Wybo Wiersma – a 40-year-old Oxford University graduate – has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison after scamming over $2 million in crypto from unsuspecting victims. Following his arrest in 2019, the Dutchman was extradited from the Netherlands back to the United Kingdom (UK) in 2021. Following a five-year investigation by the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU), he pled guilty on January 26 to the Oxford Crown Court. A Five-Year Investigation As reported by…
What is CryptoNight Algorithm and How Does it Work?
CryptoNight is a proof-of-work algorithm used to secure the network of several cryptocurrencies, such as Monero, Aeon, and others. It is designed to resist ASIC mining, a specialized hardware optimized for mining a specific cryptocurrency.
CryptoNight is intended to be mined efficiently on consumer-grade CPUs and GPUs, which allows for more decentralized mining. The algorithm uses a combination of hashing functions, including the CryptoNight hash function based on the CryptoNote protocol and the Keccak hash function.
It also uses a memory-hard technique, which requires much memory during mining. This is intended to make it more difficult for specialized mining hardware to be developed for CryptoNight.
The Downside of the CryptoNight Algorithm
There are several downsides to the CryptoNight protocol:
- Memory-hardness: The memory-hardness feature of CryptoNight is designed to prevent the development of specialized mining hardware, but it also means that the algorithm requires a significant amount of memory, which can make it more expensive to mine.
- CPU and GPU mining: While CryptoNight is designed to be mined efficiently on consumer-grade CPUs and GPUs, this also means that mining can be less profitable on high-end mining hardware, which can discourage miners from participating in the network.
- Centralization risk: As the mining process of CryptoNight is more profitable on consumer-grade hardware, it may lead to centralization of mining power among those who can afford to buy much consumer-grade hardware.
- Less secure: The CryptoNight algorithm is less secure than other proof-of-work algorithms, as it can be susceptible to 51% attacks.
- Performance: The algorithm could be more efficient than other proof-of-work algorithms, leading to slower transaction processing times and higher fees on the network.
Some of these downsides are also part of the design trade-offs made for the CryptoNight protocol to allow for more decentralization and ASIC resistance.