All about mining (x11) algorithm

Origin of the X11 algorithm

The origin of X11 dates back to March 2014 when the developer Evan Duffield, presented his cryptocurrency project DarkCoin, currently known as Dash. In his whitepaper, Duffield made it clear that his project sought to overcome some of the flaws he considers within Bitcoin, in particular, its lack of scalability, better privacy, native anonymity, and resistance to ASIC to avoid the centralization of mining.

The presentation of this project caught the attention of the crypto community, especially due to its ability to offer anonymity and of course, its striking mining algorithm. And it is that the structuring of this algorithm was something new and never seen.

For that reason, many in the community set out to study its possibilities. As a result, a whole new development arises, among which algorithms such as X13 y X17, algorithms that follow the same operating scheme, but use more hash functions to do their job.

Understanding how X11 works

Now how does a mining algorithm like X11 work? The truth is that algorithmically it is not complex. First of all, let’s know what hash functions X11 uses:

1. BLAKE
2. BLUE MIDNIGHT WISH (BMW)
3. Grostl
4. JH
5. Keccak (An algorithm whose variant gave rise to SHA-3)
6. Skin
7. Loofah
8. CubeHash
9. SHavite-3
10. SIMD
11. ECHO

These algorithms are applied in this same order within X11, and the goal is for a miner to start generating a Block ID or Block Hash, starting with the first hash and ending with the last hash. Basically what it does is generate a first hash using BLAKE, taking into account the difficulty of the mining system and the target. Once this hash is generated and the work of Proof of Work (PoW) heavier, this new hash is taken and the rest of the hash functions are applied to it so that said hash changes.

So every time we apply a new hash function, a different hash is generated and this hash is taken and the following function is applied to it, until the cycle ends.

An interesting point about these functions is that they were all created with the highest possible level of security in mind. All these functions were analyzed by the NIST (US National Institute of Standards and Technology) validating their security. With this, we can be sure that X11 is an algorithm built on safe and proven technology.

Pros and cons of the algorithm

Pros

1. A higher level of security compared to hash functions like SHA-256 or Scrypt. This is because not only one hash function is used, several of them are used. This allows you to create a security feedback that ultimately leads to the hash of blocks that are more secure and difficult to duplicate or reverse engineer.
2. In simple to program. X11 programming is not as complex as creating a new hash function might be. Instead, the work of already secure functions is used to create a more secure system.
3. It is friendlier in terms of computing power and energy consumption. X11 is less demanding in terms of computing power to be successfully resolved. BLAKE the initial function is very fast and computationally inexpensive compared to SHA-256, and hence the application of the other functions maintains that same level of computational and electronic consumption.
4. It is possible to reconfigure the algorithm to use other hash functions instead of the 11 specified at startup. You can even add additional hash functions like X13 or X17, which are just X11 variants with more active hashes.
5. Offers great mining performance on CPU and GPU, offering a good level of profit to those who mine with this type of device.

Cons

1. Although X11 was initially an ASIC-resistant mining algorithm, this has been left behind. Currently, several ASIC miners on the market can offer high mining power for X11.
2. Due to the large number of hash functions implicit in the algorithm, modifying it to improve certain functions can be complex for programmers.

Vulnerabilities

Despite the use of various hash functions within its structure, X11 has been the victim of some striking security issues. In 2014, a small security problem with the handling of nonce within the system that affected Dash. The Dash community handled this problem quickly and managed to fix it, demonstrating the potential for audits by the community itself.

Another possible problem is related to the possibility that a hash function that makes up X11 can be attacked to the point that its hashes are not safe. However, due to the hash cascade, X11 performs (passing the hash through various additional functions) this has no negative effect.