Quebec new mining facility is operational

Former patent management company now focuses on ASIC mining

13 March 2018 1072

Today, Marathon Patent Group, Inc. launched its brand new facility in Quebec, Canada. The facility is a fresh start for a company as it engages into Bitcoin mining game. Formerly, Marathon dealt with patents and commerce, it purchased and maintained intellectual properties of different organizations of all sizes from big corporations to universities and small startups.

Earlier, the company leased 2,5 sq km of space in Quebec specifically for establishing a data centre and cooperated with Bitmain on the matters of acquiring 1,400 units of Bitmain's Antminer S9 mining rigs. With this setup, 19Ph/s of ASIC mining capacity is expected to be carried out. Marathon is planning to add 2,800 more units to the facility. These machines are capable of mining both Bitcoin as well as other digital currencies like Bitcoin Cash, as the algorithm remains the same - SHA256. The company is clearly focused on mining cryptocurrencies with adding new crypto assets along the process and thus expanding its portfolio.

Judging by the stocks reaction - the stock (Nasdaq:MARA) is on the rise with 32% already gained, investors are pleased with the business shift. And it seems that traditional stock investors have found an elegant way to be exposed to the emerging market of digital assets.

Today’s announcement represents a milestone for the Company. I’d like to thank everyone that worked so hard to make this day a reality for our shareholders.

Merrick D. Okamoto

Interim Chief Executive Officer, Marathon

Mining Blockchain

Zcoin to Implement Hard Fork to Fight ASIC Mining

After update, which implement new Merkle Tree Proof algorithm, the cost of mining on ASIC devices will be significantly increased

10 December 2018 103

On Monday, December 10, a planned hardfork will be held in the Zcoin cryptocurrency network (XZC), the purpose of which is to oppose mining on ASIC devices. As expected, the upgrade will take place at 12:00 GMT.

As a result, the upgrade will activate a new algorithm called Merkle Tree Proof (MTP), the development of which has been carried out over the past few years.

It is noted that the MTP algorithm provides for increased use of RAM, which significantly increases the cost of mining on ASIC devices and thereby eliminates their advantages.

The FAQ section says that before hardfork users and operators of the nodes need to upgrade to the latest version of the Zcoin software (0.13.7.4). Earlier versions will continue to work, but the new release not only contains important fixes for various bugs, but also significantly improves network performance and throughput.

In addition, the developers warn that if after the hard forks the user still has an earlier version of the software, this can lead to incorrect display of balances in the Zcoin wallet.

Znode operators, in turn, will be excluded from the queue and will not be able to receive the award until they update the software to the latest version.

Zcoin Price

These news don't have any big effect on Zcoin's rate.