AIP: 2 Title: Crow dual algo system Author: Shafil Alam <alamshafil@pm.me> Comments-Summary: No comments yet. Comments-URI: https://github.com/AvianNetwork/aips Status: Final Type: Standards Created: 2022-08-29
Implement a dual algo system called Crow that will allow two algorithms to work together.
The original cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, started Proof of Work (PoW) using the SHA256 hashing algorithm, but as projects have forked from Bitcoin, it also brought about the use of alternative algorithms. A common goal of these algorithms was to become ASIC-resistant due to the fact that highly efficient ASICs began to dominate SHA-256 due to their simplicity, limiting the viability of decentralization through mining on consumer hardware. Cryptocurrencies like Dash took the initiative to chain multiple algorithms together, creating the family of X11 algorithms. It was proven to be ASIC resistant, but ASICs for X11 were still eventually developed by Chinese manufacturers.
Another project, Ravencoin (RVN), noticed this and decided to design an ASIC-resistant algo based on the X11 series; they created the X16R algorithm. X16R had the same principle of chaining multiple algorithms together, but this time the order of the algorithms was randomized based on the last 8 bytes of the previous hash, contrasting with the sequential nature of previous chained implementations. Due to RVN’s early popularity, dedicated mining hardware was eventually developed for X16R, which, despite being highly inefficient, prompted Ravencoin to reverse their course and begin work on a memory-intensive ProgPow variant, temporarily moving to a modified algorithm called X16Rv2 while development was ongoing.
A group of volunteers wanted to keep the original X16R chain alive and created a new cryptocurrency called Ravencoin Classic (RVC). Unfortunately, X16R and RVC were taken over by Chinese ASIC manufacturers who exploited RVC for profit. A supporter of RVC was upset by this and decided to fork RVC, making a new community-driven cryptocurrency utilizing the X16R algorithm; thus Ravencoin Lite (RVL) was born. The RVL project was faced with many of the same issues which plagued its predecessors and saw the use of dedicated hardware on the network. While the aging and already inefficient ASICs and FPGAs could barely compete with modern consumer GPUs in terms of the hashrate to power ratio, it still went against the decentralized community-driven spirit of the project. Realizing that, RVL performed an algo swap just 3 months into its life, rebranding to Avian Network (AVN) upon the activation of the new PoW system. AVN maintains the original visions of RVL and the projects that came before it by using the X16RT and MinotaurX mining algorithms (both direct derivatives of X16R) to allow both GPUs and CPUs to join the network.