ASICs, or application-specific integrated circuits, are hardware designed to do a specific task. In the case of Ethereum, that task is mining ETH.
ASICs for Ethereum do exist, but they’re not very common.
The vast majority of miners use GPUs, or graphics processing units. GPUs are designed for video rendering, but they can also be used for mining.
They’re not as efficient as ASICs, but they’re much more versatile and can be used for other tasks when they’re not mining.
NOTE: WARNING: Ethereum ASICs do exist, but they are extremely rare and hard to find. In addition, their use is not recommended as it could potentially result in network centralization. As Ethereum was designed to be resistant to ASICs, using them could ultimately lead to the undermining of the protocol’s core principles.
There are a few companies that make Ethereum ASICs, but they’re not very popular because they’re so expensive. The most popular Ethereum ASIC is the Antminer E3, which costs around $800.
For that price, you could buy 8 GTX 1080 Ti GPUs, which would be much more versatile and would mine ETH at a higher rate.
ASICs are becoming more common as cryptocurrencies become more popular. However, Ethereum is moving to a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, which will make mining ETH with an ASIC obsolete.
So unless you’re looking to mine other cryptocurrencies with an ASIC, there’s no reason to buy one for Ethereum.
9 Related Question Answers Found
ASIC is an acronym for “Application Specific Integrated Circuit”. ASICs are specialized hardware that is designed to do a single task very efficiently. In the case of Bitcoin, this task is verifying Bitcoin transactions.
ASICs, or application-specific integrated circuits, are chips designed for a specific purpose, such as mining Ethereum. ASICs are more efficient than general-purpose GPUs, which is why they are often used in Bitcoin mining. Ethereum does not currently allow ASICs.
The Ethereum blockchain is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of fraud or third party interference. Ethereum is how the Internet was supposed to work. Since its launch in 2015, Ethereum has become the most widely used blockchain platform in the world.
When it comes to Ethereum, there is a lot of talk about the “meta”. But what exactly is the Ethereum meta? And is it real?
Since the early days of Bitcoin, there have been attempts to develop specialized hardware for mining cryptocurrencies. These so-called “Application-Specific Integrated Circuits” (ASICs) are designed to do one thing and one thing only: mine a specific cryptocurrency as efficiently as possible. ASICs for Bitcoin were first released in 2013, and since then, companies have released ASICs for a variety of other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum.
Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of fraud or third party interference. Ethereum is used for a variety of purposes, the most notable of which are listed below.
1. Decentralized Applications (DApps)
DApps are decentralized applications that run on a blockchain network.
ASIC miners are devices that are designed to mine a specific cryptocurrency. For example, an ASIC miner for Bitcoin would be designed to mine Bitcoin and would not be able to mine other cryptocurrencies. Ethereum is a different cryptocurrency to Bitcoin and therefore an ASIC miner for Ethereum would be unable to mine Bitcoin.
Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of fraud or third party interference. Ethereum is an IDE. It is a complete programming environment that allows developers to create, compile, test, and deploy smart contracts.
Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, is no longer a proof-of-work (PoW) network. This means that miners can no longer be rewarded with ETH for verifying transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. So, is Ethereum still PoW?