FPGA Cryptocurrency Miner - Department of Electrical and ... › ece › files ›...
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Background At its current rate, the Bitcoin network alone, according to some of the most recent estimates, uses over 70 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year – that’s enough energy to power over 6 million houses in the U.S. [1]. Hundreds of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin use computationally intensive algorithms – called hashing algorithms – to generate and validate their transaction histories, called their blockchains. Costly Application Specific Integrated Circuits, or ASICs, reign supreme in industry when it comes to sheer hashing performance. Problem Can anything be done about the high power use of cryptocurrency networks? What happens if a fixed ASIC is not feasible for a currency’s hashing algorithm?? With the rampant expansion of crypto over the past half-decade, and the high cost, high time of development, and low wide implementation of high-power ASIC miners across currencies, there exists a need to implement a low power, moderate efficiency miner to outperform high-end Graphics Processor Units (GPUs) in times of ASIC absence. Objectives Create an FPGA-based cryptocurrency miner that is: Modular for ease of changing currencies/high-level hashing algorithms. SHA-256 is an excellent, widely used algorithm. Low power in order to be cost-feasible and scalable. Superior to GPUs in order to reign supreme in performance when ASIC implementation is not feasible. The SHA-256 Algorithm Well documented and widely adopted - Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-4 [2] Modular in nature - Lends itself to FPGA Implementation Fixed - Same SHA-256 block could be used in a variety of currencies At a Glance See FIPS 180-4 Standard in [2] • SHA-256 performs a series of computationally intensive operations to hash a message (usually the transaction history to be appended to the block chain) • 3 Main Stages – Preprocessing, Message Scheduling, and Message Compression • Preprocessing splits the message into exactly N 512 bit blocks (pad the final block with zeros) and setting the “Initial Hash Value”, also called the Initialization Vector, to a fixed value. • Message Scheduling creates sixty four 32 bit message-dependent words by shifting, rotating and performing logical operations on message registers. • Message Compression performs the actual hashing operation, where logical and register reassignment operations on eight 32 bit hash value registers iteratively (for 64 rounds!) compress the message schedule into a final 256 bit hash value of the original message. Figure 1 – Block Diagram of MCF Niko Carbonell [EE], Martin Martinez [EE], Michael Morton [EE], Zach Peterson [EE] [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer Science The University of Texas at Dallas A modular power-efficient approach to crypto- mining using the SHA-256 Hashing Algorithm Faculty Advisor: Dr. Dinesh Bhatia UTDesign I: Summer 2018 FPGA Cryptocurrency Miner Metrics and Ethics Performance Metrics: Since this project aims to outperform top-tier GPUs (such as GTX 1080 TI) with less power consumption, and hash rates vary currency to currency, our only metric is to outperform or keep pace with the industry leading GPUs in terms of hashes per Watt (h/W) for our chosen currency. Ethics Statement: We did not infringe on any copyright in the making of this project, and cited all sources where others’ work was referenced. Sources [1] “Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index.” Digiconomist, digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption. Accessed 18 July 2018 [2] FIPS 180-4, released 08/2015. Latest released version located at https://csrc.nist.gov/media/publications [3] Naik, Rahul P. “Optimising the SHA256 Hashing Algorithm for Faster and More Efficient Bitcoin Mining.” Department of Computer Science, UCL. Published 2 September 2013 Sample Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin and SHA-256 Figure 2 – High level implementation of the SHA-256 algorithm in Bitcoin [3] At a High Level [3] • Bitcoin block header relatively constant – only changes per block are nonce incrementation (potentially 2 32 attempts per block) • Hash Merkle Root (assumed constant here) represents transactions to validate FPGA Implementation - SDII Figure 3 – High level block diagram of an FPGA cryptocurrency miner to be built in SDII Bitcoin Version Previous Block’s Accepted Hash Current Hash Merkle Root Time (since 1970) Target Difficulty Nonce SHA-256 First 512 Bits SHA-256 Initial Hash Value Always Constant Hash Output Last 128 Bits SHA-256 Hash Output Hash Accepted by Network? Final Hash Output No 12.5 Bitcoin Reward Yes Increment Nonce
Transcript of FPGA Cryptocurrency Miner - Department of Electrical and ... › ece › files ›...
BackgroundAt its current rate, the Bitcoin networkalone, according to some of the most recentestimates, uses over 70 terawatt hours(TWh) of electricity per year – that’s enoughenergy to power over 6 million houses in theU.S. [1]. Hundreds of cryptocurrencies likeBitcoin use computationally intensivealgorithms – called hashing algorithms – togenerate and validate their transactionhistories, called their blockchains. CostlyApplication Specific Integrated Circuits, orASICs, reign supreme in industry when itcomes to sheer hashing performance.
ProblemCan anything be done about the high power
use of cryptocurrency networks?What happens if a fixed ASIC is not feasible for
a currency’s hashing algorithm??With the rampant expansion of crypto overthe past half-decade, and the high cost, hightime of development, and low wideimplementation of high-power ASIC minersacross currencies, there exists a need toimplement a low power, moderate efficiencyminer to outperform high-end GraphicsProcessor Units (GPUs) in times of ASICabsence.
Objectives Create an FPGA-based
cryptocurrency miner that is: Modular for ease of changing
currencies/high-level hashing algorithms. SHA-256 is an excellent, widely used algorithm.
Low power in order to be cost-feasible and scalable.
Superior to GPUs in order to reign supreme in performance when ASIC implementation is not feasible.
The SHA-256 AlgorithmWell documented and widely adopted - Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-4 [2]Modular in nature - Lends itself to FPGA ImplementationFixed - Same SHA-256 block could be used in a variety of currencies
At a Glance See FIPS 180-4 Standard in [2]
• SHA-256 performs a series of computationally intensive operations to hash a message (usually the transaction history to be appended to the block chain)
• 3 Main Stages – Preprocessing, Message Scheduling, and Message Compression
• Preprocessing splits the message into exactly N 512 bit blocks (pad the final block with zeros) and setting the “Initial Hash Value”, also called the Initialization Vector, to a fixed value.
• Message Scheduling creates sixty four 32 bit message-dependent words by shifting, rotating and performing logical operations on message registers.
• Message Compression performs the actual hashing operation, where logical and register reassignment operations on eight 32 bit hash value registers iteratively (for 64 rounds!) compress the message schedule into a final 256 bit hash value of the original message.
Figure 1 – Block Diagram of MCF
Niko Carbonell [EE], Martin Martinez [EE], Michael Morton [EE], Zach Peterson [EE][email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer ScienceThe University of Texas at Dallas
A modular power-efficient approach to crypto-mining using the SHA-256 Hashing Algorithm
Faculty Advisor:Dr. Dinesh BhatiaUTDesign I: Summer 2018
FPGA Cryptocurrency Miner
Metrics and EthicsPerformance Metrics: Since this project aims to outperform top-tier GPUs (such as GTX 1080 TI) with less power consumption, and hash rates vary currency to currency, our only metric is to outperform or keep pace with the industry leading GPUs in terms of hashes per Watt (h/W) for our chosen currency.Ethics Statement: We did not infringe on any copyright in the making of this project, and cited all sources where others’ work was referenced.
Sources[1] “Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index.” Digiconomist, digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption. Accessed 18 July 2018[2] FIPS 180-4, released 08/2015. Latest released version located at https://csrc.nist.gov/media/publications[3] Naik, Rahul P. “Optimising the SHA256 Hashing Algorithm for Faster and More Efficient Bitcoin Mining.” Department of Computer Science, UCL. Published 2 September 2013
Sample Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin and SHA-256
Figure 2 – High level implementation of the SHA-256 algorithm in Bitcoin [3]
At a High Level [3]
• Bitcoin block header relatively constant – only changes per block are nonce incrementation (potentially 232 attempts per block)
• Hash Merkle Root (assumed constant here) represents transactions to validate
FPGA Implementation - SDII
Figure 3 – High level block diagram of an FPGA cryptocurrency miner to be built in SDII
Bitcoin Version
Previous Block’s Accepted Hash
Current Hash Merkle Root
Time (since 1970)
Target Difficulty
Nonce
SHA-256First 512 Bits
SHA-256
Initial Hash Value Always Constant
Hash Output
Last 128 Bits SHA-256Hash Output Hash Accepted by Network?Final Hash Output
No
12.5 Bitcoin RewardYes
Increment Nonce
