Ethash Algorithm: Features and Working Principle на сайте Nedvio

Ethash is the proof-of-work algorithm used by the Ethereum blockchain to facilitate decentralized mining and secure the network. Let’s examine how Ethash functions under the hood to make mining fair and efficient for cryptocurrencies.

Overview of Ethash

The Ethash algorithm was developed by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum development team. It was designed to meet certain goals, including:

1. Resistance to ASIC miners and centralization.
2. Efficient verification of proof-of-work.
3. Light client support and fast syncing.
4. Fast block times to support scalability.

By requiring large memory usage, Ethash makes optimization difficult for ASICs and favors more decentralized GPU mining.

Technical Details of Ethash

Ethash uses a hash function called Keccak-256 and relies heavily on a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) data structure. Here are some key technical details:

• The DAG has minimum size 1GB and grows over time.
• DAG is generated by hashing random slices of prior blocks.
• Miners hash slices of the DAG and mix with block metadata.
• Final output hashed repeatedly to find solution below target difficulty.
• Verification only requires hashing mix once, not brute forcing like Bitcoin.

The ever-growing DAG ensures mining requires plenty of fast memory access. This inhibits ASIC specialization.

How Mining Works in Ethash

Ethash mining involves using processing power plus large memory to compute hashes in pursuit of valid blocks. Here’s an overview of the workflow:

1. DAG generated in storage by hashing random slices of prior blocks.
2. Miner loads latest DAG into memory.
3. Miner hashes random DAG slices plus block header and nonce.
4. Result hashed repeatedly in pursuit of valid block hash.
5. Once valid solution found, miner broadcasts block.
6. Peersverify by hashing once with header and nonce.

As the DAG grows over time, mining becomes harder and hardware requirements increase.

Key Attributes and Benefits

Some of the key benefits and features of the Ethash algorithm include:

1. Resistant to ASICs and mining centralization.
2. Light client friendly due to fast verification.
3. Enables fast block times for scalability.
4. Built-in difficulty bomb for transitioning to PoS.
5. Well-optimized for GPU-based mining setups.
6. Relatively simple and clean algorithm design.

Together, these attributes make Ethash a great fit for the goals and principles of the Ethereum ecosystem.

Uses of Ethash

The most prominent use of Ethash is securing the Ethereum blockchain, including the ETH cryptocurrency and smart contract transactions.

Other major projects also using Ethash for mining include:

• Ethereum Classic (ETC).
• Expanse (EXP).
• Musicoin (MUSIC).
• Ubiq (UBQ).

Additionally, Ethash continues to be popular for new Ethereum Virtual Machine-based blockchains looking to launch with ASIC resistance.

Conclusion

Thanks to its innovative use of directed acyclic graphs, Ethash has proven an effective and adaptable proof-of-work algorithm for Ethereum and projects wanting GPU-friendly mining. It strikes a unique balance between light client support, fast block times, and ASIC resistance. Going forward, Ethereum plans to transition to proof-of-stake, but Ethash will leave a lasting impact on PoW algorithm design.