The privacy-centric cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) has seen its price jump as much as 13% thanks to a scheduled proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm shift that’ll see it weed out ASIC miners.
According to CryptoCompare data, XMR is up 13% in the last 24-hour period and is currently trading at around $60, thanks to a planned change in its Proof-of-Work mining algorithm, that’ll see XMR crack down on specialized ASIC miners and improve the efficiency of CPUs on its network.
Source: CryptoCompare
A Reddit thread on the scheduled protocol upgrade details it’s expected on November 30, although a code freeze is set to occur on October 24. The biggest change the upgrade is set to bring is a change to the RandomX PoW mining algorithm, which will require miners to upgrade their software.
A second major change will be the phasing out of long payment IDs on the XMR network, to improve both privacy and user experience. The move is also expected to help reduce support work for cryptocurrency exchanges as XMR will become more user-friendly.
Privacy improvements include transactions requiring at least two outputs, and the enforcement of a ten block lock time for incoming transactions. The post details RandomX was “successfully audited by four independent audit teams.”
As a result of the upgrade hashrate on the XMR network is expected to significantly increase, because the “average CPU will produce significantly more hashes.” The performance of ASIC miners on the network is once again going to drop, just like that of GPUs.
Monero has hard forked to weed out ASIC miners two times in the past, and its hashrate crashed as a result.
The algorithm change will likely see some miners move to other CryptoNight-based cryptocurrencies like Electroneum (ETN), Bytecoin (BCN), or a Monero fork.
Featured image by Csaba Nagy via Pixabay.
