More Examples
“Litecoin uses the Scrypt algortihm.”
“ASIC miners cannot mine Scrypt as efficiently as they can mine SHA-256.”
“Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 algorithm, not Scrypt.”
Definition(s) from the Web
- Scrypt proof of work denotes the Hashcash proof of work using scrypt as underlying hash function. By using a memory-intensive hash function designed to reduce the efficiency of logic circuits, this was claimed to make only CPU mining remain profitable, even with the advent of GPU mining, and completely failed in that goal. It has been less widely used and analyzed than the SHA2 hashing algorithm used in Bitcoin, so there is some concern about possible weaknesses in its cryptographic scheme being discovered in the future. Source
- Scrypt is the encryption method that is using a big memory volume and requires a lot of time for selection. The Scrypt algorithm is implemented for the cryptocurrency mining, which allows making it more complicated for the specialized ASIC miners. The Scrypt coins differ from Bitcoin as the latter uses the SHA-256 algorithm. Unlike the scrypt cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and other currencies on this algorithm are easily mined on ASIC (the devices that are specifically developed only for solving the mining tasks). It often causes a negative feedback by the creators of the scrypt cryptocurrencies, since it gives an advantage to the miners with large resources and violates the decentralization. Bitcoin that isn’t using the Scrypt is just one example. Which is why the scrypt coins enjoy popularity among miners that are using processors (CPU) or video cards (GPU) for mining. Let’s review the scrypt algorithm, its peculiarities and advantages. Source
- In cryptography, scrypt (pronounced “ess crypt”) is a password-based key derivation function created by Colin Percival, originally for the Tarsnap online backup service. The algorithm was specifically designed to make it costly to perform large-scale custom hardware attacks by requiring large amounts of memory. In 2016, the scrypt algorithm was published by IETF as RFC 7914. A simplified version of scrypt is used as a proof-of-work scheme by a number of cryptocurrencies, first implemented by an anonymous programmer called ArtForz in Tenebrix and followed by Fairbrix and Litecoin soon after. Source
