Ethereum Developers Delayed ASIC-Resistant PoW Algorithm Implementation For Code Audit

Ethereum Developers have decided to hold off to implement Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)-resistant proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm that would suppress the advantage of high-powered ASIC miners competing for the network’s rewards until the algorithm is audited by a third party.

Hudson Jameson, the core developer Ethereum (ETH) declared among other notable developers like Lane Rettig, Afri Schodedon, Martin Holst Swende, Danno Ferrin and Greg Colvin that:
“there is a group forming or multiple groups forming to perform an independent audit on ProgPoW.”
And hence, the tentative decision was made to postpone the ProgPow upgrade in favor of conducting third-party audits. According to him, “the audit is an attempt to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm in leveling the playing field for different kinds of hardware used to mine crypto, including GPUs, Field-Programmable Gate Arrays and ASICs.”

These third-party audits will verify that the implementation of the algorithm will decrease ASIC efficiency in order to make them less competitive that GPUs (which is a consumer-friendly as well as cheaper mining technology). He also ensured that the developers will get enough confidence to make a decision once the result of this audit will roll out. In communication with Ethereum Foundation officer, Jameson said a third-party audit will likely answer many questions the community still has about the update.

“If we can get to a point where we say, ‘This will work and here’s why it will work,’ that would help a lot.” “If we find no [issues] … that should give us enough confidence that the decision should be made for us.” He later added.
While there is no such timeline defined for this audit to be concluded, still Jameson expects it to be completed in March or early April 2019. Ferrin, the software engineer said that the audits will conclude providing more data about the impact of the update on the Ethereum than is available at present. On the other hand, Colvin gave a greater clarity on the decision implementation and said:
“I would happily decide today, but I’m not the expert. I’m happy to wait for the audit but I’m not happy to make this decision in May or something. An awful lot of people would like to know so they can get on with their business. ‘Am I going to spend $1,000 to buy a rack of CPUs or not?’”

Therefore every ETH developer agreed to wait for the audit to be completed and gather more input from the result. Then will decide when to implement ProgPow upgrade.
Jameson also said that “We still haven’t explored all the possibilities about exploring community feedback.” and thus the group talked about collecting feedback from the community regarding ProgPoW implementation focussing on miner signaling. For more updates in Ethereum, Please check ethereumnews.io.