Introduction
Monero will have a scheduled protocol upgrade on April 6. Among other changes, Monero will slightly change its proof of work algorithm.
This chance is mostly initiated by the introduction of ASICS into Monero, which many have estimated have been secretly mining Monero since late 2017. Read more about the PoW change here.
What does the update mean for miners?
Miners need to update their software to continue mining Monero. If you are still running old software on April 6, you will mine invalid blocks and will not make any money.
This update brings the potential for more earnings for miners. With less hashrate produced by ASICs, your CPUs and GPUs should be more profitable than they currently are today. Furthermore, some botnets may not be able to update their mining software, potentially reducing the hashrate further.
How to update
If you solo mine, you need to download the latest version (0.12.0.0) of the official client.
If you pool mine, you need to update your mining software. Please make sure your software supports the new algorithm. Then, please contact your pool to confirm they will support the new software before April 6.
XMRig + XMRig AMD + XMRig NVIDIA: "Added support for Monero v7 PoW, scheduled on April 6. You can update miner now, no need to wait for April 6."
XMR Stak: "Please use monero7 for full support of the new Monero PoW change. The miner will switch auto-magically as the fork happens." Old config files are NOT compatible with the new version. Please generate a new one.
The most recent versions can be found here:
XMRig: https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig/releases/tag/v2.5.2
XMRig AMD: https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig-amd/releases/tag/v2.5.2
XMRig NVIDIA: https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig-nvidia/releases/tag/v2.5.2
XMR Stak: https://github.com/fireice-uk/xmr-stak/releases/tag/2.3.0