Autolykos#

Ergo mining is based on Autolykos, a fairly launched efficient ASIC-resistant Proof of Work algorithm.

Overview#

Autolykos, in its first version, was designed with inherent pool-resistance through the use of non-outsourceable puzzles. The transition to Autolykos v2 was marked by EIP-0009: Hard-fork Activation protocol 'The Hardening Hard-Fork' on block 417,792, which facilitated the formation of mining pools by removing the non-outsourceable puzzles.

In addition to EIP-0009, several other proposals have been implemented which impact the autolykos algorithm in regards to the emission and difficulty adjustment:

EIP27: Emission Retargeting Soft-Fork was a significant milestone, passed with overwhelming community support, that extended emission by 4,566,336 blocks (~17.38 years). This change was activated on block 777217. For more information see the emission section.
EIP37: Tweaking Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm made the difficulty adjustment mechanism more responsive by considering a shorter and more recent history of blocks. EIP37 didn't replace Autolykos but refined it, making it more resilient against sudden hash rate changes and adversarial disruptions. For more information see the difficulty adjustment section.

Pool Resistance (Autolykos v1)#

Autolykos V1 was initially designed to resist pooling. However, it was observed that large players could bypass this resistance using smart contracts. This issue was discussed in the paper "Bypassing Non-Outsourceable Proof-of-Work Schemes Using Collateralized Smart Contracts" presented by Alex Chepurnoy at the WTSC workshop associated with Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2020 in Malaysia.

Autolykos V2#

Autolykos V2 introduced the following changes:

The non-outsourceable puzzles were removed.
The algorithm was optimized to bind an efficient solving procedure with a single table of ~2 GB (initially), significantly reducing the scope for memory optimization.
The table size, which determines the memory requirements of the solving algorithm, increases over time.
The table is solely dependent on the block height, eliminating any penalties for recalculating block candidates for the same height.

Key Concepts (Autolykos v2)#

Autolykos, both v1 and v2, is based on the k-sum problem. A miner is required to find k (k=32) out of N (2ⁿ = 2²⁶ initially) elements, such that the hash of their sum is less than the target value (inverse of the difficulty).
The indexes (k) are pseudorandom values derived from the block candidate and nonce.
The elements (N) are derived from the block height and constants. Unlike Autolykos v1, miners can now recalculate block candidates quickly as only the indexes depend on them.
The calculation of indexes also involves the same table
- (where elements are the last 31 bytes of H(i | | h | | M ), with i in the range [0, N),
  - h representing the block height,
  - and M serving as padding to slow down hash calculation (8kb of constant data).

The algorithm is designed to be efficient for miners who store the table, which initially requires 2²⁶ * 31 = 2,080,374,784 bytes (about 2GB).

Table Size Evolution#

The table size (N value) evolves over time as follows:

Until block 614,400, N = 2²⁶ = 67,108,864 elements (31 bytes each).
From block 614,401 until block 4,198,400, N increases by approximately 5% every 51,200 blocks (specifically, n increases by 1 every 102,400 blocks, so N doubles every 102,400 blocks).
At block 4,198,400, the value of N is fixed at 2,143,944,600.

(Note: Test vectors for N values are provided in the Autolykos paper).

Start Mining

Getting setup with a mining pool.

Algorithm

Dive into the Autolykos Algorithm technical details.

Governance

PoW To The People

Storage Rent

On-chain garbage collection that reduces the problem of blockchain bloat

Difficulty Adjustment

See how the mining difficulty is calculated.

Emission

The Ergo emission schedule

FAQ

For information on how miners will be supported after emission ends see this page