ETC ushered in a hard fork, 4GB GPU mining machines will continue to be used

Previously, industry experts predicted that due to the annual growth of DAG files by 520M, by the end of December 2020, the DAG files would reach 4G. This means that existing 4G graphics cards will no longer be able to mine.

The original intention of DAG was to prevent ASIC mining from becoming centralized, which would make it impossible to distribute tokens objectively and fairly.

Facts have shown that DAG is more suitable for GPU mining. The birth of DAG has narrowed the competition gap between GPU and ASIC, broken the monopoly of ASIC, and promoted the diversification of the mining industry.

However, the only drawback is that the parameters of DAG were too radical when it was first designed, which also laid the groundwork for the elimination of GPU miners in the future. Today, GPU miners with less than 4G will no longer be able to continue mining. This hard fork optimizes these parameters to better meet the hardware and mining ecosystem on the market. This will keep the growth of DAG files in sync with GPU miners, allowing the DAG system to continue to meet market demand for a long time to come.

Theoretical basis

In the current version (372), the DAG file size is 3.91 GB. Although 4G GPU miners can still provide high computing power, they will soon become obsolete.

If this fork is updated under version 376, the DAG file size will be reduced from 3.94GB to 2.47GB, and the new version will greatly reduce the growth rate of DGA files in the future. With the reduction in the growth rate, a 4G GPU mining machine can continue to be used for 3 years.

The implementation of this hard fork requires the support and cooperation of mining software and mining pools. In order to smoothly activate this fork, the fork will be performed at the block height of the even version. Block 388/2 = 194 (good) = Block 11_640_000 Block 389/2 = 194.5 (bad) - Block 390/2 = 195 (good) = Block 11_700_000

*Part of the information in this article comes from: Ethereum Classic BLOG

Original link: https://ethereumclassic.org/blog/2020-11-27-thanos-hard-fork-upgrade

Translation: OKKONG Content Team