Introducing ZHash, a new hashing algorithm with the goal of hardening the Equihash protocol to be more ASIC resistant. The ZHash algorithm works by increasing the hardware requirements of Equihash to make development of an ASIC appliance less viable. The goal of ZHash is to put GPU mining on a level playing field with ASICs and FPGAs as far as hashing rates and costs are concerned so that they do not get too much of an advantage.

On block 160,000 around June 15th ~ 16th BitcoinZ will fork to the ZHash algorithm to prevent ASIC miners on the network. Before the fork, all nodes and wallets should be updated to the latest version to help support the new algorithm.

List of things that have been released:

• Updated BitcoinZ node - https://github.com/btcz/bitcoinz
• Updated BitcoinZ Windows Wallet - https://github.com/btcz/bitcoinz-wallet
• Optimized GPU miner for Cuda - https://github.com/btcz/zhasher
• Modified z-nomp to support the ZHash algorithm "NickNomp" - https://github.com/NickRHill/zh-nomp

Still needed:

• Optimized GPU miner for AMD
• Testers

Let us know how you can help!

The ZHash algorithm is based on the Equihash 144,5 variant and was primarily based on the development of @tromp, The BitcoinZ project, and The ASIC Resistance consortium.