What is the mining algo?

Our algorithm, Ethash (previously known as Dagger-Hashimoto), is based around the provision of a large, transient, randomly generated dataset which forms a DAG (the Dagger-part), and attempting to solve a particular constraint on it, partly determined through a block’s header-hash.

It is designed to hash a fast verifiability time within a slow CPU-only environment, yet provide vast speed-ups for mining when provided with a large amount of memory with high-bandwidth. The large memory requirements mean that large-scale miners get comparatively little super-linear benefit. The high bandwidth requirement means that a speed-up from piling on many super-fast processing units sharing the same memory gives little benefit over a single unit. This is important in that pool mining have no benefit for nodes doing verification, thus discourageing centralisation.

Communication between the external mining application and the Expanse daemon for work provision and submission happens through the JSON-RPC API. Two RPC functions are provided; exp_getWork and exp_submitWork.

These are formally documented on the JSON-RPC API wiki article under miner.

In order to mine you need a fully synced Expanse client that is enabled for mining and at least one expanse account. This account is used to send the mining rewards to and is often referred to as coinbase or etherbase. Visit the “Creating an account” section of this guide to learn how to create an account.

Warning: Ensure your blockchain is fully synchronised with the main chain before starting to mine, otherwise you will not be mining on the main chain.