I was really glad to see this article specifically point out that proof-of-work schemes that allow for "specialized ASICs" to be designed to accelerate them--which in the high-level concept of proof-of-work is usually seen as a problem (as it creates an elite class of invested and thereby slightly more centralized miners instead of a diverse population of decentralized users)--has a game theory benefit that is relate…
All proof-of-work algorithms can be accelerated by specific hardware of some kind or another. Bitcoin is perhaps the extreme example, with ASIC miners. But coins using other algorithms are mined by using top-end graphics cards, which is still a form of specialized hardware. There's no algorithm that can't improve upon a standard computer. Other forms of proof-of-work have been mooted, e.g. algorithms that require lot…
As for "all things can be accelerated", the question here is more "how unique is the thing being accelerated?" (and so I would agree the wording in my comment was slightly off), as this argument about the grim trigger holds up if and only if the specialized hardware being used is not valuable for other uses (including other coins).
As an example of what you can conclude with this thought process: if you are a small "startup coin" you should seriously considering a proof-of-work scheme that is weirdly unique in that it forces people to not be able to reuse hardware they have from another (particularly if more valuable) coin.