A miner is a computer performing complex mathematical calculations, known as hashing, in a competition to add the next block to a Quai blockchain. These ongoing competitions allow the network to reach consensus through Proof-of-Entropy-Minima (PoEM). Quai Network utilizes merged mining, which allows each miner to secure three Quai blockchains simultaneously. Further, Quai miners self-select the contexts they wish to mine, incentivizing reduced network latency via topological organization.
Mining in Quai Network can be performed via CPU miner or GPU miner. GPUs have a significant advantage in efficiency over CPUs when mining Quai.
What hashing algorithm is used in the Iron Age Testnet?
What hashing algorithm is used in the Iron Age Testnet?
The Iron Age Testnet is running using the ProgPoW hashing algorithm for mining. The ProgPoW algorithm was chosen due to the difficulty of creating application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that can mine ProgPoW. The use of ASIC-able algorithms such as SHA-256 quickly renders consumer-grade hardware impractical, resulting in large barrier to entry for competitive mining.
What are the hardware requirements for a GPU miner?
What are the hardware requirements for a GPU miner?
To run a GPU miner, you’ll need:
A node running a stratum proxy to connect to
An AMD or Nvidia GPU
An AMD or Intel CPU
4 GB+ of RAM
Can I input the same address to mine to for all of the coinbase addresses in my node's network.env?
Can I input the same address to mine to for all of the coinbase addresses in my node's network.env?
No. Within any node's network.env, each coinbase address must be unique and properly map to the shard it has been inputted for. You can learn more about how Quai Network uses a sharded address structure here.
Does my miner have to be running on the same machine as my node?
Does my miner have to be running on the same machine as my node?
No. While you can connect the GPU miner to a node on the same machine, it is recommended to run the GPU miner and a node on separate machines, using the stratum proxy to point the miner at the node.
Do miners get rewarded for securing the network?
Do miners get rewarded for securing the network?
Yes
Which zone should I mine?
Which zone should I mine?
it is better to mine the zone with the least difficulty. You can view this at stats.quai.network.
Can I rent GPU power?
Can I rent GPU power?
We cannot provide any specific vendor, but there are 3rd party sites users can search for. If you are considering buying a GPU or renting, you may want to check the hashrate for the ProgPow algorithm on the following websites:
I am getting significantly lower hash rate than expected on AMD cards. How do I fix this?
I am getting significantly lower hash rate than expected on AMD cards. How do I fix this?
Our team has noticed that many AMD graphics cards give significantly lower hash rate than expected when mining ProgPoW. The likely cause is that AMD builds are not currently optimized for ProgPoW. One troubleshooting tip to try is looking into the graphics-card-specific drivers and installing them for your GPUs. However, this may still not resolve your issue.
At some point in the future, a more optimized quai-gpu-miner build for AMD cards will be released that addresses this discrepancy between expected and real hash rate.
Does a higher hashrate affect anything?
Does a higher hashrate affect anything?
A higher hashrate increases the probability of successfully mining blocks.
Can I run multiple mining machines with one node?
Can I run multiple mining machines with one node?
Yes.