This is a quick update for those mining KOIN. We have observed behavior which indicates that someone has figured out how to mine KOIN using a GPU. While this goes against the spirit and intent of our launch, we will now shift focus 100% to developing a GPU miner as rapidly as possible to distribute publicly.
Our goal with this mining strategy was to maximize accessibility and we were excited to see so many regular users and first time miners winning large KOIN rewards in the first week. Unfortunately all of the attention, excitement, and liquidity created sufficient incentive for someone to develop a GPU miner.
Our mission is to launch Koinos; a new kind of blockchain technology that makes it far more affordable for developers to quickly and easily launch decentralized applications that deliver amazing user experiences. Our two top priorities with respect to the token that powers that platform (KOIN) are decentralization and accessibility. By developing and releasing a GPU miner we can achieve the first objective of decentralization. Once this is done, we can shift our attention toward solutions which will maximize accessibility.
UPDATE
After investigating the aforementioned behaviors our research casts doubt on the theory that the culprit is a GPU miner. Our research indicates instead that the behaviors are better explained by a massive and highly efficient CPU farm that is taking advantage of low priced spot instances. For that reason we have ceased to focus all of our efforts on developing a GPU miner and will instead continue researching all options that we believe could help even the playing field for regular miners while returning to our regular work load.
As of now, the PoW algorithm still appears to be resisting GPU mining, but I want to reiterate what is stated in the Readme of the ERC20 which is that GPU/FPGA/ASIC resistance is best effort, but not guaranteed. Where there's a will there's a way.