With growing concerns regarding the Chinese miners’ “monopoly” over bitcoin hash power, influential Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr proposed a Proof of Work algorithm change on January 17, 2016.
The Bitcoin network’s proof-of-work scheme is based on SHA-256, which was introduced by the creator of bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto as a part of the digital currency. Today, various cryptocurrency have adopted alternative hashing algorithms used for proof-of-work such as scrypt, Blake-256 and CryptoNight,
http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/01/23/bitcoin-core-developers-controversial-algorithm-change-shut-down/
