Merged mining is a technical process that works on the same algorithm. Basically, this happens by mining more than one cryptocurrency. This concept came around 2014 with the AuxPoW protocol. However, Satoshi Nakamoto didn’t contemplate something about it in the white paper on cryptocurrency. In simple words, a miner can mine more than one blockchain by merged mining. Let’s have a look at a complete guide to merged mining.
Before you check your preferable digital currency at bitcoinprofitpro.com/ph, make sure you are understanding the basics. By reading this article, you will find out what merged mining is and how does it work. We will also give some examples to make things easier.
What is Merged Mining?
If it’s your first time knowing about merged mining, here let’s understand what is it. Well, merged mining is also popular as ‘Auxiliary Proof of Work’, this is the protocol it is based on.
That means a primary blockchain works with an auxiliary blockchain. In fact, miners can merge more than one blockchain. These auxiliary blockchains can be operated in the same algorithm as the primary blockchain. However, it does not require extra computational effort.
On the other hand, the primary blockchain doesn’t need any modification for this. But you need to use an assitance for merging the auxiliary blockchain. This assitance is popularly known as ‘hard fork’. Basically, forks are helpful to add new features to the blockchain network.
Moreover, forks introduce a new set of rules as well. When you are merging an auxiliary blockchain network, it will increse the security to work with thr primary blockchain. On the other hand, an auxiliary blockchain can get more traction while merging with the primary one.
How Does Merged Mining Work?
Now, the question is how does this merged mining work? To answer your question, we have a simple explanation. Well, every merging implementation has a primary chain and an auxiliary chain. These two chains have to share the same hash algorithm to work together.
As we mentioned before, you don’t need extra computing power for merged mining. You just need some additional support. New blockchains work well while they are merged with a primary network. In fact, merging boosts their security. Plus, they gain a plus point for working with a popular network.
However, it’s not always good for the primary blockchain networks as they fall victim sometimes. It happens for working with too many small auxiliary chains. There are some cons to merged mining as well.
Even it sounds cool it needs a lot of development skills. This is why you need to work hard for merging both networks. On the other hand, merging blockchains need maintenance work.
Examples of Merged Mining
You see how merged mining works. If the concept is not clear yet, we are here with some examples. In the following, let’s find out about these examples.
- Elastos
Elastos is a popular network that is merged with Bitcoin. However, the mining is not yet complete. Once the process is done and the mining is available, the price of Elastos can be the same as Dogecoin.
Right now, Elastos is collaborating with Bitmain and NEO. In fact, there are some rumors that Bitmain is going to dedicate a portion to mine Elastos. So, we can say the price of Elastos will increase in the future.
- Dogecoin
Dogecoin has become popular recently. However, this auxiliary blockchain network was merged mining with Litecoin. This network is ready to receive mining rewards this year. After switching from Proof-of-Work to AuxPoW protocol, the price increased from $0.0002 to $0.00047.
However, it shows that this network is good for a short-term investment cause the additional support is good. So, when someone is using it, they can get immediate confidence.
- Namecoin
Namecoin is the first network that was merged with Bitcoin. This was one of the top cryptocurrencies but it failed to maintain it. This is a strong example of how a project can fall even after collaborating with one of the most popular primary networks.
The coin does not have a good adoption history. On the other hand, the development was not that advanced compared to other networks. In fact, the development was not as active as others.
Advantages of Merged Mining
So, why merged mining is so important? This concept is quite new and we can tell the popularity will increase in the future. There are several benefits of merging an auxiliary blockchain network with a parent network. Let’s find out about some good advantages of this concept:
- Because of merged mining the hash rate increases for new projects. Plus, it does not require a lot of additional computing knowledge.
- This is a great thing for small and new projects as it can increase the security of collaborating with large networks.
- When you are using the same equipment for block mining, it can increase the performance of that equipment.
- Another good thing is miners can generate new blocks using a mining algorithm.
- The best thing about this concept is it will allow the same mining equipment to generate blocks in different networks.
Conclusion
Finally, you know what is merged mining and how it works. As you can see this is a great option for new and small projects. Merging helps them to increase their growth and rates. However, it’s not always great for the parent blockchain network as it needs a lot of development and maintenance works. Plus, the price increase of small projects may not last.
FAQs
Q: Can two cryptocurrencies merge?
No, two cryptocurrencies can’t merge. There’s no mining process available right now. But according to Bitcoin miners and officials, there’s a possibility of merged mining in the future.
Q: Can Blockchains be merged?
Actually, two blockchain networks can’t be merged unless there’s a primary network. Blockchain merging is more of a fork that needs a primary cryptocurrency network as support.
Q: How does merge mining work?
The primary blockchain network needs the same hash rate to be merged with an auxiliary network. The primary network can add more than one auxiliary network for mining.
