If you are already aware about the crypto-domain, you might be familiar about the mining process of cryptocurrency. Mining process is completely depending on complex mathematic concepts and equations. Since those cannot be done manually, these mining processes requires special software and hardware. Apart from that, mining process requires a large amount of computational power. According to these requirements there are many methods of mining. The rest of this context is an introduction of such method of mining which is known as GPU mining.
What is GPU Mining?
GPU stands for Graphical Processing Unit that consists in computers. Especially in gaming computers. GPU is performing digital rendering of a computer system and it is able to tolerate the complexity of the mathematical concepts that are involved in cryptocurrency mining. Due to GPUs high potential of speed, this has been used for blockchain applications. Especially, cryptocurrency mining. No matter what ever the mining method that is used by a miner to mine cryptocurrency, these coins must be built on a proof-of-work (PoW) mining supportable blockchain architecture. The famous cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero and Litecoin are some better examples for such mineable currencies
But for mining cryptocurrency through GPU method a rig is essentially needed. Though there are many types of graphical cards exist in the market, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1070 can be considered as the most popular mining rig and these are designed for gaming as well.
GPU Mining Algorithms.
The mathematical problems that are involved in cryptocurrency mining are solved by different GPU mining algorithms. There are different types of algorithms that are used in mining according to the different types of cryptocurrencies. Because the hash varies according to the currency type. “Hash” is a specified code with 64 characters that represent the product of mining that is used to map the data in the blocks. These are some hashing algorithms that are supportable for GPU mining.
SHA-256 Algorithm
This is also known as “Cryptographic hash algorithm”. This algorithm functions are measured in gigahashes (GH/s) and the functional operations are done on a 512- bit block consisting two 256-bit intermediate hash values. But the power consumption of SHA-256 algorithm is bit high. Bitcoin, Terracoin are some currencies that use SHA-256 Algorithm.
Scrypt Algorithm
This can be used as an alternative for the power consumption of SHA-256 algorithm and this algorithm performs bit faster than the previous algorithm. In Litecoin mining applications Scrypt algorithm is frequently used.
X11 Algorithm
This can be used as a better alternative for the power consumption of above both methods. Comparably, Using X11 algorithm would enable the GPU performance to run on 30% less wattage. Dash, StarCoin, cannabisCoin are some examples for the currencies that uses X11 algorithm.
Ethash Algorithm
As the name implies this is used in Ethereum. The initial version of Ethash is “DaggerHashimoto” algorithm which was a combination of two other algorithms. Apart from Ethereum, Ethereum classic and Expanse are based on Ethhash algorithm.