2012-12-05 technologyreview.com - Custom Chips in a Bitcoin Gold Rush

[ben-abuya]

The emergence of bitcoin-mining ASICs is part of a computational arms race rooted in the complex cryptographic scheme designed by Bitcoin’s anonymous inventor, known only by the online name Satoshi Nakamoto. Under Nakamoto’s rules, which are what allow the currency to function without control by a central bank, miners run free software that communicates over the Internet to maintain a distributed global log of all Bitcoin transactions.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/508061/custom-chips-could-be-the-shovels-in-a-bitcoin-gold-rush/

[ben-abuya]

duplicate.