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What Is FP8? Pearl's Possible Upgrade, Explained Simply

What FP8 is, why Pearl is testing it, what the code says today, and what it could mean for your graphics card.

What is FP8?

Mining Pearl means doing the same kind of math that runs AI: multiplying huge tables of numbers.

Today Pearl uses whole numbers, like 7 × 9 = 63. FP8 uses small decimal numbers. "FP" means floating point (a number with a decimal point) and "8" means each number takes 8 bits, a quarter of the usual 32. Smaller numbers let a graphics card crunch far more of them at once, and they are what modern AI actually uses.

Why isn't Pearl using it already?

When a miner finds a block, every computer on the network checks the work and must get exactly the same answer.

• With whole numbers, every graphics card gets the same answer.
• With decimals, cards round the tiny leftovers differently, so two cards can disagree on the last digit.

"Close enough" is not allowed: a cheater could nudge an answer slightly, again and again, to get free lottery tickets. Pearl's plan is to check the work against the exact rounding of specific chips [1, 2].

What does Pearl's code say today?

We checked Pearl's GitHub on 23 October 2026:

• The real network has not changed. The current release (v1.5.3, 21 October) still uses whole numbers [3].
• FP8 is on a test branch called fp8-scheme, started 9 September. It is switched off on the main network and only on for local test networks [4].
• The checker knows two chips: NVIDIA H100 and B200 [5]. Pearl's code says RTX 50-series cards round exactly like the B200, so its test miner runs on H100/H200, B200 and RTX 50 cards [6].

What about my graphics card?

• NVIDIA RTX 50Works on the test branch today.
• AMD RX 9000 (RX 9070 XT, RX 9060 XT) and NVIDIA RTX 40These have FP8 hardware, but their rounding is not on Pearl's list. They could still mine FP8 if a miner copies the checked rounding in software (slower), or if Pearl adds their rounding before launch.
• Older cards (RTX 30, RX 7000 and earlier)No FP8 hardware, so FP8 would run slowly on them.

Keep in mind: Pearl's own miner has only ever supported data-center H100/H200 cards [3]. Gaming cards mine Pearl today because independent developers (BzMiner, tnn-miner, redPeaRL and others) wrote software for them.

What has to happen before FP8 goes live?

1. The proposal (PIP-3) is marked final [2].
2. The test branch is merged with a fork block number.
3. Pearl releases a required node update and announces the date.

None of these has happened yet. Until they do, there is no reason to panic, sell or buy hardware.

From the redPeaRL team: we make redPeaRL, a Pearl miner for AMD RX 9070 XT and RX 9060 XT cards. These cards have FP8 hardware, but we have not tested yet whether they can match Pearl's checks. We will post here when we know. For a lighter take on the same news, read our satire GPU Mining, 2009–2026: An Obituary. Questions: GitHub Discussions or Telegram @redpearlsupport.

Educational overview based on public specifications and open-source code as of 23 October 2026. Drafts and test branches can change. Not financial advice.

Sources

1. Pearl Research, "Pearl Floating Point Scheme Specification" (whitepaper, September 2026). pearlresearch.ai/Pearl_Whitepaper.pdf
2. Pearl Team, "PIP-3: FP PoUW Certificates" (draft, created 30 July 2026). pearl-research-labs.github.io/pips/pip-0003
3. Pearl Research Labs, release tags (v1.5.3, 21 October 2026) and miner README. github.com/pearl-research-labs/pearl/tags, miner/README.md
4. node/chaincfg/params.go on the fp8-scheme branch (Fp8ForkHeight not set for mainnet; 1 on regtest and simnet). github.com/pearl-research-labs/pearl
5. zk-pow/src/v4/api/public_params.rs on the fp8-scheme branch (devices H100 and B200). github.com/pearl-research-labs/pearl
6. miner/miner-base/src/miner_base/devices.py on the fp8-scheme branch (RTX 50 / SM120 mapped to the B200 device). github.com/pearl-research-labs/pearl