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> For example, when it is said that Litecoin and other Scrypt-based coins were created just as a way not to let GPU mining rigs go worthless This is incorrect.

by nwh 13y ago

> For example, when it is said that Litecoin and other Scrypt-based coins were created just as a way not to let GPU mining rigs go worthless This is incorrect. Litecoin was created to stop CPUs going idle, it was a resistance against GPU mining. They since changed their tune a bit, but that was the stated aim on their main page for a year or so. > I believe the existence of other coins with different algorithms is important, even to point out possible flaws in Bitcoin and the way SHA-256 is used. If sha256 is broken so badly that arbitrary outputs can be chosen, all things are dead. Litecoin uses sha256 everywhere internally too, just not for their mining algorithm.

gbl08ma 13y ago
> This is incorrect. I didn't say that was correct, I was just saying that's what the article (incorrectly, in my opinion) appears to say. I'm not sure who's misunderstanding who... > If sha256 is broken so badly that arbitrary outputs can be chosen It's not about sha256 being broken or not, but about the way it is being used for mining (being used incorrectly != broken hashing algo). Even though I agree, if it was being used improperly we would have noticed by now - I could have chosen a better example.
- nwh 13y ago
  > "Litecoin uses Scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt uses the low-latency cache memory of modern processors to provide greater hash-speeds on CPUs in comparison to GPUs. We would like to extend our thanks to ArtForz for the implementation." https://web.archive.org/web/20111128074850/http://litecoin.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20111128074850/http://litecoin.o...
- maaku 13y ago
  > It's not about sha256 being broken or not, but about the way it is being used for mining (being used incorrectly != broken hashing algo). Even though I agree, if it was being used improperly we would have noticed by now - I could have chosen a better example. It's being used absolutely correctly for mining. Proof of work needs to be extremely easy to validate. You want the fastest hash possible, not the slowest.

by nwh 13y ago

gbl08ma 13y ago

> This is incorrect. I didn't say that was correct, I was just saying that's what the article (incorrectly, in my opinion) appears to say. I'm not sure who's misunderstanding who... > If sha256 is broken so badly that arbitrary outputs can be chosen It's not about sha256 being broken or not, but about the way it is being used for mining (being used incorrectly != broken hashing algo). Even though I agree, if it was being used improperly we would have noticed by now - I could have chosen a better example.

nwh 13y ago
> "Litecoin uses Scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt uses the low-latency cache memory of modern processors to provide greater hash-speeds on CPUs in comparison to GPUs. We would like to extend our thanks to ArtForz for the implementation." https://web.archive.org/web/20111128074850/http://litecoin.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20111128074850/http://litecoin.o...
maaku 13y ago
> It's not about sha256 being broken or not, but about the way it is being used for mining (being used incorrectly != broken hashing algo). Even though I agree, if it was being used improperly we would have noticed by now - I could have chosen a better example. It's being used absolutely correctly for mining. Proof of work needs to be extremely easy to validate. You want the fastest hash possible, not the slowest.