Anonymous coin Grin undergoes first hard fork upgrade to further optimize usability

According to Coindesk on July 18, the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Grin has just executed its first backward-compatible upgrade, also known as a hard fork.

Grin was launched in January 2019, and this hard fork upgrade plan will make key changes to the nearly $60 million network to maximize Grin's decentralization and usability.

(Image source: Coindesk)

Grin developer John told CoinDesk:

This hard fork upgrade was planned long before Grin was launched. In order to introduce new features, we will perform a hard fork upgrade every 6 months in the first two years of Grin's launch.

Tromp said the hard fork upgrade did not cause Grin’s network to split. Instead, the old version of the Grin network simply stopped operating “in its original trajectory,” effectively forcing users to update their software. The upgrade was completed at 9:45 UTC.

Tromp explained:

In a typical network fork, a blockchain can split into two incompatible networks. However, Grin’s fork did not allow the ‘old’ chain to continue running, because the old code before the Grin upgrade refused to accept any block height exceeding the hard fork height.

Currently, one of the most complete changes introduced by the hard fork to the Grin network is a fine-tuning of its mining algorithm. As mentioned earlier, Grin’s previous algorithm was friendly to both general-purpose computing devices (GPUs) and specialized hardware (ASICs).

However, after this hard fork, Grin’s network will be more friendly to GPU devices.

Quentin Le Sceller, Grin core developer and software engineer at blockchain startup BlockCypher, explained:

This is not about actually forking ASICs off the network, but about making sure no one is mining with ASICs on a network that is friendly to GPU mining algorithms.

To ensure that ASICs don’t monopolize Grin’s mining industry, an industry estimated to be worth more than $100 million per year at today’s coin prices, the update made on Wednesday ensures that the Grin protocol remains ASIC-resistant in the short term.

In another six months, Grin developers will make additional adjustments to the newly implemented mining algorithm. Tromp, who is in charge of these mining algorithm edits, confirmed that in Grin’s second hard fork, developers will take the first step towards adding payment channels to the network.

Tromp said:

Payment channels are a way for two parties to conduct many off-chain transactions. It requires an on-chain transaction at the beginning of the transaction and a settlement at the end of the transaction.

Payment channels were first popularized on the Bitcoin network, where they can expand the network’s transaction volume by reducing confirmation wait times.

Meanwhile, another cryptocurrency built on the privacy-enhancing blockchain protocol Mimblewimble, Beam, will also undergo a hard fork in August. Like Grin’s upgrade, Beam will also add payment channel functionality and update its mining algorithm to maintain its ASIC-resistant properties.