Zcash's Transition to a new PoW algorithm

Mining
1

There was a bit of talk a while back about Zcash switching to a new mining algorithm. There was also a post where Zooko said that if a change were to occur there would be a year’s notice. I have not been able to find any updated information on this, so I was wondering if this idea had been abandoned or perhaps I missed an announcement of sorts?

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2

Well if you search Pow, Pos, mining algorithm etc you’ll find a number of different threads from various times
Simply post your ideas into any that seem most appropriate and it will bump the thread (you’ve already started this one)
Much discussion occurred on github but essentially it wasn’t fully specified before time ran out on the upgrade cycle to be included

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There was also something the ECC looked into called Harmony Mining where you would have two different Proof of Work algo’s.

This was abandoned after security implications were found to be to great to overcome at this point. So Harmony has been ruled out for NU3 and NU4. I doubt it will come in.

So you kinda missed the no harmony announcement, but so did everyone who wasn’t following the GitHub issue.

Currently there is nothing for NU3 and it is probably too late to get it in for NU4, but I will be trying to at least get RandomX evaluated (with different parameters than the monero implementation) before 31st August so I can submit a ZIP for PoW change in NU4. (2020)

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I apologize if this isnt the place to ask such a question but where can I find out what a “ZIP” or what NU3 or 4 mean? I cant seem to find any information on it on Google. Thanks!

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Hi,

NU stands for Network Upgrade, there are two a year or so.

The next one is Blossom which should activate on October 28th.

The first link in this post by zooko shows what the current pipeline looks like.

I would read that post, but here is the direct link

The deadline to get a ZIP (Zcash Improvement Protocol) to be put in NU4 is August 31st.

Here is a great post from nathan about community written ZIPs. (Nathan-at-least is in charge of the ZIP and NU processes.)

Note that the most active person on the forum who has responsibility for zips on a ownership level is daira, but I have found all members of the ECC very willing to help.

and this is more about ZIPs and NU3 (the upgrade about to happen)

Here is a post from str4d that gives more links about the ZIP’s that the ECC make.

Hopefully this will give you a better idea.

Let me know if I can help any further.

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Thank you so much! Very clear and concise description!