Grin Price Up Over 11% as Former Developer Tests ASIC Miner

Grin, a major privacy-focused cryptocurrency, is apparently no longer resistant to mining with Application-Specific Integrated Circuits - or ASICs - according to a former core developer.

Gary Yu, a former core Grin developer, used a Grin ASIC mining device to test out the miner's performance, according to an Aug. 10 post on Grin's official forum.

Yu purportedly managed to mine three blocks in less than 24 hours, with a block reward totaling at 180 GRIN, or $118 as of press time.

In the post, the former core developer revealed that the Grin ASIC miner weighs about 20 kg.

"BTW, I tested it at my home, the big noise of the fan is a little bit annoying for the family, I have to limit the maximum fan speed to 30% for this test. I suppose the miner performance will be much better if let its fan work at maximum 100%.".

To date, Grin has apparently been ASIC-resistant and only available for mining through Graphics Processing Units.

In 2019, Grin executed the first hard fork of its blockchain to block the possibility of mining the coin with ASICs.

Prior to the fork, Grin's algorithm supported mining with both GPUs and ASICs, but no one used ASIC mining to mine Grin, developer John Tromp said at the time.

GPUs are less powerful or efficient in terms of crypto mining than ASICs - devices specifically designed to mine crypto.

Amid the news, Grin has surged more than 11% over the past 24 hours.