From ordinary computers to ASIC mining machines, are ordinary people still suitable for mining?

Author | Produced by Fangfang | Vernacular Blockchain

We often see news about Bitcoin mining machines in media reports in the industry, and recently many media have reported on 8nm mining machines. But did you know that Bitcoin mining machines have actually gone through several generations of upgrades, and at first ordinary home computers could also be used for mining.

Today, let’s briefly review the evolution of mining machines.

The earliest Bitcoin mining machine was an ordinary home computer, which used the computer's CPU to mine. On January 3, 2009, the first batch of Bitcoins (50 coins) was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto using an ordinary computer. In the article "Can ordinary home computers still make money from mining?", we also mentioned that in the American TV series "The Big Bang Theory", Sheldon used Howard's old laptop to mine some Bitcoins seven years ago.

The blockchain industry has its own festival - Pizza Day , which commemorates the fact that on May 22, 2010, a programmer named "Laszlo Hanyecz" successfully exchanged 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas, becoming the first person to purchase goods with bitcoins. The programmer mined bitcoins using an ordinary computer. Later, according to interviews, he sold a lot of bitcoins to buy a new computer, and he also became the first person to mine with a GPU .

The second generation of Bitcoin mining machines switched from CPU mining to GPU mining. GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit, is the processor of a graphics card. On September 18, 2010, the first graphics card mining software was released. Since the computing power of GPUs overlaps with the computing power of mining, the GPU in a graphics card is equivalent to dozens of CPUs, and the mining efficiency has been greatly improved. Many people began to switch to GPU mining, and mining equipment assembled from one or more high-end graphics cards was born.

▲ Graphics card mining (GPU mining)

How to DIY a graphics card mining machine? You can check out the previous post of Vernacular Blockchain, " Can't get a mining machine? Make money by DIYing a graphics card mining machine ." It should be noted that Ethereum 2.0 will switch to PoS, so graphics cards will not be suitable for Ethereum mining in the future, but other cryptocurrencies that support graphics card mining can still be used as a reference.

With the rapid growth of Bitcoin prices, more and more people have joined the mining industry. The computing power of the entire Bitcoin network continues to set new highs, and the third-generation Bitcoin mining machines - professional mining machines, have come into being.

▲ ASIC mining machine

In December 2012, the first ASIC mining machine manufacturer, Butterfly Miner, was born; in early 2013, Pumpkin Zhang developed the first FPGA mining machine, Pumpkin Machine, opening a new era of FPGA mining. Unfortunately, FPGA mining machines did not last long before being eliminated by the market, while ASIC mining machines have developed rapidly. In recent years, ASIC mining machines have experienced iterative upgrades from 110nm, 55nm, 28nm, and 16nm.

▲ The evolution of Bitcoin mining machines, source: Jingzhun Research Institute

In addition to the replacement of mining machines, the form of Bitcoin mining has also changed. At first, everyone used their own computers to mine. Later, as the computing power of the entire network increased, the "single-handed" mining method had too low returns, so professional mining pools emerged, and miners connected their own computing power to the mining pool for joint mining. With the emergence of more and more mining pools, the competition between mining pools has become extremely fierce, and the returns have gradually declined. Many mining pools have been forced to close due to the arrival of the bear market, and mining machines are sold by pound. Mining has become a very professional and large-scale industry.

In order to meet the needs of ordinary people to participate in mining, cloud mining came into being. Cloud mining refers to mining by calling remote cloud computing power. Users only need to rent the required computing power from related companies. Previously, Vernacular Blockchain reported on BitDeer's cloud mining service. Please see the article "As the market warms up, cloud mining with simple operation, low investment and intuitive benefits is popular." In addition to BitDeer, OXBTC is also a well-known cloud mining service provider.