https://www.asicboost.com/ https://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.00575 https://patents.google.com/patent/CN205121469U/en https://blockchaindpl.org/ https://www.coindesk.com/former-bitmain-chip-designer-seeks-to-revoke-mining... https://blog.bitmex.com/defensive-patent-licence/ https://halongmining.com/blog/2018/03/06/bdpl-offering-announcement/ https://qrfsolutions.com/offering-announcement-for-blockchain-defensive-pate... https://defensivepatentlicense.org/ Opening AsicBoost for Defensive Use March 1, 2018 We are announcing today, that we committing to the Blockchain Defensive Patent License, meaning the AsicBoost patent will be available under these terms once the PCT patent has been granted. We would like to share the thought process that has lead us to this decision. AsicBoost is an innovation that allows more energy efficiency when grinding SHA256 based proof-of-work used in Bitcoin mining. There are two forms of AsicBoost, one that provides optimizations by manipulating the merkle tree, and the other way which ultimately uses two bits from the nVersion field. The merkle method is also known as “covert AsicBoost” because it is difficult to detect. This method has received a lot of bad publicity in recent times because the method is easier to perform with low transaction count, and thus, smaller or empty blocks. Some variants of this merkle grinding also interfere with so called coinbase commitment schemes which negatively impacts protocol changes on Bitcoin. We have strong reason to believe that some manufacturers of mining equipment have been secretly using this covert method to evade detection by the patent holder and gain unfair advantage over others but not revealing what they were doing, and without making it known to the patent holders. Conversely, version-rolling method of AsicBoost is completely transparent in the blockheader of each boosted Bitcoin block. The method has no negative side-effects, like encouraging miners to mine less transactions and thus smaller blocks. A feature of Bitcoin is permissionless participation, and patents are a genuine concern to the Bitcoin community if wielded in a way to stifle competition. This could have a centralizing effect on the protocol and mining, and ultimately impact the security and guarantees afforded by decentralization. There are a number of what we consider, dangerous patents, in the mining space, which could be used to suppress mining competition. Hardware patents are a particular concern because they are agnostic to POW algorithm changes. At the time of writing, the largest mining manufacturer is using a hardware patent against a competing mining manufacturer. While the patent is considered prior art by most, it is a granted patent, and thus backed by state enforcement. We believe this sets a dangerous precedent and could escalate in the future. The patent concerned can be considered an essential patent because it governs how power is efficiently distributed on hash cards (the board which host the mining chips). Defensive Licensing schemes aim to incentivize patent holders to pool their patents in such a way to create a disincentive for patent aggressors. The most famous is the Defensive Patent License. However, on closer investigation, it appears the license scheme is wanting when applied to blockchain technology that required strong guarantees of decentralization. A fantastic analysis was made by BitMEX Research Labs in a recent publication. We believe AsicBoost is such an important an innovative patent that, if licensed defensively, can become a force for good to protect decentralization in Bitcoin. At this point, it is clear that covert AsicBoost does not serve the interests of Bitcoin due to the negative incentives outlined, however, version-rolling AsicBoost has none of these drawbacks, and is additionally more efficient than covert merkle grinding. No matter how efficient a mining machine is made at hardware level, version-rolling AsicBoost will always deliver more efficiency when done correctly. If this method of version-rolling is used by a large portion of the hash-rate, there may be no escaping the need for all mining equipment manufacturers to use it to remain competitive. As such, today, we are offering the AsicBoost patent under the Blockchain Defensive Patent License in the hope that it will both discourage patent aggression in the mining space and encourage others to join the licensing regime. This will create a powerful patent pool and protect the interests of Bitcoin, which is in the best long-term interest of everyone in the ecosystem. Lastly, because we have spent considerable resources on acquiring and opening the patent for the benefit of the Bitcoin community, in return we welcome donations towards our costs. If you would like your contribution to be publicly acknowledged on this page, please contact us on donations@asicboost.com. Bitcoin BTC donation address: 3PMR379VLzfnGHck9BLdE1HuhdXUm96JHj. Our BDPL offering announcement can be found here. For more inquiries, please use our contact form. Offering Announcement for Blockchain Defensive Patent License March 1, 2018 This Offering Announcement is issued by Little Dragon Technology LLC, California, USA (“Licensor”). All capitalized terms herein have the meaning as defined in the applicable numbered version of the Blockchain Defensive Patent License. Licensor hereby commits to offer all of its Patents and future patents under the Blockchain Defensive Patent License version 1.0 or greater (“License”) to any BDPL User. The Licensor shall refer to the License for the procedures on granting and accepting such License. Date: March 1, 2018 Licensor’s contact information is: licensing@asicboost.com Little Dragon Technology LLC c/o Getech Law LLC attn Jun Ye, Esq. 203 N LaSalle, Suite 2100 Chicago, IL 60601 USA AsicBoost Press Release March 24, 2016 A breakthrough invention in Bitcoin mining named AsicBoost allows to improve the total cost of hashing 20%. The patent-pending invention by Timo Hanke and Sergio Demian Lerner is applicable to any type of chip design for Bitcoin ASICs. AsicBoost is a patent-pending method to improve the efficiency and cost of Bitcoin mining by approximately 20%. Through gate count reduction on the silicon AsicBoost improves two essential Bitcoin mining cost metrics simultaneously and by a similar factor: the energy consumption (Joule per Gh) and the system cost ($ per Gh/s). With the system cost being proportional to the capital expenses of a Bitcoin mine and the energy efficiency being proportional to its operating expenses, AsicBoost reduces the total cost per bitcoin mined by approximately 20%. For the Bitcoin mines of the future AsicBoost will make all the difference between a profitable and an unprofitable mine. The AsicBoost method is based on an ingenious new way to process work items inside and outside of the Bitcoin mining ASIC. It involves a new design of the SHA 256 hash-engines inside the ASIC and an additional pre-processing step as part of the mining software outside the ASIC. AsicBoost’s hash-engine design is compatible with design philosophies such as “rolled cores” and “fully pipelined cores”. The performance gains are achieved on top of all other optimizations that an existing design may have achieved through optimized timing, pipelining, path balancing, custom cells and full-custom design, etc. Inventor Timo Hanke describes the idea behind AsicBoost as follows: “Through clever pre-processing and crafting of the work that is sent to the chip, the ASIC is allowed to re-use about one quarter of the information that would otherwise be created and discarded on a continuous basis internally to the hashing cores. A hashing core adopted for AsicBoost can save up to one quarter of the gates by re-using that information over time or by sharing it with other hashing cores.” More information and a technical description of the AsicBoost method can be found on http://asicboost.com. For licensing inquiries or consulting on the adoption of AsicBoost please contact asicboost@gmail.com. About Timo Hanke Timo is a mathematician and cryptocurrency expert. He has been a long-time academic researcher with a PhD in mathematics, a long-time Bitcoin enthusiast and contributor, and has had the role of CTO at a Bitcoin ASIC manufacturer. About Sergio Demian Lerner Sergio is a renowned security and cryptocurrency expert and researcher, inventor, contributor to the Bitcoin core software, the mastermind behind several inventions in Blockchain technology, security advisor to the Bitcoin Foundation, co-founder of RootStock Labs, among many other things.