Dear NiceHash miners!

Since we added the Autolykos algorithm to our platform we have been receiving a lot of questions about when and if Autolykos (Ergo) will be supported in NiceHash Miner. In this post, we will try to explain why the Autolykos algorithm is currently not supported and when we might add it.

At the time of writing Ergo network hash rate (all the hash rate on the network combined) is around 13 TH/s. To take control of the network and thus creating a 51% attack one would need just over 6.5 TH/s of network hashing power. Currently, NiceHash DaggerHashimoto marketplace offers just short of 40 TH/s of hashing power*. Since mining Autolykos is sometimes more profitable than mining DaggerHashimoto, we expect that a lot of Daggerhashimoto would switch to Autolykos instead. This poses a threat to the Ergo blockchain and could ultimately cause a lot of damage to the Ergo blockchain and its users. 

*Note the same GPU does not perform with the same speed on two different algorithms. A GPU mining Autolykos will achieve (very roughly) double hash rates than mining DaggerHashimoto. 

In the case of a scenario where there would be enough hashing power on the NiceHash marketplace, the potential attacker could use NiceHash for malicious attempts. NiceHash endeavors to protect smaller blockchains from such attacks as a priority, without interfering in the open marketplace. That is why we decided not to support Autolykos in NiceHash Miner yet, even if this means cutting out our potential revenue. Once the Ergo network hashrate grows, we will revise the decision and will most likely add Autolykos to NiceHash Miner.