Xiaofei Bai (School of Computer Science, Fudan University), Jian Gao (School of Computer Science, Fudan University), Chenglong Hu (School of Computer Science, Fudan University), Liang Zhang (School of Computer Science, Fudan University)

Blockchain networks, especially cryptocurrencies, rely heavily on proof-of-work (PoW) systems, often as a basis to distribute rewards. These systems require solving specific puzzles, where Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) can be designed for performance or efficiency. Either way, ASICs surpass CPUs and GPUs by orders of magnitude, and may harm blockchain networks. Recently, Equihash is developed to resist ASIC solving with heavy memory usage. Although commercial ASIC solvers exist for its most popular parameter set, such solvers do not work under better ones, and are considered impossible under optimal parameters. In this paper, we inspect the ASIC resistance of Equihash by constructing a parameter-independent adversary solver design. We evaluate the product, and project at least 10x efficiency advantage for resourceful adversaries. We contribute to the security community in two ways: (1) by revealing the limitation of Equihash and raising awareness about its algorithmic factors, and (2) by demonstrating that security inspection is practical and useful on PoW systems, serving as a start point for future research and development.

View More Papers

Statistical Privacy for Streaming Traffic

Xiaokuan Zhang (The Ohio State University), Jihun Hamm (The Ohio State University), Michael K. Reiter (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Yinqian Zhang (The Ohio State University)

Read More

Coconut: Threshold Issuance Selective Disclosure Credentials with Applications to...

Alberto Sonnino (University College London (UCL)), Mustafa Al-Bassam (University College London (UCL)), Shehar Bano (University College London (UCL)), Sarah Meiklejohn (University College London (UCL)), George Danezis (University College London (UCL))

Read More

Send Hardest Problems My Way: Probabilistic Path Prioritization for...

Lei Zhao (Wuhan University), Yue Duan (University of California, Riverside), Heng Yin (University of California, Riverside), Jifeng Xuan (Wuhan University)

Read More

Please Forget Where I Was Last Summer: The Privacy...

Kostas Drakonakis (FORTH, Greece), Panagiotis Ilia (FORTH, Greece), Sotiris Ioannidis (FORTH, Greece), Jason Polakis (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA)

Read More