Yescrypt Algorithm coins & Miners – Yescrypt R8, R16, R24, R32 (CPU algo)

Whenever we post a mining guide we do mention whether or not the algorithm is ASIC resistant. But do you know that there are certain Proof of Work algorithms that are GPU resistant as well. Not CryptoNight and other CPU algorithms which can also be mined using GPUs but algorithm that only allows CPU miners. Here in this post we’ll see about one such algorithm and that is Yescrypt which is CPU only mining algorithm and that doesn’t allow GPU or ASIC miners to mine the coin.

Every week we explain about a Proof of Work algorithm and list coins based on that particular algorithm. So far we’ve mostly covered only GPU and ASIC algorithms and not a post about CPU friendly hashing algorithm. So we thought of sharing about this CPU algo. Alright! What is Yescrypt and what are the coins that are based on this algorithm. Also is this algorithm really GPU resistant and are those Yescrypt coins actually worth mining?

Yescrypt Algorithm – Large scale password hashing

Yescrypt is not actually a Proof of Work hash function but a password hashing algorithm. It was part of the password hashing competition held on 2013 and the winner of this competition is Argon 2d. Yescrypt is a password based key derivation function (KDF) and is based on original Scrypt algorithm. This algorithm is designed to provide encryption and optimal security from password cracking. It is the most scalable password hashing scheme, it has greater resistance to attacks and there are many other advantages. You can find more technical details about Yescrypt in the following links.

Reference:

• https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Yescrypt
• http://password-hashing.net/wiki/doku.php/yescrypt
• https://www.openwall.com/yescrypt/

Even though this algorithm is not meant for Proof of Work use case there are many cryptocurrencies; especially one that which are focused on CPU mining uses Yescrypt as their Proof of Work algorithm. Now before see the list of Yescrypt coins; is this algorithm really GPU resistant?

Miners and GPU resistance

So is Yescrypt truly GPU resistant or there are no GPU miners coded for it yet? Well, there are GPU mining software’s available for this algorithm but mining on CPU is more efficient. Also there are no ASICs yet.

Anyways Yescrypt is a memory hard hashing algorithm and its memory requirements can be changed by tuning the algorithm parameters. By increasing or decreasing per-thread memory usage of this algorithm one can make GPUs more or less efficient compared to CPUs. For instance there are different implementation of Yescrypt algorithm such as Yescrypt R8, Yescrypt R16, Yescrypt R24 and Yescrypt R32.

R – Increasing R increases the size of the blocks operated on by the algorithm and thus increases memory usage.

• CPU miner: https://github.com/JayDDee/cpuminer-opt
• GPU miner (NVIDIA only): https://github.com/nemosminer/ccminerKlausT-r11-fix/releases

Note: Both the above miners supports Yescrypt and other variants such as R8, R16, R24 and R32. But as we said GPU mining is not that efficient compared to CPU.

Now let’s take a look at the list of coins that uses Yescrypt hashing algorithm and other variants.

Coins

While this algorithm seems interesting; coins that are based on this algorithm doesn’t look appealing at all. In fact all of the coins listed here are either completely dead or less active so mining them is totally useless. Anyways for your reference we are listing them below.

• Myriad – XMY (Multi algorithm coin)
• Globalboost-Y  – BSTY
• Argentum – ARG (Multi algo)
• Koto – KOTO
• GlobalToken GLT (Multi algo)
• Unitus – UIS

Yescrypt-R16 coins

• Yenten – YTN
• EliCoin – ELI
• German Community Coin – GCC
• Cryply – CRP

Yescrypt-R32 coins

• Wavi – WAVI
• Lite Bitcoin – LBTC
• Litecoin Finance – LTFN
• Soyuz – COM
• Bitzeny – ZNY ( Based on Yescrypt R8)
• JagarcoinR – JAGAR (Based on Yescrypt R24)

Yescrypt is just one of the many PoW algorithms. Visit this page to learn more about other mining algorithms and their coins.