I wonder how significant is the threat of FPGAs though since they are programmable.
There are always risks involved in any endeavor, most especially in the realm as complex as cryptocurrency development. But no risk, no reward/innovation.
Prices come and go. It's market-driven and still very speculative at this point in time. If the HF affects it at all, it'll be temporary as always. In fact, if the HF will be successful, it'll only excite the speculators. But such is for another thread.
FPGA's are far slower than Asics so there really ins't any worry there as far as I know. I think the only viable one is a Intel one that the ROI is so far away it isn't funny, it costs like 16 grand. I'm sure someone more familiar with the latest can give you better numbers.
Just dropping by to say this update to xmrstak supports the upcoming fork automatically, and it works well!
I thought it was slower than the current?
I believe PoW modify will become the paradigm within the crypto area after Monero's fork.
You just plagiarized me. I already stated exactly the same thing a few posts above.
Sometimes you will see the same sentiment posted because people usually answer as they read, I'm guilty of that but don't feel like going back and editing a post I spent 15 minutes writing.
I think you're right about this part of the scenario. I highly doubt ASIC producers would further risk production costs for one-off algo changes.
I don't think it changes the model.
ASICS is about front running and making it in a certain time frame. Before everyone catches up and return drops.
ROI must be calculated.
In a way killing all competition leaves a sweet opportunity for someone brave, if they can make enough hay while the sun is shining? they will be happy
Then that brave someone would be a fool blinded by extreme greed. He/she is gonna lose big time in such a gamble. Reportedly, it takes at least 5 months to design, tape out and deliver ASIC chips; and the devs already declared that PoW will be modified at every scheduled 6-months fork thereafter (the deterrent).
This is assuming alot, for instance that you are starting from scratch. Lets not forget they could have been modifying their design since the moment the new algo was available.
If or when a asic company does produce a asic miner, they will be the first to mine with it before dumping the used hardware it onto unsuspecting or greedy buyers. ...
True, not reaching ROI before announce public sale would be the pinnacle of bad business and they are not in that realm. We can be assured they have profited from this, the algo should have been ready to go and pushed out as soon as the large spike in January hit. Actually I argued this years ago to have this ready for this day. Some people are just not able to see the future or think they have all the time in the world. Specifically I was arguing for this to be ready when it was known Quantum systems were on the horizon.
This was in no way shape or form a surprise.