The decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies was designed to promote an equitable distribution of resources. Unfortunately, as crypto grew in popularity and its potential rewards increased, mining farms started gaining dominance over the industry.
This can be seen by the major drop in Bitcoin network hashrate when one Chinese mining hub suffered from a power outage lately – which materialized in a dramatic crash of the cryptocurrency. Such developments have led to new coins that are resistant to ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) being created to protect decentralization within the crypto space. Check out how can you sell Bitcoin to cash.
The cryptocurrency is technically ‘ASIC-resistant’, meaning coins can be mined but it isn’t financially worthwhile with the algorithm used by the protocol provides no real benefit over GPU mining, and offers more evenly distributed mining abilities to participants with regular PCs. This ultimately leads to a fair distribution of resources amongst miners and helps keep networks decentralized.
About ASIC-resistant coins
Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) play an important role in fields such as medicine, satellites, research and many more. In the world of cryptocurrency, ASIC-resistant coins refer to those with unique mining algorithms and protocols that make it less attractive for miners to create specialized hardware dedicated only to mining these coins. Thus, making them “ASIC resistant”.
Which are ASIC-resistant coins?
- Safex Cash (SFX): Safex has developed its RandomSFX mining algorithm, which is based on Monero’s RandomX protocol and features dynamic difficulty adjustment that favours CPU mining. There are several ways to mine SFX in the Safex pool – either using a command-line interface on Ubuntu or with special software. Furthermore, solo miners can benefit from the use of Safexcore Software.
- Haven Protocol (XHV): RandomX is a proof-of-work mining algorithm that’s earlier in this particular coin (see proof-of-work). XHV is made to be strong against ASIC mining gear, and anybody with an adequate PC can mine it. It is also among the most lucrative cryptocurrencies to mine, frequently being a couple to three times more profitable compared to quite similar coins in case you can save money on your electricity bills.
- Horizen (ZEN): This particular coin utilizes the ASIC-resistant Equihash algorithm and is among the easiest to mine. Ever since its debut in 2017, Horizon’s engineering staff has made many modifications to make it much easier for miners that work from home. Maybe this’s the reason it is additionally one of the most profitable coins when it comes to mining incentives of all of the Equihash coins.
- Aeon (AEON): Many individuals referred to this particular coin as a light version of Monero. The concept behind its development would be to offer a mobile-friendly choice which is simpler to mine and store as it requires a lot fewer resources. The outcome is a CryptoNote protocol-based algorithm that’s positive to crypto miners that make use of light devices.
- Monero (XMR): It is yet another well-known mining blockchain system. The CryptoNight protocol engages a RandomX hash feature to produce new coins. The blockchain does not require any special machines because of its simplicity of mining. ASICs have been employed to mine XMR, nevertheless, they are significantly less effective – therefore GPU mining continues to be the best method to mine Monero.
- Vertcoin (VTC): VTC is designed to be an accessible cryptocurrency, perfect for home miners using CPUs and GPUs. The Lyra2RE proof-of-work algorithm makes it ASIC-resistant, meaning that even beginners can mine coins or join a pool with ease thanks to the one-click miner available. The developers are committed to keeping the network secure; should anyone develop an ASIC machine specifically for mining VTC, they have plans in place for a hard fork of the network.
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