The Emercoin development team has decided to combine the production of both Bitcoin and Emercoin with a merged mining.
Timeline is not set in stone, but you can expect approximately 1-2 months from now.
Merged mining will increase in network difficulty by 500 times or more for the Emercoin blockchain.
Currently with the SHA-256 algorithm, if a Bitcoin miner were to "mine" Emercoin or vice versa, the miner would need to divert power away from one blockchain or the other. The addition of merged mining will allow miners to produce both Bitcoin and Emercoin in harmony, without losing the benfit of income from either blockchain.
Merged-mining SHA-256 algorithm registry now includes: [IXC] IXCoin, [I0C] I0Coin, [DVC] DevCoin, [NMC] NameCoin, [GRP] GroupCoin, [VIK] VikingCoin, [HUC], HunterCoin, [FSC] Fusioncoin, [CLC] CoiledCoin and [XGG] GiestGeld.
Most of this altcoins are totally dead. Hoping this will not happens to Emercoin too.