MERGED MINING

[Sidra101]

What is the significant of merge mining and what different does it make compared to the regular blockchain network?

[Hatchy]

merge mining, is a form of mining multiple cryptocurrencies sharing the same algorithms which then increases the overall efficiency of the Blockchain network.

now compared to a regular Blockchain network, merge mining increases the speed of Blockchain confirmations as miners are competing to validate transaction across multiple Blockchains enabling smaller Blockchain networks to manage the security and hashpower of larger networks.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Merge mining uses the same hash rate to work on two blockchains at once: the original blockchain (e.g. Bitcoin) and the merge mined blockchain (e.g. RSK or NMC).

Note that it is mining 2 different coins so it is NOT a faster nor more efficient way to mine Bitcoin. It only benefits the secondary coins. Even more to the point, the block rewards originate as the secondary coins and do not count as finding a BTC block. Depending on where you are mining those may be converted to BTC but of course they have a much smaller value then BTC.

[paid2]

Is merge mining with sha256 algo still a thing?
I know that some pools offered merge mining of BTC with NMC but since I only solo mine, I don't know if it's still offered and current?

Merge mining uses the same hash rate to work on two blockchains at once: the original blockchain (e.g. Bitcoin) and the merge mined blockchain (e.g. RSK or NMC).

Note that it is mining 2 different coins so it is NOT a faster nor more efficient way to mine Bitcoin. It only benefits the secondary coins. Even more to the point, the block rewards originate as the secondary coins and do not count as finding a BTC block. Depending on where you are mining those may be converted to BTC but of course they have a much smaller value then BTC.

For my part I never really understood how merge mining could secure two blockchains at the same time? Knowing that NMC allows merge mining but that BTC does not allow it if I understood correctly, is that what you mean when you say that it benefits only to the secondary coin?
I know that some miners could take advantage of merged mining from a financial point of view, but isn't it a waste of submited hashes from a BTC's blockchain point of view ?

I don't understand technically how they can earn BTC knowing that their submited hashes doesn't count for the BTC block

[NotFuzzyWarm]

AFAIK Braiins is the only pool that does it, ref https://help.braiins.com/en/support/solutions/articles/77000422680-what-is-merged-mining-
Details as to how it works https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/273/how-does-merged-mining-work/275#275

No idea what the exchange rate between BTC and NMC is. Considering I can't say I've ever seen NMC being actually used one has to wonder just how many tx's are actually in its blocks...

[mikeywith]

I know that some miners could take advantage of merged mining from a financial point of view, but isn't it a waste of submited hashes from a BTC's blockchain point of view ?

I don't understand technically how they can earn BTC knowing that their submited hashes doesn't count for the BTC block

It is not a waste of shares, shares are still created either ways, low diff shares can solve blocks for those coins but not for BTC, it is not like you know beforehand the share is going to have x diff, you are going to create it and only then know for sure.

You can read more here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5432383.msg61520701#msg61520701

@Notfuzzywarm, most large pools support merged mining, the rewards are too small to be considered, in the above link I posted my earnings on Viabtc pool.

[hZti]

Merged mining was a thing many years ago, when new popular altcoins used to simply copy the bitcoin mining algorithm. In the past years new coins however started to use newly developed algorithms to prevent merged mining and to be able to say they are innovative. Basically it just means that the developers don’t want the pools like brains to merge mine and directly dump the coins on the next exchange for any price.
For bitcoin merged mining is actually a good thing, since the profits form the merged mining usually are converted straight into bitcoin.