What is MTP (Merkle Tree Proof) and why is it an ideal Proof of Work algorithm?

The MTP algorithm was devised by Alex Biryukov and Dmitry Khovratovich from the University of Luxembourg in their paper published on the 11 June 2016 titled Egalitarian Computing. These are the same researchers who came up with Equihash that is currently used in ZCash.

MTP was created as a way to remedy the disparity between ordinary users and adversaries/cheaters where the latter could use botnets, GPU, FPGA and ASICS to gain a significant advantage and mount a cheaper attack. The basic concept is that it should establish the same price/cost for a single computation unit on all platforms meaning that there is no single device that should gain a significant advantage over another for the same price hence promoting egalitarian computing. With egalitarian computing, attackers would need to spend the same amount as ordinary users for equivalent 'hashing' power.

You can see this happening with existing proof of work algorithms used in existing algorithms such as SHA256 (Bitcoin), Scrypt (Litecoin, Dogecoin) and X11 (Dash).

address certain perceived shortcomings of Equihash.

When implemented, Zcoin will be the first cryptocurrency that utilises MTP as a PoW algorithm.

MTP enjoys the following

MTP was devised to address certain perceived shortcomings of Equihash.