3 ms·
If you are going to do PoW the least harmful way is inherently CPU algorithms like Monero’s RandomX. At least the left over parts have an aftermarket use as CPU
by api 5y ago
If you are going to do PoW the least harmful way is inherently CPU algorithms like Monero’s RandomX. At least the left over parts have an aftermarket use as CPUs, and at least you are incentivizing production of something useful. It can even run as a lowest priority process with other compute in some cases.
Note that Chia’s form of proof of space does not count since it actually consumes SSDs. CPUs are not (meaningfully) consumed by running RandomX.
(CPUs at dense process nodes do degrade slowly but their life spans are usually far longer than their useful life anywhere in the market.)
- Tepix 5y agoOr you do something like "proof of useful work" as discussed in https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/203.pdf https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/203.pdf
- 988747 5y agoisn't that somewhat against the whole idea of PoW? It is supposed to make cheating expensive, because you have to waste a lot of computing power to do it. If that power is not wasted, but instead used for something useful (outside of crypto transaction verification) work that can be sold for money, then cheating becomes profitable again.
- lottin 5y agoNot really... cheating is always profitable, regardless of how expensive winning a block is, since the cheater can double spend any amount they want.
- api 5y agoPick something useful that has low monetary value on the open market, like number theory problems or protein folding or something. I could imagine the RandomX code execution approach being re-worked to incorporate useful scientific computation, and this being worked into the currency itself. It might be possible for people to stake money on compute units and then have the money go to the miner who solves a block in proportion to compute units performed. You'd have to put a lot of work into making this non-gameable though. Maybe something can be done here with homomorphic encryption too, so the miners would not even know what they are computing. A lot of interesting open cryptography and math work here.
- Uberphallus 5y agoAlready available in GridCoin
- giuliomagnifico 5y agoI think we need a way better (re)use of the heat generated by the hardware instead cooling it or placing the hardware in cool places.
- api 5y agoThere was a startup somewhere trying to sell Bitcoin miners as home heating units in cold climates, but the economics don't work since the chips are too expensive and gas is also still too much less expensive than electricity to heat with. Most industrial processes require heat beyond what a mining chip could handle... unless you fabricated special mining chips out of different semiconductor materials that can handle high heat. But that's probably too expensive for the economics to work too. What would make some sense to me is an integrated solar PV panel / mining unit. Just deploy them in the desert and connect them. Each panel could be discrete and WiFi connected, meaning you would not have to wire them to anything at all. Just prop them up in the sun with WAPs every so often to connect them to a network.
- mdale 5y agoExcept in 2 years they would be obsolete because of wear and tear and or because a new node process is released and or we get more clever around specialized chips for this purpose. More and more parts of the economy are mapped into this work relative to the scarcity of these bits of value. Bitcoin is 0.5% today of global energy usage a few more multiples and it's going to much more directly tie global energy costs to the price fluctuations the currency. We risk the whole world becoming paperclips type economics doomsday scenario.. least growing number of people that ascribe value to cryto agree to collectively ascribe to an alternative model for distribution of transaction security.
- giuliomagnifico 5y agoThis one is the startup you mean (I think): https://bitcoinminingheater.com/ https://bitcoinminingheater.com/