Mining Computers
The rules of the incentive system dictate that those with the fastest computers make the most money. This has started a computational arms race across the world.
Most computers are capable of mining Bitcoin but aren’t efficient enough to profit (earn a reward more than the cost of the electricity required to attain it.) This is why areas with the cheapest electricity costs have the highest concentration of mining power.
GPU Mining
Nearly any computer can run crypto mining algorithms, but some are much better than others. A modern computer has a CPU (central processing unit) and a GPU (graphics processing unit). If the CPU is the brain of the computer, the GPU is the muscle used for mining.
Modern GPUs like the GTX 3080 are powerful and efficient enough to make mining profitable – even in the United States, where electricity costs are typically really high.
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ASIC Computers
As Bitcoin mining grew in popularity, companies like Bitmain and Antminer emerged to build and sell specialized computers that could only perform 1 operation: mining.
These ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) computers began to dominate the network power, and people began to collect hundreds of them to start mining “farms”.
ASIC computers are so specialized that they can often only mine 1 specific cryptocurrency. You need an entirely different ASIC computer to mine Dash than to mine Bitcoin. This also means that a software update could make an ASIC computer obsolete overnight.
ASIC vs. GPU Mining
ASIC computers are entirely useless for anything other than crypto mining – but they smoke every GPU on the market. Mining with ASIC computers carries more risk than GPUs, but it’s much more cost effective. ASIC computers comprise the majority of mining power on most blockchains, including Bitcoin.
Certain miners and mining pools with the largest ASIC operations tend to centralize mining power on the network. For this reason, Ethereum and many other cryptocurrencies are designed to prevent ASICs from mining on their network. By only allowing GPU mining, it becomes much more expensive to dominate the network.
Should You Mine Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency mining is not for everyone. Unless you live in China, your electricity is probably too expensive for you to turn a profit.
But don’t lose hope, there might be another way to profit off of your newfound mining knowledge.
Proof-of-stake. Ethereum 2.0 promises to eliminate the need for expensive mining equipment. Instead of a race between the miners to secure the data, miners will stake Ether in order for the right to secure a portion of the transactions.
Rent mining power. NiceHash is 1 of the largest mining pools in the world. They offer a service to rent mining power produced by machines in countries with low electricity costs. This way you can mine without ever getting technical.
Invest in the industry. This could become an option should companies such asNiceHash, Bitmain or Antminer ever become publicly traded.
The cryptocurrency industry is still young, and mining has a long way to go before reaching maturation. Whether or not you should pursue an investment related to mining is up to your risk tolerance. Nearly any industry this new and underdeveloped is likely to contain a lot of uncertainty, but with uncertainty comes the potential for profit. Just be careful.
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