October 2020 Work Progress Report: ETC Network Protection, Ravencoin Security Audit
November 2, 2020
New milestone for the Ethereum pool, ETC Network protection, Ravencoin security audit, Ethash ASIC problems, multiple miner updates.
2Miners Ethereum Mining Pool
We’ve carried out the planned expansion of our European data center infrastructure so we can maintain the traditional high quality of our services. Ethereum pool has been moved to the new even more powerful dedicated servers. Thanks to our developers the transition has been performed smoothly without any interruptions of the mining process.
Meanwhile, Ethereum PPLNS Pool has reached a new milestone of 4000 Miners Online.
Ethereum Classic Network Protection
Great news for ETC Miners. MESS Network Security Solution has been implemented on block 11 380 000. No successful attacks have been performed on the network in October.
We’ve reduced the block maturation time for Ethereum Classic to 500 new blocks (approx. 2 hours). Payouts are processed automatically every 2 hours if the minimum amount 0.1 ETC has been reached.
Please pay attention that Ravencoin is an open-source project without any treasuries, dev fees etc. so they really needed this help. Lead dev of Ravencoin Tron Black has stated that $40 000 required for the security audit has been successfully raised. We were happy to help the RVN team to reach this important target.
A lot of our miners have recently reported the hashrate decrease for their ASIC miners in Ethereum and Ethereum Classic pools. The issue is the increasing DAG file size as always.
Even Innosilicon A10 Pro with 5GB memory on-board is already performing at only 80-85% of the hashrate specified by the manufacturer.
We could do nothing to help our miners from the pool side. We suggest ASIC owners to write to the ASIC manufacturers and ask for the new firmware. This is the only solution.
A10 owners are currently trying to find the best firmware in our Telegram Chat.
Starting from epoch 382 (approx. December 16), all 4GB GPUs will stop mining Ethereum. The problem is the gradually increasing DAG file size. Luckily, the developers are working hard to find a solution, and they already have one. The lolMiner developers have released the updated software version adding the so-called zombie mode for cryptocurrency mining. This mode will enable 4GB GPUs to mine Ethereum even at the beginning of 2021. The same functionality has been implemented in TeamRedMiner. Check our article How to Mine Ethereum and Ethereum Classic on 4GB GPUs
Other software developers have released the new versions of the miners as well. We’ve updated our Quick Start Archive. Archive password is 2miners
Such popular miners are included:
gminer 2.28
lolminer 1.11
t-rex 0.18.1
nbminer 32.1
phoenix 5.1c
The popular Claymore’s miner will stop mining Ethereum Classic and Ethereum very soon (ETC on November 6, ETH on December 29). Please prepare another mining software in advance. We’ve launched a test pool and experimented with different Ethash miners to find the best one. We highly recommend our post Claymore’s Ethereum Miner Stops Working. Best Alternatives
Epoch Number and DAG Size
Lately, everybody keeps talking about Ethash (Dagger-Hashimoto) epoch number and DAG file size. These important parameters are now shown on 2Miners pool dashboard for each Ethash coin.
Remember to follow us on Twitter to get all the news as soon as possible.
The 2Miners pool co-founder, businessman, miner. In 2017 started mining cryptocurrencies and built many rigs on his own. As a result, he gained lots of practical knowledge and became interested in sharing it with others.
In his articles on 2Miners, he shares useful tips that he tried and tested himself. For example, Darek gives advice on how to buy hardware components for the basic mining rig and how to connect them to each other correctly. He also explained lots of complicated terms in simple words, such as shares, mining luck, block types, and cryptocurrency wallets. After the pool was launched, he published a series of articles ‘Crypto Mythbusters’ where he explained how to protect the network against 51% attack, talked about cryptocurrency mining difficulty and difficulties of launching your own node.
Ethereum Classic Will Not Be Supported by ASICs and Nicehash
November 1, 2020
Mid-2020 wasn’t the best time for Ethereum Classic. The network suffered from several 51% attacks in August and September. As a result, miners lost a lot of their earnings. ETC took action by decreasing the DAG file size. This way, even 3GB GPUs can mine ETC and the hash rate is significantly higher. But this is not the only positive change. Let’s see what to expect from ETC in the future.
Ethereum Classic DAG File Problem
First of all, ETC is really going to decrease the DAG size. DAG is a special data block uploaded to the GPU memory when a mining device launches. You can’t mine the cryptocurrency and get rewards without DAG.
ETC developers may cut DAG down on #372 epoch when the file size was 3.91GB. If they cut it down on #376 epoch, it will be 2.47GB. So even 3GB GPUs would be able to mine ETC.
In this case, everybody wins. The network would be more secure thanks to a higher hash rate, which would discourage hackers from attacks. The owners of 3GB GPUs would make a nice profit. 2CryptoCalc profitability calculator often places Ethereum Classic at the top of the ranking.
Plus, earnings would come through in the form of the reputable coin (as opposed to little-known projects). In reality, the owners of 3GB GPUs have even more good news. ASIC miners and old mining software will not be able to mine ETC.
On block 11 700 000 блоке (epoch 390) epoch size will be increased from 30 000 blocks to 60 000 blocks. ETC will reduce the epoch number from 390 to 195. DAG file would be generated with seedHash parameter for epoch 390 but with epoch 195 size! SeedHash parameter generation is different for the new Ethash algorithm used for Ethereum Classic. This is how the seedHash is generated before and after ECIP1099:
As you see from the image above the seedHash would be generated “through one”.
In simple words: Mining pool is sending seedHash parameter to the miner to define the epoch. Miner gets this parameter and thinks that is is for example epoch 390 and 4 GB DAG file should be generated. However for ETC this seedHash represents the 195 epoch and 2 GB DAG file should be generated. Miner couldn’t work properly and it will send invalid shares to the pool.
ASICs to Stop Mining Ethereum Classic
Recently, we have received more news. First of all, Innosilicon, renowned for its ASICs, has made a statement. Innosilicon A10 won’t be able to mine Ethereum Classic if the algorithm changes.
Changing the algorithm is part of the ETC security plan presented in August 2020.
Here is what Innosilicon says.
In theory, A10 can mine the cryptocurrency with the same algorithm that Ethereum has. If the algorithm changes, the mining device won’t be able to mine.
So when Ethereum Classic implements the changes, ASICs like Innosilicon 10 and Antminer E3 won’t threaten the network anymore. Remember that ASICs are highly efficient, which lets them concentrate large computing powers. For this reason, the earnings of GPU owners are much lower.
Nicehash Won’t Support Ethereum Classic
Nicehash is not going to support Ethereum Classic. The platform confirmed the information.
As you probably know, ETC made this change to avoid our massive hash power, and that is their plan to secure their network. For now, we are not planning to support them.
So after the update potential attackers won’t be able to rent computing power from Nicehash, the same platform used to perform 51% attacks on the network. This will ensure that miners are safe and will get their earnings.
We checked some recent data. As of now, you can attack Ethereum Classic at a quite low cost. A one-hour attack would cost $4,378. Nicehash has more than enough available power to do that. So miners should be happy with the news.
3GB and 4GB GPU Mining
This news is fantastic for the ETC community and miners with weak equipment. If everything goes well, the network will be secure against 51% attacks, get a ton of hash rate thanks to 3GB GPUs, and get rid of ASICs. Ethereum Classic will have all the conditions for future development.
These changes will also benefit the network decentralization. Computing power will be distributed more evenly among more users. This is what every blockchain project must strive for.
Remember to follow us on Twitter to get all the news as soon as possible.
Miner since 2017, the 2Miners pool co-founder. Became interested in cryptocurrencies at the dawn of the latest bull run and bought his first graphics cards. After having built and set up a few mining rigs, he realized that existing mining pools didn’t satisfy him – that’s how the idea of creating the 2Miners pool was born.
John published a series of articles about the basics of cryptocurrency mining. He gave valuable tips on how to buy ASICs and GPUs from abroad and then shared their mining performance. On the website, you can find early articles about cryptocurrency mining, blockchain in general and mining pool operation principles. The readers gave positive feedback on John’s practical guides, such as building an Ethereum mining rig and Nvidia 1080ti overclocking.
Claymore’s Ethereum Miner Stops Working. Best Alternatives
October 26, 2020
The popular Claymore’s miner will stop mining Ethereum Classic and Ethereum soon. We tested popular alternatives for the Ethash algorithm. 2Miners launched the test pool and experimented with the AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.
Claymore’s Dual Miner
For a long time, Claymore has been the most popular mining software for Ethereum and other Dagger-Hashimoto coins, including Ethereum Classic, Pirl, Callisto and Expanse. The software worked beautifully with the Nvidia and AMD graphics cards and was easy to set up. And the hash rate was great, higher than that of any other mining program. The fee was 1%. So for 36 seconds the program was mining in developers’ favor, but apart from that it was free. The program didn’t charge weak 2GB and 3GB graphics cards. If you wanted to mine Ethereum, choosing Claymore was a no-brainer.
The software developer has always remained anonymous posting updates on github and on the Claymore’s page of the bitcointalk forum where users were discussing the program.
Claymore’s Dual Miner
The developer published regular software updates. The latest update has been v15.0 released on December 4, 2019. This version supports up to and including #384 epoch.
All Ethash (Dagger Hashimoto) coins upload the special DAG file into the GPU memory. The DAG size increases with every epoch. One epoch corresponds to 30 thousand blocks. Read more
We tested the mining program and found out that it works on #384 epoch, but has the following problem with #385:
Pool sent wrong data, cannot set epoch, disconnect.
We haven’t had any news from the Claymore’s developer for almost a year. The mining community believe that the developer has abandoned the project. Starting from #385 epoch, or block 11 550 000 (30 000 x 385 = 11 550 000), the mining program will stop working.
Let’s estimate the exact date when this happens. At the time of writing, mining pools are at block 11 460 317 in the ETC network and at block 11 112 083 in the ETH network. The average block find time is 13.2 seconds. ETC has 89 683 blocks (almost 14 days) left. ETH has 437 917 blocks (67 days) left.
Claymore’s Dual Miner will stop mining Ethereum on December 29, 2020. Ethereum Classic mining will stop on November 6, 2020.
Which miner is the best for Ethereum?
We always try to help our pool community to choose the best and smartest mining software. We have settings for the most popular mining programs on the How to Start Mining page and in the FAQ section. Plus, our Setup archive has ready-to-use mining software versions. The archive is easy to work with. Just replace the default wallet name with your own in the bat file. The archive password is 2miners
We have always recommended Claymore’s and Phoenix mining programs for Ethash. In our experience, they are the most stable. Plus, they gave out the best hash rates and supported all graphics cards (Nvidia and AMD).
There are a lot of rumors about Claymore stealing the code from someone, Phoenix stealing the code from Claymore, Phoenix overstating the hash rate, etc. There will always be rumors. It doesn’t mean you have to trust them all.
Claymore will stop working soon, so we decided to do an experiment and find the best 2020–2021 Ethereum miner.
Please note that mining software developers didn’t take part in the experiment and didn’t ask to fabricate results. They knew nothing about the experiment whatsoever.
Ethereum Mining Software Fees
Cryptocurrency mining software nearly always charges fees, except for Ethminer. It’s a free open-source program.
How do mining software developers charge fees? For a certain period of time, the program mines in developers’ favor. Some programs do that in the background (without disconnecting from the pool). Others need to disconnect from the pool, connect to the pool to mine the fee, and then reconnect to the user pool.
For example, Phoenix charges 0.65%. The program connects to the pool defined by the developers every 1.5 hours, mines in their favor for 35 seconds, and then goes back.
lolMiner mines the fee without disconnecting from the pool. One out of 142 shares goes to the developer (the fee is 0.70%).
In our experiment, all mining programs were mining the developer fee. We kept this parameter.
When we were comparing mining programs, we took the fees into consideration. We estimated how many shares a user really gets when he or she uses a certain mining program. Let’s say, the program mines 1 000 shares in an hour. 993 shares go to the user, and 7 shares go to the developer. We calculate the program efficiency based on those 993 shares that the user gets. This is the most important value.
The 2Miners ETH pool has a share difficulty of 8.6G. The share difficulty in the test pool is 134X lower. A mining rig would find many more solutions within the same period of time in the test pool than in the real one. We did it on purpose to evaluate the program performance faster, without waiting for days. We could have set the share difficulty even lower, but we were afraid to encounter some performance limit of the CPU, mining software, network, etc. Mining software is not optimized for sending dozens of shares per second.
We tested each mining program for exactly 2 hours. We evaluated the program performance by the number of shares (solutions) that the program sent after 2 hours of operation. We also took note of hash rates indicated by mining programs to either destroy myths about overstated results or prove that “mining software developers are cheating”.
We didn’t care about the mining software fee and its value. We were analyzing the results of the mining software operation – how many shares a mining program sent in favor of the user.
We were using two operating systems (Windows and Linux), and two types of graphics cards (AMD and Nvidia).
We calculated the real hash rate using the formula:
Number of shares * Difficulty of shares (64M) / Time in seconds (7200)
The hash rate displayed in the program corresponds to the last minute before switching off the program. It takes time for a mining program to “accelerate”, so the hash rate displayed in the program increases a little. The reason is the DAG file generation at the start that affects the stats. That’s why we were recording hash rates for all programs at the same time.
Testing mining software for Nvidia
For tests, we used a gaming computer with the following specs:
Best Ethash Mining Software for Nvidia. Test results.
Surprisingly, the winner is T-Rex. We know that this program is one of the best on KawPoW for Ravencoin and on MTP for Zcoin, but we have never tried it on Ethash. Gminer shows great results as well. We usually recommend it for RVN, AE, BEAM, CTXC, GRIN, MWC and ZEL.
While Claymore and Phoenix were enjoying being on top, new mining programs were working hard on their code optimization. Below you can see the screenshot of the T-Rex operation.
The rest of the programs: Phoenix, ethminer and NBMiner show similar results just behind the leaders. bminer shows the worst result.
Best Ethash Mining Software for AMD. Test results.
There was a tough fight among AMD mining programs for the leading position. TeamRedMiner and lolMiner show the best results. They are the winners. No surprise here. For the last few months, the 2Miners chat members were constantly saying that these two are the best programs for AMD. The difference of 18 shares at the end of the experiment was random. You should test on your own which of these two programs works best for your configuration – TeamRedMiner or lolMiner.
Phoenix Miner came in a close third. Nanominer came fourth. NBMiner showed a good hash rate, but in the course of two hours the program crashed a few times when trying to mine the fee, rebooted automatically, and then kept mining. Probably, it wouldn’t have happened on the real Ethereum server, and the results would have been different.
Phoenix Miner overstates its hash rate. A myth or reality?
We think it’s a myth. According to our experiment, Phoenix hash rate is a bit lower than the stated (49.03 MH/s vs 49.49 MH/s), but the fee of 0.65% means that every 90 minutes the program mines in developers’ favor for 35 seconds. Considering the 0.65% fee, Phoenix hash rate is quite accurate. Plus, Phoenix displays Effective Speed hash rate. Effective Speed didn’t rise above 49 MH/s, which you can see on the screenshot below.
In the AMD experiment, Phoenix showed 89.08 MH/s, while Effective hash rate was 86.33 MH/s and the real hash rate based on the shares sent to the pool was 86.35 MH/s.
As you know, luck means a lot in mining. In an ideal world, Effective Speed must equal Eth Speed, but in our experiment the program was just out of luck. Is it always out of luck? Let us know on Twitter or Telegram. It looks a little suspicious that in both NVIDIA and AMD tests Phoenix was over-reporting it’s actual hashrate but for our test scale size no judgement could be made. Moreover, if you look at the effective hash rate, the program shows good results.
Our verdict is that Phoenix Miner measures its hash rate accurately. You should look at the Effective hash rate!.
How to choose the best Ethash mining software? Conclusion
Our experiment shows that the best mining software for Nvidia is T-Rex and gminer, for AMD – Teamredminer and lolMiner.
Mining programs don’t overstate their hash rates. You can choose software that provides stable operation with the highest hash rate in the miner window. The developer fee shouldn’t be the first thing to consider when choosing mining software. Don’t go for ethminer just because it doesn’t charge a fee.
The results of our experiment are not 100% accurate. Mining programs operate differently depending on graphics cards you use. Plus, mining luck is an important factor. Some mining programs may have had more luck than others in our experiment. Think independently and don’t trust the rumors. Only you can choose the best mining software tailored to your configuration.
On github, Teamredminer rightfully describes mining as a Poisson process. For the experiment to be accurate to a tolerance of 1%, each mining program must send around 100 000 shares. So we need to let each program work for at least 24 hours. Plus, the operation of mining software must be stable, the cryptocurrency network mustn’t change the epoch, etc. We may conduct a longer and more accurate experiment in the future. If you would like to collaborate on it, let us know in the 2Miners Telegram chat.
The 2Miners pool co-founder, businessman, miner. In 2017 started mining cryptocurrencies and built many rigs on his own. As a result, he gained lots of practical knowledge and became interested in sharing it with others.
In his articles on 2Miners, he shares useful tips that he tried and tested himself. For example, Darek gives advice on how to buy hardware components for the basic mining rig and how to connect them to each other correctly. He also explained lots of complicated terms in simple words, such as shares, mining luck, block types, and cryptocurrency wallets. After the pool was launched, he published a series of articles ‘Crypto Mythbusters’ where he explained how to protect the network against 51% attack, talked about cryptocurrency mining difficulty and difficulties of launching your own node.
How to Mine Ethereum and Ethereum Classic on 4GB GPUs
October 17, 2020
The end of 2020 is complicated for Ethereum miners. Starting from epoch 382 (December 16), all 4GB GPUs will stop mining the cryptocurrency. The problem is the gradually increasing DAG file size. Luckily, the developers are working hard to find a solution, and they already have one.
UPD: lolMiner developers released v1.22 version. It's Linux only release that targets improvements of the performance of the so-called zombie mode. It improves the performance of zombie mode on RX 400 and RX 500 GPUs in Linux. Performance increases by 7-11% on epoch 393 and 15-20% on epoch 400. You can download it here.
Here is a graph of the GPUs hashrate as the DAG file grows.
DAG is a data block uploaded to the GPU memory when a miner launches. It’s essential to mining because it helps devices to find blocks, ensure the network security, and get a reward for the completed work.
DAG is gradually increasing in size. It grows by 8MB every 30 thousand blocks. With time, GPUs can’t process the file anymore, so miners are forced to mine other cryptocurrencies. In mid-December, 4GB GPUs will stop mining Ethereum. However, the developers have found a way to let them mine Ethereum for longer.
Some 4GB GPUs already can’t mine Ethereum. Possible reasons are old mining software, GPUs from different brands, or Windows OS that is more demanding to resources. The problem is obvious.
What to Do If GPUs Can’t Mine Ethereum
The lolMiner developers (we talk about the miner here) are aware of the upcoming 4GB GPU problem. They have released the updated software version adding the so-called zombie mode for cryptocurrency mining. This mode will enable 4GB GPUs to mine Ethereum even at the beginning of 2021.
Why the zombie mode? Here is a quote by the project developer Wilke Trei, known as Lolliedieb.
I was asked why zombie mode. Well, I found that term fitting. These are cards that are supposed to be dead, yet they continue mining but gradually slower. Like an undead (GPU jargon).
Ethereum mining will be possible with gradually degrading performance.
The new mode is working. As a proof, the developer showed a screenshot where he is mining the cryptocurrency in the test network on epoch 390. The graphics card with 4GB of RAM keeps mining with the hash rate of 23 MH/s.
The developer concluded the following.
This mode enables Ethereum mining after epoch 381, the last epoch that lets GPUs work at full capacity. GPU performance will gradually degrade. Hash rate will go down to 95% on epoch 382, and to 55% on epoch 390. It will be only 22% on epoch 400, but mining will go on.
GPUs will give out over 50% of their efficiency in the course of the next eleven epochs. It means 60 additional days of mining after the official shutdown.
In the table below, the developer shows the performance of the AMD RX 580 that normally gives out 30 MH/s. On December 21, it will give out 27.63 MH/s, or 92% of full capacity.
Hash Rate in the Zombie Mode of RX 580 4G is presented below.
Zombie mode will work both on Windows and Linux. Windows will not provide the best results, as you can see in the table.
Does it make sense to mine this way? It does. Along with 4GB GPUs, 4GB ASICs will also stop mining Ethereum. The network hash rate will decrease significantly which will lead to lower mining difficulty. The remaining GPUs will make more profit from ETH than before. The advantages are obvious.
Here is what the developer says.
What to do with all 4GB devices? ETC, Beam, and Heaven mining difficulty may skyrocket, so 50% of the profit from 4GB GPUs might still be better than the profit from altcoins.
The developers believe that mining with 4GB GPUs in the new mode after the DAG file increase can bring even better results than before. When miners start having problems with DAG, they are forced to switch to other cryptocurrencies which will make their mining difficulty go up.
How to Set Up the Software for 4GB GPU Mining
The only parameter you can change in the lolMiner zombie mode is “keepfree”. It gives the number of megabytes the miner won’t use on the card to reserve it for the system.
By default, this value is set to 56MB in Windows and 5MB in Linux, which should work fine. Here is a bat file setting for Windows.
The developer says that if everything is working and mining is on, there is no need to adjust anything. If you are having problems, run a benchmark using the following command. This one is for Windows.
Then see how your miner operates. If it freezes, increase keepfree by 8MB and try again.
For better performance, you can try to decrease the value by 8MB – 48MB for Windows and 0MB for Linux. If it worked, you can try to lower it even more. Repeat until your miner launches and operates properly.
We recommend mining Ethereum in the 2Miners pool. It has a user-friendly interface, advanced settings, and the support of multiple languages.
LolMiner has definitely brought some good news. Ethereum mining will go on, and GPU owners will keep making a profit from it. Hopefully, we will see a similar approach to other cryptocurrencies in the future.
Recently TeamRedMiner has launched the 0.7.20 miner version with the advanced mining mode. It is similar to the zombie mode and offers a compromise between the GPU efficiency and overall possibility of mining.
Phoenix Miner also supports 4GB mining with no additional settings required.
4GB GPU Mining Tuning and Troubleshooting
All GPU’s have a different amount of memory (RAM) even if they are stated as 4GB. They could have 3896MB / 3996MB / 4024MB / 4096MB for example. Each miner has a special parameter that regulates the amount of memory used for mining. Here is how to set it up for each miner:
lolMiner
--4g-alloc-size N
TeamRedMiner
--eth_4g_max_alloc=N
Phoenix Miner
-daglim N
According to TeamRedMiner Devs the expected range for N is 4070-4078. You really want to run with the highest N possible for your rig. If the rig fails to allocate the RAM on startup or the miner crashes after 5-10 mins every time, lower the number (N) in small steps until the miner runs ok.
The default number N = 4072
The idea is quite simple. You could increase the N number until the miner works fine and doesn’t crash. The higher this N number is the higher hashrate you could get.
Ethereum Classic Mining with 4GB GPUs
Wilke says that the zombie mode is only available for AMD for now, but Nvidia support is coming soon.
It also supports Windows with a smooth mining launch. During Ethereum Classic mining tests, GPUs give out 17.32 MH/s instead of 21.5 MH/s. Such cutback is quite acceptable.
Mining ETC with 4GB GPUs is possible. Miners have a choice now. Ethereum Classic has already cut the DAG size down, so that 3GB GPUs could mine cryptocurrencies. We have an article about this update.
[Update] LolMiner Benchmark on 380 and 385 Epoch ETC Mining
Check the new screenshot provided by the lolMiner developers below for AMD RX580 GPU. On the left, you find the performance on epoch 385. On the right epoch 380. Hashrate has dropped from 29.5 MH/s to 22.2 MH/s but the card is still mining even 3 epochs above its limit.
If you want to get the latest updates follow us on TWITTER or join our Telegram Chat.
The 2Miners pool co-founder, businessman, miner. In 2017 started mining cryptocurrencies and built many rigs on his own. As a result, he gained lots of practical knowledge and became interested in sharing it with others.
In his articles on 2Miners, he shares useful tips that he tried and tested himself. For example, Darek gives advice on how to buy hardware components for the basic mining rig and how to connect them to each other correctly. He also explained lots of complicated terms in simple words, such as shares, mining luck, block types, and cryptocurrency wallets. After the pool was launched, he published a series of articles ‘Crypto Mythbusters’ where he explained how to protect the network against 51% attack, talked about cryptocurrency mining difficulty and difficulties of launching your own node.
Ethereum Classic To Allow Cryptocurrency Mining on 3 GB GPUs
October 3, 2020
August 2020 hit Ethereum Classic quite hard. The cryptocurrency network has suffered from the big 51% attack more than once. Because of the attack and massive split, miners have wasted money and multiple hours of work. The developers have taken action. One of the solutions is to decrease the DAG file size, which will allow using old 3 GB GPUs for mining. Let’s get into it.
The developers came up with a plan already In the second half of August. They presented a plan on how to rescue the cryptocurrency with immediate actions and long-term changes. The former included the so-called defensive mining, enhanced network monitoring, and Permapoints, while the latter included PirlGuard activation and the change of the mining algorithm. You can find more info about the plan here.
The Future of Ethereum Classic
The original cause of the problems and regular 51% attacks is the mining algorithm. For Ethereum Classic it’s Ethash, also used by Ethereum. Ethereum is a dominant cryptocurrency of the algorithm. It means that it’s mined by most GPUs, while ETC gets much less. This explains why Ethereum Classic has a relatively low hash rate. This also means that attackers just need to rent mining power from the cloud services to perform an attack.
Today, a 1-hour attack on Ethereum Classic costs $3,326. At the same time, you need $233,000 to attack Ethereum.
Attack on the network is easy and doesn’t require much money, so attackers take advantage of it. Adding more hash rate and miners could solve the problem. However, 3 GB GPUs can’t mine ETC, and 4 GB GPUs are next in line. The reason for this is the DAG file that constantly increases in size.
Ethereum Classic DAG File Size
Ethash mining algorithm uses a so-called DAG file. It’s a data block that is uploaded to the GPU memory when a miner launches. It helps GPUs to find block solutions, ensure the network operation, and get rewards. The DAG file size increases by 8 MB every 30 thousand blocks. It means that as time goes by, GPUs can’t mine certain cryptocurrencies anymore, because their memory size is fixed.
For example, in February 2020 Antminer E3 ceased to mine Ethereum Classic. After a few days, Bitmain released the update that enabled the ASIC miner to continue mining ETC.
The current DAG size for Ethereum Classic is 3.95 GB. It means that soon 4 GB GPUs won’t be able to mine ETC. So the network hash rate will go down, and it will be even easier for hackers to attack the crypto blockchain.
The developers can’t let it happen, so they have come up with an interesting solution. They are going to reduce the DAG size, which will make ETC mining possible even for 3 GB GPUs unable to mine Ethereum Classic in the past.
The decision was made by the ETC Core developers during their recent call. Here is the call transcript.
Ethereum Classic has recently posted about the meeting outcome on Twitter.
In this case, ECIP-1099 will be responsible for the increasing DAG file size solution. The activation of this solution will decrease the DAG size. Here is a quote from the document.
The original intent of the DAG was to provide ASIC resistance to the mining protocol in order to prevent the centralization of mining distributions and thereby provide for an objectively fair distribution of tokens. As evident by ASICs being developed that are capable of matching current GPU miners while being more energy-efficient, the DAG has succeeded in leveling the playing field between GPU incumbents and ASIC challengers, avoiding ASIC takeover and domination, and leading to a competitive and large mining ecosystem. However, the original parameters are proving too aggressive, resulting in obsoleting support for GPUs still in wide use today by miners.
So the developers admit that the current DAG growth rate is too intense. That’s why they decided to decrease the DAG size, thus enabling Ethereum Classic mining even on 3 GB GPUs. This will increase the network hash rate making it more secure against potential 51% attacks. This way the developers will kill two birds with one stone.
Here is another quote from the document.
At the current epoch (372) the DAG size is 3.91 GB. 4 GB GPUs are getting obsolete while they still make up a significant amount of Ethash hash rate. Activating this change at epoch 376 (for example) would reduce the DAG size from 3.94 GB to 2.47 GB. With the reduced growth rate, 4 GB GPUs will remain supported for an additional 3+ years.
It’s not known yet at which epoch the DAG size will be reduced, but the announcement is coming soon. According to the document, the ECIP-1099 review is due on October 2. The exact date will be announced very soon. We just have to wait for the next developer meeting.
Now we would like to sum up pointing out the importance of the DAG size decrease for Ethereum Classic. Both for the network and the community.
The smaller DAG will enable ETC mining on 3 GB GPUs. Moreover, 4 GB GPUs are going to mine ETC for another few years. The network will get new miners and a higher hash rate. So hackers would need more resources for 51% attacks. This is likely to stop them.
The owners of older GPUs will be able to make a profit from the popular cryptocurrency. That’s good, because mining little-known cryptocurrencies may be risky due to their instability. With Ethereum Classic, you don’t have to worry that the project will cease to exist in, let’s say, a month. This is a big plus for miners.
Moreover, ETC mining is quite profitable. According to the 2CryptoCalc mining profitability calculator, the cryptocurrency is always at the top. As of today, it’s the most profitable.
Hopefully, the developers will implement the change very soon. We recommend mining Ethereum Classic in the 2Miners ETC pool.
If you want to get the latest updates follow us on TWITTER or join our Telegram Chat.
Miner since 2017, the 2Miners pool co-founder. Became interested in cryptocurrencies at the dawn of the latest bull run and bought his first graphics cards. After having built and set up a few mining rigs, he realized that existing mining pools didn’t satisfy him – that’s how the idea of creating the 2Miners pool was born.
John published a series of articles about the basics of cryptocurrency mining. He gave valuable tips on how to buy ASICs and GPUs from abroad and then shared their mining performance. On the website, you can find early articles about cryptocurrency mining, blockchain in general and mining pool operation principles. The readers gave positive feedback on John’s practical guides, such as building an Ethereum mining rig and Nvidia 1080ti overclocking.
September 2020 Work Progress Report: Zcoin Halving, Ethereum Extra High Rewards
October 1, 2020
Zcoin halving, Ethereum Classic automatic payouts restarted, 2CryptoCalc updates, Ethereum extra high rewards.
Zcoin Halving
Halving has happened in XZC network. The block reward has been reduced from 14 XZC to 6.25 XZC. Halving procedure was invented to stimulate the price growth reducing the coin emission. Unfortunately, this time it didn’t help much. Zcoin price has dropped about 35% in September according to Coinmarketcap.
2Masternodes has decided to close the ZCoin (XZC) masternode shared hosting service. The service costs were too high in comparison with XZC node maintenance costs. Unfortunately, there are no active masternode coins left on the 2Masternodes service so the service operation has been suspended.
Ethereum Classic Automatic Payouts
We have started automatic payouts every 2 hours on ETC PPLNS and ETC SOLO pools. 12 000 new blocks (2 days) are required to confirm the rewards as before, though.
September was an attack-free month for Ethereum Classic network. Moreover, ETC devs are working on their Security Plan. Recently they have decided to drop the DAG file size. The exact date has not been specified yet.
Ethereum Record Rewards
The Uniswap Protocol token called UNI was launched on September 17. Ethereum mining rewards were “flying to the moon” due to the extremely high gas price in the ETH network. Sometimes up to 10 ETH was added to the standard 2 ETH block reward.
We constantly work on the 2CryptoCalc mining profit calculator. This month we’ve added new NVIDIA GPU’s: 3080 and 3090. We’ve also added payback data for all GPU’s presented on the service.
Next month we expect the new design for 2CryptoCalc and even more features being implemented.
Remember to follow us on Twitter to get all the news as soon as possible.
The 2Miners pool co-founder, businessman, miner. In 2017 started mining cryptocurrencies and built many rigs on his own. As a result, he gained lots of practical knowledge and became interested in sharing it with others.
In his articles on 2Miners, he shares useful tips that he tried and tested himself. For example, Darek gives advice on how to buy hardware components for the basic mining rig and how to connect them to each other correctly. He also explained lots of complicated terms in simple words, such as shares, mining luck, block types, and cryptocurrency wallets. After the pool was launched, he published a series of articles ‘Crypto Mythbusters’ where he explained how to protect the network against 51% attack, talked about cryptocurrency mining difficulty and difficulties of launching your own node.
August 2020 Work Progress Report: New Coin Cortex, Zelcash Halving
September 2, 2020
Ethereum Classic problems, Zelcash halving, 2CryptoCalc ver 2.0, Grin C31 removed, Cortex on 2Miners.
2CryptoCalc Major Update
New version of 2CryptoCalc.com mining profit calculator has been released. We call it ver 2.0 as it includes many updates and bug fixes.
Hashrate and GPU model modes, pool and solo calculation, Nicehash profitability, and many more. Ver 2.0 uses the new design. The calculator now is even faster than before. We’ve added the NVIDIA Super GPU’s like GeForce GTX 1660 Super and GeForce GTX 2070 Super. We’ll add other GPU’s as soon as we test them and get the precise hashrates for all algorithms.
If you find any bugs – please let us know in 2Miners Telegram Chat – @chat2miners
Suggestions/ideas how could we make it even better are highly appreciated. If you find some “null” values in this table it would be fantastic if you could share the correct hashrate instead.
Ethereum Classic Problems
2 massive attacks on Ethereum Classic network were performed in August. Almost 4000 blocks were rejected after the massive blockchain re-organization on August, 6. Later on the 7000 blocks reorg (starting from block 11 090 685) has happened on August, 30.
The 2Miners pool co-founder, businessman, miner. In 2017 started mining cryptocurrencies and built many rigs on his own. As a result, he gained lots of practical knowledge and became interested in sharing it with others.
In his articles on 2Miners, he shares useful tips that he tried and tested himself. For example, Darek gives advice on how to buy hardware components for the basic mining rig and how to connect them to each other correctly. He also explained lots of complicated terms in simple words, such as shares, mining luck, block types, and cryptocurrency wallets. After the pool was launched, he published a series of articles ‘Crypto Mythbusters’ where he explained how to protect the network against 51% attack, talked about cryptocurrency mining difficulty and difficulties of launching your own node.
Ethereum Classic Future – Discussing ETC Network Current State and Security Plan
August 25, 2020
Ethereum Classic network has experienced two 51% attacks last month causing serious consequences: 6 500 blocks declined, miners and mining pools have lost at least 1 complete day of work, exchanges have lost more than $5.6 million due to the double-spend. Recently ETC developers have released a Network Security Plan which aims to protect the coin in the future. In this post, we express our views on the Ethereum Classic problem.
ETC Network Security Plan – What is Wrong With It?
The plan released by the Ethereum Classic devs could be found in this Medium post.
Defensive Mining seems strange. How is it supposed to be done? For sure it requires a lot of resources (=money). Being among the Top ETC pools nobody has contacted us concerning this matter.
Enhanced Network Monitoring is questionable too. ETC Cooperative has announced the new tool called ForkWatch. All it does is Nicehash hashpower rental price monitoring. This doesn’t seem much helpful and accurate.
“Permapoint” or “PirlGuard” sounds good. This kind of solution could be implemented quickly and in our opinion will help to protect the network.
We are firmly against the algorithms that support ASIC/FPGA mining. Only GPU-mining is real decentralization. Graphics cards are sold all over the World. Moreover, we could trust these companies and believe they are not cheating. NVIDIA and AMD are solid, well-known companies with over $400 billion total market capitalization.
ASIC’s, on the other side, means centralization. ASIC’s are produced on a couple of Chinese factories. There is usually a so-called pre-mine while the manufacturer uses the newly produced hardware on its own to get some profit. ASIC manufacturers sometimes play unfairly making their products work for specific Chinese mining pools. They don’t care about other pools and provide no support. ASIC distribution network is complicated. ASIC devices always require special facilities. All these factors mean ASIC mining is only for “big players”. Taking into account modest Ethereum Classic capitalization and potential mining profit the transition to the ASIC-mined algorithm would be counterproductive to ETC Network.
The GPU mining community is strong and creates a lot more media effect than the ASIC community. For a good example, let’s remember the ZCash (ZEC) story. While ZEC was mined with graphics cards it was as popular as Ethereum. Nowadays rarely one could hear a word about this coin in the media: most of the mining is done on large ASIC plants, the project development is centered around large mining plants and not around the community.
Ethereum Classic Vulnerability
We’ve discussed this problem multiple times in our blog posts. Attacks that happened in August 2020 were not the first ones. In January 2019 ETC Network was attacked in the same way. The existence of the 51%-attack is absolutely normal for any Cryptocurrency Network. Even Bitcoin could be attacked that way. Just the price of the attack is a lot higher. The main ETC problem is that it is not the dominant coin of the algorithm.
Currently, Ethereum network hashrate is 55 times higher than Ethereum Classic network hashrate.
A lot of miners are not controlling their rigs leasing their hashpower to Nicehash and other mining rig rental services. This gives the hackers the possibility to rent enough hashrate to perform the attack on the ETC network. Ethereum, on the other hand, couldn’t be attacked that way, as there is no such purchasable hashrate available on the market.
ETC Network Protection – Possible Solutions
There are two major possibilities: either the algorithm must be changed or the protection system must be implemented. How to Prevent a 51% Attack
We like the systems to be as simple and transparent as possible. That means we prefer the algorithm change over the protection system implementation. However, that doesn’t mean that the “protection way” is wrong.
The new algorithm must be wisely chosen:
Ethereum Classic should become the dominant coin of the algorithm.
It is always quite impossible to find the hashrate required to attack the dominant coin of the algorithm.
ASIC-protection is required.
Only GPU mining could provide the proper decentralization of the network.
Current Ethereum Classic Network State
Nothing has been done so far.
For the time being, the development team behind Ethereum Classic have released a Network Security Plan, a proposal aimed to outline possible actions to prevent such attacks in the future, when the proposed changes will be decided on and implemented.
Ethereum Classic Network is still as vulnerable as it was before. The only difference is that now coin developers, exchanges, and mining pools pay more attention to the current network state and monitor it to prevent the new possible losses.
Major exchanges like Binance have put the coin on hold freezing the deposits and withdrawals. Mining pools have increased the number of confirmations (new blocks on the network) to confirm the rewards. 2Miners now requires 10 000 new blocks to confirm the Ethereum Classic balance. ETC payouts are processed 1 time every 24 hours (not every 2 hours as before).
Why are these actions necessary?
Obviously, we don’t want to lose money. Not only the exchanges are under attack. Being the Top-3 Ethereum Classic pool attacks cost us too much. Just during the second attack we’ve lost more than monthly ETC income. Imagine other mining pools loss as well. According to our investigation, all ETC mining pools together have lost almost $100 000 during these attacks in August.
Nobody from Ethereum Classic aims to compensate for these losses.
Conclusion – 2Miners Suggestions
We would like Ethereum Classic Developers to listen to the companies that provide value to the Network infrastructure — a good example of this would be mining pools and Cryptocurrency Exchanges.
We aim to provide a transparent and stable infrastructure for our miners and the network as a whole. While we could support ASIC algorithms in our pool if such a decision will be made, we’re striving for broader decentralization only possible through multiple independent small miners as opposed to large ASIC mining operations/factories.
Changing the algorithm from Ethash could be the solution but then it will automatically mean Ethereum Classic loses any chances to become the logical successor to Ethereum mining once the latter switches to PoS. So each direction has to be carefully evaluated by the community and for sure ranged against existing offers on the leased hash power market, otherwise, there is no gain in the algorithm switch whatsoever. We also think the decisions have to be done quickly — the more delays we have, the less prone to attacks the coin is.
If you want to get the latest updates follow us on TWITTER or join our Telegram Chat.
The 2Miners pool co-founder, businessman, miner. In 2017 started mining cryptocurrencies and built many rigs on his own. As a result, he gained lots of practical knowledge and became interested in sharing it with others.
In his articles on 2Miners, he shares useful tips that he tried and tested himself. For example, Darek gives advice on how to buy hardware components for the basic mining rig and how to connect them to each other correctly. He also explained lots of complicated terms in simple words, such as shares, mining luck, block types, and cryptocurrency wallets. After the pool was launched, he published a series of articles ‘Crypto Mythbusters’ where he explained how to protect the network against 51% attack, talked about cryptocurrency mining difficulty and difficulties of launching your own node.
How to Mine Cortex? Mining Settings, CTXC Profitability, Coin Features
August 24, 2020
Many cryptocurrencies follow the Bitcoin model offering the possibility to store and transfer value. Others follow the Ethereum example and go further. They become a global platform for decentralized apps and smart contracts. Cortex chose a different path. The developers decided to combine blockchain with artificial intelligence and machine learning. Let’s talk about the cryptocurrency and its mining in the 2Miners pool.
What is Cortex CTXC
The main page of the official website reflects what the developers are trying to build. Cortex is claimed to be “AI on blockchain” and “decentralized AI autonomous system”.
The project code is open-source, and its main mission is to provide state-of-the-art machine-learning models on the blockchain. Users will be able to infer in them using smart contracts on the Cortex blockchain. The creators also plan to implement a machine-learning platform that will allow users to submit AI DApps (Artificial Intelligence Decentralized Applications).
The main components of the project are AI and machine learning. However, these features exist only in theory for now.
Cortex CTXC Features
Two main features of the project are smart AI contracts and the Cortex Virtual Machine (CVM).
Smart AI contracts allow users to write machine-learning programs on the blockchain and submit interactions with other contracts. CVM is fully compatible with EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine).
In the section dedicated to the Cortex consensus criteria, the developers explain what makes their project stand out. They talk about the difference between ordinary smart contracts and Cortex. Intelligent contracts may include inference instructions, but all the nodes will need to agree on the outcome of the inferred result. The developers plan to set up a bridge between computing power providers and algorithm providers for trading.
They want to create state-of-the-art AI in the blockchain ecosystem that can be managed independently by smart contracts.
The developers also plan to link two types of users. Machine learning researchers can upload AI data models to the platform, while other users who need these AI models can pay to their providers.
The developers established the Cortex AI ecosystem. Users can use CTXC to purchase AI-related products like graphics cards, deep learning machines, cloud computing services. The network users will need CTXC, the network native token, to execute such operations.
Bitmain that is also working on AI has invested in Cortex. Its AI-focused subsidiary is called Sophon.
Here is a full list of investors.
Cortex CTXC Performance
The cryptocurrency ranks 191st in the CoinMarketCap chart. It is far from the top ten, but still a good result, considering that the overall number of projects on the platform is 6 511. The current rate is $0.14, which is a bit higher than the day before.
The market cap exceeds $35 million, while the 24-hour trading volume is $12.99 million.
CTXC has been listed on CoinMarketCap since April 2018. It reached its peak price of $2.41 on April 30, 2018.
It is worth mentioning that the chart currently shows growing trading volumes. You can see it at the very bottom of the screenshot, under the green curve.
Where to Buy Cortex CTXC
Many popular cryptocurrency exchanges trade Cortex CTXC. In the last 24 hours, Huobi accounted for 46% of its trading volume. Other major platforms are Binance, OKEx, Bithumb, BKEX, etc. Cortex is usually traded in pairs with Tether and Bitcoin.
Here is a full list of partner exchanges from the official website.
Cortex CTXC Wallet
To work with the CTXC token Cortex users can choose wallets for different platforms. The developers created iOS and Android versions. Desktop/laptop users can install the Cortex Wallet in Chrome. All the links are on the official website.
For some reason Download for iOS and Download for Android buttons don’t work. If you have an Android, go straight to Google Play.
Cortex CTXC Mining
Cortex mining is based on the Cuckoo algorithm which is also known as CuckooCortex Algorithm. The block find time is 13 seconds, the block reward is 7 CTXC. The network will regularly perform reward halvings similarly to Bitcoin. The network hash rate is around 8 KGps, the difficulty is 2.48 K.
It’s worth mentioning that CTXC mining requires a lot of memory. For Windows 7 or Linux OS the requirement is no less than 8 GB, while for Windows 10 it is 10 GB, because of a large amount of memory reserved for mining. The good thing is that the algorithm doesn’t heat GPUs. Cortex is usually very profitable for high-performance NVIDIA GPU’s.
To verify transactions in the Cortex network, you can use the blockchain explorer. It contains information about blocks, transactions, and even the best miners.
Where to Mine Cortex CTXC
We recommend mining CTXC in the 2Miners pool. The pool has more than 9 thousand users, supports PPLNS and SOLO mining. It is also available in 18 languages and offers a vast choice of popular coins.
Before you can start mining, you need an address in the cryptocurrency network. You can use the Cortex wallet mentioned above or the account on the crypto exchange like Binance.
Gminer is a good choice for mining. We already have a dedicated review here. It supports only Nvidia for now, so you can use lolMiner for AMD. Here is a link to download these programs. The password to the archive is 2miners (no dots, no capital letters).
In the bat file, you should replace the wallet address with your own.
A sample address: 0xa5f2c7c78e90e01b21d25dc0971b63e7a50f88a6.
You can also customize the rig name by replacing “RIG_ID”. The name can contain no more than 32 symbols: Latin letters, numbers 0–9, symbols “_” and “-“.
A sample rig name: rig-1.
Here are the correct Gminer settings for Cortex mining.
lolMiner.exe --coin CTXC --pool ctxc.2miners.com:2222 --user YOUR_LOGIN.RIG_ID --pass x
pause
GPU Hash Rates
Below you can see approximate hash rates that you can refer to when mining Cortex CTXC.
Nvidia GTX 1070 – 1.5 g/s (0.036 h/s)
Nvidia GTX 1070ti — 1.6 g/s (0.038 h/s)
Nvidia GTX 1080 — 1.6 g/s (0.038 h/s)
Nvidia P104-100 — 1.6 g/s (0.038 h/s)
Nvidia P102-100 — 2.8 g/s (0.066 h/s)
Nvidia GTX 1080ti — 3 g/s (0.071 h/s)
Nvidia RTX 2070 — 2.8 g/s (0.066 h/s)
Nvidia RTX 2080ti — 4.8 g/s (0.114 h/s)
AMD Radeon VII — 3.05 g/s (0.073 h/s)
AMD Vega 64 — 2.2 g/s (0.053 h/s)
AMD Vega 56 — 2.0 g/s (0.048 h/s)
AMD RX 5700 — 1.85 g/s (0.044 h/s)
AMD RX 580 — 1.25 g/s (0.030 h/s)
Cortex CTXC Mining Profitability
We always use 2CryptoCalc to calculate mining profitability. For example, let’s take 300 Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti GPUs that give out 900 Gps.
At the current network performance and CTXC rate, the cryptocurrency mining would bring $597 per day. Below you can see a weekly and monthly profit.
Here is an estimate for SOLO mining. The numbers are similar.
You can check the actual Cortex CXTC mining profitability on this page.
Conclusion
Cortex is an attractive project. Its developers have interesting ideas about AI and it has a relatively low market cap of $35 million, which offers growth potential. Plus, it is not a new project. It has been around for over two years. So it was not created just because the popularity of the crypto industry is high and Bitcoin price is growing.
With the developers planning to do something truly impactful and exciting, the project surely deserves your attention.
The 2Miners pool co-founder, businessman, miner. In 2017 started mining cryptocurrencies and built many rigs on his own. As a result, he gained lots of practical knowledge and became interested in sharing it with others.
In his articles on 2Miners, he shares useful tips that he tried and tested himself. For example, Darek gives advice on how to buy hardware components for the basic mining rig and how to connect them to each other correctly. He also explained lots of complicated terms in simple words, such as shares, mining luck, block types, and cryptocurrency wallets. After the pool was launched, he published a series of articles ‘Crypto Mythbusters’ where he explained how to protect the network against 51% attack, talked about cryptocurrency mining difficulty and difficulties of launching your own node.
.
