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Ethereum: A Turing-Complete Cryptocurrency

ethereum.org

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Re: Ethereum: A Turing-Complete Cryptocurrency

#81

Post by rch »

phreeza wrote: post #70
rch wrote: post #64

I'm most curious about cryptocurrency algorithms that can be optimally run on FPGAs, but not ASICs or GPUs. Is there anything along those lines floating around already?

For what reason are you interested in that? Any such algorithm would have to make use of the re-programmability of FPGAs, since a static FPGA layout can always be turned into an ASIC...

My interest really has nothing to do with cryptocurrency, but I've been reading about dynamic method migration[0] and modular reconfigurability[1] for a long time. I can see how some of my professional work could benefit from 'adaptive computing'[2] trends as well. The algorithm I have in mind would simply be geared towards hardware that I want to own already.

[0] http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IPDPS.2004.1303105

[1] http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~tbecker/papers/iee06.pdf

[2] http://www.cray.com/Assets/PDF/about/IDC-AdaptiveSC.pdf

Re: Ethereum: A Turing-Complete Cryptocurrency

#83

Post by mike_hearn »

grondilu wrote: post #63
tlrobinson wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really see any reason why it couldn't be Turing complete, as long as it was completely deterministic (no "rand()" etc) and the specification included a maximum number of operations (which Bitcoin's Script already does) What am I missing? Is the idea that without loops the transaction size can be used to estimate the computation required without actually performing it, and thus the appropriately sized transact…

Nakamoto designed script to be non-Turing complete from the very beginning (it was mentioned in his white paper). I suspect it was for security reasons. You don't want arbitrary complex code running on miners machine. At the very least, it could obstruct the system.

Script is not mentioned at all in the Bitcoin white paper. Perhaps you are thinking of a comment he made elsewhere.

Bear in mind that in the Bitcoin design it's not just miners who have to run scripts, it's all nodes, yet fees accrue only to the miners. Bitcoin does use fees to try and make computationally expensive transactions financially expensive as well, but that's just a basic antiflood mechanism, the fees don't actually get collected by those doing the work.

Re: Ethereum: A Turing-Complete Cryptocurrency

#84

Post by phreeza »

redler wrote: post #29
fragsworth wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still trying to understand how the whole system works. It appears to be groundbreaking but I'm not really sure. The last sentence in the document should catch your interest: "As a result, we have a cryptocurrency protocol whose codebase is very small, and yet which can do anything that any cryptocurrency will ever be able to do."

Unless one considers the lack of Turing-completeness to be a feature (as Bitcoin apparently does, pointed out in a few other comments here).

it mentions the ability to create subcurrencies, so probably you could create a subcurrency that isn't Turing complete?

Re: Ethereum: A Turing-Complete Cryptocurrency

#86

Post by grondilu »

mike_hearn wrote: post #83
grondilu wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nakamoto designed script to be non-Turing complete from the very beginning (it was mentioned in his white paper). I suspect it was for security reasons. You don't want arbitrary complex code running on miners machine. At the very least, it could obstruct the system.

Script is not mentioned at all in the Bitcoin white paper. Perhaps you are thinking of a comment he made elsewhere. Bear in mind that in the Bitcoin design it's not just miners who have to run scripts, it's all nodes, yet fees accrue only to the miners. Bitcoin does use fees to try and make computationally expensive transactions financially expensive as well, but that's just a basic antiflood mechanism, the fees don'…

Wow indeed it is not mentioned. I was sure I had read about it there. I was wrong. My bad.

Re: Ethereum: A Turing-Complete Cryptocurrency

#88

Post by arisAlexis »

gatehouse wrote: post #32

Trying to figure out a couple things (from pastebin link): 1. What protection against non-halting? contracts are "funded" upon creation, and by those who issue transactions to the contract. if there are specific fees required by the contract to perform an action, it must be enforced by the contract itself. the cost of computation will eventually exhaust the contract's funding it fails. 2. what are the long-term econo…

you must be really burned out to think of a drug when you hear the word ether :D
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