Blake3 (Alephium PoW Algorithm)
ASIC DominatedBlake3 is an extremely fast cryptographic hash function used as the proof-of-work base for Alephium (ALPH). Blake3 was designed by Jack O'Connor, Jean-Philippe Aumasson, Samuel Neves, and Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn, published in 2020. Alephium is a sharded blockchain using BlockFlow consensus, and its mining algorithm combines Blake3 with Alephium's own PoW structure optimised for GPU and potentially ASIC computation.
How Blake3 Works
Blake3 is a Merkle tree-based hash function with extreme throughput on modern hardware — typically 3–10× faster than SHA-256 per clock cycle. It is fully parallelisable across CPU cores and maps well to GPU shader pipelines. Alephium's mining uses a custom Blake3-based construction that incorporates the miner's address and the block header, outputting a 256-bit solution. Hashrate is measured in GH/s (giga-hashes per second), reflecting Blake3's high throughput.
History & Evolution
Alephium launched in November 2021 as a sharded, high-throughput smart contract platform. It adopted a custom Blake3-based PoW to differentiate from existing GPU mining coins. GPU miners adopted ALPH as a profitable alternative post-Ethereum-merge. By 2024, early ASIC development for Blake3 appeared, but GPU mining remains widely accessible in 2026. Alephium has grown significantly in DeFi activity, supporting its network token price.
Hardware Requirements
Blake3 can be mined by GPUs with strong compute throughput. The NVIDIA RTX 4090 achieves ~3.1 GH/s at 320 W; RTX 3080 Ti ~2.6 GH/s at 280 W; AMD RX 6800 XT ~1.7 GH/s at 140 W. AMD's efficiency advantage on Blake3 makes the RX 6800 XT a compelling option despite lower absolute hashrate. Early-generation Blake3 ASICs may begin entering the market in 2026–2027.
Compatible Mining Software
Mining Pools for Blake3
WoolyPooly, HeroMiners, and 2Miners are the main Alephium pools. The Alephium Foundation also runs an official pool. ALPH's block structure (multiple shards) means miners should use pool software specifically designed for Alephium's sharded architecture — standard stratum is not natively compatible, but all major ALPH pools abstract this complexity.
How to Start Mining with Blake3
- Choose hardware — Blake3 can be mined by GPUs with strong compute throughput. The NVIDIA RTX 4090 achieves ~3.1 GH/s at 320 W; RTX 3080 Ti ~2.6 GH/s at 280 W; AMD RX 6800 XT ~1.7 GH/s at 140 W. AMD'.
- Install mining software — compatible options include: lolMiner (recommended for Blake3), BzMiner, GMiner, T-Rex (NVIDIA).
- Select a pool — WoolyPooly, HeroMiners, and 2Miners are the main Alephium pools. The Alephium Foundation also runs an official pool. ALPH's block structure (multiple shards) means miners should use pool software spec.
- Configure stratum URL and wallet — set
stratum+tcp://pool-url:portas pool address and your ALPH wallet address as the username/payout address. - Start mining and monitor — check accepted shares in the pool dashboard within 5–10 minutes of startup.
- Track profitability — use our live calculator to monitor earnings vs electricity costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Alephium choose Blake3?
Alephium's developers chose Blake3 for its exceptional throughput, clean design, and parallelism properties that align well with Alephium's sharded BlockFlow architecture. Blake3's speed allows the blockchain to process the high transaction volumes needed for a sharded smart contract platform without excessive computational overhead per block. Its GPU-friendliness also supported a broad initial distribution of ALPH tokens to GPU miners.
What is Alephium BlockFlow?
BlockFlow is Alephium's sharding algorithm that splits the blockchain into multiple groups and shards, each processing a subset of transactions in parallel. Unlike traditional single-chain blockchains (which are sequential), Alephium's structure allows horizontal scaling. Miners mine on specific shard groups, and cross-shard transactions are coordinated by the BlockFlow consensus layer. This enables theoretically much higher throughput than single-chain blockchains like Bitcoin or Ethereum Classic.
Is Blake3 ASIC-resistant?
Blake3 was not specifically designed to be ASIC-resistant. Its high throughput and clean design actually make it relatively attractive for ASIC implementation. Early-generation ASICs for Alephium's Blake3-based PoW were rumoured in 2024–2025. Whether efficient Blake3 ASICs enter mass production in 2026 depends on Alephium's market cap and the economics of chip development. GPU mining remains viable as of this writing but may face ASIC pressure longer-term.
How does Blake3 compare to SHA-256 for mining?
Blake3 is significantly faster than SHA-256 on general-purpose hardware — a modern CPU can hash 3–10× more with Blake3 than SHA-256. On GPUs, Blake3's parallelism maps well to shader architectures. However, for pure mining efficiency, SHA-256 ASICs (which run SHA-256 exclusively in optimised silicon) still achieve better efficiency than general-purpose hardware running Blake3. The Alephium network hashrate is much lower than Bitcoin's, making individual GPU shares more valuable proportionally.
What is the Alephium block reward?
Alephium's block reward started at 3 ALPH per block at genesis and has a gradual halving schedule. The reward decreases over time as the network matures. The 1-block-per-second target (across all shards) means ALPH issuance is relatively high. Exact current rewards depend on the current epoch; check the Alephium Explorer or our live mining calculator for up-to-date issuance data.