Feathercoin 0.8.7.0 Released - The NeoScrypt Update - Hardfork block 432,000

[bushstar]

Feathercoin 0.8.7.0 released
The NeoScrypt Update

It has been a long time in the works but we have finally got NeoScrypt and a GPU miner so we can now release the Feathercoin 0.8.7.0 client with NeoScrypt set to replace Scrypt on block 432,000, this should happen on the 26th October 2014. There is a Twitter countdown to the hard fork available here.

NeoScrypt uses stronger components than the Scrypt we are familiar with. A key element of Scrypt is Salsa which adds memory complexity, the problem is that the version of Salsa in Scrypt is weak and has been broken by differential analysis which is why we see cheap and powerful ASICs. NeoScrypt uses a blend of Salsa and its successor Chacha set to a higher level of strength. In theory these two should not be broken for at least a decade, this gives better protection than simply adding hashing functions.

However the goal is not simply to avoid ASICs forever as this may not be possible though ideally we want to stay in reach of as many people as possible without the need for expensive mining equipment. As the majority of people buying Scrypt ASICs are not doing so to mine Feathercoin and the fact that some very large ASIC suppliers will be releasing products soon it seems sensible to move algorithm now before we face the challenges that hit many SHA-256 alts when the SHA-256 ASICs hit. We are moving to a new tier of hashing where Feathercoin can be the leading coin.

Please be aware that after the update your Scrypt mining setup will no longer work. You will need to use the new GPU miner that we have been developing for several months now. Not only do miners need to upgrade their software but pools do as well.

Feathercoin Downloads
Windows
Mac
Linux

Miner Downloads
CPU Miner 2.4
GPU Miner 3.7.7b
NeoScrypt CPU miner (source)
NeoScrypt GPU miner (source)

Pool modules
NOMP MultiHashing PR
Stratum Algo Module
Stratum Mining Repo

Resources
NeoScrypt, a Strong Memory Intensive Key Derivation Function (white paper)
NeoScrypt - the latest proof of work algorithm (press release)
NeoScrypt (source)

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[escalicha]

Nice!! Im in! I trust in this coin! Strong Feather, keep mining!

[tmuir12]

Exciting times ahead!

[Ignition75]

FTC was my first coin... I hope you do really well Peter!

[jadefalke]

Will the CPU and GPU Miner for Neoscrypt mine on the same Level or is GPU the only way to go?

[tmuir12]

GPU is better than CPU, but the two are much closer than Scrypt, for example at the moment my HD7800 gives me about 30Khash, whilst my CPU gives me 8k hash, but the GPU miner will improve in the coming months as it is not optimised yet.

Neoscrypt is running on PXC now so you can see for yourself by mining that

[Purple Wayne]

Glad to see work is still being done to better the coin.

FTC was my first coin... I hope you do really well Peter!

Bitcoin was my first but  FTC was my second. Lost a bit of money on them sadly so now I've got no choice but to hodl and hope for the future.

[drkwarrior]

awesome 

[tmuir12]

Bump to keep this on the front page, to give everyone a chance to read it and update their wallet

[Conqueror]

I am glad I grabbed some coins at 0.00008 it is to risky for me trying to buy lower just 10 days before fork.

This is also good opportunity to look at the all time chart and study the previous development.
There was lot of insane pumps on FTC, but now for the first time in history there are big and fundamental news that
might support the growth of value.

For me personaly is also important that I will be able to set my GPUs for mining again.

[krisdavison]

Great news cant wait for the switch over to NeoScrypt at the end of october.

[spazzdla]

The copper of crypto is how one should push FTC.

I like copper.

[escalicha]

Time to buy little bit more




https://forobits.com/t/analisis-tecnico-en-altcoins/263/27?u=escalicha

[Magic8Ball]

Finally! This is going to be great for FTC.

The dedication of the team deserves kudos.

[Pala_00]

Go feather go!!!

[tmuir12]

For those interested I've just set up an FTC Twitter bot to countdown the switch to Neoscrypt.
It will tweet once a day from 7 days out, then 12 hours, 6 hours, 3 hours 1 hour, 30 minutes , 10 minutes and then the last 5 blocks. (hopefully)

Those wishing to follow the tweets here is the link to it

https://twitter.com/FTC_countdown


Will let you know when its time to fire up those GPUs again

[ChekaZ]

For those interested I've just set up an FTC Twitter bot to countdown the switch to Neoscrypt.
It will tweet once a day from 7 days out, then 12 hours, 6 hours, 3 hours 1 hour, 30 minutes , 10 minutes and then the last 5 blocks. (hopefully)

Those wishing to follow the tweets here is the link to it

https://twitter.com/FTC_countdown


Will let you know when its time to fire up those GPUs again

Awesome, thanks for that! - Followed!

[Magic8Ball]

For those interested I've just set up an FTC Twitter bot to countdown the switch to Neoscrypt.
It will tweet once a day from 7 days out, then 12 hours, 6 hours, 3 hours 1 hour, 30 minutes , 10 minutes and then the last 5 blocks. (hopefully)

Those wishing to follow the tweets here is the link to it

https://twitter.com/FTC_countdown


Will let you know when its time to fire up those GPUs again

Pretty neat. I will actually have to look for my GPU, kept it in a box somewhere.

[Prelude]

What is power consumption like using gpus? High like scrypt, low like x11, or somewhere in between?

[tmuir12]

What is power consumption like using gpus? High like scrypt, low like x11, or somewhere in between?

At the moment pretty low.
Can't give you exact values as I can't measure my power consumption, but aiming at a 65C GPU running temp my fans only run at around 30% to 35%, whilst that would give me about 80% fan run speed with Scrypt.
As the GPU is more optimised and the hash level increases I'm guessing power consumption will go up a bit, but it will still be better than Scrypt