Re: WTF is this? Someone found a trick for fast mining? (part II)
This comes from the thread:
WTF is this? Someone found a trick for fast mining?
That old thread from May 2015 was locked by moderation (why?)
In that thread it was observed statistical anomalies that to my understanding were signs of use of a faster mining algorithm.
The blocks in question were mined by Antpool.
I think, in view of recent events, it would be good to comment. I am curious to know if gmaxwell has changed his views.
It is worth quoting my post #75:
I withdrew any claim. So, stop repeating the same thing over and over. Already Mr gmaxwell rated me as a scammer (at the same level as other people having stolen bitcoins to others) and has tried to bullshit my expertise, which I think at this point says more about him than about me.
But I do believe and I will repeat that some unusual patterns do deserve attention, in particular when the numbers show that these events are extremely rare.
Without being paranoic it is conceivable that some people found a boost on the mining performance (it wouldn’t be the first time this happens), and they try to hide it for their own interest.
I fully agree that this possibility has to be treated with caution, but it cannot be ignored and we should be on the look up. If this appears to be the case at the end, some people in this forum will have collaborated concealing this fact. They will bear that responsibility.
On my side I would restrict my comments to statistical facts.
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That’s your opinion. Thank you. We all have one. Some of us even have arguments.
It is my opinion, it is a fact stated in the asicboost paper itself:
Through gate count reduction on the silicon AsicBoost improves two essential bitcoin mining cost metrics simultaneously and by a similar factor: the energy consumption (Joule per Gh) and the system cost ($ per Gh/s). With the system cost being proportional to the capital expenses of a bitcoin mine and the energy consumption being proportional to its operating expenses, AsicBoost reduces the total cost per bitcoin mined by approximately 20%.
Asicboost does not make existing GH/s somehow mine blocks faster without change the GH/s (in fact, it can’t even effect non-asicboost chips because it is partially a hardware optimization). It makes the cost per GH/s lower.
Can you explain why the old thread has been locked by moderation?
No, I can’t. I was not a moderator at that time. It was probably locked because the topic was beaten to death.
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No, I can’t. I was not a moderator at that time. It was probably locked because the topic was beaten to death.
Doesn’t seem to be a good reason, or valid in view of recent events.
Thank you for your opinion.
You got me curious. When you say recent events, what are you referring to? Have these patterns been observed again lately?
Certified Procrastinator. In the long run, everyone is dead.
You answer for me? That’s part of your moderation duties?
A healthy moderation should stay neutral and not participate in the discussions, nor lock threads.
Now that is a load of bullshit. You mean to say that moderators are not allowed to participate in discussion in which they are interested and have expertise in? Moderators are participants in this forum too, and were posters before they became moderators. I am posting as myself, not as a moderator, nor am I posting on behalf of the forum.
I think you have been the only one to mention “asicboost”. Do you have any statistical evidence for the possibility you claim?
Reverse engineering has found that the mining chips used in Bitmain’s Antminer S9’s and R4’s (and perhaps more, I don’t know off of the top of my head) contain the circuitry necessary for asicboost to work. It was also found that antpool and the publicly available firmware for the antminers contains the codepaths and api calls necessary for overt asicboost to work, and in fact people have managed to get their miners to use overt asicboost. See
You should watch your language and be respectful…at least when you use your moderator account.
Obviously anyone opinion is welcome, but better to keep one user account for moderation and another for your own opinions.
No. I only use one account for everything, both for my opinions and when I moderate. It is very clear when I speak as a moderator because the only time I do is when I moderate, and right now, I have not done any moderation action on this thread. Staff members using alt accounts is frowned upon.
I think you have been the only one to mention “asicboost”. Do you have any statistical evidence for the possibility you claim?
Reverse engineering has found that the mining chips used in Bitmain’s Antminer S9’s and R4’s (and perhaps more, I don’t know off of the top of my head) contain the circuitry necessary for asicboost to work. It was also found that antpool and the publicly available firmware for the antminers contains the codepaths and api calls necessary for overt asicboost to work, and in fact people have managed to get their miners to use overt asicboost. See
That’s not statistical evidence of blocks mined by that procedure.
The entire point of covert asicboost is that it is covert, you cannot detect it and there is no statistical evidence that it is being used. The only evidence you can have for it is to examine the software and hardware being used by the suspected party. So far, the hardware and publicly available firmware has been examined and confirmed to be capable of using covert asicboost. Greg has examined a private software and firmware and confirmed that those software came from Bitmain and that they had covert asicboost implemented. Regardless, there is proof that asicboost (covert and overt use the same hardware) is implemented in production hardware and the overt version can be made to work with production hardware and software. Whether Bitmain is using covert asicboost privately is unknown, but likely given the available evidence.
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