Bitmain announces Antminer X3, ASIC miners for Monero
We are pleased to announce the all-new Antminer X3, to mine cryptocurrencies based on the CryptoNight hashing algorithm.
— BITMAIN (@BITMAINtech) March 15, 2018
Two batches: shipping in June (https://t.co/VeidZrreK2) and shipping in May (https://t.co/RKtJe6Rm8D)
To prevent hoarding and to enable.... (1/2) pic.twitter.com/PBKdXrwg9b
Monero lead developer responses with a reminder of the PoW hard-fork
— Riccardo Spagni (@fluffypony) March 15, 2018
Why would Bitmain knowingly release ASIC miners for a network that is likely to fork away from its current Proof-of-Work algorithm, thus rendering the machines obsolete? Since most of other CryptoNight-based networks are much smaller.
Some speculations below:
These will be bricked after the $XMR hard fork with small PoW change in 13 days, so with them shipping them in May/June... Good luck, you won't be able to use them for Monero. pic.twitter.com/gCpD7UQPhs
— WhalePanda (@WhalePanda) March 15, 2018
WhalePanda's blog can be found here
I bet most Bitmain customers don’t realize that Monero is changing its PoW algorithm. But Bitmain does not care whatsoever if its customers get screwed over. https://t.co/mld5pmVtJs
— Zach Herbert (@zachherbert) March 15, 2018
In January, Bitmain announced its Sia ASIC miner. Official response from Sia team can be found here. An in-depth interview with David of Sia and James of Vertcoin on ASIC resistance can be found here.
Commentary from Nic of Fidelity
Bitmain is selling Cryptonight ASICs. Lots to digest
— Nic Carter (@nic__carter) March 15, 2018
- If the Monero HF works, these will be bricks. Other cryptonight coins won't deliver ROI
- Bitmain knows, and is branding them 'cryptonight' and not 'Monero' ASICs (like they did with Blake2b)
- Bitmain called Monero's bluff
Monero RingCT: 17% improvement in Borromean signature verification. Github
An introduction to the technologies used in Monero:
"The idea behind ring signature is the same as the mixing technique introduced in Part I. The larger the ring size is, the greater the anonymity set is. This 1-of-N input model is passive, meaning the user does not need to connect with the creators of the foreign transactions to form the ring. Monero enforces a minimum ring size to guarantee untraceability."
Liquid release candidate network is ready to go
(Blockstream, by Allen Piscitello)
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ on sale now at $35
"A 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU
Dual-band 802.11ac wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2
Faster Ethernet (Gigabit Ethernet over USB 2.0)
Power-over-Ethernet support (with separate PoE HAT)
Improved PXE network and USB mass-storage booting
Improved thermal management"
Zealots of the blockchain
(The Baffler, by David Golumbia)
"The economic framework on which cryptocurrencies depend emerges from right-wing and often anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about the nature of central banking."
"In the analog world of our parents, it was taken for completely granted that the government would not be watching us in our own homes. It’s so important an idea, it’s written into the very constitutions of states pretty much all around the world."
Robots are shifting income from workers to owners
(Axios, by Steve LeVine)
"The chronology: Blue-collar misery goes back to the 1980s, when such workers began to suffer job, wage and benefit cuts, Autor said. But in the late 1990s or early 2000s, they were hit by a new phenomenon: the divvying up of the total economic pie — steady for decades — suddenly changed, and labor's share dropped, according to a new paper by Autor and co-author Anna Salomons."
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