Will Ethereum Adopt 'ProgPoW,' the ASIC-Resistant Mining Algorithm?

After Ethereum core developers expressed broad support in January for ProgPoW-an ASIC resistant upgrade to the Ethereum network-the Ethereum community raised concerns that the highly anticipated patch may cause the same problem it was intended to solve.

The change is meant to substantially improve the odds for GPU miners over ASIC miners.

ASIC is short for "Application specific integrated circuit." In the context of Ethereum, it's a highly specialized computer designed to be mass produced for the sole purpose of mining Ethereum.

The original Ethereum white paper called attention to the proliferation of ASICs in Bitcoin mining.

ASICs built for Ethereum have anywhere from a two to four-fold advantage over GPU miners.

Multiple Ethereum ASICs hit the market last year with the Antminer E3 from mining hardware giant Bitmain at the high end of the performance scale.

The ProgPoW update is engineered specifically to slightly alter the problem that miners are asked to solve in a way that will reduce or eliminate the advantage ASICs have over GPU miners.

The Ethereum community generally agrees in ASIC resistance, believing that GPU mining leads to a more distributed network and that the more distributed the network is, the better.

While the mass manufacturing of ASIC miners provides a cost-saving advantage per hash, these miners are generally purchased in large quantities for mass-scale mining operations that consolidate ownership of the network.

Others have been quick to follow up with claims that the patch isn't really needed to begin with and have questioned the wisdom of altering the mining algorithm if the intention is to move to a Proof of Stake alternative soon.