by
MinerGate mining pool
February 15, 2020
Monero (XMR) successfully forked hard on November 30th under block number 1978443. The fork has changed the CryptoNightR mining algorithm to the new RandomX proof-of-work algorithm.
Although the main goal of the upgrade was to keep Monero completely resistant to ASIC mining, thereby keeping the coin decentralized, RandomX did it Essentially, XMR mining has been shifted to the CPU, which is no less important.
What is the hard fork about?
As one of the top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, Monero is certainly one of the most popular coins right now, not least because of the high level of privacy protection and technological advances. The team behind Monero has continually strived to keep XMR mining decentralized.
The previous mining algorithm, CryptoNightR, served this purpose until The first Bitmain ASIC miners for CryptoNightR were developed. This led the Monero team to develop and implement the new RandomX algorithm that replaced the CryptoNightR. IImproving the Monero network with a special focus on its decentralization and operations.
The main pillars of RandomX are:
- ASIC miners will be removed from the XMR network along with the problems of botnets and Monero mining malware.
- Long payment IDs will expire currency tweeted: “We will also be phasing out long payment IDs during this planned network upgrade.” In fact, Monero protects privacy and improves privacy and ease of use for users.
- The ten block blocking time, which is approximately 20 minutes, is enforced for inbound transactions, which increases privacy for the entire network.
- Transactions require at least two exits to improve data protection.
Why is it especially important for CPU miners?
As the name suggests, RandomX offers random code execution as well as memory-intensive techniques to prevent ASIC mining. However, ASIC miners are not the only ones affected by the hard fork: the new algorithm is specially optimized for CPU mining.
With a focus on CPUs, Monero’s developers believe that “the network will become more decentralized and egalitarian as block rewards are distributed.”
These recent changes are of particular concern for any laptop miner who has seen their mining hardware run down: RandomX could be a real game changer for them.
The RandomX CPU and GPU benchmarks are for reference only and may vary based on several factors:
Source: https://monerobenchmarks.info/
In summary, RandomX has resulted in significant efficiency gains for CPU miners while drastically reducing the benefits of GPU mining. This is great news for both seasoned miners who don’t like the idea of spending a fortune on specialty hardware and newbies just beginning their mining careers.
