How Do Different Hashing Algorithms, like Ethash Vs. SHA-256, Influence Hardware Choice?
The design of the hashing algorithm dictates the most efficient hardware. SHA-256, used by Bitcoin, is computationally intensive but not memory-intensive, making it ideal for the brute-force speed of ASICs.
Ethash, originally used by Ethereum, was designed to be memory-hard, requiring large amounts of fast memory access. This design favored the memory architecture of GPUs, making them the superior choice until specialized Ethash ASICs were later developed.