Ethereum hard fork may foil ASIC launch and keep GPU prices high

Hopes of lower GPU prices may be dashed as the upcoming launch of Bitmain's Ethereum ASICs is facing a major stumbling block. The Ethereum White Paper itself talks about resistance to mining centralization, so it's no big surprise that Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin is now talking about introducing a hard fork to limit the performance of Ethereum ASICs:

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin explains that the second defence for Ethereum from ASICs is to "poison the well", which is "ultimately an adaptive human solution rather than a technical one". This would see the ASICs more commonly used, conventional miners can then introduce "a large number of contracts into the Blockchain specifically designed to stymie certain ASICs".

Effectively bricking Ethereum ASIC miners. In a recent poll that Ethereu mdeveloper Vlad Zamfir posted on Twitter asking if his followers would "support a hard fork that obsoletes ETH ASICs?" with 57% supporting the ETH hard fork.

The controversial move would be bad news for gamers. Analysts believed the arrival of Ethereum ASICs would lower demand for GPUs, which could bring back balance to the market.

Via: TweakTown