What is coming will come, Ethereum ProgPoW mining algorithm change is considered to be included in the Istanbul hard fork upgrade

ISTANBUL — The code to be implemented in ethereum’s next system-wide upgrade may include a controversial mining algorithm that would allow a wider range of miners to participate in the network.

At a meeting of Ethereum project managers on Tuesday, participants had a lengthy discussion about Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP 1057, also known as ProgPoW, which some argue will limit the dominance of large miners in the $655 million annual market for new ETH issuance, while others argue that Ethereum doesn’t do enough to ensure fair access.

Now, with the recent Ethereum hard forks (Constantinople and St. Petersburg) successfully activated at the end of February, the discussion about ProgPoW seems to have returned to a climax. As Tim Beiko suggested in a conference call on Tuesday, ProgPoW will be an official agenda item for discussion by core developers in this Friday’s conference call.

Attendees at Tuesday’s gathering said they plan to push for inclusion of EIP 10557 in the next upgrade if two third-party auditors find no technical reasons for a delay.

Beiko said:

“In the worst case, if there are huge red flags in the audit, we can pull out of this EIP before Istanbul is implemented, but assuming everything goes well and we’ve done the work… the audit is just post-hoc verification.”

Ethereum developer Lane Retting encouraged the proposal to be brought to the attention of ethereum core developers, estimating that the final EIP approval deadline for all Istanbul code changes will be sometime in mid-May.

“These will all be presented at the next full core dev call.”

Two-Part Audit

However, as the call showed, the audit is intended to solidify the measurable benefits of the mining algorithm change, and its results remain to be seen.

Hudson Jameson, community relations manager at the Ethereum Foundation, wrote in the developer chat room:

“As far as the audit is concerned, there are two components: benchmarking and checking the timing/efficiency of the ProgPoW ASIC.”

Jameson explained that such an audit would help “ensure that implementing ProgPoW is worthwhile, or if ASICs can be manufactured super quickly (like in less than 9 months) and the speed will increase.”

The comments acknowledged criticism of ProgPoW from investors including Dovey Wan and Martina Long, who argued that the growing number of ASICs in the Ethereum blockchain is “largely a non-issue for Ethereum,” especially given Ethereum’s plans to move to a new consensus protocol, PoS.

Other community members see the continued scrutiny of ProgPoW as a way to slow down the network and push back on issues that have already been agreed upon.

In an Ethereum Magicians forum responding to ProgPoW censorship, user “Anlan” warned:

“The whole point of [Ethereum’s] ProgPoW was to slow down the ASIC wave and prepare a more level playing field for all mining equipment. All [these] delays only give ASIC manufacturers room to fight back, giving them time to prepare for a contentious hard fork.”