Open CryptoNight ASIC

[TimOlson]

Project OCA (Open CryptoNight ASIC)

• Open source.
• Permissive Licensing.
• 5x better performance than Bitmain
• Made with love by 7400 (7400digital@gmail.com, https://www.7400.digital/), Tim Olson (https://linkedin.com/in/olsontim), and Salt (https://twitter.com/_vhsv3).  Together, we are altASIC.

What is it?

This is the essential core code for altASIC's CryptoNight ASIC design. It mines "classic" pre-v7 CryptoNight and can run in simulation, on FPGA, or as an ASIC.

This code represents only the essential "memory hard" part of CryptoNight. altASIC additionally has a complete hardware system design with a software controller, an FPGA for initial/final hashes, a high-speed IO bus and logic board, and state-of-the-art power management.

Why make a CryptoNight design?

We believe specialized mining hardware is inevitable for any proof-of-work. Even proofs-of-work bounded by memory bandwidth, like Ethash or Equihash, have custom hardware (ASIC's) which outperform commodity hardware (GPU's) by economically large multiples. There is no proof of work which has in practice prevented the development of specialized hardware miners for coins with sufficient mining value.

ASICs can be beneficial to a chain, since the hashpower can only work on the subset of coins which select the same PoW. The problem arises with the centralization of manufacturing, and the abuse of power by ASIC manufacturers.

If custom hardware is inevitable, then creative solutions to the threat of manufacturing monopolies must be considered. Some approaches we believe could be feasible:

• Community effort to publicly publish the most efficient design with open licensing. This allows anyone with the money to produce equivalent chips, leading to many competing companies and close to at-cost ASICs.
• Non-profit chip design co-op, subsidized by a small portion of the block reward and run by distributed governance. Any for-profit company competing with a blockchain-subsidized Open ASIC manufacturer would have a disadvantage equal to the block donation. This effectively moves the monopoly to a community owned and operated manufacturer.

We believe Open ASICs are the way forward. Long term, the CN tweak schedule and creative new PoWs will be defeated. Rather than evade, we should accelerate commodity ASICs. This open source design is the first step in that direction, and we'd be interested in helping to establish a design co-op and release the first chip.

Technical details and source code here:
https://github.com/altASIC/Open-CryptoNight-ASIC

[Raja_MBZ]

Is this the only open-source ASIC to date?

Seems pretty interesting.

[nsummy]

Is this the only open-source ASIC to date?

Seems pretty interesting.

I seem to remember someone else releasing asic or fpga code for cryptonight once monero announced the first fork.  They had been working on it privately and realized that it would be obviously worthless so they released it as kind of a learning tool/proof-of-concept.  Unfortunately I can't find the link anymore, but it was on github.

Here is a good post about why an open source asic would never work though:  https://thebitcoin.pub/t/build-your-own-asic-miner/14173/462

[TimOlson]

Is this the only open-source ASIC to date?

Seems pretty interesting.

Here is a good post about why an open source asic would never work though:  https://thebitcoin.pub/t/build-your-own-asic-miner/14173/462

I respectfully disagree with that author.  In fact, our release directly falsifies this claim:

Think people, if it was possible to come up with a next generation SHA256 or Cryptonight or whatever miner that could possibly be profitable to warrant a redesign of what is already out there … then Bitmain would be shipping the S10 today (which does not exist)."

The assumption that BitMain is the best at everything is simply false.  Currently, WhatsMiner is significantly better, for example.

Also, consider the community-owned / blockchain-subsidized model.  If, for example, 20% of the mining reward goes to subsidize a community-owned manufacturer that sells units at-cost, then any for-profit company couldn't really compete.  You can see this with shipping companies in the US.  UPS and FedEx have to offer special services at large price increases compared to the subsidized USPS.  There is no way UPS or FedEx could ever deliver a letter for 50 cents.  It could be the same with a mining company.

In the case of CryptoNight specifically, we have already open-sourced a design which knocks the socks off the leading competition.  The best BitMain could do is copy our design.

[sxemini]

Ah ok and how many different Asic Miner has Whatsminer? I see 2 different Miner. How much have bitmain? So why is it better? How do you explain the word "better" in this case?
I know bitmain doesn´t build the best miner, but the company is the biggest asic miner company, they are trustable, the miners are solid, prices are ok in my opinion.

So please do not speak bad about other companys. you must convinces us of your product.

And where is your dcr asic miner? Never released?

[TimOlson]

Ah ok and how many different Asic Miner has Whatsminer? I see 2 different Miner. How much have bitmain? So why is it better? How do you explain the word "better" in this case?
I know bitmain doesn´t build the best miner, but the company is the biggest asic miner company, they are trustable, the miners are solid, prices are ok in my opinion.

So please do not speak bad about other companys. you must convinces us of your product.

And where is your dcr asic miner? Never released?

By "better" we mean it uses less power per hash and is cheaper to produce.  You can see technical details on GitHub.

I'm not interested in convincing you of anything.  This is a giveaway.  Free.  There is no product.  We're not selling anything here.

As for the Decred ASIC, we withdrew when it became clear that the regular consumers, the buyers of Decred ASICs, were going to get hurt.  Our prediction came true, and if you paid for an Obelisk Decred Miner, sorry.  It lost money on electricity the very first day you got it (late).  Here is a brief excerpt from our goodbye letter sent to our mailing list:

Over the last year that we've been working on dcrASIC, we’ve seen the Decred Mining ecosystem change significantly. Three additional ASIC manufacturers have entered the Decred miner market and saturated it. As a result, the network hashrate has increased 50x and continues to rise while the market value of DCR has increased roughly 5x in the same timeframe.

While this is a great sign for Decred's maturity as a network, it does carry a negative impact on mining profitability. The end result is that profitability for miners is now thin. ASIC manufacturers take their profit up front and let the end user (you) deal with the consequences.

We never took any money from anyone for the Decred ASIC, and I stand by that decision.  We saved our customers from themselves.

My reputation is more important to me than making money up-front at the expense of consumers who get scammed.  I'm a serial entrepreneur and my reputation is everything.  Word gets around fast, and I've remained honorable in all my dealings with investors and customers.

[p3rk0]

As for the Decred ASIC, we withdrew when it became clear that the regular consumers, the buyers of Decred ASICs, were going to get hurt.

Cool that you made this decision independently.

[almonk]

It has still very high costs to entry for small miners. Developing strong ASIC resistant algos for GPUs is easier and more effective.

[fanatic26_]

It has still very high costs to entry for small miners. Developing strong ASIC resistant algos for GPUs is easier and more effective.

How so? Outside of a few specific instances you can buy an altcoin ASIC for WAY less then it costs to build a 6 card rig and get better performance. You can fight ASICs all you want, you wont stop them.

[almonk]

Question is can you manufacture your own ASIC using this open design for the cost of an average GPU rig?

It has still very high costs to entry for small miners. Developing strong ASIC resistant algos for GPUs is easier and more effective.

How so? Outside of a few specific instances you can buy an altcoin ASIC for WAY less then it costs to build a 6 card rig and get better performance. You can fight ASICs all you want, you wont stop them.

[TimOlson]

ASIC's require a big initial cost to set up the manufacturing.  The first chip is $millions, then they are a few dollars each after that.  There is no (viable) open source toolchain for hardware production, and even the software tools required for producing an ASIC are around 6 digits USD.  That being said, the cost to start manufacturing our ASIC would not be much for a business or startup, maybe $3m.  Plenty of companies and crypto hodlers have that kind of cash.

[TimOlson]

It has still very high costs to entry for small miners. Developing strong ASIC resistant algos for GPUs is easier and more effective.

IMHO there is no such thing as an ASIC resistant algo, RandomJS and ProgPoW notwithstanding.  Ultimately, CPU's, GPU's, and ASIC's are the exact same physical object, manufactured in the same factories using the same process.  The difference is only a matter of purpose and design, and specialized hardware will always outperform general hardware.  GPU's were made for graphics, and CPU's for general computing.  PoW's are necessarily a special class of computing, and ASIC's will always outperform.