What you need for successful mining<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nIn the beginning, computing with a CPU was the only way to mine cryptocurrencies. This cleared the way for mining with a graphics card (GPU). Graphics cards can work alongside a CPU, which increases the mining performance by 50 to 100 times. At the same time the power consumption decreases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the transition from the CPU to the GPU, the use of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) was heralded as the main mining platform. FPGAs did not cause a 50 to 100-fold increase in the hash rate which is what happened when changing from a CPU to a GPU, but it was a big step forward in improving energy efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A typical 600 Megahashs per second (MH\/s) graphics card consumes around 400 watts, while an FPGA with a hash rate of 826 MH\/s only requires 80 watts. This represents a fivefold increase in energy efficiency. Energy efficiency is an important part of the gain, which has prompted many people to use FPGAs instead of GPUs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mining is currently in transition to use Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). An ASIC is a chip with an electronic circuit that can only do one specific job. Unlike FPGAs, ASICs cannot do anything else. An ASIC built to mine Bitcoin can and will only mine Bitcoins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fact that an ASIC can only perform specific tasks in a certain way has led to a 100-fold increase in the hash rate, while the power consumption has decreased significantly compared to the previous generation. For example, a hash rate of 60 GH\/s (1 GH\/s = 1000 MH\/s) comes with a power consumption of only 60 watts. Compared to the GPU era, that’s a 100-fold increase in hash rate, while power consumption has dropped sevenfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike the previous mining hardware, ASIC will be the last generation and will be further developed from then on. CPU’s have been replaced by GPU’s, which have been replaced by FPGA’s, which are now being replaced by ASIC’s. There are currently no signs that ASICs will be replaced anytime soon. There will be a gradual further development of the efficiency of the ASIC products. However, nobody will increase the performance by 50 to 100 times or drastically reduce the power consumption like they did with the previous versions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, the lifetime of ASICs is longer than the entire history of Bitcoin mining. It is likely that an ASIC device, which is bought today will still be sufficient energy wise in two years time and its yield will exceed the cost of electricity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The chance is high that as you have heard the phrase \u201ccrypto mining\u201d for the first time your mind began to wander to a fantasy of hardworking dirty miners and pickaxes. That analogy is not too far off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litebringer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litebringer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litebringer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litebringer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litebringer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.litebringer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":583,"href":"https:\/\/www.litebringer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions\/583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litebringer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litebringer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litebringer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litebringer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}