Poll will remain open for 5 days. You are allowed to change your vote. Please post additional pros/cons of the different options and we will add them to the list.
On April 16th KNC issued another update for their Scrypt ASICs that are scheduled for delivery in Q2/Q3 (June/July) of this year. The Titans will now be hashing at around 300 MH which is up from the previously stated 250 MH.
One thing we can all agree on is Scrypt Mining profitability for GPU’s is going to drop like a rock within a one- two week time frame. Not to mention this is just the 1st generation of Scrypt ASICS.
KNC Press ReleaseGiven that DigiBytes daily net hash has fluctuated between 500 MH and 1 GH the past few days, 1-2 people with Titans could easily fork DigiByte or other lesser known Scrypt coins.
So what are the options DigiByte or any other Scrypt coin can take right now?
Option 1: Do Nothing & Embrace Scrypt ASICs
Pros:* No Hard-Fork Required
* More professional mining market will emerge
* Attractive to long-term ASIC mining investors
Cons:* Centralization of Scrypt hashing power
* Lesser known coins easily forked
* 1-2 People with Titans could currently fork most Scrypt coins
* Very high cost barriers to compete ($5k-$10k) in Scrypt Asic Mining
* Goes against most peoples reason for becoming involved with cryptos
* Will eliminate GPU mining for most Scrypt coins
* Will push most GPU miners to other ASIC resistant coins
* Most Scrypt ASIC miners will dump mined coins to re-coup hardware costs
Resources:*
Doge Dev Summary on staying Scrypt*
Litecoin Dev Teams Position on Algo Switching
Option 2: X11, the Darkcoin Approach
Pros:* GPU miners can still profitably mine
* ASIC resistant for the near future
* GPUs run cooler
* GPUs use less electricity
* blake, bmw, groestl, jh, keccak, skein, luffa, cubehash, shavite, simd, echo
Cons:* ASIC creation still possible & likely
* X11 Mining Software possibly not optimized
* Some of the x11 algos were dropped from the SHA selection process due to security issues
* Hard-forking required
Resources:*
Darkcoin Thread*
Doge Dev Summary on X11
Option 3: Scrypt-N, the VertCoin Approach
Pros:*GPU miners can still profitably mine
*Increases memory requirements as hardware bottleneck
*Adaptive memory increase into the future/ Moore's law
*ASIC resistant into the future
Cons:* Hard-forking required
Resources:*
Vertcoin Thread
Option 4: Multi-Algo, the Myraidcoin Approach
Pros:*All miners can mine
*Scrypt, SHA256D, Qubit, Skein or Groestl
*Each algorithm has separate difficulty
*Any algorithm can find the next block
*Each algorithm aims for a block generation time of 2.5 minutes
*Over the five algorithms, a block should be found on average every 30 seconds
Cons:*Technically Challenging & somewhat untested
*Hard-forking required
*Unforeseen attacks may exist
*Difficult for mining pools to implment
Resources:*
Myraidcoin Thread
Option 5: HEFTY1, the Heavycoin Approach
Pros:*SHA-256, Keccak-512, Grøestl-512, BLAKE-512
Cons:* Hard-forking required
Resources:*
Heavycoin Thread
Option 6: Merge-Mine Dogecoin & DigiByte
Pros:*More blockchain security
*Combination of communities
*Larger net hash
*Very attractive to ASIC miners
Cons:* Loss of complete autonomy
* Negative press or events with 1 coin will effect all merge mined coins
Resources:*
!
Option 7: Merge-Mine Litecoin, Dogecoin & DigiByte
Pros:*More blockchain security
*Combination of communities
*Larger net hash
*Very attractive to ASIC miners
*Bitcoin is Gold, Litecoin is Silver
*DigiByte is the dollar, Dogecoin is like a quarter
Cons:* Not likely to happen
* Loss of complete autonomy
* Negative press or events with 1 coin will effect all merge mined coins
Resources:*
!
Option 8: Merge-Mine with other coins using a different algo
Pros:*More blockchain security
*Combination of communities
*Larger net hash
*Very attractive to GPU miners
Cons:* Loss of complete autonomy
* Negative press or events with 1 coin will effect all merge mined coins
Resources:*
!
If you would like to know more about DigiBytes long term vision watch our NYC presentation here:
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