RandomX Thanks

Now that RandomX is live on the Monero mainnet, I thought it appropriate to create my first CCS proposal. To be crystal clear, I am not the intended beneficiary.

As many of you know, the previous Monero PoW algorithm, CryptoNight, ultimately failed to deliver on its primary objective, quoting the CryptoNote paper, 5. Egalitarian Proof-of-work:

Our primary goal is to close the gap between CPU (majority) and GPU/FPGA/ASIC (minority) miners.

Whilst the original algorithm served us well for the first few years, it soon became apparent the algorithm was not as effective as was intended. Without going into too much detail, as I'm sure you all know the story, we needed a new long-term solution. Our options were to give in and embrace ASICs, or to come up with another viable solution.

As it so happens, our very own Howard Chu (hyc) had been thinking about this problem, i.e. what it might take to create a brand new algorithm that could long-term deliver on the original premise. And this is where the story began, of what would eventually become RandomX.

Howard spent some time prototyping his ideas and another developer popped up, also with the right expertise and interest in the problem. This developer is known as tevador. Over a period of months, in close collaboration with Howard, tevador began implementing their ideas.

At the same time, another notable collaborator, SChernykh, again with the uniquely required knowledge-set, helped refine the design. This was no longer just theory, but an implementation, designed and developed by three highly knowledgable people. The process was completely open, with lots of healthy critique and adjustments along the way, culminating in a community funded set of third party audits.

I cannot say this strongly enough, but in my opinion (and others), what these three have created is groundbreaking. It's the first PoW algorithm that has had the necessary skill-sets applied to designing and implementing, to create an algorithm that commodity hardware (i.e. a CPU) is most efficient at executing.

And now we get to the important part! They did all this, with no funding for their time (which was considerable)! They collaborated openly and maturely, welcomed critique and gave time for discussion. They asked for nothing and gave us something significant.

So this is the purpose of the funding proposal. It's an open call to show your appreciation, whatever size. Whether you agreed with the route taken by the project or not - the dedication these three have shown to the project is significant. I for one want to gift each of them and I know several others who feel the same way.

So lets rally together and give them something back. Lets give them each a RandomXmas present!

Now for the logistics. I suggest a simple 3 way split of all funds gathered, to be distributed to Howard, tevador and SChernykh upon close. If, between themselves, they feel their contributions do not equate to an even split, we leave it to them to work out privately. I have absolutely no doubt they will accomplish this amicably, and I'm confident anyone else who has interacted with them will agree.