Crypto enthusiasts know that ASICs have the highest performance in mining cryptocurrency. These specialized devices are safe and efficient. In addition, ASICs are much better than video cards as they consume much less energy at the higher power which is hash calculation speed. However, one needs to know the principles of work of ASIC’s mining and issues related to their configuration, usage and purchase.
What is ASIC?
Application specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, are meant to mine using each ASIC determined cryptographic algorithm. In general, each ASIC miner is constructed to mine a specific digital currency. What concerns Bitcoin ASIC miners, they are designed to calculate the SHA-256 hash algorithm. It is important to take into account that user’s cryptocurrency must cost more than the money spent on its equipment. Hardware can cost a fortune including the huge price for electricity expenses. That’s why ASICs are more efficient in this matter. The last ones are more economical for the average user as they provide high performance and low-power usage.
Choice factors for ASICs
In order to choose ASIC users have to check the following parameters: price, hash rate, mining algorithm, consumed power and profitability and payback periods. Moreover, users have to care about a warranty period and check the availability of repair service. The noise level of ASICs is really high, while choosing the device users have to mind as well. Therefore, it is better to run ASIC miners in separate non-residential rooms, garages or the service of specialized mining hotels. There is one additional option for mining, which is ASIC’s rent.
Among types of ASICs, there are compact miners, or USB-stick, ASICs for home mining and professional ASICs. The first ones are characterized by a small size; they have a simple connection to a PC via a USB port, to this group belong USB Block Erupter, Bitmain Antrouter R1-LTC, and others. ASICs for home mining have average features being made of less quality materials than professional ASICs. Among the most popular are Antminer L3++, LTC Master and Baokal-X.
Speaking about the third type, professional ASICs represent the best performance and energy efficiency. The most famous and powerful miner available on the market is Bitmain Antminer S9. It can generate around 0.5 Bitcoins every month, and it’s worth around $2000-$3000. Innosilicon Terminator 2-Turbo, GMO B3 and Innosilicon A6 LTCMaster are just some out of the long list of ASIC miners.
Payback, advantages, and disadvantages of using ASICs
Having done the analysis of ASIC’s market, one can observe the unprofitability of ASICs that were launched a couple of years ago. Regarding the payback period, the situation is not much optimistic. The payback period for different types of ASICs varies, but the least starts from half a year. New ASICs for Ether mining obtain greater efficiency in comparison with mining farms on video cards. Even coming up to the performance indicators of new video cards, anyway, ASICs will take the leading place.
ASICs are better than mining farms in the matter of the existing profitability of the equipment. What concerns disadvantages, it is impossible to perform calculations on algorithms that differ from ones provided by the manufacturer. Powerful ASICs usually also require the purchase of a separate power supply and have increased noise and heat generation.
The situation on the crypto market is not stable and most coins fall under the influence of speculative fluctuations. However, mining is a kind of investment directing for the future. In this case, mining on ASICs remains a stable resource of passive income in the long run.