From attack to feature: Slush pool created the first block with controversial AsicBoost technology this past weekend. This raises many questions: Why is AsicBoost now okay? And what about Halong, the mysterious maker of the first AsicBoost-capable mining hardware?
Back in the summer of 2017, the Bitcoin community was about to change Bitcoin to make AsicBoost, a process that could save about 20 percent of its energy while mining, impossible. Even a hardfork was in discussion to prevent the technology used as an attack on Bitcoin mining from being used.
Well, on the weekend Sluh Pool tweeted that they found the first block produced by AsicBoost. The fact that this is now being acclaimed in the scene shows what a remarkable change in meaning technology has undergone within a year. We try to beat AsicBoost through the technical and legal confusion.
What is AsicBoost?
AsicBoost is a method developed by Timo Hanke and Sergio Lerner to save energy while mining. In this context, Timo Hanke explained in an interview in May 2016, the block header candidate is changed so that one of the four sections of the SHA algorithm can be omitted. If you want to know more, read the white paper. For all others, it may be sufficient that with AsicBoost you can save 12 to 24 percent in energy, depending on the structure of Asics.
In itself, this is harmless, as it is not so effective compared to other methods to improve the mining. The method has been known since 2013, but made headlines when Timo and Sergio filed a patent application for AsicBoost in early 2016. Some core developers, such as Peter Todd and Matt Corallo, have complained that such a patent threatens the decentralization of mining, and even went so far as to propose a hardfork to change the block header so that AsicBoost is no longer possible.
The hardfork proposal by Peter Todd and Matt Corallo:
Due to the pending patents and the threat to eliminate AsicBoost, none of the miners has used the technology so far. The manufacturer of mining equipment, Spoondolies, which went bankrupt a few years ago, also discovered and patented AsicBoost, but never used it. Even Bitmain, by far the largest outfitter of miners, has installed AsicBoost into its Antminer and tried it on the test network, but never used it in live operation.
Open and secret AsicBoost
In April 2017, Blockstream's CTO, Gregory Maxwell, said he had discovered a way for miners to secretly use AsicBoost. Maxwell called every kind of AsicBoost an "attack on Bitcoin's SHA2 hashcash" - which, strictly speaking, is probably because it uses collisions - but stated that the secret, obscure AsicBoost was also incompatible with SegWit. This would explain, according to Maxwell, why some miners were reluctant at this time to activate SegWit.
Since that time, AsicBoost was considered an attack on Bitcoin. It not only brought patents into mining, but also set incentives for the miners to block upgrades that everyone else wanted, at least, so to speak. AsicBoost even got listed as CVE, as Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, officially proclaiming the technology an attack.
An explanation of the problems that AsicBoost can cause can be found in this paper. According to someone in the mailing list, the problem with AsicBoost in general is that it no longer equates to any input, but makes it possible to create inputs that are easier to mine than others. This undermines the security assumptions of Bitcoin.
Halong Miner: Competition for Bitmain?
In November 2017, someone with the pseudonym BtcDrak announced that they would produce an Asic miner together with Halong that would challenge Bitmain: the DragonMint miner, who was probably the most efficient miner at 16 Terahash per second.
The special thing about Halong is probably that the company immediately turned to a certain scene of the Bitcoin community. The interconnections are screaming. This starts with BtcDrak. Although he is not really a core developer, but as the moderator of the mailing list and slack space, owner of the core Twitter account and developer of the core website, he may be the most influential person in the conversation about the core developers. He has never hesitated to take drastic measures to enforce his position.
As the founder and leader of the notorious Dragon's Dans slack room, where trolls and presenters met, BtcDrak may have played a paramount role in the fun troll and character assassination campaigns that have accompanied the Bitcoin scene in recent years. Significantly, the logo on the DragonMint miner - a stylized dragon - is identical to the logo on a cap published by Blockstream's Samson Mow.
The Halong miner was accordingly fiercely promoted in relevant circles: Journalist Aaron van Wirdum benevolently wrote about the company on Bitcoin magazine, and did not miss any opportunity to report on Halong after that, while he otherwise did not interest Mining seems to find. Blockstream's CEO Adam Back announced that he had trusted the company and had already placed an order, and Slush's pool said they had already tested and approved the miners.
The company made pre-orders for the miners allegedly delivered in March. So far, this has happened on a regular basis with almost all mining manufacturers who accepted pre-orders: delivery times are not being met. Nevertheless, Halong is hailed as the company that can break Bitmain's near monopoly.
DragonMint 16T miner by Halong:
The Blockchain Defensive Patent: This is how AsicBoost goes
At this point, AsicBoost finally comes back into play. Halong's DragonMint miners save energy with AsicBoost. Ironically, this company is the first to use the controversial technology.
However, efforts have been made to make AsicBoost less controversial. For example, a Californian company called Dragon Technology has bought the patents of Timo and Sergej and joined the Blockchain Defensive Patent License (BDPL). The BDPL wants to prevent individual miners such as Bitmain from obtaining an excessive amount of the hashrate through patents. To this end, the initiative encourages Miner to place its patents on mining manufacturers under a voluntary, defensive patent license "tailored to the needs of Bitcoin or other blockchain protocols, to prevent any consortium of miners from exploiting any of these." terrible ability to launch majority attacks. "Like the patent agreement developed by Blockstream, the BDPL patents are intended to protect technologies from being captured by individual actors.
I do not have the competence to assess the patent law clauses. At first glance, it looks pretty neat. The fact that the initiative has so far only Halong and Little Dragon - probably closely related companies - among their supporters, is strange, but says as little as it is unclear who is behind it. In any case, such a patent agreement will provide clarity and certain legal certainty to apply certain technologies in the development of miners without having to fear litigation.
The provisions of the BDPL seem sufficient to eliminate the threat of patents on AsicBoost. In addition, since Halong's miner is not secret but open, the second big problem in the world is the incompatibility with protocol upgrades like SegWit. Therefore, it is also largely acceptable if BtcDrak suggests that the Bitcoin code be adjusted so that the use of AsicBoost no longer irritates the nodes.
So it can be jubilation that Slush - the only pool whose loyalty to Core goes so far that he does not mine Bitcoin cash - now uses AsicBoost to mine bitcoins. With success, as the block shows at the weekend.
Is everything only a scam?
At the same time comes from an unexpected side heavy criticism of Halong. Cobra, co-owner of Bitcoin.org, is considered to be an honorable defender of Cores, explaining on his blog that he thinks Halong is a scam. He predicts that "the majority of customers either will never receive their hardware, or so late (and perhaps already used) that they will never spend their expenses."
Cobra sees several drastic alarm signals: First, the "massive social media campaign, when the company began collecting pre-orders from the community." Second, the website, which took pre-orders but did not have a refund policy, "and, worst of all, the company ... existed ... nowhere. Nobody can tell me who the CEO is and where they have their office. Who is behind it? "
Third, the company is already adopting ideas for miners with new algorithms to be delivered soon while the DragonMint miners are still not shipped. "How can a small startup, without a track record so far, a company that you do not even know the CEO, afford all the research and development needed to develop all of these miners and produce them in bulk?" Fourth, Cobra recognizes the typical Behavior of a fraudulent company: It does not allow comments on its Youtube videos, there are no statements from actual customers, but only a few people who enjoy the trust of the community (like Slush and Adam Back).
Slush addresses the allegations by explaining on Twitter that Halong has delivered a genuine product. Not a copy of a Bitmain miner, but a stand-alone, well documented and working device. But maybe that's not so important anymore. For even with AsicBoost it is questionable whether the DragonMint miner can actually keep up with Bitmain's latest Antminer, which is significantly cheaper to buy per Terahash, while the power consumption per Terahash according to the specification is about the same.
Image Sources:
- Post header created by myself
- twitter.com/slush_pool
- lists.linuxfoundation.org
- halongmining.com
- medium.com/@CobraBitcoin
- twitter.com/slushcz
Have a nice day!
LOVE&LIGHT