Can public cryptocurrencies stay public?
可以在公共cryptocurrencies公众？
That’s the simple question that lies at the heart of a complex debate happening across major cryptocurrencies, where developers from projects as diverse as ethereum, monero and zcash are up in arms over what to do about the arrival of a new form of hardware that could upend the delicate balance of their distributed communities.
这是发生在大 cryptocurrencies复杂争论的核心问题简单的问题，在开发商莫内罗以太坊等不同的项目，并zcash竭力反对怎么办一个新的硬件，会颠覆他们的分布式社区的微妙平衡的形式到来。
Designed specifically to enable operators to earn a greater share of their networks’ rewards, “application specific integrated circuits,” or ASICs, have emerged to mine a handful of cryptocurrencies that were previously only able to be secured by those using GPU hardware.
专门设计，使运营商获得更大的回报他们的网络共享， “专用集成电路ASIC的出现，或者，我的几个cryptocurrencies以前只能由那些使用GPU硬件担保。
At stake, however, is the very access and openness of the protocols themselves.
然而，关键在于协议本身的访问性和开放性。
Stepping back, it’s important to unpack just what occurs during the “mining process,” a somewhat complex phrase that denotes the practice by which anyone can theoretically devote spare computer hardware toward running and securing blockchain networks.
退一步，把“挖掘过程中到底发生了什么是很重要的，”一个复杂的短语，指的是实践，理论上任何人都可以把空闲的计算机硬件对运行和保障blockchain网络。
Ethereum, monero and zcash can all be mined today with GPU hardware, graphics cards sold at major computing stores and that are available for only a few hundred dollars. More expensive ASICs, however, are specifically designed for an optimized mining process, and that’s at the heart of some of the complaints against the arrival of this new slew of products.
zcash莫内罗和伊斯利恩，今天都可以挖掘GPU的硬件，显卡主要计算商店出售，可只有几百元。更昂贵的ASIC设计，然而，是专为一个优化的挖掘过程，这是 在一些对这个新系列产品的投诉到达心脏。
That’s because, as bitcoin has proven in the past, GPUs won’t be able to co-exist with ASICs, as their arrival is likely to push the hashrate to a level where other types of miners will become unprofitable.
这是因为，作为比特币在过去已经证明，GPU无法共存的ASIC设计，为他们的到来也可能将算力达到一个水平，其他矿工将变得无利可图。
And the threat and opportunity that lies ahead is now splitting cryptocurrency users, many of whom may have invested previously in products that are now effectively obsolete.
和威胁和机会摆在面前的是现在很多人分裂cryptocurrency用户，可能投资以前，现在有效的淘汰产品。
A miner going by the handle “fpbitmine,” for example, went so far as to accuse zcash creator Zooko Wilcox of not doing enough to support those who have invested in helping the network gain value.
去的处理”fpbitmine矿工，“例如，竟然指责zcash创作者Zooko Wilcox不足以支持那些投资于帮助网络增益值。
“You are biting the hand that feeds you,” the miner wrote on a zcash forum, adding:
“你咬了喂你的手，“矿工在zcash论坛写道，加入：
“ASIC mining acceptance would mean that every single miner that has supported the zcash network will be displaced and forced to either switch coins or invest in new hardware.”
“ASIC挖掘接受就意味着每一个矿工，支持zcash网络将流离失所，被迫开关硬币或投资新的硬件。”
The back and forth
来回
As such, many miners are threatening to take their hardware elsewhere or else create alternate versions of the cryptocurrencies they’re already mining, something they can freely do by cloning the codebase.
因此，许多矿工正在威胁着他们的硬件的地方 或者创造他们已经开采cryptocurrencies替换版本，让他们可以自由地做克隆代码。
Last week, privacy-centric cryptocurrency monero executed a hard fork, a system-wide software upgrade, to remove the ability for ASICs to be used on the network. But in turn, three groups hard forked to create their own versions – monero classic, monero original and monero zero. (Each new software is compatible with and open to ASIC miners.)
cryptocurrency莫内罗上周，隐私为中心 执行硬叉，全系统的软件升级，以消除ASIC用于网络的能力。但反过来，三组硬叉到 莫内罗创造自己莫内罗版本-莫内罗零原创经典。（每个新软件与ASIC矿工兼容并开放）。
The divergent ideas about whether ASICs are beneficial for, or a threat to, monero mirror the opinions of other cryptocurrency communities as well.
对于ASIC有利于发散的思路莫内罗，或威胁，镜子其他cryptocurrency社区意见以及。
For instance, ethereum developers have spoken out against an emergency hard fork in response to ASICs, with its creator Vitalik Buterin even calling for a “no action” on the issue. Still, in response, one ethereum miner called Buterin’s standpoint a “slap in the face.”
例如，伊斯利恩开发商都反对针对ASIC的急救硬叉，其创始人Vitalik Buterin甚至呼吁 ”问题上不采取行动”。不过，对此，一个叫Buterin的立场伊斯利恩矿工 “耳光”。
He wrote:
他写的：
“Everyone that thinks they can possibly convince people that the community is against a hard fork to prevent ASICs are sadly mistaken.”
“每个人都认为他们能说服人们，社区是对硬叉防止ASIC是可悲的错误。”
Echoing that sentiment, the vertcoin Twitter handle tweeted how it believes action is needed.
与这种情绪相呼应，这vertcoin推特啾啾如何处理它认为必要的行动。
“We are sad to see news of possible ASICs being created for ethereum. We believe that it is time to take a stand against monopolised mining,” it said.
“我们悲哀的看到可能的ASIC建立了伊斯利恩新闻。我们相信，现在是时候采取反垄断的采矿站，”它说。
And the same head-butting is happening in the zcash community.
与同一头撞在zcash社区发生。
While a zcash miner warned on a forum that “there are consequences” for a crypto that fails to keep out ASICs, zcash founder Zooko Wilcox told CoinDesk that he believes forking away from ASICs “could even do more harm than good.”
而zcash矿工 警告在一个论坛，“有后果”的一个密码不能保持了ASIC，zcash创始人Zooko Wilcox告诉CoinDesk，他认为分叉远离ASIC“甚至可能弊大于利。”
Adding to that, IC3 researcher Phil Daian has said that anti-ASIC efforts are akin to censorship, and others have argued that such efforts increase the power of the core developer team.
此外，美国研究员Phil Daian说，抗ASIC努力类似的审查，和其他人认为，这种努力的核心开发团队的力量。
But all these complaints to the anti-ASIC sentiment seem to be on the minority side of the debate.
但所有对反ASIC情绪的抱怨似乎都属于辩论的少数派。
As a way to measure sentiment, several twitter polls were conducted [1, 2, 3] that show a majority leaning toward anti-ASIC hard forks, a procedure that would require editing a crypto’s underlying algorithm.
作为一种方法来衡量情绪，几 推特民调进行[ 1, 2, 3 ]，显示大多数人倾向于反ASIC硬叉，一个过程，需要编辑一个加密的基本算法。
Do what you want
做你想做的
Yet, those on the other side of the debate aren’t particularly fired up; instead, their comments feel like a kind of “good riddance.”
然而，这些争论的不是对方不特别了；相反，他们的意见，感觉像是一种“解脱”。
For instance, speaking to CoinDesk, Rob Stumpf, the moderator of EtherMining, the ethereum mining subreddit, said, “If a developer believes that he or she can improve upon [ethereum] and wishes to start their own fork, they can do just that.”
例如，对Rob Stumpf来说，Coindesk，主持人ethermining，虚灵议会挖掘subreddit，说，“如果开发商认为他或她可以改善[伊斯利恩]和希望开始自己的叉子，他们可以这样做。”
And monero core developer “rehrar” said during a recent call that there were “no hard feelings” toward divergent monero groups.
和莫内罗核心开发者”rehrar说：”最近的一个电话中，有“莫内罗没有硬的感觉”对不同群体。
“It’s a mental shift for people, that they’re not used to yet, that the power is in their hands to have the discussions that they want to have,” rehrar said.
“这是人们心理的转变，他们不习惯呢，这个力量是掌握在他们的手中有他们想要的讨论，”rehrar说。
One discussion that this chaos has brought back to the forefront is ethereum’s interest in scrapping mining by moving from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Buterin told developers at a recent meeting that ASICs would be flushed out with the upgrade so there isn’t much to worry about (although there still isn’t a date nailed down for that change).
这一讨论混沌带回来已是从工作证明证明桩报废伊斯利恩的兴趣挖掘。Buterin在最近的一次会议上告诉开发者，ASICS将通红的升级没有太多的担心（虽然还不是一个日期在改变）。
Speaking to ethereum developer’s interest in eliminating mining, Stumpf said, “Mining was always doomed from the start; it is just a ticking difficulty bomb waiting to explode.”
为了消除伊斯利恩开发商的挖掘，斯顿夫说，“挖掘兴趣来说，总是从一开始就注定失败；它只是一个滴答作响的困难炸弹。”
And Wilcox echoed this, telling CoinDesk:
威尔考克斯对此表示，告诉CoinDesk：
“Maybe instead we should work on some other solution, such as switching to proof-of-stake, or getting major hardware companies like Nvidia and Huawei to sell hardware miners to anyone.”
“也许我们应该做一些其他的解决方案，比如切换到股权证明，或者让像Nvidia和华为这样的大硬件公司向任何人出售硬件矿工。”
Pseudonymous Monero Research Lab developer Sarang Noether even seemed to think the dip by between 70 percent and 80 percent in hash rate that occurred after the hard fork, was proof that ASICs were secretly being used on the network. And then they were gone.
莫内罗研究实验室开发的假名Sarang Noether甚至认为下降了70%和80%之间的哈希率硬叉后发生，证明了ASIC的秘密在网络上使用。然后他们就走了。
Monero developer “hyc” told CoinDesk:
莫内罗开发商 “目录”告诉CoinDesk：
“The community is, as always, mixed. Most seem to recognize that the dev team has simply carried out its commitment to egalitarian mining.”
“社区是一如既往的混合。大多数人似乎认识到，开发团队仅仅是致力于平等开采。
Cracks in screen image via Shutterstock
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