Posts Tagged ‘RandomX’

Luxcore (LUX) to Change PoW Algorithm to RX2 (RandomX-based)

3, Oct 2019

Luxcore (LUX) project also known as LUXCoin previously has announced their plans for an upcoming fork that will replace the currently used PHI2 algorithm to a new one called RX2 (essentially a variation of the lately popular RandomX algo). RX2 is Luxcore’s version of RandomX that has some small modifications to the RandomX parameters in order to suit some specific requirements (details are not yet revealed). The exact date for the introduction of the new algorithm has not been revealed yet, so it is sill “in the coming weeks”. This marks yet another crypto project that is going towards the RandomX algorithm in order to fight with FPGA and ASIC miners.

Since the RX2 algorithm is based on the RandomX it will also be more CPU-friendly for mining (will require a separate miner support apparently) as it will not work with any of the miners that currently support RandomX. It seems that so far the RandomX algo favors AMD’s latest multi-core Ryzen 3 CPUs in terms of performance over Intel’s products that are much more widely spread and used mostly by miners in the last years. This could help AMD’s sales of new processors if mining for RandomX picks up and offers decent profitability which is still not the case for the moment. If more projects move towards RandomX or variations of the algorithm, like LUX is apparently doing, the interest and profitability might as well skyrocket and spark a new wave of CPU mining oriented rigs to be built.

Monero (XMR) to Hardfork to the RandomX Algorithm on November 30th

27, Sep 2019

Monero (XMR) will be once more changing its PoW algorithm for mining in an effort to attract regular miners CPU/GPU miners and drive away FPGA/ASIC miners. Testing on the private RandomX testnet has concluded successfully and RandomX PoW mining will move to public testing on the XMR testnet later today. There is quite some time left before the fork happens though, it is scheduled for block 1978433 that should hit sometime on November 30th, so there is time for you to get familiar with the new RandomX algorithm by then. If you are interested in checking out the performance of your CPUs, then you might want to check the official RandomX Benchmark app (link for download below). There is also a not so optimized OpenCL miner available that works on both AMD and Nvidia GPUs available as well, though performance might be disappointing compared to that of higher-end CPUs at this point.

It is interesting to note that the RandomX algorithm apparently favors CPU mining due to its design even GPUs might not do so well initially with it, though we are probably going to see better optimized GPUs miners soon enough. All in all this might make CPU mining attractive to miners around the fork date, though there are other factors to take into account as well, so we will have to wait and see. AMD’s Ryzen CPUs are doing particularly good in the initial benchmarks of the RandomX algorithm as it is already being used by the new project Epic Cash (EPIC). You can see that the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X is doing particularly good in terms of performance with its big number of cores and low power consumption, though it is also an expensive and still hard to find product.

– To download the RandomX Benchmark CPU app (Windows and Linux)…
– To download the XMRig CPU miner with RandomX support (Windows and Linux)…
– To download the RandomX OpenCL GPU miner (Windows only)…

Epic Cash (EPIC) Private Internet Cash Based on MimbleWimble

4, Sep 2019

There is a new fork of GRIN based on the MimbleWimble protocol called Epic Cash (EPIC) that has officially launched their blockchain a day or so ago. EPIC can be CPU, GPU, and ASIC-mined with 3 different algorithms available for each type of hardware and block rewards are distributed according to a schedule that balances wide distribution with long-term security. One of the main goals of the project is to offer high level of privacy to the users with a monetary policy very similar to that of Bitcoin (BTC). This includes a maximum supply of 21 million coins and a higher initial emission in order to reach and synchronize with Bitcoin in terms of available coins in a couple of years time frame. The so called Epic Singularity will happe in 2028 when the Epic circulating supply intersects the number of Bitcoin’s circulating supply, at which point Epic Cash adopts the Bitcoin block reward and halving pattern. Until then the starting block reward is 16 coins halving around every year initially and then around every two until it reaches a halving every 4 years.

The Epic Cash blockchain is initially available to CPU, GPU, and ASIC miners by using three respective hashing algorithms: RandomX, ProgPow, and CuckAToo31+ wih different percent distribution for each one starting with higher CPU advantage and slowly transitioning to GPUs and then ASICs. Since for the moment there are not publicly available CuckAToo31+ ASIC miners the algo is available for GPUs as well, however work is being done by multiple manufacturers and maybe by the end of this year or early next year such devices might become available on the market (optimistically speaking). So far, so good the project looks interesting and promising, though not everything seems to be that great for non-advanced users interested in mining EPIC. If you are looking for a crypto exchange where you can trade EPIC, then you can head on to Citex.

First of all EPIC can currently be only solo mined and since it is based on GRIN codebase, just like GRIN it is not that user friendly running and mining it. LINUX users have a better advantage as for example the CUDA GPU miner is not officially available for Windows yet and the OpenCL one is giving trouble and using third party ProgPow miners for solo mining the coin is also a kind of a challenge with no pool available yet. CPU mining is working pretty well with the available miner, but solo mining with the already high difficulty could be a challenge for most users to mine even one block. mining pools should be coming out shortly with talk about icemining probably being the first on the train, though nothing official about that yet.

– If you are interested in checking out more details about the Epic Cash (EPIC) project…


top