Debunking the 'Litecoin Development Team’s official position on Litecoin’s proof of work' from Warren (Litecoin devteam,
https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=18166.0)
I am very sceptical of the reasons mentioned in above thread, and i have some remarks and questions. Maybe we can get a consensus on a reply to this post? If the outcome is positive for VTC (hey, you never know) then maybe we could get something on vertcoin's web site? I have a feeling most people still do not see why asics lead to centralisation and why that is bad..
Fallacy: Slower PoW is Safe from ASIC’s?
The escalating “N” proposals all suffer from the issue where increasingly slow PoW by design makes it much slower to verify, thereby worsening block propagation latency across the multi-hop P2P network. Block propagation latency is already a growing problem on the Bitcoin network where larger blocks take longer to traverse the network. With an escalating memory PoW the smallest of blocks would suffer from increased propagation delay. At best this means increased annoyance from more frequent accidental orphans. At worst, higher propagation latency reduces the cost of perverse mining behaviors like double-spending attacks.First point, the block propagation. The verify time for scrypt-n is currently 2x slower than scrypt's. And with a scaling N the time will increase further.
Right then, scrypt is 1000x? slower compared to SHA256 from bitcoin and they say bitcoin already has a problem with that? And litecoin doesn't?? And a typical node does ~5000 scrypt-n hashes/s resulting in 0.2 MILLIsecond propagation delay? And a typical block propagation time from network latency alone is 3000MILLIseconds as blocks have to be sent around the world?
Either i don't understand it at all or this is fud on several levels:
- Verify time is only a fraction of network propagation delay (which can't be solved as information exchange is hampered by the speed of light)
- Current verify time is 1000x slower with scrypt compared to bitcoin yet staying with scrypt is the way to go
Is it not possible to change the current verification method from cpu based to gpu based? That would solve that 'problem' at once..
Furthermore it is doubtful that escalating N would be truly ASIC proof. Since the deployment schedule of future N is known, near-term ASIC’s could cut costs as they need not implement distant future N in hardware because early generation custom hardware will be unable to compete on power cost with later generation custom hardware. We already see this today with first generation Avalon and ASICMINER miners, currently so power cost uncompetitive that they are being given away at the cost of disposal.In short: asic producers can release a new asic version for every N as previous generation asic miners will be too power hungry anyway.
I agree. Scrypt-n is however much more expensive to implement in an asic! And changing to scrypt-n would remove the threat of the currently announced asic miners.
And what is even more important: it would scare asic developers from trying again for scrypt-n. You only need to show your determination not to allow asics for your coin!
..
In these examples, they made hashes more complex and increased the cost of ASIC development, but if your coin becomes popular enough then ASIC’s become economically feasible.
..Also true. When there is money to be made someone will try to make it. But what if there is no money to be made (see previous point)?
Arbitrary Hardforks Hardly Inspires ConfidenceArbitrary hardforks are a nono, duh.
Hardly Inspires Confidence? I guess not when arbitrary hardforked! What when the coin is hardforked to protect it? Like when asics are about to be released which will destroy the coin's reason to exist?
Bitcoin and Litecoin are exceedingly careful in avoiding unnecessary rule changes that completely breaks sync compatibility with old clients. Prior to the official release of Litecoin 0.8.x we carefully reviewed the code multiple times and even hired an external expert to quadruple check our work to reduce the likelihood of accidents.
Checking code is good. And for the rest see point below.
Bitcoin has many users still using very old versions. The Litecoin network is less afraid of using alerts and other discouragement to coax users onto newer versions, yet there still persist many old clients that are at risk of accidental hardfork from the BIP50 BDB lock limit issue. Old clients are highly discouraged but they remain (somewhat) compatible because both networks have never forced any completely incompatible block-level protocol change upon users.Being sturdy, not implementing better ways to do things (KGW, PoW?) and thereby not ensuring your coin's future is better yes?
Contrast this to various amateur clones of Bitcoin. They are characterized by a rush to market with code that was not well designed or tested, often containing errors that require mandatory hardforks to correct. Sometimes hastily written “fixes” have introduced additional problems often resulting in further mandatory upgrades. Often on their forums, weeks after a hardfork you see confused users who are on an old chain.Releasing broken code is alway bad, so whoever does that: shame! Who did that btw?, except the junk coins?
Stability of the protocol matters a great deal to the perceived viability of a network as a long-lasting medium of commerce. Litecoin has been strong because of doing things in the Bitcoin way, just with different hardware protecting its network. If Litecoin were to fundamentally change the rules for reasons unrelated to technical correctness and in a way that requires everyone to suddenly change their software it would make people question the stability of the network and the professionalism of its developers.Stability IS very important. Any coin that somehow stops 'working' will loose much if not all faith. Here we get the good code/bad code again.
btw they admit they are as of now just another bitcoin clone.
Centralized Mining problematic long before ASIC
In the end, a greater threat is centralized pooled mining. This problem is inherent to Bitcoin-like networks and existed long before the coming of ASIC’s. The Litecoin Dev Team invested resources and funds to help with P2Pool for the benefit of both Bitcoin and Litecoin, and we acknowledge the Eligius approach with the GBT protocol is another important approach where miners can completely stop a pool from withholding blocks. A Litecoin develoer has even brokered an agreement in principle with a major institutional miner to agree to independent 3rd party monitoring to create new tools to alert vendors of block withholding on the Bitcoin network, if other major pools and institutional miners agree to identical monitoring. If successful for Bitcoin, this model may be needed on the Litecoin network. There is a great deal more work needed to be done on this front to reduce risks of mining centralization on both the Bitcoin and Litecoin network.This is inherent for any coin and has nothing to do with the PoW
Conclusion
What makes Litecoin strong is its closeness to the good parts of Bitcoin with a few small but meaningful improvements like faster confirmations and discouragement of spam. Its developers are heavily involved in improving both Bitcoin and Litecoin as part of their professional careers. Good luck to the long-term longevity of forks.
uhm.. really? You are now a btc ripoff in every way BUT you have a shorter block time? Thats it? Kinda like EXE/VTC?
And it was
What makes Litecoin strong is it PoW preventing asics and its closeness to the good parts of Bitcoin with a few small but meaningful improvements like faster confirmations and discouragement of spam. Its developers are heavily involved in improving both Bitcoin and Litecoin as part of their professional careers.
That last line is meant to be sarcastic?
Good luck to the long-term longevity of forks. What forks? You mean to say you will one day actually incorporate new functionality and thus hardfork someday?
This was the 2nd post in the thread to provide (technical?) reasons not to change the PoW. Needless to say they give no technical reason as there isn't any.
The first post in the thread has a more touchy/feely aproach that is harder to comment on. I'm going to give it a shot though
But first i want to say once more; what makes a coin your coin is what you design into it (technical), how you treat your miners (block rewards, tx fees) and the idea behind it (asic proof/anonimity/joke/premine scam..) and the resulting community that 'likes' your coin.
The PoW is largely irrelevant to all this as a means to a goal. Changing the PoW is no big deal for the users/community as long as miners can still mine it after the change.
By not changing the PoW litecoin just fired all its miners!