As Bitcoin’s Hashrate Remains Sky High, Merge-Mined Crypto Asset Networks Benefit – Mining Bitcoin News
Recently, the hash rate was from Bitcoin consistently above 300 exahash per second (EH/s) as several mining pools todayBlockchain devote significant hash power. Interestingly, some of the world’s leaders use it Bitcoin mining-Pools their hashrate to match other coins, and these networks have benefited from Bitcoin’s increased hashrate.
How Bitcoin’s hashrate benefits other crypto networks
Bitcoin’s hash rate secures the network and provides rewards for miners who participate in the system, but mining pools also dedicate processing power to networks like Namecoin, Elastos, Emercoin, and Vcash. For example, Namecoin today has a hashrate of around 187 EH/s, and some of the top Bitcoin mining pools are merging the network to acquire Namecoin Rewards (NMC).
Merge mining is a process in which miners use different cryptocurrencies simultaneously at no additional cost. Merged Mining is similar to a person playing Pac-Man and Asteroids at the same time, using the same joystick and earning rewards for both games. Namecoin was the first cryptocurrency project to be merge-mined as it uses the same SHA256 algorithm as Bitcoin, and the first merge-mining block on the network was mined on September 19, 2011.
Bitcoin pools that dedicate hashrate to the Namecoin chain include F2pool, Viabtc, Poolin, and Mining Dutch. While F2pool has been the fourth largest bitcoin mining pool over the past three days, it is the largest namecoin miner as it dedicates its entire 44 EH/s to the namecoin network. Viabtc dedicates 26.25 EH/s to the Namecoin chain, and Poolin also points 5.10 EH/s to Namecoin. At the time of writing, a single Namecoin (NMC) is worth $1.24 per unit, and 12.5 NMC plus fees are distributed in each block reward.
Namecoin has the second largest hashrate among the SHA256 blockchains, but the Emercoin (EMC) network is the third largest among BTC and NMC. EMC has reserved 93.38 EH/s for the network and Mining Dutch and Viabtc are the top miners for the coin. Viabtc, BTC’s fifth largest mining pool by hashrate, also dedicates 26.76 EH/s to EMC. The Emercoin network uses a hybrid consensus mechanism for proof of work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS). A single Emercoin (EMC) is currently changing hands for $0.0088 per coin.
Meanwhile, Viabtc is dedicating the same amount of hashrate to the Syscoin (SYS) network, another hybrid PoW and PoS blockchain. Today, a single SYS is trading for $0.167 against the US Dollar. In addition to the aforementioned PoW cryptocurrencies leveraging the SHA256 consensus algorithm, miners also dedicate hashrate networks like Xaya, Veil, Hathor, Elastos, and Vcash. Legacy cryptocurrency networks like Terracoin (TRC) and Unobtanium (UNO) also see a small fraction of the SHA256 hashrate.
F2pool dedicates Vcash 44.32 EH/s, but the coin’s native asset has no listed value on any of the top coin market aggregation sites. Elastos has over 100 exahash dedicated to the chain and top mining pools like Antpool, F2pool, Viabtc and Mining The Dutch dedicate hashrate to the Elastos network. Recent statistics further show that 100 exahash per second is also dedicated to the RSK Smart Contract Network.
What do you think the future holds for merge mining and the relationships between different blockchain networks? Do share your thoughts in the comment section below.
photo credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Tari Labs University, miningpoolstats.stream
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Source: Crypto News Deutsch