Scrypt Mining with ASICs

TL;DR

This paper discusses the use of ASICs for Scrypt mining in cryptocurrencies, highlighting the challenges and implications of memory-intensive algorithms on hardware development and security.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of ASICs designed for Scrypt mining, emphasizing the impact on mining decentralization and hardware optimization.

Findings

ASICs can significantly accelerate Scrypt mining processes.

Memory-intensive nature of Scrypt complicates ASIC design.

Potential centralization risks due to specialized hardware development.

Abstract

Cryptocurrencies have garnered a lot of attention by governments and internet enthusiasts over the past three years. These currencies are celebrated for their security and speedy transactions in a modern era of digital commerce. Bitcoin was the first of these currencies to gain a large advantage over subsequent iterations. Bitcoin was first conceived by Satoshi Nakamoto who mentioned the concept of a cryptocurrency in his paper titled Bitcoin. It featured new concepts such as proof of work and transactions which utilized hash based encryption. One particular alternative cryptocurrency is known as Litecoin. Backed by a memory intensive algorithm known as Scrypt, many cryptocurrency enthusiasts have decided to celebrate this particular coin. Scrypt expands on Bitcoin's proof of work algorithm by adding the amount of work it takes to commit a transaction within the Litecoin network. Scrypt forces more work on the device that is being used to perform the algorithm by making frequent memory requests. This makes it difficult to create specialized hardware to create new coins and to commit transactions due to the nature of memory intensive applications.