To earn the benefits of involving in the cryptocurrency domain, an individual should necessarily perform cryptocurrency mining. Just as gold should be mined from natural resources, cryptocurrencies should be mined from the cryptocurrency mining pools. It is important to choose the most appropriate method of mining among the existing mining methods. This context is about a famous mining method that is in existence. Namely, ASIC!
Not like Cloud Mining and GPU Mining, as the name implies, an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) is a mining device that is specifically designed to mine Cryptocurrency/Virtual Currency. ASIC miner is implemented to mine only a specified cryptocurrency. In simple terms, if a miner is using an ASIC device to mine bitcoin, he is able to mine only bitcoin with the device. Therefore, ASIC miners can be identified as a single-purpose mining device. In general, ASIC circuits are used around the globe for mining newly introduced coins. ASIC circuits are built as external devices to install for specifically designed motherboards.
ASIC chips have a better performing capability in terms of speed and efficiency. It is able to bear the weights of the complex mathematical equations that should be essentially performed within the mining process. On the other hand, the processing ability of ASIC circuits is comparably high. In cryptocurrency pools, many computers and servers are combined together. In such situations, ASIC is able to tolerate the computational loads that are provided by every computer.
The hash algorithms that are used in cryptocurrency mining vary according to the type of cryptocurrency. ASIC devices are able to perform only a specified one algorithm. That is the reason to identify ASIC miners as a single purpose device. However, ASIC miners have the ability of mining different cryptocurrencies that consists of the same type of hash algorithm.
The prices of the ASIC chips are varying between $20 and $5000; the price range is depending on the power and the complexity of the circuit. Before purchasing an ASIC chip, the miner’s capacity for making hashes per second should be considered. Moreover, the amount of electricity that is consumed by the device and the cost of the device compared to the miner’s requirement should be specifically considered.