Wiki / Concepts / Merged mining

Merged mining

From the Bitcoin Takeover Wiki · ✓ 5 sources · 1 podcast anchors · built 2026-11-13

Reusing the same proof of work on a parent chain and one or more auxiliary chains, pioneered by Namecoin with Bitcoin as the parent.

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The wiki's angle: merged mining is the oldest answer to the question drivechains reopened: how can a new chain borrow Bitcoin's hashpower without forking Bitcoin's ledger?[1][4]

Contents

  1. How it works
  2. History
  3. Drivechains
  4. Heard on Bitcoin Takeover
  5. References

How it works

Merged mining is the act of using work done on one blockchain on more than one chain, through auxiliary proof of work (AuxPoW)[1]. The parent blockchain is where the mining actually happens and does not need to know about AuxPoW; the auxiliary chain is modified to accept the parent's work as valid[1].

History

The Bitcoin Wiki's merged mining specification is the standard used by Namecoin[1]. Namecoin Core starts accepting auxiliary proof of work at height 19,200[2]. Dogecoin's announcement lists Scrypt with AuxPoW[3].

Drivechains

BIP-301 proposes blind merged mining, part of the drivechain design[4].

Heard on Bitcoin Takeover

On S16 E28 (May 2025), Charles Chong said: “I think the benefit merge mining offers is to solve the bootstrap problem that I mentioned earlier, which is getting miners involved.” The downside, he added, is that “as a miner, I view that as free money.”[5]

References

  1. secondaryBitcoin Wiki (en.bitcoin.it), “Merged mining specification” [archived]
  2. primaryNamecoin Core, src/kernel/chainparams.cpp (genesis time, AuxPoW start height, soft-fork heights) [archived]
  3. primary“[ANN][DOGE] Dogecoin - very currency many coin”, Bitcointalk topic 361813 (opened 8 Dec 2013) [archived]
  4. primaryBIP-301 (Blind Merged Mining) [archived]
  5. episodeS16 E28: Charles Chong on merged mining▶ listen at 43:44timestamp transcript-derived, pending a listen [archived]

Related

Namecoin
The first fork of Bitcoin's code to run its own network: a naming system for the .bit domain that pioneered me
Dogecoin
The 2013 joke coin by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, a Scrypt code fork in the Litecoin line, merge-mined vi
Drivechains (BIP-300/301)
Sidechains whose two-way peg is secured by miners (BIP-300) with blind merged mining (BIP-301).
Categories: Concepts
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