Bitcoin Forum

I think we need to change Bitcoin's algo to MD5. It would be much better for mining...

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqa83KTfRqKUrzCik1agynkLlzkpAkIvbzWiBQk-MFkNwjnwxN35_e6A

It would require the replacement of all the current ASIC miners with a whole new generation of ASIC miners, but other than that it would have very little effect on mining.

A simple checksum would be much easier to compute and much faster than even MD5.

You are probably thinking it would be far faster to "mine" MD5(MD5(header, nonce)) because MD5 is "broken"?

Sorry, while MD5 is broken, it's not (yet?) broken in that way... There are no shortcuts when using it for mining.

Also it would just mean that the difficulty would adjust upwards to correct for the "brokenness". Feel free to implement an altcoin using MD5 and see for yourself.

This kind of a change will only result in an Alt ...because getting mass consensus is almost impossible for Bitcoin now.

interesting responses. I posted this thread on a whim. I really didn't know a whole lot about MD5. Now I'm curious. Look for anm MD5 altcoin soon  ;D

the OP wrote it as a joke, yet the replies deserve this:

http://scienceofnaturalgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/why_so_serious__by_tyrite.jpg

lol. Nobody appreciates a good joke thread around here.  ;D

I fail to see what's "funny" about this...

you fail to see sarcasm :)
well, there would definetly be a boom on sha-256 altcoins for asic owners to take refuge in.
if you ask me, i would change algo every year, hate to see mining in industry hands, and not in the hands of simple folks.

cheers

I snickered  ::)

I snickered since serious nominations belong in Technical and Developmental Discussion
Mean (Mumble I know where things go now why!)
Lol

Pretty sure it was mostly the troll face included in the post pretty much saying "I'm trolling because all the people who want to change the algo always get shot down and never search"

So trolling/spaming is now considered a "joke thread"? :-\

Wouldn't the network become more vulnerable right at the time that the algorithm changes?  I find it hard to believe that even a majority of active miners would be ready to go at the first block after the change.   Could that provide a small window of opportunity for attackers once per year?

you can get a consensus to make changes to the Bitcoin protocol as we do get this whenever bitcoin core is upgraded. The problem is getting a radical of a change as this is

I was just trying to get people to laugh... Lighten up guys  ::)

His name is "Dimelord" FFS. Expect him to be a bit dimey wimey at 'times'.  8)

lol I see what you did there  ;D Not a whole lot of people get my name.

I thought it was very funny.  People around here are soooo serious.

Some big pools who gain high hashpower have invested a lot of capital to most efficient mining rigs.They wouldn't be willing to implement radical changes.

Also, pardon my ignorance, but where is the best place to get the md5 checksums for previous electrum versions?

I'm half seriously thinking of a MiDa5coin to go with this algo. Maybe MD5 + SHA1 to stay retro while adding to perceived security. I'm not going to launch/maintain a coin by myself, just thinking of some low hanging GPU fruit ::)

lol I know some people who would jump in on that.

Toss on DES to it (I know, it's not a hash, but might as well!)

Another name I thought up was "RetroHash", but I see it is already taken (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RetroHash), though not in a crypto context. I can't believe there isn't a Midascoin already.

Perhaps encrypt one of the hashes with DES, using the other hash as the key?

We could also add a huge number of rot13 stages to make hashing extra hard ;D

Double rot13 is best.