Bran Cohen, BitTorrent protocol’s creator gave his response to Vitalik Buterin’s opinion on the state of technology surrounding cryptocurrencies. Giving his remarks on Ethereum’s ASIC Resistant PoW. Also the CEO of Chia Network, Cohen highlighted in a Twitter thread his reason for considering Vitallik’s opinion on the matter as “wrong-headed.”
<h2>Sharding  not an only Option</h2>
Cohen began by shooting several stabs at Vitalik’s perspective on blockchain scalability and sharding. Earlier on the Ethereum co-founder had pointed out that completely sharded blockchains have not yet got into action; apart from the partially sharded Zilliqa blockchain, which just began running.

Cohen’s view was that sharding was not and isn't the only option for solving blockchain scalability. In fact, he seemed interested by payment channel networks, which according to him, are more appealing and could become a real thing” So he wrote: 
<blockquote>“What Ethereum's proposing for sharding further breaks this by essentially requiring miners to have all the shards, which is... not sharding, it's just further redefining 'full node' to mean less than it did before.”</blockquote>
<h2>ASIC-resistant Proof of Work</h2>
Ethereum’s ASIC resistant proof of Work algorithm Ethnash came into action early in 2015.Vitallik stated that the algorithm has proven considerable success to resist ASIC. Meanwhile, the Ethereum co-founder noted a growing <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardgendalbrown/2019/11/22/when-final-isnt-actually-final-cracking-blockchains-consensus-conundrum/#52d0e39d6040">consensus </a>of ASIC resistant algorithms having a limited lifespan. Which therefore raises the downsides of ASIC resistance as well as making 51% of attacks cheaper. 

However, Cohen’s remarks seem to side with Vitallik on this point. Nevertheless, he goes on to call ASIC resistant PoW  a pipe dream and a bad idea. Moreover, Cohen notes that it would be a far better idea to remain ASIC friendly; given that ASIC resistance only creates more centralization around manufacture, especially where it inevitably fails”

In July, Cohen’s San Francisco technology firm Chia Network released a paper describing an eco-friendly procedure of mining cryptocurrency.  The firm proposed farming instead of <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/crypto/are-miners-the-reason-for-latest-bitcoin-plummet-mining-cost-rises-to-8000/">mining</a> as a means of blockchain verification. Rather having Proof-of-Space and Proof-of-time instead of Proof-of-Work that are currently used in mining Bitcoin and Ethereum. The paper proposed: 
<blockquote>“Instead of using proofs of work, Chia alternates proofs of space with verifiable delay functions. This results in a chain than in many aspects is similar to Bitcoin, in particular, as in Bitcoin no synchronisation is needed and we can prove rigorous security guarantees assuming a sufficient fraction of the resource (space in Chia, computation in Bitcoin) is controlled by honest parties.”</blockquote>
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‘Dream and Bad Idea’ Says BitTorrent Creator about Vitallik’s ASIC Resistant PoW

BitTorrent protocol’s creator response to Vitalik Buterin’s view on state of technology surrounding crypto. Taking on Ethereum’s ASIC Resistant PoW

Richard is a versatile fintech analyst with a deep understanding of blockchain domains. As much as technology fascinates him, he finds the intersection of both technology and finance mind-blowing. The firm belief that fintech will drive the future has brought him to the crossroads of Fintech discoveries and transmission of immutable data to a wider audience.

‘Dream and Bad Idea’ Says BitTorrent Creator about Vitallik’s ASIC Resistant PoW

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