What Is the Significance of a “Memory-Hard” Algorithm in Resisting ASIC Development?
A memory-hard algorithm is one that requires a large amount of memory to compute the hash, and the computation is bottlenecked by the speed of memory access, not just the raw processing power. ASICs are typically designed for pure computational speed and lack the large, fast on-chip memory needed.
This design choice effectively levels the playing field, making GPUs (which have high-speed memory) competitive and delaying or preventing the development of specialized ASICs.
