Here is the EQUIHASH ASIC. Maybe why Zookos didnt answer my question about ASIC and ZEC?

I am laughing so hard about this right now. Just a month ago I am asking, directly to @zooko if he has had any dealings with ASIC manufacturers or been contacted by them.

Now this is announced.

@Zooko needs to answer this question entirely.

Did you have or have you had any contact with Bitmain or any other ASIC manufacturer, any of Bitmain or other ASIC manufacturers subsidiaries or agents regarding strategy, implementation, timing, pricing, acceptance of any hardware based ASIC mining equipment?

BTW if you are an Nvidia card based miner, this ASIC is gonna kill you. 10K/sols @ 300 watts. Whewwww

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price will shoot up before release date … most of nvidia miners ( like me ) have a nice stash of a lot of equihash coins…

So if there isn’t gonna be a solution from the dev’s ( like monero did ) …we are dumping like hell …

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@daira may be able to give a somewhat more exact answer to Yes or No on if a fork will happen. @Zooko has from what I read, has no concerns about ASIC. He is clearly doesn’t possess the clarity that one would hope for in a leader. Dithering seems to encompass what I have read from him to date on the topic.

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at least bitcoin gold is going to hardfork when that shitty asic comes out…

https://twitter.com/bitcoingold

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This is BS!!!

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Yes, when the discussion came up a month ago, I realized ZCash doesn’t value the “long tail” of the mining community or understand the critical role mining has historically played in adoption. Would it rather have 100 enthusiasts with a few GPUs or rigs mining ZEC, or 1 or 2 farms whose interest is limited to “whatever’s most profitable.” The basic misunderstanding or misestimation of miner support will continue to keep ZEC under-performing relative to the other top mineable cryptos, as we’ve seen over the last 12 months.

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I have zero proof of this, pure speculation, but:

@Zooko not giving us a clear statement on this issue is 100x worse than him just straight-up endorsing ASICs. While I and I think quite a few small miners and users would obviously dump ZCash if he endorsed ASICs, at least others would probably stick with the coin (why you’d trust a “privacy coin” controlled by Shitmain is beyond me, but w/e).

However, with no clear statement either way, most of those people probably won’t buy the ASIC just in case ZCash sticks with decentralization AKA GPU mining. Only people with inside information as to the leadership’s decision would know whether or not to get ASICs. That creates horrible incentives and could destroy coins.

All Zookos has to do is give a clear statement one way or the other. While I’m no expert, we could probably easily achieve ASIC resistance just by tweaking Equihash parameters enough to confound the Z9. It wasn’t hard for Monero, Sumokoin, etc. to release their modified PoWs.

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this is a big enough deal for them to take their time, and evaluate. i’m glad they’re not in here posting emotional/incomplete thoughts.

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He’s not going to give a “clear statement” because there’s no clear direction. They’re stepping back with a “wait and see” or “stay out of this for now” approach. ASICs will come in, and GPU miners will leave (as probability adjusts). The ZEC fans that can’t afford ASICs (nearly everyone who doesn’t have a small basement or garage “farm”) will redirect their support toward other blockchains.

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If the ZEC team doesn’t have any answer for the ASIC intrusion in to the Equihash mining community then I’ll be selling everything I have and moving to another currency. It’s really that simple.

Either you support small, independent, miners or you don’t. Either you are for decentralization or you aren’t. This isn’t a wishy washy question. It’s black and white. Either you prevent ASICs from taking over your network, or you allow it. And if you allow it, you deal with the repercussions.

As for me, I’ll be selling all my ZEC just before the dump.

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The debate has been going on heavy for a month. That they have not given an answer is unacceptable and a clear lack of leadership and direction.

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a month of debate isn’t much, imo. i’m anti-ASIC, but can still make pro-ASIC arguments.
side note - for what z9 offers price point is on point.

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I’m anti-asic, but the economics of it force me to buy one. If there’s one left when I get home tonight.

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FORK! I didn’t spend $10,000 in gpus and equipment and then not pool hop around to be screwed over by asics and see Zcash become centralized in the hands of a few. Speaking of decentralized, where is the search for consensus in all of this? Or, is it all up to Z man?

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That is pretty much how it will play out. Then then story will be, well we can’t fork it off, there isn’t enough hash power left to support the network without them now. A decision needs to be made “now”. Enough of the speculation, it’s a fact now, it does exist. Either endorse it, or forsake it. If your going to forsake ASICs, then you need to be planning a hard fork and what that will entail because your going to need to bring the maintainers of all the mining software(s) into it so they can make adjustments as well.

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The issue is that you can only buy 1, unless you have a bulk quantity order. Then you can order XXXX.

That is centralization, but worse then anything that is feeding bitmain. They sell their prior unit, as they bring the next unit online. This announcement means that they have started bringing that newer unit online. They very well could be at 51% already.

Do you know the consensus problem with bitcoin? Its owned, controlled and voted on by a few major players. They decide on everything. That is what zec is about to face. Somehow the mgmt here doesnt seem to get that/they dont care.

This is why they need to answer this question:

Did you have or have you had any contact with Bitmain or any other ASIC manufacturer, any of Bitmain or other ASIC manufacturers subsidiaries or agents regarding strategy, implementation, timing, pricing, acceptance of any hardware based ASIC mining equipment?

This is not being pushy. This is preliminary discovery. We need the answer to this. If you keep apprised of US government activities relating to the cryptocurrency sphere, the reason this question is important is obvious.

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That is a very good point indeed

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parameter adjustments to the memory requirements are most likely all that is needed.

True, but will that require a small change to mining software?? I don’t know, do you?

To go “big blocks” with other algos has not, but it does require a fork I believe.