How to start mining and is GPU mining still profitable? is one of the common question new miners have. Yes, GPU mining is profitable and it will always be; only if you choose the right algorithm and coin. There are a large number of altcoins available currently. Mining some may be quite lucrative whereas some coins may leave you disappointed. So before setting up your GPUs and start mining it is very essential that you check the mining profitability of a cryptocurrency.
To calculate the mining profit you need to know the hashing power of your GPUs for the algorithm that you are intended to mine. Every week we cover about an algorithm and that includes a list of coins, miners, mining performance and the hashrate of various GPUs. Similar today we’ll put up few information about X11Gost algorithm so that you can decide whether mining x11 Gost and its coins will be profitable or not.
X11Gost Proof of Work Algorithm
Dash, PacCoin, Pura, and many other popular coins uses X11 proof of work algorithm. X11 and other similar algorithms such as X12, X13, X14 etc are specifically created for GPU mining and they tend to provide good returns for GPU miners. These algorithms consist of different hashing algorithms which is chained together and due to this nature building an ASIC is quite complex. But somehow ASIC manufacturers cracked it and soon after GPU mining X11 algorithm became obsolete. Now X11-Gost is based on X11 and it too has a similar story.
X11 is a combination of 11 different hashing algorithms such as: Blake, BMW, Groestl, JH, Keccak, Skein, Luffa, Cubehash, Shavite, Simd and Echo. The difference between X11 and X11 Gost is that; X11 Gost (Ghost) is an improved algorithm and it has a special hash function within the X11 chain called “Streebog“. It is also spelled as “Stribog” and is officially called GOST R 34.11-2012 which is the Russian standard hash function approved by the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation.
X11 Gost hashing algorithm is created by SIBCoin (SIB) and is designed to make SIBCoin ASIC resistant, to provide profitable mining and to ensure high network decentralization. But all these positive aspects of the coin has been destroyed recently. X11 ASICs cannot mine X11Gost due to the unique hash function that it contains. However there is a specialized ASIC miner available for X11-Gost algorithm and due to this; mining X11Gost or SIBCoin using GPU became profitless.
X11 Gost ASIC Miner – Baikal Miner (BK – G28)
X11-Gost is less power hungry and is made suitable for mining using NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. A single NVIDIA GTX 1080 TI GPU is capable of producing 20 Mh/S to 23 MH/S. Compare this hashrate with Baikal Miner BK-X which is capable of hashing 1.35 GH/s @ just 200 Watts. Now there is even more powerful ASIC miner called Baikal BK-G28 which is a multi algorithm ASIC miner and it is 3 times faster than the previous machine.
Baikal ASIC miner BK-G28 hashes X11Gost at 3.5 GH/S @ 450 Watts. In addition to this algorithm BK-G28 also has support for X11, Quark, Qubit, Groestl, Myriad-Groestl, Skein and Nist5. With such high hashing power GPU mining SIBCoin (X11Gost) is not useful at all. Anyways if you are looking to give a try then you can use the following miners.
CPU miner: https://github.com/lemial/cpuminer-x11-gost
NVIDIA: https://github.com/tpruvot/ccminer/releases | https://github.com/alexis78/ccminer/
AMD: https://github.com/nicehash/sgminer/releases
Note: Due to GPU dominance CPU mining is not practical and due to large ASIC machines GPU mining is not profitable at all. Also NiceHash has support for X11-Gost where you can buy or sell mining hashpower for X11Gost algorithm.
If you are wondering then only popular cryptocurrency that you can mine with this algorithm is SIBCoin.
SIBCoin – SIB
Siberian Chervonets or Siberian crypto currency is developed in Russia and this coin is more popular among Russian community. SIBCoin was launched in 2015. It is a secure, decentralized, instant and private cryptocurrency that is based on Dash blockchain. It features masternodes and uses X11GOST as a Proof of Work algorithm.
The development team is aware of the ASICs. To change the PoW algorithm a proposal was created for community voting. But looks like a large number of users have voted not to change the algorithm and more information about it can be found here.
Bitcoin Talk Announcement: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1153781.0
English: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1197623.0
Technical specifications of SIB coin:
- Total Supply: 24,000,000
- Coin Type: PoW / Masternodes
- PoW Algorithm: X11GOST
- Block Time: 180 Seconds
- Difficulty Readjustment: Dark Gravity Wave
- Masternode Collateral: 4000 coins
Did you find this information useful? We have information about other Proof of Work algorithms as well which you may also find useful.
