Mining is a popular and fascinating activity that at one time attracted a large number of people who wanted to make money on it. However, in order for such a business to bring a good profit, it is necessary to have high-quality equipment and access to a cheap energy source. To solve this problem, we created special equipment – an ASIC miner.
The concept of mining
With the help of the Internet, you can now find a large number of ways to earn money. Relatively recently, the world wide web has another type of getting big money, which reached its peak in 5-10 years ago. This method has its own rules and requirements. In particular, this method of earning money concerns working with cryptocurrency, and the process of obtaining virtual money is called mining.
This term appeared quite a long time ago – it meant the extraction of minerals in nature. In the modern world, miners are those who are engaged in direct mining of cryptocurrency. Now it is difficult to say when this concept was formed and began to be used in everyday life, as well as who was the first inventor of this term. Gradually, this area began to capture more and more people around the world.
What is the essence of mining? During the operation of the equipment, you do not need to be constantly present at the monitor. The main thing is that the unit has a sufficiently powerful video card, processor, and the very presence of such a device. Mining is the process of generating and receiving cryptocurrency. Several computers run an algorithm of mathematical calculations, in the process of which a cryptocurrency appears.
What is ASIC hardware?
In order for the mining process to bring a good income, it is recommended to use the capabilities of a specialized integrated system ASIC, which is working with special equipment designed to receive cryptocurrency. Why is ASIC becoming so popular?
This scheme is used for a specific purpose, not for General use. ASIC is the best analog of microprocessors and Microsystems that can get free access to data on a personal computer.
The bitcoin-ASIC mining system calculates SHA-256 algorithms. In other words, if the currency is based on the same algorithm that is embedded in the device, then the ASIC can get it as well. In practice, such systems are adapted to receive a specific coin, so users purchase the unit for specific purposes. If we talk about General trends in the mining process, ASIC is the next stage after the CPU, GPU and FPGA platforms. ASIC is a high-speed and more efficient tool, unlike its mentioned counterparts.
The main characteristics of an ASIC depend on its chip – this element directly affects the speed of operation, as well as its final price. The process of development and construction of this equipment is quite expensive, and a good chip requires high performance and power of this device.
The mining process itself is based on blockchain technology, the Creator of which is considered to be Satoshi Nakamoto. He assumed that cryptocurrency mining would be carried out by using personal computer processors to create and conduct decentralized transactions. However, the development of technology did not match Nakamoto’s vision a bit. Every year, the power level of graphics cards increased relative to the hash rate – this is why miners turned their attention to other types of cryptocurrencies. In the process of further development of technologies, such graphics cards were replaced by ASICS.
Now almost all mining is carried out at the expense of the ASIC system. The most effective use of this unit is considered to be in places with cheap electricity-the devices are located on farms in Iceland and Canada. Such places are warehouses where a large amount of equipment is located, which is adapted to work with blockchain algorithms.
What does a typical ASIC hardware consist of?
Let’s find out what is inside this unit. The device is a compact unit that consists of the following parts:
- Special ASIC Board-located in the inner part of the unit under the fans to avoid overheating;
- A microprocessor that provides the extraction of necessary blocks of information;
- Storage unit – responsible for the performance of the device;
- Power supply – the main source of equipment operation;
- Coolers-fans that prevent the device from overheating;
- Connectors – hardware details for connecting to the network;
- The casing is the base of the device body, it is not subject to mechanical influences and can remove extraneous heat from the main elements.
As additional parts, some users purchase noise isolation units or “silent” fans, which allow you to reduce the sound level from the operation of the equipment.
Which mining rigs are considered the best and how to find them
To choose a good and efficient mining equipment, you need to consider several basic criteria when purchasing it:
- The execution speed of hashes per second (speed unit). Here everything is very clear: if this indicator is high enough, then a large amount of energy will be spent accordingly, and the performance of the equipment plays an important role. In this regard, the conditions on farms are more favorable, since they have cheaper resources for work.
- The efficiency of the device. Here we are talking about hashing capacity, which can be purchased within an affordable budget. It is desirable that this characteristic for mining is the maximum.
- The ratio of price and quality. In order to recoup the investment in equipment in a short time, it is necessary to calculate the cost of electricity, as well as the price of equipment. Keep in mind that the aggregate itself requires maintenance and investment, since transaction processes are constantly updated, and the devices themselves are obsolete. The main criteria for calculating efficiency remain productivity and the price of electricity (the latter criterion should be much lower). That is why the price is not the most important criterion when choosing a device: you need to take into account other characteristics of ASIC equipment in accordance with it.
Popular and efficient ASIC miners
In order to mine cryptocurrencies, including bitcoins, users often search the market for used ASIC devices. Usually, such equipment can be easily found on platforms with a large number of sellers: Ebay, Leboncoin, Craigslist.
On such resources, you can buy both new and secondary market products, and the purchase process itself will be as safe as possible. If the user is lucky, they can get additional products during the selection and purchase process. The main thing here is to choose the right mining equipment. Some instances may be outdated, so they won’t be of much use.
For those who decided to mine bitcoins, it is recommended to purchase aggregates such as ASIC Antminer S7 or Antminer S9. Some users have the erroneous opinion that when buying six 7S model cars instead of the ninth, you can save a large amount of resources. However, this is not quite correct.
You need to buy a device that can optimize several ASIC systems at the same time, and not one that will be cheaper as a result. The difference between the S7 and S9 also lies in the noise produced by the units and the cost of electricity. In this case, it is better to take a more expensive S9 device than a few cheap S7-in the second case, the electricity bill may increase several times, and the savings will turn into a loss.
Calculation of profitability
Blindly trying to make money on cryptocurrency is not very rational, do you agree? To assess the profitability of equipment, you can use a special site Coinwarz with a built-in calculator. However, it is necessary to take into account the cost of electricity itself: these costs will directly affect the efficiency and profitability of the business.
Additional equipment
In order for the miner to generate revenue and work correctly, you will need to purchase additional equipment to the main device:
- Good power supply. This type of equipment has special requirements for power supplies, since materials are needed to ensure high power operation of the entire system. For example, excellent models are considered Zalman ZM700-LX 700W, Thermaltake Russian Gold Baikal 1500W and others;
- Cooling system. Powerful mining equipment can quickly overheat, which, in turn, will lead to problems and malfunctions. You must ensure that there are enough fans for the equipment to work correctly.
ASIC system development prospects
At some point, cryptocurrency mining became popular not only among professional investors, but also ordinary users. Many people have reached unprecedented heights in the Wake of cryptocurrency development, but such stories can mainly be boasted by those who initially purchased high-quality equipment and developed a plan for coin mining operations.
After the fall in the rate of virtual coins at the moment, most users are disappointed in mining and put forward the theory that it is completely dead. The hardware on the ASIC system allows you to argue with this statement. The availability of good equipment, the use of a mining calculation calculator, which allows you to assess the prospects of this direction, can help in this matter.
With proper use of these tools and calculations of profitability, you can make the modern mining process profitable. Monitoring should be carried out regularly, since the cryptocurrency exchange rate and the complexity of the process itself can cause data to change.
