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Grin (GRIN), a major privacy-centric cryptocurrency, is apparently no longer resistant to mining with application-specific ICs – or ASICs – according to a former lead developer.
Gary Yu, a former Grin lead developer, used a Grin ASIC mining device to test the miner’s performance, according to an August 10 post on the official Grin forum.
Yu allegedly managed to mine three blocks in less than 24 hours, with a block reward of 180 GRIN, or $ 118 at press time. ASIC-based mining occurred at block heights 819660, 820461, and 820801, Yu added.
In the post, the former lead developer revealed that the Grin ASIC miner weighs around 20kg. Yu also noted that the miner’s efficiency can be further expanded by adjusting the cooling system. He wrote:
“By the way, I tried it in my house, the big fan noise is a bit annoying for the family, I have to limit the maximum fan speed to 30% for this test. I suppose the miner’s performance will be much better if you let its fan run at full 100%. “
Grin is a leading private cryptocurrency built on a privacy protocol known as Mimblewimble. As of today, Grin is apparently ASIC resistant and only available for mining via Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).
In 2019, Grin made the first hard fork of its blockchain to block the possibility of mining the coin with ASICs. Before the fork, Grin’s algorithm supported GPU and ASIC mining, but none used ASIC mining to mine Grin, developer John Tromp said at the time.
GPUs are less powerful or efficient in terms of cryptocurrency mining than ASICs, devices designed specifically for cryptocurrency mining. Although ASICs are faster and require less power than GPUs, they are more expensive and difficult to obtain.
Grin isn’t the only coin that has been positioned as ASIC resistant. Monero (XMR), another major privacy coin, was upgraded to an ASIC-resistant mining algorithm in late 2019.
In the news, Grin has grown more than 11% in the past 24 hours. As of press time, the privacy coin is trading at around $ 0.66 with a market cap of $ 6.2 million, according to data from Coin360.
24 hour price chart GRIN. Source: Coin360
