| eip | title | author | discussions-to | status | type | created |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2538 |
Position Statement Against the Activation of ProgPoW |
Justin Leroux (@MidnightOnMars) |
Draft |
Informational |
2020-02-25 |
This is a position paper signaling stakeholder dissent against the activation of EIP-1057 (ProgPoW).
This EIP is a signal to the community and core developers that a broad coalition of Ethereum stakeholders and experts are strongly against activation of Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1057: ProgPoW, a Programmatic Proof-of-Work.
Anyone who would like to add their name to this EIP to is encouraged to do so by signaling with known public accounts.
Because Ethereum is a global platform with a large and diverse group of stakeholders, it is critical that major changes to the protocol have a clear purpose and broad support. EIP-1057 clearly lacks that support, yet activation is still being considered.
EIP-1057 proposes to replace eth1’s proof-of-work algorithm, Ethhash, with ProgPoW. The stated purpose of this change is to disadvantage users of specialized mining equipment in the hope of avoiding a contentious fork due to ASICs blocking the transition to eth2. In reality, EIP-1057 has precipitated a community-dividing debate since its introduction in May 2018. A stated goal of ProgPoW is to avoid contentious forks while transitioning to proof-of-stake, yet it is at odds with its own aims if activation increases the likelihood of that undesired outcome.
Later this year, Ethereum will begin to transition away from proof-of-work consensus towards proof-of-stake via the eth2 beacon chain launch. Changing the eth1 hashing algorithm at this point in Ethereum’s evolution sows community division and introduces technical risk at a time when efforts and attention should be focused elsewhere.
Some stakeholders have suggested that ProgPoW offers no clear benefit to Ethereum’s transition to PoS and may centralize hashpower. There is no evidence that it will serve its intended purpose of better aligning miner incentives to disincentivize adversarial miner tactics. More important than these claims is the reality that EIP-1057 has failed to achieve consensus in the Ethereum community after two years of debate which has consumed a significant amount of developer attention and community bandwidth. Forcing through this contentious change would only widen current rifts, negatively impacting Ethereum and its community for years to come, all without any clear reason for doing so.
Therefore, we, the signatories of this EIP, do not support the inclusion of ProgPoW into any hard fork in the current circumstances.
Hayden Adams, Uniswap
Andrew (cyber_hokie), EthereumDC
Ryan Sean Adams
Antiprosynthesis
Sam Bacha, FreightTrust.com
Eva Beylin, The Graph
Anthony Bertolino
BlockchainUnchained, r/ETHFinance Moderator
Eric Conner, Gnosis / ETHHub
Mariano Conti
Tim Coulter, CEO Truffle Suite
Luis Cuende, Aragon Co-Founder
Mark D'Agostino, GridPlus
Damian "foobazzler" Durruty
Figo Finozeros
Alex Fisher, Michigan Ethereum Meetup Founder
Brendan Forster
Stefan George, CTO Gnosis
Harry Glynn, ZKEducation
Pedro Gomes, WalletConnect
George Hallam
David Hoffman
Aftab "DCInvestor" Hossain, MolochDAO
Andrew Keys, Co-Founder DARMA Capital
Marius Kjærstad
Martin Köppelmann, CEO Gnosis
Justin Leroux, GridPlus
Scott Lewis, DeFi Pulse
Matteo Leibowitz
Igor Lilic, ConsenSys
Matthew "HuntingIsland" Light, Manu DeFi
Matt Luongo, Thesis Co-Founder
Brian McMichael
Jeremiah Nichol, r/ETHFinance Moderator
Spencer Noon
Cem Özer, Protocol Engineer
JacobP (@jacoped), Ethereum Italia
LeonP (@LeonPedreti), Ethereum Italia
Andrew Redden, Groundhog
Anthony Sassano, Set / ETHHub
Chaz Schmidt, DeFi Pulse
Ameen Soleimani, Spankchain / MolochDAO
Santi Siri, Democracy Earth
Kain Warwick, Synthetix
Patricio Worthhalter, POAP
Braden Ackerman
Andrew Bakst, Bizantine Capital
Ryan Berckmans, creator of predictions.global
Justin Bons, Founder & CIO of Cyber Capital
Pedro Cruz (@pedrocrvz)
Jerome de Tychey, ConsensSys / ETHCC
Tilen Držan
Hasu, Independen Crypto Researcher
Joshua Johnson
Cole Kennelly (@ColeGotTweets)
Lasse Clausen, Founding Partner at 1kx
Matej Galvánek, sigil fund
Jonathan Joseph
Aaron Kruger, Moonshot Capital
Ana Jolsson, r/EthereumNoobies Moderator
Sam Lee (@xlog4n)
Paul Meier
Will Middleton, Block Formation LLC
Jordi Morris
Deniz Omer, Kyber Network
Denis Peterson
QChain (@QchainLLC)
Jimmy Ragosa, ConsenSys
Ignatius J. Reilly
Joshua Richardson, Bamboo Relay
Dennis Schlegel
Gabriel Shapiro
Bob Sumerwill, Executive Director, ETC Cooperative
Elliot Olds (Atstake)
0xNick.eth, owner at EthereumPrice.org
Anthony of AltcoinXP (@AltcoinXP)
Pedro C. (@curiosoacerca)
cryptovestor (@_cryptovestor)
Eto Demerzel (@Daneel_Olivaw_R)
The Gryphon (@thisisindeed)
ishare.eth (@ishareushare)
musa (@musatheredguard)
Pedro (@0x_Pedro)
Melchior (@melchior_b)
nooz81.eth (@nooz81)
Staking Gwei (@staking_gwei)
wolfofethereum.eth (@LUKACACIC)
zplit.eth (@zpl1t)
Always_Question
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Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.