On April 2, 2024, the Iron Fish blockchain will undergo a hard fork aimed at changing the mining algorithm. The primary goal of this hard fork is to protect the coin from the influence of ASICs and FPGAs.

The hardfork is scheduled on block height (503,338) which is approximately April 2nd 12:00 GMT but can be earlier/later by a few hours, depending on how quickly the block is mined.

A hard fork is a significant change to the blockchain protocol, rendering the old protocol no longer supported. Such changes require agreement and migration of all network participants to the new version. Hard forks are utilized to improve the protocol, fix errors, settle community disputes, or implement new features.

Why Iron Fish?

The official Iron Fish website — https://ironfish.network/

Iron Fish uses its own L1 blockchain that encrypts every transaction, shielding your sensitive asset information from public view. All transactions are private and validated by zero knowledge proofs (ZKP).

The aim is to provide a safer, better, more approachable user experience for crypto holders.

Historical Events:

• On April 20, 2023 — Mainnet launched. Official start for Iron Fish mining.
• On September 18, 2023, the developer of the miner lolMiner, with the nickname Lolliedieb, proposed an alternative algorithm specifically designed for Iron Fish, known as FishHash. The community quickly embraced the initiative, and the algorithm received its simple and understandable name — FishHash.
• On September 21, 2023, a vote was announced to change the Iron Fish mining algorithm. Competing against FishHash were EthashB3, Ethash w/EIP 3372, Autolykos V2, ProgPow, and Blake3 (the old Iron Fish algorithm).
• On October 3, the voting results were revealed. The community has made a choice! FishHash emerged as the winner with a significant margin.

Prepare Yourself For Hardfork!

Your wallet address will remain unchanged, and the coins you mined will not disappear.

1. If you are running your own node (CLI), please make sure you have installed the latest Node v2.0.0 release with the hardfork activation: https://github.com/iron-fish/ironfish/releases/tag/v2.0.0
2. If you are using Iron Fish Node App (the GUI App), please make sure you have installed the latest Node App v3.0 release with the hardfork activation: https://ironfish.network/use/node-app

Fox wallet and exchange wallets may also undergo maintenance for a couple of days during the hardfork update. It's advisable not to send coins during this time.

If you mine Iron Fish on a pool, we recommend increasing the payout threshold so that coins are not sent until the wallets and exchanges restores payment processing.

If you hold Iron Fish coins on an exchange, they may be unavailable on the hardfork day. This is normal, and after network changes, the coins will be accessible again.

Kryptex Pool will notify the miners in advance and provide all the instructions for the switch, so stay tuned for updates!

Why Change the Algorithm?

The developers of Iron Fish consistently listen to the opinions of their community. The hard fork aims to protect the algorithm from the influence of ASICs and FPGAs, eliminate those who play "unfairly," enhance the network's reliability and security, and attract GPU miners, making the network more decentralized.

Previously, Iron Fish operated on a slightly modified Blake3 algorithm. Blake3 is a cryptographic hash function originally not designed for mining but later repurposed to expedite the network and address security and scalability issues.

As Blake3 exclusively utilizes x64 and x86 resources, the algorithm can be easily adapted for ASICs and FPGAs — specialized and highly efficient devices designed to quickly mine cryptocurrency.

What Will Change?

The most effective way to defend against ASICs and FPGAs is to focus on using fast and expensive memory, along with altering the hashing algorithm itself.

The proposal suggests replacing the Iron Fish hashing algorithm with a Proof of Work algorithm emphasizing memory, similar to Ethash. FishHash levels the playing field between different mining equipment (ASICs, FPGAs, and GPUs), making mining more accessible to a broader community.

FishHash is no exception, and unlike before when Iron Fish utilized only core resources, it will now require fast memory. The DAG file will occupy around 5 GB, enabling mining for GPUs with a memory capacity of 6 GB and above.

For more details on algorithm changes, you can read here: FIP-3 Memory-Hard Mining Algorithm

Does This Secure the Coin Against ASICs Forever?

It is impossible to create 100% protection against ASICs.

Creating and using ASICs itself is not inherently bad, but in the early stages, the advent of ASICs disrupts network decentralization, concentrating a significant amount of coins in few hands, often used as a means of market manipulation.

It's crucial to understand that changing the algorithm does not provide a 100% guarantee that ASICs will never appear, but developing such an ASIC will be very expensive and inefficient (at least up to a certain point). The question is whether creating such an ASIC will be reasonable.

Which Miner Supports the FishHash Algorithm?

The first miner to support the FishHash algorithm is, of course, lolMiner, as the algorithm was created by the miner's developer. The miner works with both AMD and Nvidia GPUs.

You can already test your GPU and see how it performs with the FishHash algorithm. The Kryptex pool supports mining the coin on the testnet.

Download the latest miner version, launch the miner with the following parameters:

lolMiner.exe --algo FISHHASH --pool iron.kryptex.network:7777 --user WALLET/WORKER

Replace WALLET with your Iron Fish wallet address and WORKER with your worker name.

You won't receive coins for this mining until the hard fork is complete, but you can evaluate the new algorithm and prepare your GPUs for mining on the new algorithm.

The developers of the rigel and SRBMiner-Multi miners expressed readiness to support the hard fork and will the new FishHash algorithm.

How Will the Earnings Change?

The block reward will remain unchanged, but predicting the actual profitability of Iron Fish after the algorithm change is challenging.

Earnings are significantly influenced by network difficulty, and with the algorithm change, network difficulty will decrease as ASICs and FPGAs can no longer mine. A reduction in network difficulty should increase miners' earnings, at least in the initial period after the hard fork.

How Will Mining Change?

The faster your GPU memory, the better Iron Fish will mine on the new FishHash algorithm. Top-tier Nvidia GPUs, such as RTX 3070 Ti - RTX 3090 Ti, and new GPUs like RTX 4070 Ti - RTX 4090, will perform exceptionally well.

Lower-end GPUs from the RTX 4000 series might mine less efficiently than RTX 3000 cards since the memory bus on the new GPUs is smaller (128-bit vs. 256-bit), resulting in lower performance.

GPU overclocking will focus on memory rather than the core. GPU power consumption will be regulated by core frequency and overall card power consumption (Power Limit).

GPU power consumption will also increase. A close analogy for overclocking and consumption is mining coins with the Ethash algorithm.

Below, we have compiled a table of some GPUs to illustrate the difference clearly:

Model	Blake3 Hashrate	Blake3 Consumption	FishHash Hashrate	FishHash Consumption
RX 6700 XT	8 500 Mhs	65 Watt	31 Mhs	95 Watt
RTX 3060	8 000 Mhs	65 Watt	31 Mhs	110 Watt
RTX 3070	11 500 Mhs	90 Watt	38 Mhs	125 Watt
RTX 3070 Ti	12 500 Mhs	100 Watt	49.5 Mhs	175 Watt
RTX 3080	18 000 Mhs	160 Watt	65 Mhs	215 Watt
RTX 3090 Ti	21 500 Mhs	135 Watt	84.5 Mhs	310 Watt
RTX 4070	20 200 Mhs	130 Watt	35 Mhs	105 Watt
RTX 4070 Ti	24 500 Mhs	135 Watt	42 Mhs	120 Watt
RTX 7900 XT	25 000 Mhs	240 Watt	55.5 Mhs	180 Watt
RTX 4080	34 500 Mhs	215 Watt	53.5 Mhs	200 Watt
RTX 4090	53 500 Mhs	295 Watt	80.5 Mhs	270 Watt

These are not final data, and your actual experience may vary from the results in the table. Test your GPUs and share the results with the community!

How to overclock GPUs for FishHash?

Since the algorithm is memory-related, overclocking will primarily focus on the memory. Recommended overclocking settings for GPUs are provided in the table below:

Model	Core Clock Fix	Memory Clock	Hashrate	Consumption
RX 6700 XT	1250 Mhs	+1075 Mhz Windows, 2150 Mhz Linux	31 Mhs	95 Watt
RTX 3060	1250 Mhz	+1000 Mhz Windows, 2000 Mhz Linux	31 Mhs	110 Watt
RTX 3070	1250 Mhz	+1100 Mhz Windows, 2200 Mhz Linux	38 Mhs	125 Watt
RTX 3070 Ti	1250 Mhz	+1250 Mhz Windows, 2500 Mhz Linux	49.5 Mhs	175 Watt
RTX 3080	1250 Mhz	+1300 Mhz Windows, 2600 Mhz Linux	65 Mhs	215 Watt
RTX 3090 Ti	1250 Mhz	+1300 Mhz Windows, 2600 Mhz Linux	85.5 Mhs	310 Watt
RTX 4070	850 Mhz	+1250 Mhz Windows, 2500 Mhz Linux	35 Mhs	105 Watt
RTX 4070 Ti	850 Mhz	+1250 Mhz Windows, 2500 Mhz Linux	42 Mhs	120 Watt
RTX 7900 XT	1250 Mhs	+1250 Mhz Windows, 2500 Mhz Linux	55.5 Mhs	180 Watt
RTX 4080	850 Mhz	+1250 Mhz Windows, 2500 Mhz Linux	53.5 Mhs	200 Watt
RTX 4090	850 Mhz	+1250 Mhz Windows, 2500 Mhz Linux	80.5 Mhs	270 Watt

These are not final data, and your actual experience may vary from the results in the table. Test your GPUs and share the results with the community!