Back when altcoins were trending we used to often list coins based on their hashing algorithm, specially for miners. It helps specific set of miners to choose and mine a particular coin based on its profitability. Now altcoin mining seems like a thing of a past. Particularly since they are no longer profitable for hobby miners and individuals operating few mining rigs.
Anyways, now that a new cycle have emerged mining is slowly starting to catch up. If you already own a mining rig then do some research, head to whattomine or other mining calculators and pick a the coin that you feel will outperform in this cycle. Also check our algorithm lists where we almost covered every PoW (Proof of Work) mining algorithms and their coins except few ASIC ones like for example SHA-256.
If you own Bitmain’s Antminer or any Bitcoin ASIC miner and are looking to mine coins other than Bitcoin then the following post is for you.
Bitcoin is not the only coin that uses SHA256 algorithm. There are hundreds of SHA256 coins that you can mine using your Bitcoin miner. Here in this post we’ll be listing some of the popular coins based on SHA 256.
But first let’s take a quick look at SHA-256 hashing algorithm. What is SHA256 and how it relates to Bitcoin?
SHA-256 algorithm
SHA stands for Secure Hash Algorithm. It is one of the number of cryptographic hash functions. SHA-256 is a member of the SHA-2 (Secure Hash Algorithm 2) family.
SHA 2 is a set of cryptographic hash function which is the successor of SHA-1. It was designed by the United States NSA (National Security Agency) and was first published by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as a U.S federal standard (FIPS).
SHA256, or Secure Hash Algorithm 256 is a hashing algorithm. Just like any other cryptographic hash functions, SHA256 is used to convert any input of random size into a fixed size string. That is it takes any input and produces output (hash) of fixed length. It doesn’t matter whether the input is a single letter, word, sentence or an entire book. The output of SHA256 hashing algorithm will always be the same length.
The SHA-256 outputs are 256 bit (32 bytes) hash which are displayed as 64 alphanumeric characters. This generated 256-bit hash is near unique. Also it is a one way hash function which cannot be decrypted back to its original. That is the hash can be generated from any piece of data. But the data cannot be retrieved from the hash. This makes SHA-256 one of the strongest hashing algorithms available.
Another important characteristic of SHA 256 is that it is deterministic. That is the generated hash output will always be the same when the given input is same. This feature makes SHA256 ideal for application within the Bitcoin protocol.
SHA256 Uses:
SHA256 hashing algorithm generates unique fixed sized 256 bit hash. This function makes it suitable for checking the data integrity. It is used in different applications like for example digital signatures, password validation, challenge hash authentication, anti-tamper and blockchain.
Using this algorithm one can determine the data’s integrity. That is the the user can ensure that the data downloaded is not modified and is in its original state.
For example:
Let’s say you downloaded Bitcoin wallet. You wish to check its originality. To do so you can simply compare the hashes of your wallet with the original one provided by the developer. Learn how to verify SHA-256 checksum of a wallet. Also here is a guide on verifying Bitcoin core and Electrum signature verification.
The algorithm is also implemented in some popular security applications and encryption protocols. One widely used application is TLS and SSL certificates for website. Other than that it is used in SSH, PGP, IPsec and S/MIME.
SHA-256 in Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency to introduce SHA-256 into blockchain technology. This algorithm is an integral part of the Bitcoin protocol.
Bitcoin uses SHA-256 hashing algorithm mainly for verifying transactions via Proof of Work consensus mechanism. Other than that it is used in the creation of Bitcoin addresses.
Now there are number of cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects that have adopted this algorithm. Three most popular coins that uses SHA-256 are Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV). All these coins uses SHA-256 as their Proof of Work algorithm for mining.
Mining SHA-256 algorithm
Bitcoin is using SHA-256 as its Proof of Work mining algorithm since its launch in 2009. Initially the algorithm was mined only using CPUs and GPUs. But slowly the mining hardware’s evolved making CPUs and GPUs less viable for mining Bitcoin. Today only ASIC (application-Specific Integrated Circuit) miners dominate the Bitcoin network.
There are many ASIC machines that mines SHA-256 algorithm but most of them are obsolete and no longer profitable. Each new generation of ASIC machines are capable of producing higher hash power making the previous ones obsolete. This is why it is wise to invest in coin directly then buying these ASIC machines.
Currently there are only few popular ones and according to Asicminervalue.com these are the only miners that are profitable in mining Bitcoin and SHA256 coins.
Bitmain Antminer S21 Pro (234Th), S21 Hyd (335Th), S21 (200Th), Canaan Avalon A1566, MicroBT Whatsminer M60S and M66S.
If you have any of these machines then join any Bitcoin mining pool and start mining Bitcoin. You can also point your SHA256 miners towards NiceHash. It mines the most profitable coin at the current time and pays you in BTC. You can also use services like mining rig rentals to rent your ASIC machine or to purchase SHA-256 hash power. They will pay you in BTC as well. Or you can directly mine the SHA256 altcoins listed below. The choice is yours.
List of all SHA-256 Coins
Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Bitcoin SV (BSV) are three well-known coins that uses SHA-256 hashing algorithm.
Other than that there are 100s of altcoins that you can mine with your Bitcoin miner or SHA256 ASIC miner. However do note that most of the projects are abandoned.
Mining such coins are totally pointless. Because they are hard to sell as they are rarely being traded on the exchanges. So we decided to list only the well known coins and the ones that have a reasonable amount of trading volume.
The profitability will be same across all coins. We suggest you to use mining calculators to find out which one in is more profitable at the moment.
SHA256 Coins
Here are the list of popular SHA256 mineable cryptocurrencies. We’ve ranked them based on its popularity and network hashrate.
| # | Name | Website | Mining Pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bitcoin (BTC) | https://bitcoin.org/ | pool.btc.com slushpool.com F2Pool ViaBTC mining.bitcoin.com AntPool |
| 2 | Bitcoin Cash (BCH) | https://www.bitcoincash.org/ | BTC.com F2Pool ViaBTC Bitcoin.com AntPool |
| 3 | Bitcoin SV (BSV) | https://bitcoinsv.io/ | svpool.com |
| 4 | DigiByte (DGB) | https://digibyte.io/ | F2Pool zpool.ca |
| 5 | Peercoin (PPC) | https://www.peercoin.net/ | zpool.ca |
| 6 | Namecoin (NMC) | https://www.namecoin.org/ | namecoin.org/get-started/ |
Other coins based on SHA-256:
Note: The below coins has a very low 24 hour volume or no volume at all. Basically abandoned. It is rarely traded on exchanges and are hard to sell. So no point in mining anyways.
- Litecoin Cash (LCC)
- Syscoin (SYS)
- Bitcoin Classic (BXC)
- Elastos (ELA)
- Acoin
- Auroracoin (AUR)
- Bitcoin Vault (BTCV)
- Joulecoin (XJO)
- Curecoin (CURE)
- Super Bitcoin (SBTC)
- Pyrk (PYRK)
- EmerCoin (EMC)
- eMark (DEM)
- HTMLCOIN (HTML)
- Terracoin (TRC)
- Myriad (XMY) – Multi Algo.
More info on SHA-256:
