Why CPU's Should Not Be The Future Of Crypto Currencies


CPU's are not a natural technological generation leap like going from rocks-and-seashells to pencil-and-paper was. CPU's are simply specialized processing units made specifically for Bitcoin. Which i do not beleive is following the original intentions of Satoshi, for many reasons.

Moving from pencil-and-paper to CPU mining will not be the same as going from rocks-and-seashells to pencil-and-paper mining. The reason here is because rocks-and-seashells's and pencil-and-paper's have decentralized distribution. They are mass produced by huge companies  giving you the option to buy their products in any city, no matter where you live! This allows us to be in control of when and where we get our mining hardware, and to a certain degree, at what cost. (Which helps the decentralization process). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralization

While on the other hand, CPU's are/will not be mass produced, supply is controlled, price is controlled, they are in limited quantity, can only be bought from a few companies/sources, that in reality nobody even knows for sure they can trust. So what will happen is all the miners in the world will be forced to rely on those few small companies for CPU's, as well as the small quantities that they produce. And we will be subject to their pricing. They will also control the supply of the mining rigs, which can have an effect on the bitcoin economy that is similar to the effect that the U.S Federal Reserve and banks have on the money supply. I'm not talking about the amount of money/BTC, but when it is available/mineable to the miners. This allows CPU  manufacturers to be in control of when and where we get our mining hardware. (All this hurts the decentralization process)

People will have to rely on the small quantities that these companies produce, which causes people to have wait for their hardware, which in the end causes people to potentially lose money. This is exactly what is happening right now. Many people are waiting to see what happens with CPU's, so that they can start buying mining  hardware again. So, basically if CPU didn't exist people would continue to pencils and papers as i type this, which would have meant more profit for those people now and in the future, which would have meant more money in those peoples pockets. This is where the 'Federal Reserve effect' comes in, because now mining hardware companies can control when people buy/receive their hardware, plus control when people get more or less profit through controlling the mining hardware supply. Also, buying CPU's from a few small companies means whenever those companies come out with a new model, this process will start all over again. More lost money, more time lost waiting for release/shipping.

Another downfall of CPU, is the fact that CPU's will make everyone have to 'restart from scratch' buying mining hardware all over again, when most people already  have their mining hardware in the form of pencils and papers, and it is already payed off. Now you will have to sell all your pencils and papers, then have to buy $1000's of dollars of CPU's just to be able to keep up with all the other players with the increasing difficulty. After that, you will have to wait all over again to get your return on  your investment! Which could take half a year or more, once difficulty adjusts, which should just take about a month or so.

Once CPU comes out, the difficulty will adjust accordingly. Which will just cause everyone to make the same amount of money as they were before CPU's. So the question is, is it necessary for us to go through all of what i mentioned above, to just end up making the same amount of money as you were before with pencil-and-paper's, just a month or so later, with CPU's?

Because of the above mentioned costs, plus the added cost of CPU'S, this can hinder the widespread global adoption of Bitcoin just because of the sheer expense. This is especially true for people in other smaller, less wealthy countries. It is much easier to obtain a used video card for those people. People that could be helping to build security and decentralization for Bitcoin!

CPU's threaten to ruin any anonymity that Bitcoin has left. This is by potentially making it easier to track who is buying the mining rigs through the few small companies that sell the CPU's. Which could potentially be bad if Bitcoin ever became illegal!

There are also many more smaller disadvantages of moving towards CPU that are of less importance.

So now it comes to the advantages of CPU. That's where everything boils down to in the end. The problem is there are not enough advantages to using CPU, for them to outweigh the disadvantages it brings to the table! In my opinion, network security and lowered power consumption cannot make up for the potential problems that it brings. This is an economy. This is not about power consumption! It will all come down to economics in the end. And that is what I'm talking about. And that is the infostructure that Satoshi built Bitcoin on!

The  Bitcoin developers, and the Crypto Community in general needs the recognize CPU's as a threat, and we should all do something to stop this from happening. I do not think that Satoshi would think the way these CPU's are to be distributed would be good for the Bitcoin economy in general.  There are a few things we can do to combat this, like changing the algorithm to prevent the usage of CPU's. Or, we could all switch to another crypto currency that that uses a different algorithm that is resistant to CPU's, like Litecoin, so that we can save Bitcoin and our crypto-independence!

By Switching To Another Bitcoin Algorithm, Or By Using Litecoin We Can Save Our Crypto-Independence!


The only options we have now is to change the Bitcoin algorithm, or for everyone to switch to another CPU proof crypto currency. The ideal situation would be for the Bitcoin developers to change the algorithm, but that does not seem to be what they plan to do. So that's where Litecoin comes in. While Litecoin is not CPU proof, it is CPU resistant. It runs on an algorithm called scrypt that is highly memory intensive, which makes it much harder to produce an CPU for Litecoin. Even if a company would find a way to produce an CPU for it, it would take at least a year to design, produce and ship them. So it would be our 'safe heaven' from CPU, saving us from the many disadvantages and negative effects that CPU threatens to bring to Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency world. At the very least, it would be buying us more time to work on something to prevent mining hardware companies from taking over our crypto currencies. People will be able to continue to pencil-and-paper mine, continue to profit, once again allowing us to be in control of when/where we buy our mining hardware, as well as, at what cost we buy it at. Allowing the control of the crypto world to stay in our hands, not the hands of greedy companies!

Jay1337

So laws and government were invented by people who were tired to bring AK-47 with them all the time? The original AK-47 is very light and easy to carry compared to any other weapon in world.

I can't have a boner if they are not naked and legs apart. Not exactly my taste, I like a little bit older girls but the pedo scare is 21-st century witch hunt.

And Windows8 is catastrophe even more than Vista was in 2006.

It already exists in two forms in Windows 7 and it is called Network Protection Service and Malicious Software Removal Tool. First is disabled by default on fresh installations and mainly is intended for corporate use but have potential for abuse. Second tool is updated at least on monthly basis and God knows what M$ decides to include in malicious software list.Would I be unable to install Warez on Windows8 ? UEFI is badly needed to support hard drives larger than 2TB as a boot drives. It cames with it's own problems but at least it is a work in progress to say farewell legacy BIOS.This is crackpot move if it is true but remember - meatspace laws does not dictate what is happening in cyberspace or on devices in hackers possession. I don't care if it is illegal to modify UEFI firmware like it is illegal now to FAP to 16yo girls pictures or download latest films from torrent sources.

When civilians are disarmed by government, they are shot by criminals. When both criminals and civilians are disarmed, the victims are killed by axe or kitchen knife. I prefer to be armed and shoot attackers back to hell with 50/50 chance to be shot myself. But in extreme gun control states when criminals start using axes - I prefer to be shot at least, less painful.

You think I never run Wireshark to see what is happening? Or I'm just lucky or skilled one who patched up all leaks in Windows7?

For Win8 and "cloud services" and "social apps" - they all are inherently anti-privacy and should not be used even if you really have nothing to hide.

1. What source of entropy Armory uses for initial wallet seeding? - I can answer myself looking at code but for someone who knows answering this will take only seconds.

2. Does keys generated by deterministic wallet that Armory can be linked to each other using known or potential crypto?

3. Original Satoshi client generated new address when receiving new transaction before QT fucked it all up. In paper it is stated that it is recommended that each address is used only once to prevent person linking and use of statistical analysis. Can Armory generate new receiving address when new transaction is received with current address selected?

4. Is there any minimum requirements for underlying Bitcoin client? Can current version run with Bitcoin 0.3.xx version?

The bitcoins in Genesis block are not spendable (but this did not prevent some well meaning halfbrains from sending additional coins to that address). But the private key for that genesis block exists (or at least existed) so Satoshi could prove his identity at any chosen moment if he wishes and if the key is not lost. I wonder if this is a bug or Satoshi was so bright to include this intentionally?

edit: Damn, my post was so similar to posts above even without reading them! Have we become drones in a hive mind?

There is not known case when intentional backdoor was included in Windows OS. The low-grade encryption is closest that comes to my mind. Given the scrutiny from reverse engineers and wide user base this also in somewhat unlikely that there is ready-to-use backdoor in Windows OS. But security flaws - there are lots of them as with any closed source product written in mostly bad manner by paid workers.

And how they will police copyright when I install warez?

Data mining - don't use features that send information you don't explicitly need to be sent.I know businesses still happily running Windows98 on workstations. They are slowly replacing them when failing because it is harder to find spare parts for failed hardware and it is difficult to find a person who knows how to maintain Windows98 based computer. Easier just to thrash the whole computer

Q:What green aliens with plasma guns and BFL ASIC's have in common?
A:They are not here and likely will not be in foreseeable future!It is easier to get second hand Core2Duo than high-end ATI video card. The same with GPU vs ASIC. Change algo? Shift of mined bitcoins income? Almost certainly yes, the shift occurs slowly all the time because of numerous factors. Shift in income does not mean a direct shift in balance of power. The ASIC owners still are a miners and early adopters who want Bitcoin to be a sucess. If we all unanimously decide not to use a ASIC then someone who really might Bitcoin to fail can pull off a >50% attack using the ASIC's. And he will need far less ASIC's to do that than if more ASIC's will be in hands of honest miners.High income is not without risk. Some people here purchased high-end CPU's complete with MoBo's and memories only for GPU mining to make CPU mining useless like voting parliament. They also told that GPU mining is ruining ideas of Bitcoin. Search this forum for about year and a half ago!

Better lose part of money in bad purchase than have your computer getting hacked. And having leaked naked pictures with the love of your life spreading legs for whole internet.

No change, still showing 5-8 ignores. Your faggotry action was irrelevant!

to OP: people in thread confirmed that ASIC increase in difficulty will actually secure Bitcoin network even more against >50% attack.

If protocol is changed in a manner that renders both ASIC and current implementation incompatible, this will undermine peoples trust in Bitcoin as a whole. This is why I never will trust any scamcoins that change basic protocol rules even once.

If I would try to seriously hide my identity from beginning, I would not only alter my writing style but also start arguing with my other profiles. I do this all the time elsewhere and it works great!

I understand English quite a good but the English language itself is somewhat limited in both grammar, vocabulary and in means of expression. This reduces entropy and all writings appear somewhat similar. In comparison my native language is considered one of the most complex and oldest languages still used in world and when reading large enough sample the writer can be manually identified with great likelihood.

Take a look on actions, the diversity of actions and try to imagine the man behind that.

Usually 10% of users makes 90% of support requests.

No one in his right mind will be going to use Windows8. Server 2012 is for businesses and they usually not deploy to production systems unless they are well tested. Windows Phone and game Halo 4 = too small user base. Only thing that is going to be big for Microsoft is profit.

I hate almost any government in world because they do it wrong, do it for wrong reasons, or do it to benefit for wrong people! But even the most despicable people in government apparatus sometimes say something that is right and true. So it is no surprise that some technology made by government is good for our cause. Technology itself is largely neutral including guns. It matters how we use them.

After manually looking for almost whole day to Casascius writings and actions he might indeed be the real Satoshi Nakamoto. The technical skills and psychological portrait are near match. So next time I stuck a Casascius physical Bitcoin in girl's asshole I might be handling a piece made by Satoshi himself! Seriously! https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=118715.msg1276367#msg1276367

Absolutely true!

The OP might be concerning that the consolidation of ASICs in hands of wealthy might pose a risk, but remember that the distribution of people preordering ASIC scam from BLF are distributed worldwide and sometimes are not highly wealthy. Some might been buying with bitcoins they mined with GPU. 30 000$ for asic rig is not unreal for average westerner working high income high-tech job.

Probably it is a Silk Road.

The Silk Road have very good technical support. Once my coins did not appear on Silk Road account but the support was able to fix that.

You will probably be able to do this N years from now if Bitcoin goes really mainstream. Larger market of potential miners = more business opportunities for ASIC makers. Bitcoin ASIC must not be so complex to develop like CPU. I already have crypto ASIC for IDE harddrives that cost me about 150$ and IDE have much more complex commands and besides that it must encrypt the data with AES in XTS mode. More than simple double SHA256 operation and compare.

1. CPU also can be brought from only two sources. Can You trust AMD or Intel not to include anti-Bitcoin features in CPU?

2. Next generation of GPU might be badly suited for Bitcoin GPU mining because of GPU architecture change.

3. ASIC manufacturing in few centralized places does not mean Bitcoin mining cannot be decentralized. Mining also is nothing to do as adopting it as a payment method. Not every Bitcoin end-user need to be a miner and most of them even will refuse to run full node.

OP just wasted bitcointalk.org SQL database space with pointless rambling.