Recently, there has been Interesting news about the first attack on the network. Contrary to some researchers, the experts of Bitquery analytics company don’t think that the attack was caused by a random bug. The attack was planned. The attacker took advantage of the vulnerability in the network and performed a double-spend attack worth 800 thousand ETC.

According to Decrypt, the attacker appropriated the sum equivalent to 5 million dollars. Meanwhile, hashing power rented for the attack cost 192 thousand dollars. The net income is impressive.

We checked the latest data. According to Crypto51, a 1-hour 51% attack on Ethereum Classic costed 15.73 thousand dollars yesterday and just $6 534 today. For comparison, the same value for Bitcoin and Ethereum is 520 thousand and 429 thousand respectively.

Ethereum Classic under the Second Attack

Yesterday the ETC network has suffered another 51% attack, the second one this week. It is bigger than the first attack. The attacker has turned 4 thousand blocks into orphans.

It is not clear whether it was the same attacker as the first one or someone got “inspired” by Saturday events.

The problems were noticed in the morning. The 2Miners pool interrupted payouts in ETC and recommended miners to switch to Ethereum mining. Reject signs in the right column point to the problems in the network operation.

Another huge attack on Ethereun Classic (ETC) network has been performed recently.

Almost 4000 blocks were rejected after the massive blockchain re-organization.

ETC payouts are stopped. Meanwhile, we recommend you to switch to ETH pool: https://t.co/HtEdjXnA9W pic.twitter.com/7pdVBLPo7a

— 2Miners (@pool2miners) August 6, 2020

Bitfly (Ethermine mining pool) also spoke about the recent events and advised their users to mine Ether.

Today another large 51% attack occurred on the #ETC which caused a reorganization of over 4000 blocks. Until further notice ETC pool payouts are disabled and we encourage all our miners to switch to our #ETH pool at https://t.co/f8Px6gGJiM in the meantime.

— Bitfly (@etherchain_org) August 6, 2020

Vitalik Buterin, an Ethereum co-founder, has joined the discussion. He recommended the ETC developers to switch to Proof-of-Stake. Here is the quote.

ETC should just switch to proof of stake. Even given its risk-averse culture, at this point making the jump seems lower-risk than not making it.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 6, 2020

This comment is probably a joke that just draws attention to continuous problems in the ETC network. However, the problems in the ETC network began when the developers removed Ethereum Classic support from the updated version of MultiGeth last week.

Everybody related to Ethereum Classic, especially miners and mining pools, suffered from the attack. For example, Nanopool had to recalculate the balances of ETC accounts, because all the blocks in the interval from 10904147 to 10907763 were rejected. Naturally, miners will not be rewarded for this work.

According to MiningPoolStats statistics, the attacker has continued to control the network. At the time of writing, the distribution of the last one thousand blocks looked as follows.

67.9% of the blocks were found by one unknown address.

Ethereum Classic once again recommended pools and exchanges to interrupt payouts.

https://twitter.com/eth_classic/status/1291269777424515076

It’s worth reminding that Ethereum Classic is not a dominant coin of the Ethash algorithm. It means that any user can rent hashing power from Nicehash and organize such attacks on the network. Nicehash does have enough power to rent. It possesses 149% of the overall ETC network hash rate, which allows attackers to cause a lot of trouble.

There is no clear solution. The current tendencies may lead to the situation when it would take days for deposits to be approved. For example, they may be approved every 10 000 blocks or more. Considering the current problems, it is impossible to use the network properly.

Until then, there are a lot of risks involved. The second 51% attack started right after the deposits on exchanges had been restored. It means that attackers were waiting for this moment to immediately start the attack.

Here is the Ethereum Classic exchange rate chart. We did notice a small reaction to the latest events (but not significant though). The decrease of the ETC cost in the middle of the week, on August 2, coincided with the decline of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market in general. So it seems that the first 51% attack has nothing to do with it.

Overall, the situation is sad. The Ethereum Classic network already suffered 51% attacks in the past, but two large-scale reorganizations of thousands of blocks in just five days is too much. Miners can’t ensure the network operation and can’t be certain that they will get the reward. Any time an attacker can rent hashing power, block the ETC operation and deprive you of what you earned during multiple hours of work.

Apparently, the developers didn’t learn their lesson after the first incident failing to find a way to protect the network from the attack. For now, they only ask pools and exchanges to interrupt payouts and share articles about the attacks. Indeed, it is more secure to mine the regular Ethereum nowadays. At least in the nearest future.

If you want to get the latest updates follow us on TWITTER or join our Telegram Chat.

What is MimbleWimbleCoin

As the name suggests, MimbleWimbleCoin (MWC) is a cryptocurrency based on the MimbleWimble privacy protocol. Its white paper was published by the pseudonymous developer Tom Elvis Jedusor on July 19, 2016. The author’s name refers to Voldemort, the main antagonist in the series of Harry Potter novels. The character’s real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, while the author’s pseudonym is Voldemort’s French name.

By the way, the word “MimbleWimble” is a spell from Harry Potter. The anonymous developer is definitely a fan of the novel.

MimbleWimble provides a blockchain with advanced scalability, confidentiality, and interchangeable tokens. In the beginning, there was an idea to improve the Bitcoin blockchain by implementing the protocol, but the process turned out to be too complicated.

As a result, MimbleWimble has given birth to privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies. The most popular ones are Grin and Beam. You can mine them in the 2Miners pool. In November 2019, the successor of these projects was created. It was MimbleWimbleCoin. Unlike Grin, MWC has decided to gradually decrease the inflation rate by limiting the overall coin supply in advance.

The main facts about MimbleWimbleCoin are as follows.

• Total supply: 20 million MWC.
• Proof-of-Work Consensus Algorithm: Cuckoo Cycle C29/C31.
• Source code: open source.
• Code base: Grin code base.
• Transactions: each of them uses CoinJoin and Confidential Transactions.

MimbleWimbleCoin Features

The key MWC feature is the HODL program. The program rewards MimbleWimbleCoin addresses that, during predetermined periods of time, have zero negative movements. This way the developers are trying to encourage MWC owners to hold their coins, because even the smallest amount may bring profit.

If you simply store coins on the wallet, without any movement, there will be more of them after a certain period of time. The first HODL program rewards were distributed at block 305 000 and 314 760. They amounted to 7 699 MWC and 774 065 MWC respectively.

It’s worth mentioning that the HODL program rewards users for simply having coins on their wallets. It is different from proof-of-stake that is to be implemented by Ethereum in the future. In this case, users will intentionally lock their ETH in smart contracts and participate in the life of the network by validating transactions and getting a reward for their work. Meanwhile, MimbleWimbleCoin users don’t have to lock anything. The fact of having coins on the wallet is already enough to get a reward.

Here is the predetermined coin distribution.

• 10 million MWC for mining.
• 10 million MWC for the genesis block.
• 7 400 037 MWC have been distributed and are circulating.
• 2 599 962 MWC are currently held in verifiable escrow wallets.
• 2 000 000 MWC for the HODL program.

The developers think that digital money must possess the following ten characteristics. It must be scarce, censorship-resistant, extensible, durable, indestructible, salable, portable, fungible, private, and divisible. Through these qualities, MimbleWimbleCoin creators have defined the goal of the project described on the official website.

Their mission is to exceed other coins on the market with regard to these ten characteristics.

MimbleWimbleCoin Performance

Currently, MimbleWimbleCoin ranks 215th in the CoinMarketCap chart valued at $16. The market cap exceeds $165 million with a circulating supply of 10.37 million MWC. The 24-hour trading volume exceeds $2.07 million, or 193 BTC.

Here is the cryptocurrency chart. MWC was added to the database on February 24, 2020, so there is not much information. It’s worth mentioning that the trading volume peaked in the period from the end of April to the beginning of May fluctuating between $79 million and $146 million per day.

Where to Buy MimbleWimbleCoin MWC

MimbleWimbleCoin is traded on several exchanges. The key ones are BitForex and Hotbit that account for 82% and 17% of the overall cryptocurrency trading volume respectively.

By the way, the 2Miners pool users have had problems with the crypto exchange BitForex. More specifically, the exchange lost the coins of a pool miner and failed to find them. As a result, the pool team covered the miner’s loss, while the exchange representatives denied the problem. More details about the issue are in this article.

Make sure to keep it in mind when you choose an exchange. We recommend HotBit.

MimbleWimbleCoin Wallet

The MimbleWimbleCoin MWC wallet is available on macOS, Linux, and Windows. At the time of writing, the latest version is mwc-1.0.22 issued on June 19, 2020.

You can download the official MWC QT Wallet for any OS on the website of the project. Other options include the full-node wallet and the MWC 713 project.

MimbleWimbleCoin Mining

As we have already mentioned, MimbleWimbleCoin MWC mining is available on two algorithms: Cuckarood29 and cuckAToo31. Block time is 60 seconds, the block reward is 0.6 MWC. At the current exchange rate, it is equivalent to $9.6.

It’s the same Cuckarood29 that was used by Grin in the beginning. Meanwhile, the latest mining algorithm for this cryptocurrency is Cuckarooz C29. You can find the mining guide here.

MimbleWimbleCoin differs from Grin in other characteristics as well. At the same time, some of their features are identical. For example, both have the same block time, 60 seconds. Meanwhile, the Grin reward is 60 coins, which is a hundred times higher than that of MWC.

Plus, Grin has three active PoW algorithms: Cuckarooz C29, CuckAToo-31, and CuckAToo-32. MimbleWimbleCoin has two. Here is a hash rate chart of different algorithms in the 2Miners pool.

Block monitoring is possible through the official blockchain explorer of the coin. You can find it here.

Where to Mine MimbleWimbleCoin

We recommend mining MimbleWimbleCoin MWC in the 2Miners pool. The mining pool has 9 thousand active users, PPLNS and SOLO modes, and user-friendly design. It is available in 18 languages.

If you are interested in mining MWC, the help page on the pool website will help you to start. First, you must get an address on HotBit or the official MimbleWimbleCoin desktop wallet. It’s worth mentioning that in order to receive payouts, a desktop wallet must be always on. If you don’t want to do it, it is better to use an address on the exchange.

Exchange wallet sample: https://mwc.hotbit.io/492897

In the miner settings, you must use a login generated on the 2Miners pool website.

The 2Miners pool supports payouts to TOR/Onion addresses. In the address generator, you should indicate it as https://ADDRESS.onion/

Then you should download mining software: lolMiner (for AMD), or Bminer (for both AMD and Nvidia). We have added all these programs to the quick start pool archive. Don’t forget to enter the password ‘2miners’ to unlock the archive.

The next step is to edit the bat file by replacing the default login with your own.

A sample login: 2aHR0cHM6Ly9ncmlucHJveHkuYml0Zm9yZXguY29tLzE5ODkzMzA
You can also choose a name for your rig. It can have no more than 32 symbols: Latin letters, numbers, and symbols “_” and “-“.
A sample rig name: rig-1.

Below, you can see the correct Bminer settings. Here are they for Cuckarood C29.

bminer.exe -uri cuckaroo29d://YOUR_LOGIN.RIG_ID:x@mwc.2miners.com:1111 -nofee

And these are for Cuckatoo C31.

bminer.exe -uri cuckatoo31://YOUR_LOGIN.RIG_ID:x@mwc.2miners.com:1111 -nofee

It’s worth mentioning that you can mine MimbleWimbleCoin MWC by renting power from mining power rentals. Here are the settings for mining on Miningrigrentals.

Name: 2Miners MWC
Type: Cuckaroo D29 (Grin) or Cuckatoo 31 (Grin)
Pool Host: mwc.2miners.com:1111
Workername (-u): YOUR_LOGIN
Password (-p): x

These are the settings for Nicehash.

Custom pool name: 2Miners MWC
Algorithm: GrinCuckarood29 or GrinCuckatoo31
Stratum hostname or IP: mwc.2miners.com
Port: 1111
Username: YOUR_LOGIN
Password: x

Mining Profitability

Let’s check the mining profitability of MimbleWimbleCoin MWC. As always, we use the 2CryptoCalc calculator. First, let’s estimate the Cuckarood C29 hash rate for 300 Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti. The result is 1 890 Gps.

At the current network performance and cryptocurrency exchange rate, the calculator predicts $213 per day in PPLNS and $212 in SOLO. Here are the estimates for longer periods.

At the indicated hash rate, it’s almost $1 500 per week. Sounds pretty good.

Cuckatoo C31 predicted profitability is quite similar. However, we do recommend you always compare the mining profitability of both algorithms if your GPU’s are able to mine both.

Conclusion

MimbleWimbleCoin is a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency that uses the MimbleWimble protocol. The coin is younger than its more reputable competitors, such as Grin and Beam. However, it has already demonstrated a few interesting features, like a decrease in the inflation rate and the HODL program.

In terms of mining profitability, MWC is totally comparable to other more popular cryptocurrencies and algorithms. Miners and crypto traders should definitely take note of MimbleWimbleCoin and follow the development of the project.

Grin Ver.4 Hardfork

Grin Hard fork has been successfully performed on block 786 240. If you mine C29 algorithm please remember to install the latest version of the mining software. Ready-to-go version of the miner in our Quick Start Archive. Password: 2miners

Nicehash mining rentals are working as well. We’ve already tested our pools. The new algorithm is called CuckaRooz29.

If you mine C32 algorithm nothing changes for you.

Check all the detail on our post Grin Version 4 Hard Fork. What Will Change and How to Get Ready?

BitcoinZ Delisting

Unfortunately, BitcoinZ (BTCZ) mining is not profitable for 2Miners anymore.

The pools have stopped receiving shares on July, 25th at 17:00 UTC.
All the pending payouts have been processed before 17:00 UTC, July, 26.

Please switch your mining rigs to other coins.
The most profitable coins for your GPU’s could be found on 2CryptoCalc.com

MimbleWimbleCoin on 2Miners

We have added MimbleWimbleCoin (MWC) on 2Miners.

MWC is mined using 2 algorithms: Cuckatoo31 and Cuckarood29. Cuckarood29 was previously used by Grin cryptocurrency. Cuckatoo31 is still being used by Grin, but they are gradually switching to Cuckatoo32.

MimbleWimbleCoin could be mined both in PPLNS and SOLO modes.

PPLNS: mwc.2miners.com
SOLO: solo-mwc.2miners.com

Miner settings are available on the Help page.
MWC has been also added to 2CryptoCalc.com mining calculator.
Read our detailed guide on how to mine MimbleWimbleCoin.

Ethereum Classic Under Attack

On July 31 Ethereum Classic Network has been attacked.

First, we’ve supposed that the network problem was caused only by the deprecation and removal of the ETC support from MultiGeth (Ethereum wallet software). ETC pools on 2Miners were temporarily offline. Ethereum Classic network was split into multiple chains and it was difficult to find the right one.

Then we have realised that the problem was much more serious. ETC was attacked. There was a huge re-organization of the blockchain (more than 3000 blocks were orphaned). Read more. This is not the first attack on ETC but for sure one of the most significant. Unfortunately, ETC is not the dominant coin of its algorithm so it is rather hard to prevent this kind of attack.

All exchanges have halted Ethereum Classic deposits.

You could read the official ETC devs statement on Medium.
We hope the situation would be resolved soon. By now ETC 2Miners pools are fully operational. Blocks are being mined. Payouts are being processed.

Ethereum Extra High Block Rewards

Ethereum (ETH) price has increased recently. The last month ETH has grown even more than Bitcoin (BTC). Moreover, USDT transactions have seized the network. These factors are helping miners to earn more. According to Eth Gas Station gas price has reached 100 Gwei this month.

Overall it is at least 50 Gwei. Much higher than before. What is Gas in Ethereum? Ethereum Transaction Fees

The Ethereum network block reward is only 2 ETH. However, due to the high transaction fees included in the blocks, the average reward is 3 ETH or even higher. This fact has made Ethereum mining very profitable recently. We welcome you to join 2Miners ETH pool.

Remember to follow us on Twitter to get all the news as soon as possible.

It appears that at some point in time a 51% attack was executed on the network, and this is where the things got worse. It seems that different node software supporting the Ethereum Classic network is actually using different weighting algorithms that determine in cases of the network split which chain should take precedence.

Ethereum Multi-Geth Update

But let’s step back in time for just a day earlier and notice the new Multi-Geth release (v1.9.18) that publicly dropped the ETC support because “Ethereum Classic broke its core principle of immutability and code-is-law in the Phoenix hard fork, and because of the excessive community toxicity”. The authors say they no longer support ETC while their software together with OpenEthereum was backing up more than 70% of the nodes on the network, and just hours later ETC suffers from a large split. What was the cause is yet to be analyzed (multiple teams of people are investigating at the very time of this writing), but it seems like some of the larger parties on the ETC network failed to read the release notes and updated their node software to the latest-and-greatest Multi-Geth thus falling out from the network momentarily.

The loss of the hash power has caused alternative chains to appear and then it seems that different Ethereum node software seems to follow different principles in determining which chain is the “winner” and should be adopted as the main chain. Some of the nodes have decided the longest chain is the winner, while others that the chain with the larger block difficulty should take priority. As a result, over 3000 blocks were orphaned as the major network operators and miners have updated their software (for example, 2Miners moved from an older version of Multi-Geth that still supported ETC to a newer regular Geth).

Ethereum Classic Developers Reaction

Another point is the reaction of the core ETC developers out there (or, should we say, the lack of it). If the cryptocurrency network you’re responsible for is experiencing issues for more than 10 hours and there is no reaction whatsoever it brings up the questions of responsibilities and care. It is true that any cryptocurrency has to be self-driven and ideally independent of particular personalities, but in reality, the developer community behind it still should feel the responsibility and act quickly to prevent possible damage caused by such incidents.

“MIA” stands for “missing in action”

Sometime later ETC devs have released the note asking the exchanges to stop receiving deposits.
https://twitter.com/eth_classic/status/1289486354494025729

The Current State of Ethereum Classic Network

The waves are still going around but for the time being the situation with the network has stabilized. The real cause and why different node software distributions followed different weighting rules is yet to be thoroughly investigated, and we will surely follow-up with the findings of our own analyst team combined with other researchers’ conclusions.

Ethereum Classic pools on 2Miners are working, both PPLNS and SOLO. However, the payouts are currently stopped. We wait until the ETC developers will take a decision on this matter to re-enable the payouts. It is still not clear whether they want to execute some blockchain re-organization or not. So, once again, you could mine Ethereum Classic but you get the payout when the problem is solved and developers announce the investigation results and actions they are willing to perform.

If you want to get the latest updates follow us on TWITTER or join our Telegram Chat.

Hard forks in the Grin network are not spontaneous. They are held according to the previously defined schedule. In the beginning, the developers had been planning to perform four upgrades in the first two years after the launch. Each hard fork is held every 262 080 blocks or approximately every six months. So the third upgrade is scheduled at block 786 240.

Grin Hard Fork in July 2020

As we have mentioned above, the hard fork will be performed at block 786 240. It is expected to be mined on July 16, 2020, so the network users have only a few days to prepare. Apart from the new name, the developers point out several important changes.

• New mining algorithm. The current algorithm Cuckaroom29 will be replaced with the new Cuckarooz C29. Frequent algorithm switches are also part of the plan. This strategy makes it too costly for ASIC developers to build new devices for the network. Since Cuckarooz C29 is different from Cuckaroom29, old ASICs will become obsolete. That’s how the developers are trying to discourage ASIC manufacturers from building new hardware.
• Code refactoring. The developers will optimize the user interface and retire the first Node API version. They are also working on the server database code.
• Parallel IBD (Initial Block Download). Initial sync and download of blockchain data will become faster.
• More features in the network. The developers will enable new future use cases, such as payment channels.

Getting Ready for the Grin Hard Fork

After the hard fork Grin will switch to version 4.0.1. The new banner on the official website confirms the upcoming upgrade. Under the banner, the developers describe their mission.

Electronic transactions for all. Without censorship or restrictions. Grin is designed for the decades to come, not just tomorrow. Grin wants to be usable by everyone — regardless of borders, culture, skills or access.

Just like other cryptocurrency hard forks, the Grin latest upgrade requires software version 4.0.0 or greater. This includes wallets, miners, and nodes. Hodlers, miners, and other Grin users should update their software. You can download the latest software here. Version 4.0.1 is already available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

The developers point out that Grin v4 is a wide upgrade of the cryptocurrency network. However, apart from updating their software, users are not required to do anything. Their coins will not be affected. They will remain on the wallet.

If someone asks you to transfer your cryptocurrency elsewhere, it’s a scam. Ignore such requests and don’t send your coins to other addresses.

What Should Miners Do After the Hard Fork?

Please note that the CuckaroomC29 algorithm will be substituted for Cuckarooz C29.
If you mine CuckatooC32 algorithm there is nothing to worry about. Nothing changes for you.

Grin C29 miners should update their software. Nvidia owners should update Gminer. The miner update for the new Grin algorithm has not been released yet. At the moment, it is impossible to update. As soon as the developers release the software, it will be added to the Quick Start archive by the 2Miners pool. The archive password is 2miners, all letters are lower-case.

We checked the Gminer developers page on GitHub and didn’t find the new update. The latest miner version 2.16 was released recently. The update contains only the Cuckaroo29b algorithm for BitTube.

Cuckarooz C29 for Grin has not been released yet. The software will be released in the next couple of days. We will surely spread the news about the update release through our social media channels. Mining setup for Grin on the 2Miners pool will be available after the miner is released and tested.

Unfortunately, we are not aware if any Cuckarooz C29 miner would be available for AMD. For example lolMiner has refused to work on the update at the moment.

UPD: the new versions of GMiner (2.17) and Bminer (16.2.8) were released.

Here are the right settings for mining Grin with Gminer on 2Miners pool. They are the same, so it’s gonna be an auto-switch.


miner.exe --algo grin29 --server grin.2miners.com --port 3030 --user YOUR_LOGIN.RIG_ID
pause


And for Bminer.


bminer.exe -uri cuckaroo29z://YOUR_LOGIN.RIG_ID:x@grin.2miners.com:3030 -nofee
pause


The developers still have not updated the post about the Grin network upgrade to version 4.0.0. It still says that the details about the new mining algorithm, the upgrade compatibility, and required actions will be specified later.

It means that the upcoming hard fork is just a scheduled upgrade rather than a radical change.

The Grin exchange rate chart in 2020 looks as follows.

To sum up, this week the Grin developers will perform a scheduled hard fork that will protect the network from potential ASIC presence. Even though the details are being released behind time, the network will be upgraded as planned. As a result, the network operation will still be ensured by GPU owners, and cryptocurrency owners will keep using the network.

Join the discussion about the fork in our Telegram crypto chat.

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BeamHash III Hardfork

Beam cryptocurrency hardfork was successfully performed on block 777 777 (June 28th). Mining algorithm has changed from BeamHash II to BeamHash III. This hardfork was planned in advance. The main idea was to prevent the ASIC/FPGA devices from entering the Beam mining. Fork has included other important updates such as support for confidential assets, support for Lelantus Mimblewimble, support for one-sided payments. If you want to get more information about the updates check our post Beam Hard Fork. What Will Change and How to Get Ready for BeamHash III?

Beam One-sided Payments

Classic Mimblewimble payouts are processed only if both wallets sending and receiving are up and running. Beam developers have designed the mechanism to make direct anonymous payments. They are told to be less secure but still, this option could be very useful especially for the mining pools. At the moment the pool could send the payout to the miner if only his wallet is online. Sometimes it is problematic for the miner to keep it online 24/7. We look forward for the one-sided payment implementation. At the moment the Beam devs are just developing this technology. It is not ready yet. So in order to receive the payment from the Beam PPLNS or SOLO pool you still need to keep your wallet running.

Beam Network Difficulty Drop

Beam Network Hashrate and Beam Network Difficulty have dropped 2 times after the hard fork. That is absolutely normal. It doesn’t mean that half of the miners have left Beam mining. The new BeamHash III algorithm is just different and each video card gives about 2 times less hashrate.

BeamHash III Mining

Mining process has not changed much. We still recommend Gminer for NVIDIA graphics cards and lolMiner for AMD. As the fork has been performed just a couple of days ago the mining software developers are constantly updating their products. The latest ready-to-use version of the miner is always available in our quick start archive. Archive password is 2miners

Miners who rent hashing power on Nicehash should note that the new algorithm is called BeamV3. Nicehash settings for 2Miners could be always found on the pool Help page. For Beam Solo the setting are presented below.

First, the Nicehash pool validator was not working. We have reported this problem directly to Nicehash and they have solved the issue. Now everything is fine.

Bitcoin Gold Network Instability

On June 21st Bitcoin Gold network was unstable. We are not sure if it was an intentional attack on the network or just an unwanted accident. 2Miners pool have stopped the payout for 1 day. At the moment the BTG network is operating fine. Welcome to 2Miners:

• PPLNS btg.2miners.com
• SOLO solo-btg.2miners.com

New 2Miners Front-end

2Miners front-end code refactoring has been performed in the last 2 months. Finally, it is ready.

It is difficult to see the design changes as they are really minor. However, the code is absolutely new. The website is operating much faster than before and this should provide our miners even better user experience. If you see any errors in 2Miners website operation you could always contact us by email, helpdesk or Telegram chat. We would be glad to receive your feedback and suggestions.

MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Indeed, the hard fork was planned in advance making part of the Beam roadmap. The developers were going to introduce changes into the blockchain months before the hard fork. The final block number was announced on April 22, 2020, two months before the update. Last time the hard fork was announced one month in advance.

Beam Hard Fork in June 2020. What Will Change?

The hard fork will be executed on block 777 777. Approximately, it will happen on June 28, 2020, when the cryptocurrency network reaches the necessary block height.

The developers point out four major changes.

• BeamHash III algorithm. Beam will switch from BeamHash II to the new BeamHash III algorithm. It is supposed to become the final PoW algorithm.
• Support for confidential assets. It will allow to issue an unlimited number of new asset types on the same blockchain. Each of them will be tagged with a corresponding generator point, thus allowing to distinguish between them during the transaction validation.
• Support for Lelantus Mimblewimble. The Beam developers rewrote the original Lelantus protocol created by Zcoin’s cryptographer Aram Jivanyan. Thanks to the changes they introduced, transaction values will never be revealed, and the network will support shielded outputs and inputs.
• Support for one-sided payments, also known as direct anonymous payments. In February 2019, Beam developers came up with an idea of one-sided payments. After the initial setup they made it possible for any sender to issue fixed-value payments to a specific payee without any further assistance on his side. However, it was less anonymous and the payment functionality was limited. Direct anonymous payments in Lelantus don’t have this limitation and allow to create shielded outputs.

BeamHash III Algorithm

The new mining algorithm is a key feature of the upcoming hard fork, so it deserves special attention. The new Beam algorithm is called BeamHash III. It is supposed to be the final algorithm. The creators are not planning to change it unless there is a serious reason to do so.

In comparison to the previous algorithm, BeamHash III will decrease the difficulty of the compute operation and will have a reduced solution size. Moreover, the developers added the forkheight2 parameter to the response of the Beam stratum. This will allow to inform mining software about the upcoming hard fork. The developers hope that this feature will ensure a smooth network update.

All the details about BeamHash III are in this video. It was created by a Beam Foundation team member Wilke Trei, known as Lolliedieb. The video has subtitles.

The developers point out that all Beam algorithms, including BeamHash III, belong to the same type of interface. It means that the preparation for the upcoming hard fork will be identical to the previous ones. Miners just have to update their software to the latest version.

How to Get Ready for Beam Hard Fork?

When Beam reaches block height 777 777, wallets earlier than 5.0 will stop working. Miners won’t be able to get access to their funds. In order to avoid this issue, miners need to upgrade their wallets to version 5.0 or later. However, there is nothing to worry about. Even if you don’t update the wallet in time, your funds will stay where they are.

You can also download a desktop wallet, CLI Wallet or Node for different operating systems, on the official website of the project. The latest software version is 5.0.9328. The link contains the update for MacOS, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS.

What Should Beam Miners Do?

Miners should update Gminer to the latest version. The final miner version is available in the archive linked here. The archive password is 2miners. The developers promise that the transition will be smooth and comfortable.

The 2Miners pool is ready for the hard fork. We have both PPLNS and SOLO mining options. The pool users with NVIDIA GPU’s can keep mining the cryptocurrency and just need to update their mining software.

The correct bat file for Beam mining with lolMiner in the 2Miners pool remains the same. It looks as follows.

lolMiner.exe --algo BEAM-III --pool beam.2miners.com:5252 --user YOUR_ADDRESS.RIG_ID --pass x
timeout 10

What Does Beam Hard Fork Mean for Miners?

The Beam developers point out two major features of the upcoming hard fork that will influence miners.

• BeamHash III and graphics cards. According to the developers, the new algorithm is going to be a great improvement to the Beam mining network and GPU miners. The wider memory operations in the design of BeamHash III will allow the better use of GPU capabilities. As a result, the algorithm will easily saturate the given bandwidth of the GPU card, reducing the potential advantage of other devices, especially FPGAs. The developers say that secret mining on unknown devices will be more unlikely. They believe that at least for the foreseeable future mining in the Beam network will be 100% ensured by GPUs.
• BeamHash III and ASICs. The lower compute dependency of BeamHash III reduces the potential advantage of ASICs over GPUs. At the same time, it allows GPUs to run fewer clock rates for the improved hashrate. If, eventually, there is an ASIC that can handle BeamHash III, it would need to have a smaller compute fraction, which would make it less efficient. The developers hope that the production of such devices won’t be cost-effective. So the network is supposed to be ensured exclusively by GPUs.

As a result, the Beam network will update according to the initial plan, the new mining algorithm will become final, while ASICs and FPGAs will lose their advantage in performance and profitability. The project creators care about Beam miners making sure that the network remains appealing to them.

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Ravencoin KAWPOW Hardfork

One of the most important events in the cryptocurrency mining World this month was RVN hardfork. The mining algorithm has changed from X16Rv2 to KawPoW to eliminate the ASIC/FPGA devices from the network. The goal has been reached. The network hashrate has dropped 10 times as only GPU’s could mine RVN at the moment.

Even the weakest graphics cards with 3 GB of RAM that stopped mining Ethereum long ago are able to mine RVN after the switch to KawPoW. If you are interested in mining Ravencoin check our post “KawPoW: New Ravencoin Mining Algorithm“. We’ve also updated our definitive guide “How to Mine Ravencoin RVN“.

There are many miners for RVN’s new algorithm. For NVIDIA we recommend Gminer and T-Rex. For AMD we recommend TeamRedMiner if you use Linux OS and NBMiner for Windows. Basic mining software settings could be found on the Help page. You could also download a Quick Start Archive there with ready-to-go miners.

According to MiningPoolStats 2Miners is now the most popular Ravencoin mining pool.

GRIN Mininmum Payout

GRIN transactions take a lot of time to be executed. To make the payouts system work fast and smooth we’ve increased the minimum GRIN payout to 10 GRIN coins.

If you mine the Grin C32 algorithm with bminer and your hashrate has dropped this month we recommend you to try starting the miner with -nofee option. It has helped many of our miners in 2Miners Telegram Chat.

New Mining Software

• PhoenixMiner for Ethash coins such as Ethereum and Ethereum Classic has released the new 5.0b version.
• Gminer, T-Rex have been updated to support the new RVN KAWPOW algorithm.
• Teamredminer has shown great results for RVN mining with AMD GPUs. Unfortunately, it works well with Linux OS only. For example, if you use HiveOS it should work great. 2Miners Flight Sheet is available for many miners including Teamredminer.

The latest version of the mining software could be always found in Quick Start Archive. The archive password is 2miners

We’ve also prepared a special post “How to Choose and Setup a Cryptocurrency Miner” which includes the most popular miners available for GPU mining algorithms.

2Miners FAQ Translation

We are performing the 2Miners Knowledge Base (Frequently Asked Questions) part to multiple languages. The work is still in progress but you could already notice that we have added many new languages. We hope these basic mining articles help many miners around the World to understand better the mining process and make their mining more profitable.

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First of all, we should find the most profitable cryptocurrency. The 2CryptoCalc calculator stores up-to-date information about profitability. It also stores GPU hashrates. You can choose the right coin just by indicating the name and the number of GPU models. It has a user-friendly interface and can calculate profitability for solo mining.

The calculator is easy to use. You should go to the 2CryptoCalc website, indicate the number of your GPUs, and click the Calculate button.

Now let’s talk about miners – that is, software that allows you to mine a certain cryptocurrency. Each section corresponds to one miner. Inside you will find supported algorithms and the names of GPU manufacturers that work best for respective miners. If you like one of the miners, the full review is linked inside each section. There you will find more details about hashrates, the latest miner version and the official GitHub page.

Gminer

Gminer is one of the most popular miners. It’s easy to see why. The program supports both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. The miner fee for Ethereum and Ethereum Classic is just 0.65%. Gminer is multifunctional and supports a large number of algorithms.

• Ethash (Nvidia only)
• ProgPoW (Nvidia only)
• KAWPOW (Ravencoin and Nvidia only)
• Ethash+Eaglesong (Nvidia only)
• Ethash+Blake2s (Nvidia only)
• Eaglesong (Nvidia and AMD)
• Blake2b+Sha3 (Nvidia only)
• Cuckarood29/Cuckaroom29 (Grin and Nvidia only)
• Cuckatoo31 (Grin and Nvidia only)
• Cuckatoo32 (Grin and Nvidia only)
• Cuckoo29 (Aeternity for Nvidia and AMD)
• CryptoNightBBC (Nvidia only)
• BFC (Nvidia and AMD)
• Cortex (Nvidia only)
• Cuckaroo29s (Nvidia and AMD)
• Cuckarood29v (MoneroV for Nvidia)
• Blake2s(Nvidia and AMD)
• Eaglesong (Nervos CKB for Nvidia and AMD)
• Equihash 96.5 (Nvidia only)
• Equihash+Scrypt (Nvidia)
• Equihash 125.4 (ZelCash and Nvidia only)
• Equihash 144.5 (Bitcoin Gold, BitcoinZ and ZelCash for Nvidia and AMD)
• Beam Hash (BEAM for Nvidia and AMD)
• Equihash 192.7 (Nvidia and AMD)
• Equihash 210,9 (Nvidia)

Here are GPU mining requirements, depending on the algorithm.

• Cuckaroo29 — 3.8 GB
• Cuckatoo31 — 7.68 GB
• Cuckoo29 — 3.8 GB
• Equihash 96.5 — 0.75 GB
• Equihash 144.5 — 1.75 GB
• Beam Hash — 2.9 GB
• Equihash 192.7 — 2.75 GB
• Equihash 210.9 — 1 GB

We recommend using Gminer to mine Grin, Beam, and Equihash 144.5. After the Ravencoin hardfork on May 6, 2020, Gminer also mines RVN on the KawPoW algorithm. Relevant hashrates, links, and other important details are here.

The 2Miners pool team recommends Gminer, as it offers the fast operation, excellent hashrates, regular updates, and quality support.

lolMiner

lolMiner is a miner for multiple algorithms. It can mine such popular coins as Beam and Grin. The program is aimed at “red” graphics cards – that is, AMD. It works with Nvidia too, but there may be issues with speed and stability. Here are algorithms supported by lolMiner.

• Equihash 96.5 — MinexCoin
• Equihash 144.5 — Bitcoin Gold, BitcoinZ, SnowGem
• Equihash 125.4 — ZelCash
• Equihash 192.7 — Zero, Genesis Network
• Equihash 210.9 — Aion
• BeamHash II — Beam
• Cuckarood 29 — Grin
• Cuckatoo 31 — Grin

Here is a video tutorial on how to setup Grin mining. Make sure to turn on the subtitles.

You can read the full miner review by clicking on this link.

PhoenixMiner

PhoenixMiner mines Ethash coins on AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. It is one of the most popular miners for Ethereum. According to the developers, it’s “the fastest Ethereum/Ethash miner with the lowest devfee.” The fee is 0.65%. Here are algorithms supported by the miner.

• Ethash — Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Pirl, etc.
• Ethash/Ubqhash + Blake2s Dual Mining (other algorithms are not supported)
• ProgPoW — Bitcoin Interest (BCI)
• Ubqhash — Ubiq

The 2Miners pool team recommends Phoenix Miner. The developers regularly work on their product, which leads to excellent mining results.

Here is a video tutorial on how to setup Ethereum mining.

The full PhoenixMiner review is here.

T-Rex

T-Rex is another popular miner that supports multiple algorithms, but it works only on Nvidia graphics cards. We recommend using it to mine Zcoin and Ravencoin. According to the developers, they want their product to be as user-friendly and fast as possible. The fee is 1%.

Here are algorithms supported by T-Rex.

• MTP (Zcoin)
• KawPoW (Ravencoin)
• x16rv2
• x16rt
• x16r
• x16s
• x17
• x22i
• x25x
• x21s
• x11r
• geek
• bcd
• hmq1725
• honeycomb
• tensority
• dedal
• sha256t
• sha256q
• timetravel
• lyra2z
• bitcore
• sonoa
• renesis
• balloon
• polytimos
• skunk
• c11
• phi
• tribus
• astralhash
• jeonghash
• padihash
• pawelhash

Here is a video tutorial on how to setup and launch ZCoin XZC mining.

The full miner review is here.

Claymore’s Miner

Claymore’s Dual Ethereum Miner supports both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. The latest version is 15.0. The developers urge to upgrade to 15.0, because it supports Epoch 384. It means that miners will be able to mine Ethereum using GPUs with 4 GB of RAM. It is impossible if you use older versions. If you want to know why it is so and how to resolve the problem, read this article.

Claymore’s supports the following algorithms.

• Ethash — Ethereum, Ethereum Classic
• Ethash + Decred/Siacoin/Lbry/Pascal/Blake2s/Keccak

Read the full review here.

miniZ

miniZ is for Equihash algorithms and Nvidia graphics cards. The developer fee is 2% – much higher than that of other miners mentioned above. Here are algorithms supported by the miner.

• Equihash 125.4
• Equihash 144.5
• Equihash 150.5
• Equihash 150.5.3
• Equihash 192.7
• Equihash 210.9
• Equihash 96.5

miniZ can mine the following cryptocurrencies.

• Bitcoin Gold (BTG)
• BitcoinZ (BTCZ)
• ZelCash (ZEL)
• Anonymous (ANON)
• SnowGem (XSG)
• Bithereum (BTH)
• BZEdge (BZE)
• LitecoinZ (LTZ)
• Bitcoin RM (BCRM)
• SafeCoin (SAFE)
• Zero (ZER)
• Genesis (GENX)
• Vidulum (VDL)
• ZeroClassic (ZERC)
• Arrow (ARW)
• Ycash (YEC)
• Zclassic (ZCL)
• Beam (BEAM)
• Grimm (GRIMM)
• Litecash (CASH)
• Aion (AION)
• Minexcoin (MNX)

The full miner review with all the relevant hashrates and links is here.

bminer

Bminer can mine several algorithms, including Ethash for Ethereum. It provides the best performance for Grin C32 algorithm. The miner works on Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. The fee varies between 0.65% and 2%. Here are compatible algorithms with their coins.

• Equihash — Zcash
• Equihash 144.5/Zhash — Bitcoin Gold, BitcoinZ
• Ethash — Ethereum, Ethereum Classic
• Grin C29, C31, C32
• Bytom BTM

The full miner review is here.

EWBF’s Cuda Equihash

EWBF’s Cuda mines coins on Equihash/144.5/Zhash algorithms. The miner works on Nvidia graphics cards, aka green cards. EWBF’s Cuda Equihash supports the following algorithms and coins.

• Equihash 144.5 — Bitcoin Gold, BitcoinZ
• Equihash 210.9 — Aion
• Equihash 192.7 — Zero
• Equihash 96.5 — MinexCoin

However, nobody uses EWBF’s Cuda Equihash anymore, because ASIC miners mine coins on this algorithm. As a result, cryptocurrency mining on Equihash has become ineffective, and users have switched to other algorithms.

Read the full EWBF’s Cuda review here.

Funakoshi 144.5 Cuda Miner

Funakoshi 144.5 is a miner for Nvidia graphics cards. The numbers in the name indicate the only algorithm supported by the miner.

• Equihash 144.5 — Bitcoin Gold, BitcoinZ и Safecoin

Sadly, the miner is history now. Nobody uses it anymore.

The full Funakoshi miner review is here. There are also hashrates of popular Nvidia graphics cards in the article.

CryptoDredge

CryptoDredge is for Nvidia graphics cards. According to the project website, the software is “simple in use and highly optimized.” Sadly, the developers stopped working on the project, so there is no point in using CryptoDredge now.

In the past the miner supported the following algorithms.

• Allium
• Argon2d
• BCD
• bitcore
• Chukwa
• Chukwa WRKZ
• CryptoNightConceal
• CryptoNightFastV2
• CryptoNightGPU
• CryptoNightHaven
• CryptoNightHeavy
• CryptoNightSaber
• CryptoNightTurtle
• CryptoNightUPX
• CryptoNightZLS
• Cuckaroo29
• CuckooCycle
• HMQ1725
• Lyra2REv3
• Lyra2vc0ban
• Lyra2z
• Lyra2zz
• MTP
• MTP-TCR
• NeoScrypt
• Phi2
• Pipe
• Skunkhash
• Tribus
• X16R
• X16RT
• X16RV2
• X16S
• X17
• X21S
• X22i

The full CryptoDredge review is here.

Conclusion: There are many miners, but choosing the right one is possible. As a rule, the best mining option for a certain cryptocurrency is indicated in the Quick Start section of the 2Miners pool. This is the best place where to begin your mining adventure.

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