why do you fear scrypt-asics?

[gustav]

Hello everybody.
I noticed a particular drop in many of the scrypt-coins and i concluded it was because of the fear of the powerful scrypt-asics that would make those smaller coins insecure and vulnerable to hostile scypt-asic-miner-forks (at least that was what i was reading repetitively).
Now i have one question: what about sha256-coins? Have they not been in that same situation long ago? Just imagine those powerful sha-miners out there. How were they doing? Forks? Not so much. Why?

I personally don't think the horrorscenarios will play out that dramatic. I think many of those new scrypt-miners will actually be used to secure those networks of scryptcoins. I don't think small scrypt-coins are doomed. Can someone explain to me again why the small scrypt-coins would be doomed? thx

Why would it be wrong to believe that the majority of miners would mine for profit and secure the networks instead of attacking them?

[1714060903]

1714060903

[anderl]

I think there are several reasons.

Many miners have already committed a large amount of capital (relative) to GPU mining.  Having to sell off their units or buy more to keep up is frustrating.  This may be the first time they have been so close to computer hardware manufacturing.  As consumers they buy a computer and try to squeeze the life out of it.  Most computer equipment goes obsolete in 3-5 years.  Many will extend that to 5-10 years.  Having to upgrade every 6-12 months is hard to stomach.

Everyone wants to be the biggest miner.  They realize that there are others ahead of them that have grown giant farms and have built up massive capital.  By switching to ASICs the big miners get bigger.  The small miners would get bigger but I think they do not reinvest their profits from mining back into growing their farms so they fall behind or remain stagnant in growth.

It will crush a lot of crap coins.  Many crap coins have very low network hashrates.  The ASIC will end up 51% attacking, time warping them which will pull them off of the exchanges.  I think this is a good thing.  But not to investor who bought into these coins.  To make a new coin will mean it may get attacked by ASICs at launch.

Fear of change.  As much as we like the description that cryptocurrencies are having to the global economy we do not want to be disrupted ourselves.

[Willisius]

I think it's just because mining is inherently competitive. When somebody instantly has 1000x your hashing power, they're hard to compete with.

[YarkoL]

I personally don't think the horrorscenarios will play out that dramatic. I think many of those new scrypt-miners will actually be used to secure those networks of scryptcoins. I don't think small scrypt-coins are doomed. Can someone explain to me again why the small scrypt-coins would be doomed? thx

Yes I'm basically in agreement. There will be few attacks, but if there's a profit to
be made, the network will be secured by asics.

But to answer your original question, people with gpus are afraid of asics because
they can't compete with the big guns. Then they will look for another "asic-proof" algo
but as soon coins with that algo become profitable, there will be asics made and the cycle
starts again.

It is a shame because asics are not monsters, they are much more efficient and enviroment-friendly
than gpus. Instead of fleeing asics, we should look for algorithms that allow simpler asic design
so they are affordable to everybody.

[Jcw188]

 yore talking about a drop in price then I'd think you have to assume it does have something to do with possible vulnerability. Obviously there are so many scrypt coins and not many have hashpower on gpus to withstand an ASIC miner attack. Whereas the bigger coins can withstand an attack.

[BrewCrewFan]

The problem is asic is to expensive for a normal miner. Most scrape by paying 300 for a GPU. Paying 3000 for an asic is out of the question for many miners.

By the time the prices go down with the older slower asics, as you see with BTC, using the old ones that are now in the price range of normal people means that they are pretty much useless due to dif being too high and ROI is garbage.

As for securing the network, this is true, but it will be hard to get it to grow if the prices dont reflect it. It means pretty much those who are already very well off are the only ones who will add, squeezing out the little guy. There are not many people that will mine just to "secure the network"... they need profits too.

[BrewCrewFan]

yore talking about a drop in price then I'd think you have to assume it does have something to do with possible vulnerability. Obviously there are so many scrypt coins and not many have hashpower on gpus to withstand an ASIC miner attack. Whereas the bigger coins can withstand an attack.

Not true. Look at the stink with LTC right now with one pool having over 50%. LTC is the biggest alt coin out there and still it can be vulnerable.