Application Specific Integrated Circuit. It's even in the name! You can't just run normal software on ASICs. It's not a computer. They're literally hard-wired to do one thing - and do it well. Switch ASICs, for example, are good for switching network packets around. Though (I would assume) they can't do any kind of hashing, much less Bitcoin-specific stuff. Trying to mine Bitcoin on switch ASICs would be like trying to transfer water through a 2.4GHz WiFi connection - both are absolutely preposterous ideas. Regards -- Filip Hruska Linux System Administrator Dne 1/9/18 v 17:02 Michael Crapse napsal(a):
The definition of an ASIC is that it has only one use. Just because half of a 100gb switch is not in use doesn't mean that you can mine bitcoin, or run a blockchain with the asics not in use..
On 9 January 2018 at 08:49, Jean | ddostest.me via NANOG <nanog@nanog.org> wrote:
BTC miners use asics. Big switches/routers use 100Gb asics. Some switches have multiple 100 Gb asics and sometimes only half is use or even less.
I guess it could be nice for some smaller telcos to generate some profit during off peak period. I don't know how feasible and I fully understand that the vendor warranty should be instantly void.
Also, sometimes telcos have off the shelves spare that gather dust for years... It could be interesting to also generate few coins.
Jean
Sure but there are lots of blockchains other than bitcoin. A lot of real smart people do not even suspect that bitcoin is a long term survivor due to its long transaction times. Which blockchains do you want to support? 150GB may not seem like a lot (although a lot of my gear does not have the memory to cache that) but 10 of those is beyond the memory on the vast majority of network gear I am aware of. That sure looks like a slippery slope to me. Now that a lot of network switching and routers can support applications, you could just host all of your apps on them just
There is absolutely no reason that the networking equipment itself can't both operate the blockchain and keep a full copy. It's a pretty good bet that your own routers will probably be online; if not, you have bigger
The storage requirements aren't particularly onerous. The entire Bitcoin blockchain is around 150GB, with several orders of magnitude more
On 18-01-09 10:31 AM, Naslund, Steve wrote: like you could do all of your routing in your servers. The question for you is what responsibilities do you want to take on. That probably depends on what business you are in. problems. transactions (read: config changes) than you're likely to see even on a very large network. SSDs are small >enough and reliable enough now that the physical space requirements are quite small.
Steven Naslund Chicago IL