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<H1>[ZcF-general] Grant project update - new PoW scheme</H1>
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<B>Solar Designer</B>
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<A HREF="mailto:general%40lists.zfnd.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BZcF-general%5D%20Grant%20project%20update%20-%20new%20PoW%20scheme&In-Reply-To=%3C20190106141332.GA4658%40openwall.com%3E"
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TITLE="[ZcF-general] Grant project update - new PoW scheme">solar at openwall.com
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</A><BR>
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<I>Sun Jan 6 09:13:32 EST 2019</I>
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<PRE>Hi,
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This is the first status report on GrantProposals-2018Q2 #25 "review,
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tweaks, and maybe design of a new PoW scheme for Zcash."
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<A HREF="https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/GrantProposals-2018Q2/issues/25">https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/GrantProposals-2018Q2/issues/25</A>
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The tentative schedule starts with (quoting from the proposal):
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- Getting up to speed and research on original Dagger Hashimoto and the
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codebase the current implementation of ProgPoW has been forked from
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This is actually what I've been working on - reading up on Dagger
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Hashimoto and on Ethash on Ethereum wiki and on related topics elsewhere
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(e.g., papers, Sergio Demian Lerner's blog, discussions on reddit) -
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learned a few things I had missed, found similarities and differences
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between my own independent thinking (as I was into CPU-focused
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algorithms lately, searching for the holy grail of sequential
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memory-hardness combined with DoS resistance and/or fast(er)
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verification) and Sergio's memohash paper's "Gradual verification" and
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what the Ethereum project arrived at with their Ethash.
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The next item in the tentative schedule is:
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- If no show-stoppers are identified up to that point, then further review of
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ProgPoW and proposal/testing/tuning of its modifications (in particular, its
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"instruction set" will almost certainly be revised, and probably more)
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I haven't approached this directly yet as I wanted to improve my own
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knowledge first and I intend to approach this in a systematic manner.
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However, I noticed others already bring up related issues and make
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related suggestions - in particular, on GitHub and on ProgPoW Discord
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(where I was invited to, and joined [my first Discord ever]) by
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@SChernykh and @chfast, whose work I appreciate:
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<A HREF="https://github.com/ifdefelse/ProgPOW/issues/16">https://github.com/ifdefelse/ProgPOW/issues/16</A>
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<A HREF="https://github.com/ifdefelse/ProgPOW/issues/19">https://github.com/ifdefelse/ProgPOW/issues/19</A>
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<A HREF="https://github.com/ifdefelse/ProgPOW/issues/20">https://github.com/ifdefelse/ProgPOW/issues/20</A>
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<A HREF="https://github.com/ifdefelse/ProgPOW/issues/21">https://github.com/ifdefelse/ProgPOW/issues/21</A>
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Another item in the tentative schedule is:
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- CPU-only implementation of the chosen PoW scheme (we're currently unaware of
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one for ProgPoW) for research and testing (e.g., for randomness tests on its
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memory dumps, and for tweaks to improve such randomness)
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I asked on the ProgPoW Discord and learned that there's already a
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CPU-only implementation in Go embedded in this tree:
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<A HREF="https://github.com/ifdefelse/go-ethereum">https://github.com/ifdefelse/go-ethereum</A>
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Later in the project, I'll need to decide on whether to extract and use
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the Go implementation from there or maybe make a new one in C, or maybe
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there will already be more options.
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Finally, the tentative project plan includes:
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- Optionally, purchase and installation of new GPUs and required software
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Since Zcash Foundation chose to fund this proposed upgrade of Openwall's
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HPC Village ("a project of Openwall where we provide Open Source
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developers with remote access to a system with NVIDIA and AMD GPUs, and
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Intel Xeon Phi") - thanks! - we looked into the currently available and
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reasonable upgrade options and ended up ordering a GTX 1080 (a short
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enough card to use a slot that we didn't have other good use for, so we
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can leave more other GPUs in the machine) and a Vega 64 to be installed
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later in January. Initially, I wanted to get the new RTX 2080 Ti, but
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was advised against that for now (so maybe later) in this tweet thread:
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<A HREF="https://twitter.com/solardiz/status/1077577386617700353">https://twitter.com/solardiz/status/1077577386617700353</A>
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(I omitted from this update parts of the proposal for which there's
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nothing to report yet.)
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Unexpectedly, I also ended up looking into Equihash parameters and
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making suggestions again, as it appears Zcash's temporary second PoW for
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Blossom will be merely another Equihash instantiation, and this needs to
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be decided on ASAP:
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[Blossom NU] Write spec for Harmony Mining
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<A HREF="https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/3672">https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/3672</A>
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whereas the work more obviously falling under this grant will probably
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fit under:
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choose new PoW for Zcash 4.0 (NU3)
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<A HREF="https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/3761">https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/3761</A>
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I am watching both of these issues. In the current discussion on
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Equihash parameters, I especially appreciated comments by @tromp on
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BEAM's use of modified 150,5 and by @mineZcash on teardown of Z9's
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BM1740 chip - it's two important developments I had missed.
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We also spent (wasted?) _plenty_ of time on KYC procedures for
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"institutional" accounts with two reputable cryptocurrency/fiat
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exchanges, so that we could cash this grant money out to a business bank
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account. As the cryptocurrency prices were rapidly declining, this felt
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like a priority, but in the end the KYC procedures took so much time
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(and there's still no decision on setup of the accounts - still waiting)
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that this didn't really matter (or maybe we should have given up and
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used a personal account, or some other option) - the market appears to
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have reached and bounced from a strong(er) support level in December.
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As a result, we still have no fiat from this grant (yet have already
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started spending fiat on the GPUs above), and its current dollar value
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is a lot less than what was awarded. Anyway, that's our problem, and
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we're grateful to Zcash Foundation for running the program and awarding
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the grant.
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A silver lining of having the grant awarded in ZEC is that I ended up
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playing with real funds on Sapling addresses, and reported this bug:
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Partial balance temporarily shown after transaction on a fully synced node
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<A HREF="https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/3746">https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/3746</A>
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So I certainly can see how awarding grants in ZEC helps improve and
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promote Zcash.
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Thanks,
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Alexander
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</PRE>
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