Monero (XMR) Hashrate Reaches ATH Shortly After ASIC-Resistance Hard Fork

Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero’s (XMR) hashrate recently reached a new ATH after it underwent a change in its proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm. This, according to data from Bitinfocharts, January 3, 2020.

What Spiked the Hashrate?

One of the major privacy-centric digital currencies, Monero recently underwent a slight change in its PoW protocol to make the cryptocurrency ASIC resistant and thereby prevent outside attacks.

Interestingly, the cryptocurrency’s hashrate has been on a continual rise since the RandomX hard fork which aims to provide Monero long-term resistance to ASIC miners. That said, the XMR camp seems to be divided over the exact cause that might have propelled Monero’s hashrate to new highs as indicated by its recent charts.

The Monero community on Reddit has voiced different opinions as to the possible reasons behind the skyrocketing hashrate of the cryptocurrency. Reddit user r/tevador, an XMR contributor, opined that it would be wrong to directly attribute the rise in hashrate to the RandomX hard fork. He explained:

“Saying that the hashrate of Monero “skyrocketed” or “tripled” has about the same information content as saying that the prices of groceries in Germany halved after switching from the Deutsche Mark to the Euro. Just like you can’t directly compare prices in different currencies, you can’t compare hashrates of different algorithms.”

He added that the new algorithm is unlikely to be the cause for ATH because the reason to switch to RandomX was not to “increase the profitability of home miners but to provide long-term ASIC resistance.”

Another XMR contributor by the name of r/Kallebo1337 suggested that a better way to approximate the hashrate is to first consider an average hashrate for a worker and then estimate the number of workers that can be part of the network right now.

Diluting the Network Mining Concentration

On a related note, BTCManager reported on November 14, 2019, how the Monero community had raised its voice to defend its decision to go ahead with the RandomX hard fork. This came shortly after U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase had published an article criticizing approach toward blocking ASIC miners by hard forking every six months.

Now with the RandomX hard fork completed, regular CPUs will be able to take part in the XMR mining process which should ideally help mitigate network mining concentration.