Relationship between Bitmain patent and AsicBoost

[freetrader]

@Jihan :

Is there any relationship between Bitmain's patent [1], to which you seem to be a co-inventor, and the AsicBoost patent (pending?) claimed by asicboost.com [2] ?

Would you say that your invention is different in nature?

And what do you make of Core's suggestion [3] to change the Bitcoin protocol to prevent such optimizations from working?

谢谢你讨论这个问题
Thank you for discussing this issue.

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[1] "Optimizing method, device and circuit for Hash computing chip of bitcoin proof of work"
Application Number 201510520251 Application Date 2015.08.21
Publication Number 105245327A Publication Date 2016.01.13

http://211.157.104.77:8080/sipo_EN/search/detail.do?method=view&parm=16b414c21a2f19d11b2c18401bcd1a5f183a19561ad91be11a501c4805792c231f5421b222572195236c20482755275723ca24be2221222525702494250d26c0274025822c3f29092a7c29a02d6d2d6f28fa2ed62bd12c892f482c34330947932f5c2c0a2ac731b9333c316c366534e7318235ee337934f1360837f03747371b371a34e231bf38f13b04390c3e0d3f6f39ea3dc63c573d6d3e683e4c26d918c33ffe3c523c273e354334405c47c545774302408e4423458d47b04688462b46a846c246aa436f47554bcc49784a2d

Archive link: http://archive.is/Fe6vN

Google link: https://www.google.com/patents/CN105245327A?cl=en

[2] http://www.asicboost.com/#!patent/c136u
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.00575.pdf

[3] https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2016-May/012652.html

 

[cypherdoc]

Great questions. I'll be looking forward to @Jihan's answer too.

 

[freetrader]

James Hilliard says:

I was told that the patent appears to be owned exclusively by Bitmain in China https://www.google.com/patents/CN105245327A?cl=en

This was talking about AsicBoost, but appears to be second-hand information.

Matt Corallo says:

All current major ASIC manufacturers have made warrants that they are not using AsicBoost (with the exception of the 21 Inc Bitcoin computer).

It's difficult to ascertain the truth, since the AsicBoost patent looks like it is only in application stage (could not find it - and Timo Hanke said in an interview that it was applied for in 2013 but didn't mention where, or that it was granted yet).

Mark Friedenbach says:

AsicBoost was independently discovered by Spondoolies and BitMain, and has already been deployed in an large but unknown percentage of the hash rate.

 

[freetrader]

https://np.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/4qqgdt/antminer_s9_are_equipped_with_asicboost/

 

[freetrader]

The saga goes on : "BIP proposal: Inhibiting a covert attack on the Bitcoin POW function"

https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-April/013996.html

To summarize a couple of thoughts from discussions on the Slack:

• how is AsicBoost supposed to be an attack or a vulnerability?
• can the impacts of SegWit or other schemes which reduce mining hardware efficiency by rendering AsicBoost ineffective already be quantified?
• will this lead to a possible reduction in hashpower and thereby affect Bitcoin security?
• what is the incentive for miners using such equipment to run software which reduces their relative mining efficiency?

What I find interesting is a 9 month delay between the original discussion and the release of this draft BIP by Blockstream CTO Maxwell.