4 ms·

The author uses the terms so sloppily that I don't think you can claim they understand it. If writing for people with an idiosyncratic definition of a well est

The author uses the terms so sloppily that I don't think you can claim they understand it. If writing for people with an idiosyncratic definition of a well established term, you have to lead with a clarification of what those terms mean.

vmception 5y ago
Nah. I don’t think its relevant to debate about whether they understand it since they modified the firmware successfully. The audience they write for doesnt understand “ASIC resistance”, its a meme within that community that has always relied on a misunderstanding of how processors work and is taken advantage of by people that do understand. It would unnecessarily dilute the article to proselytize to the desired audience just because someone that also understands computer architecture might happen to read it. I would just say you’re late to this one. Like, you would have had an argument in 2012 when there actually was a chance to frame the lingo in the crypto space, but in 2022 for an article from 2019? No. You should have just sold some hardware or software to miners sometime over the last 10 years.
- fake-name 5y ago
  Again, they poked around in an embedded linux image. There was zero investigation if the ASICs even have firmware, let alone modifying it. > I would just say you’re late to this one. Like, you would have had an argument in 2012 when there actually was a chance to frame the lingo in the crypto space, but in 2022 for an article from 2019? No. I mean, ok? If you're writing for a uninformed subset that uses words wrong, and you deliberately use their incorrect terminology, that's kind of worse. I can guarantee that no one who actually works on making the antminer/whatever ASICs calls the entire box "an ASIC". Writing for a lay audience does not mean deliberately misusing terms. Meanwhile, the rest of the world uses ASIC to mean Application-Specific Integrated Circuit. Because thats literally what the acronym means.
  - vmception 5y ago
    Yeah I wrote the meaning of the acronym in my first response to you Its an article about a device that 100% of the purchasers and 100% of the manufacturers call “an ASIC” Manufacturers and the chip designers and serhack know that it is an array of single purpose processors controlled by an embedded linux image. Not trying to change your mind here, just providing context. I guess it would be a cooler article if they had found some way to manipulate the circuits.

vmception 5y ago

Nah. I don’t think its relevant to debate about whether they understand it since they modified the firmware successfully. The audience they write for doesnt understand “ASIC resistance”, its a meme within that community that has always relied on a misunderstanding of how processors work and is taken advantage of by people that do understand. It would unnecessarily dilute the article to proselytize to the desired audience just because someone that also understands computer architecture might happen to read it. I would just say you’re late to this one. Like, you would have had an argument in 2012 when there actually was a chance to frame the lingo in the crypto space, but in 2022 for an article from 2019? No. You should have just sold some hardware or software to miners sometime over the last 10 years.

fake-name 5y ago
Again, they poked around in an embedded linux image. There was zero investigation if the ASICs even have firmware, let alone modifying it. > I would just say you’re late to this one. Like, you would have had an argument in 2012 when there actually was a chance to frame the lingo in the crypto space, but in 2022 for an article from 2019? No. I mean, ok? If you're writing for a uninformed subset that uses words wrong, and you deliberately use their incorrect terminology, that's kind of worse. I can guarantee that no one who actually works on making the antminer/whatever ASICs calls the entire box "an ASIC". Writing for a lay audience does not mean deliberately misusing terms. Meanwhile, the rest of the world uses ASIC to mean Application-Specific Integrated Circuit. Because thats literally what the acronym means.
- vmception 5y ago
  Yeah I wrote the meaning of the acronym in my first response to you Its an article about a device that 100% of the purchasers and 100% of the manufacturers call “an ASIC” Manufacturers and the chip designers and serhack know that it is an array of single purpose processors controlled by an embedded linux image. Not trying to change your mind here, just providing context. I guess it would be a cooler article if they had found some way to manipulate the circuits.