly into chips. It is the direction the industry is moving and why you see so much activity in the RISC-V space for example. This tech is the future for faster computing / more efficient computing. I am not actually sure though if tech like RISC-V is used today in the ASIC miners. I think I'll look into that.