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December 12, 2013, 08:40:57 PM |
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Most altcoins use a different proof of work algorithm from Bitcoin. Bitcoin, Namecoin, and a few others use SHA256, which is what Block Erupters calculate, very quickly, this is the only thing they can do. Litecoin, and most of the other altcoins use Scrypt, a totally different algorithm, which they chose specifically to keep ASICs out so they could continue GPU mining. Ultimately ASICs will probably find their way to Scrypt, but Scrypt is apparently harder to create an ASIC for, possibly because it requires lots of memory, and that memory can't be on-die with the ASIC, and so you end up with a need for external memory modules, so then you end up being memory bus limited, and you end up not much better off than GPU mining, except possibly more efficient. (Note that is *my* understanding, and it's possibly incorrect)
TL;DR Most altcoins use the Scrypt algorithm for proof-of-work which Block Erupters can't do.
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