Bitcoin Spark (BTCS) has emerged as a formidable contender, offering a fresh perspective on mining and blockchain technology. Some analysts suggest it presents a stronger alternative to ZCash (ZET).

What is ZCash?

ZCash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that emerged in 2016. What sets ZCash apart is its robust privacy protocol. It uses a technology called zk-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge) to enable private transactions. This means that unlike other blockchains, where all transaction details are visible, ZCash transactions can be fully shielded, obscuring the sender, receiver, and transaction amount. This heightened level of privacy has made ZCash a popular choice for users who value anonymity in their financial transactions.

How to mine ZCash

ZCash uses a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism. Miners compete to find a solution to complex puzzles, and the first one to do so validates a block of transactions, adds it to the blockchain, and receives a reward in the form of newly created ZEC coins and transaction fees. Mining Zcash is typically done using graphics cards with a large amount of memory, as Zcash is a memory-intensive cryptocurrency. However, profitability can vary based on factors like electricity costs and hardware efficiency. Notably, ZCash uses an Equihash algorithm, which is designed to be more resistant to Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). However, over time, the difficulty of mining ZET has significantly increased, requiring more computational power and resources, which could potentially encourage their use, posing risks of centralization in the network. Additionally, the PoW system used within ZCash suggests a significant amount of power is used in mining, raising environmental degradation concerns.

What is Bitcoin Spark?

Bitcoin Spark is a new Bitcoin fork that seeks to usher in a new era of cryptocurrency by solving Bitcoin’s limitations and bringing new technologies to the blockchain. Nonetheless, it retains the scarcity factor that has made BTC so popular among investors by having a limited supply of 21 million BTCS coins.

Bitcoin Spark emphasizes faster transaction processing and low fees, which it achieves through a combination of shorter block times, higher transaction capacity within individual blocks, and a vast network of nodes. Bitcoin Spark also extends its utility by supporting smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps). It has a smart contract layer with multiple execution systems that all reach finality on the main network, ensuring scalability and promoting diversity by allowing for a variety of programming languages. The project’s development team has conducted multiple smart contract audits to ensure sustainability of the system.

How to mine Bitcoin Spark

Bitcoin Spark uses its proprietary consensus mechanism, the Proof-of-Process (PoP). This groundbreaking mechanism rewards miners for confirming transactions and providing their processing power to the network. However, a 2x higher hash rate will not result in 2x the rewards as the PoP will reduce rewards per additional power exponentially, promoting a fairer distribution. The nonlinear rewards functionality, combined with Bitcoin Spark’s extensive nodes, lowers the barrier to entry for miners, enabling even those with low-powered devices to mine BTC profitably.

Before the network’s repository becomes publicly accessible for developers to create alternative mining software, the Bitcoin Spark team will provide a mining application compatible with Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, and Android devices.

To mine BTCS, users will simply need to install the Bitcoin Spark app and grant it access to their device’s processing unit, among some other high-level permissions, such as resource management. The network’s app will create a virtual working environment separate from the device’s operating system functions to ensure security. It will also adjust the device resources used for mining to account for overheating, battery life, and simultaneous usage needs. This approach ensures the work and power required to mine BTCS is significantly low.

The miners’ contributed power will be rented out to organizations or individuals seeking remote computing resources in exchange for BTCS, and 97% of the revenue generated will be distributed among miners. With newly minted BTCS, transaction fees, and income from what would have otherwise been dormant power, BTCS miners should be able to turn a profit regardless of energy prices and asset prices.

For more information on Bitcoin Spark:

Website: https://bitcoinspark.org/

Buy BTCS: https://network.bitcoinspark.org/register