The history of Proof-of-Work

R

R. Patterson

New member
Hello, members of the Dash Community!

I'm Ray and recently I've written an article about the history of Proof-of-Work, where I mentioned every algorithm that shifted the development and adoption of cryptocurrencies, such as:

- The Hashcash project
- Moderately hard, memory-bound functions
- Secure hash algorithms (SHA-2, SHA-3)
- Scrypt and its versions
- X11
- Momentum
- Cuckoo Cycle
- CryptoNight

Dash is mentioned as well, so I'll be happy to know what you think about the article.

Pioneers do not always get credit for their discoveries: this six-hash algorithm got popular (and acquired a name) in the first Sifcoin fork named Quark. It later gave birth to a couple dozens of altcoins, and one of them surpassed "daddy's" image. It was Darkcoin (called DASH now)...
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The full article is available on the Bytecoin Blog (just google "the history of proof-of-work")

Please, share your thoughts in the comments!
 
Very well written imo.

There are few things I'd like to comment on though.

... Still, everyone understands that this algorithm is not ASIC-resistant in the real sense of the word. Calculating 11 different hashes instead of 1 means, roughly, making an assembly line 11 times longer. In other words, R&D breakeven point was simply moved away a few times. ...
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Yep, I can't wait to see X11-ASICs. That would mean we are moving to the next level of investment / energy efficiency / security of the network.

... Moreover, 64-bit operations (multiplying and totaling) and AES as mixing function are used internally. It is curtsey to modern CPUs with integrated corresponding functions (and a stone thrown into GPU's garden). Total memory volume required by CryptoNight is 2 MB, i.e. L3 cache size per core. We cannot say that ASICs cannot reach this point, but cost is considerably high. ...
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I see it not as a benefit but as a big problem actually. You get nothing from distributing miners that way while there are still only few major pools. All you get is a constant menace that someone will attack your network easily by just using regular botnet (which in that case can be thought of as basically a huge CPU mining farm with enormous hashrate).

...a problem with proof-of-work in general. I have to note that some people might not regard it as a problem (on the contrary!), but we are talking about something that many people consider to be a problem.

All this work is useless! All these hashes... no one needs them anywhere except cryptocurrencies. ...
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Well, I'm on of them :smile: All this work provides network security. Yes, that's it. A single task - "Provide security for that specific network" (or few if you do merged mining). Saying that PoW is useless is like saying "Oh, look, this gun is useless! All it can do is fire bullets! You can't use it anyhow else, you can't even calculate small prime numbers using it! That's a big problem, we need to fix it!" I would definitely prefer to defend myself with a gun that can fire bullets instead of a gun that can calculate prime numbers.

Anyway, good job on providing a summary on the topic. Bookmarked. :wink:
 
Excellent article,like the flow charts for scrypt hashing, looks like part of a thesis for a university project, can you do one for X11 please? :smile:

Small thing really but here you say,
'It did not introduce any innovations (except rounds' sequence)'

You do not mention the unique dark gravity wave that was introduced to counter the kimoto gravity well time warp exploit flaw,
http://www.coinssource.com/kimoto-gravity-well-exploit-exposed/
 
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