Posts Tagged ‘BTG’

New EWBF Cuda Equihash Miner v0.1 For GPU Mining

15, Jun 2018

The official Equihash algorithm (equihash 200,9) as used by ZCash (ZEC) may have moved in the domain of ASIC miners, but that does not mean that a modified version of algorithm cannot be still used by other coins and be GPU mined. An example is the Bitcoin Gold (BTG) that is forking to Equihash-BTG (equihash 144,5) and other coins like BitcoinZ (BTCZ) that are forking to equihash 144,5 both of which are not ASIC mineable with Equihash ASIC miners due to the different parameters from the “original” Equihash that uses 200,9. Generally these two variations do require much more video memory in order to work and also the performance in terms of hashrate is significantly lower than that of the original Equihash parameters, so it is hard to make ASIC miners for them.

EWBF, whose original Equihash miner was one of the first and most popular for mining ZCash (ZEC) and other Equihash-based crypto coins, has released a new miner that is targeted at supporting the new Equihash 192,7 and 144,5 algorithms. The new EWBF Cuda Equihash Miner v0.1 is intended for Nvidia GPU mining rigs and is intended for mining of coins that fork from the original Equihash 200,9 algorithm like BTG and BTCZ for example. Aside from options for the two algorithms the miner also comes with an additional option to set personalization string (8 characters) for equihash algorithms that may require this. Do note that this is a closed source miner, there are binaries available for Windows and Linux and there is a 2% developer fee built-in by default.

– For more information and to download and try the new EWBF Cuda Equihash Miner v0.1…

Bitcoin Gold’s New Equihash-BTG PoW Algorithm

13, Jun 2018

Bitmain’s Equihash ASIC miners Z9 mini as well as Innosilicon’s A9 ZMaster are apparently being shipped and are getting into the hands of some users already. This essentially makes mining Equihash with GPUs pointless and not very profitable, so ZCash (ZEC) is already in the territory of ASIC miners, but not all of the crypto coins that used Equihash are going to just move from GPU mining to ASIC miners. Bitcoin Gold (BTG) for example is going to switch to a new proof of work algorithm they call Equihash-BTG which is essentially a modified version of the Equihash algorithm that will not be ASIC mineable.

Equihash-BTG is essentially going to fork to a modified version of the Equihash PoW algorithm with parameters that will require significantly more memory thus making ASIC miners harder to be made for it and no so efficient. We have already seen that with ASIC miners having a higher memory requirement makes it not impossible, but more like much less efficient performance wise if we consider as an example the Bitmain Antminer E3 ASIC miner for Ethereum’s Ethash algorithm. So Bitcoin Gold (BTC) will not become ASIC resistant forever with its algorithm change, but it will be safe for quite some time at least as we all know when there is an incentive (a lot of money involved) nothing can stop the ASIC miners.

The change of the PoW algorithm used by Bitcoin Gold will become active with a Hard Fork, though there is still no information or a planned block number or date when the fork will happen. So for the moment BTG is still using Equihash and can be mined using ASIC miners designed for this algorithm, but when it switches to the new algorithm it will be GPU mineable again and hopefully it will be still worth mining it by that time.

– For more details about Bitcoin Gold’s new Equihash-BTG PoW algorithm…

EWBF’s ZCash CUDA Miner 0.3.4c With Improved Performance from Bitcoin Gold

3, Dec 2017

It has been quite a while since we have seen a new update for the EWBF’s ZCash CUDA Miner that is one of the most used miners for Equihash-based coins on Nvidia GPUs. Interestingly enough the new version 0.3.4c was made available from Bitcoin Gold team members and via an update on the Bitcointalk thread for example. The updated EWBF’s ZCash CUDA Miner 0.3.4c promises an improvement of the mining speed of up to about 4% according to the release details, and we are actually seeing some slight performance increase based on our quick initial tests on GTX 1080 Ti, the new GTX 1070 Ti seem to benefit a bit more though.

Gold has long been regarded as a safe haven in times of market turmoil. Many investors have gained exposure to the precious metal by buying stocks of companies engaged in exploration and mining. You can read more about the performance and increase of golds value and learn about Noble Gold at http://www.raremetalblog.com/noble-gold/.
Some of the major players in the gold industry include Canada-based Franco Nevada Corp. (FNV), Newmont Corp. (NEM), and Australia-based Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM).

Do note however that the performance increase may vary depending on the settings of your GPUs – TDP and clock settings, so feel free to try out this release and report your results. The new EWBF’s ZCash CUDA Miner 0.3.4c can be used to mine Bitcoin Gold or any other Equihash-based crypto coin, so this release is not intended ro limited only to BTG. Do note that it comes as a binary only release for Windows and Linux and there is a 2% developer fee that can be disabled with a parameter.

– To download and try this new EWBF’s ZCash CUDA Miner 0.3.4c release (Linux/Windows binaries)…


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