Equihash mining algorithm: an overview

Equihash mining algorithm: an overview
Every developer who creates his own cryptocurrency, probably, as one of the most priority tasks sees the protection of the network from ASIC. The work of such devices in the system is a serious threat to the decentralization and security of peer-to-peer networks. In this article, we will look at the Equihash mining algorithm, which uses increased memory requirements to withstand specialized miners.

• EQUIHASH MINING ALGORITHM: FEATURES

Like almost any new algorithm, the Equihash mining algorithm aims to bring cryptocurrency mining back to balance. Its main goal is to expand opportunities for ordinary ordinary ordinary miners. To ensure that these conditions are met, the developers have made Equihash not only demanding in terms of performance but also in terms of memory. Only video cards with at least 2GB of memory will be able to work with coins on Equihash.

The very cryptographic function behind Equihash uses the paradox of birthdays. It goes like this: in a group of 23 people, the probability that there is a pair of people who were born on the same day is 50%. And for a group of 60+ people, it's 99%. As strange as such a statement may sound, there is even a mathematical formula that fully proves it.

It is on this basis, the developers D. Khovratovich and A. Biryukov in his time and developed their own algorithm. In it, the probability of finding a suitable hash by miners is equal to 2 to the power of N, divided by 2.

• COINS ON THE EQUIHASH ALGORITHM

Nowadays the Equihash mining algorithm is used by quite a large number of cryptocurrencies. The first coin it was based on is ZCash. Its developers claim that the use of this algorithm allows to balance the ecosystem and achieve a greater degree of equality between the participants.

In addition, the Equihash algorithm is used in the following fairly popular cryptocurrencies:

• ZenCash.
• Bitcoin Gold.
• ZClassic.
• Komodo.
• Hush.

There are many other coins built on Equihash, but we won't focus on all of them. If you are interested in the full list of cryptocurrencies based on this algorithm, you can find this information online.

• FEATURES OF EQUIHASH MINING

As mentioned above, the Equihash mining algorithm is more demanding on the memory of the mining device than most other algorithms. Accordingly, the cards from which you will be building your farm should have at least 2GB of memory to ensure normal mining efficiency.

In addition, many users claim that Equihash coins dig better with NVidia cards, which is due to their internal technical features. The setup procedure is classic - download the miner, connect the pool, configure it and start mining.

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