Merged mining occurs when a miner is able to check each nonce they hash against the difficulty threshold of multiple distinct blockchains. In practice, this allows a single computer to mine and secure many blockchains simultaneously with no increase in hardware requirements or energy consumption.

Merged mining can be conducted only between blockchains utilizing the same hashing algorithm. All Quai blockchains use the ProgPoW hashing algorithm, and third party chains that use ProgPoW can decide to merge-mine with Quai. Each Quai miner merge-mines three blockchains simultaneously -- one from each tier of Quai's hierarchy.

Merge-mined parachains are external blockchains that inherit security and hash power from Quai Network through merged mining. This provides a cost-effective security solution for developers, eliminating the need for apps to build their own native validator network.

To learn more about Merge-Mined Parachains, view the following page.