A notable characteristic of the Grin PoW scheme is the phase out of Cuckatoo 31 and the single-chip ASICs. If I understand correctly these initial ASICs, by design, must be decommissioned after about 6-9 months of use — August or September of 2020.
Has anyone analyzed the environmental impact of this, of producing ASICs that will have a 9 month maximum life before they reach the end of their useful lifecycle?
I’m curious if all this manufactured electronics for a single purpose and for such a short amount of time was:
- Simply not considered at all as a factor of the design;
- Reviewed, but assumed to be worth other tradeoffs in environmental impact (if so, what)?
Finally, I’m curious if there’s been any discussion with the ASIC manufacturers about their responsibility for handling and recycling these. I know that Obelisk was designing the rigs to have some interchangeability and reusability.
I’d be grateful for any pointers to considerations of this, if any.
Addendum: I’m also researching the environmental impact + cost of another ASIC scenario: calculating the environmental cost and who bore the responsibility for the cost (environmental plus early end-of-useful life) in the Obelisk/Sia ASIC bricking incident. Before Obelisk bricked everyones machines David Vorick acknowledged the impact, “We believe that this will break tens of millions of dollars of hardware.” (source). Has anyone seen a more detailed analysis of the economic damage caused to the installed base of rigs?