Coders Renew Efforts to Fork Mining Giant Bitmain Off Siacoin Blockchain

New code is set to be released that would make obsolete the mining hardware designed by chip maker Bitmain for the decentralized storage protocol siacoin.

Revealed in an email obtained by CoinDesk, Obelisk, a startup that aims to offer alternative mining equipment for the protocol, has proposed code would give those running the software the option to exclude Bitmain's ASICs by changing the rules so the machines are no longer compatible.

"This will give the sia community the ability to fork and could invalidate all non-Obelisk siacoin ASIC miners on the forked chain," the company writes.

The news is notable as it showcases how cryptocurrency communities are responding to the expanding business interests of Bitmain, the China-based mining giant that CoinDesk revealed last week is seeking to raise one of the largest-ever initial public offerings.

As detailed in investor documents, part of Bitmain's pitch is the extensibility of its expertise and acumen in designing hardware for bitcoin to other protocols, including siacoin.

Led by siacoin core developer David Vorick, Obelisk is a community-funded ASIC manufacturer that was beaten to market by Bitmain - an event that caused conflict within the siacoin community.

Should siacoin be successful it wouldn't be alone in its efforts to curtail Bitmain's expansion.

Since we missed the estimated shipment date for Batch 1, we will compensate all Batch 1 customers with the mining revenue that you would have received between June 30 and the day your order ships.

Obelisk will calculate your expected mining revenue based on a hashrate of 800 GH/s for SC1 and 1500 GH/s for DCR1. Compensation will be in USD, and will assume that you exchanged your mined coins for USD on a daily basis and that your electricity cost is $0. In the coming weeks, we will put together a more complete guide to receiving this compensation and publish our official calculations so that they can be reviewed by the community.

This will give the Sia community the ability to fork and could invalidate all non-Obelisk Siacoin ASIC miners on the forked chain.