Mining machine classification introduction

There are at least hundreds of cryptocurrencies on the market now, and there are no less than 20 mainstream ones that can be circulated and traded. Although so many cryptocurrencies are based on blockchain technology, they are different, whether for the purpose of achieving certain functions or for the purpose of forming differences, which leads to different mining machines used for mining different coins. Generally speaking, a mining machine can only mine one or several coins, so you have to buy a mining machine of the same model as what you want to mine. Of course, there are all-round players, such as computers, but the efficiency of mining many currencies with computers (CPU + graphics card) is too low to be profitable.

Mining machines can be classified in many ways. In terms of hardware, they can be divided into ASIC mining machines, GPU mining machines, FPGA mining machines, and CDN mining machines such as OneNet, etc. According to ownership, they can be divided into local mining machines and cloud mining machines.

Double spending of mining machines: ASIC mining machines and GPU mining machines

First of all, mainstream currencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), and Dash (DASH) generally adopt the PoW consensus mechanism. Mining is to maintain network security and stable operation by contributing computing power, and thereby obtain reward coins, so they all need mining machines with the most powerful performance. However, for different algorithms of different currencies, there are two different types of mining machines: ASIC mining machines and GPU mining machines.

When Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, he hoped that Bitcoin would be a decentralized currency, not only for use and transactions, but also for mining. However, things did not go as planned. As the value of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin increased, mining became an industry, competition became increasingly fierce, and the pursuit of mining computing power became higher and higher. Therefore, mining evolved from ordinary computers to ASIC mining machines and GPU mining machines.

The coins mined by ASIC mining machines almost all use SHA256 algorithm, while the algorithms used by GPU mining are different. For example, BTG's algorithm is Equihash, and BCD's algorithm is optimized X13. Although it is not absolute, it can be simply assumed that coins using the SHA256 algorithm are generally mined by ASIC mining machines. Coins using other algorithms are basically mined by GPU mining machines. There are exceptions. Litecoin using the scrypt algorithm was previously mined by GPU mining machines, but later the scrypt algorithm was also conquered by ASIC chips. For example, the Antminer L3+ is an ASIC mining machine used to mine Litecoin.

ASIC mining machine refers to a mining machine that uses ASIC chips as the core of computing power. ASIC is the abbreviation of Application Specific Integrated Circuit, which is an electronic circuit (chip) designed for a specific purpose. Some mining machine manufacturers have designed ASIC chips specifically for calculating the SHA256 algorithm of Bitcoin, and the mining machines that use them are ASIC mining machines. Since ASIC chips are only built for specific calculations, their efficiency can be much higher than general computing chips such as CPUs. For example, the current mainstream Antminer S9 is an ASIC mining machine, which uses 189 ASIC chips, has a computing power of 13.5TH/s, and a power consumption of only 1350W. In comparison, the computing power of the current computer graphics card flagship GTX1080Ti for mining Bitcoin will basically not exceed 60MH/s even if it is well optimized. The difference is tens of thousands of times, which is very disparate.

GPU mining machines are mining machines that use GPU graphics cards as the core of computing power. Cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Bitcoin Diamond use graphics algorithms, so the speed of computing with graphics cards will be the highest. Compared with ASIC mining machines, GPU mining machines are more well-known to the public because, to put it bluntly, it is a computer with enhanced graphics card configuration.

The purpose of GPU mining is to make money, so we need to pursue power consumption ratio and maximum profit, so we need to pay attention to cost performance when choosing. Generally, mid-to-high-end graphics cards, such as AMD RX560 and RX570, have high power consumption ratio and are good choices for GPU mining. Although flagship cards such as GTX1080Ti and AMD Vega64 have the strongest single-card performance, their price and power consumption are not cost-effective.

In addition, there are some more bizarre ASIC mining machines, such as the USB mining machine from Shaomao, which is a thing slightly larger than a USB flash drive and has a power consumption of only 2.25W. It is currently the smallest Bitcoin mining machine.

There is no difference between ASIC mining machines and GPU mining machines, they just meet the mining needs of different currencies. Unlike what some currencies say in their promotion, ASIC mining machines will cause the computing power to be highly concentrated in mining farms and mining pools, causing unfair centralization problems. If this is the explanation, in fact, the same is true for GPU mining machines. Mining farms with a large number of GPU mining machines will have the same problem, right?

Emerging force: CDN mining machine

With the birth of Xunlei Wanke Cloud, a new type of mining machine has emerged, which we will call CDN mining machine. CDN mining machine is very different from ASIC mining machine and GPU mining machine in appearance, and it just looks like a router or TV box. Xunlei Wanke Cloud uses a unique consensus mechanism, which is not mining by contributing computing power, but mining by contributing network bandwidth and storage space, so the performance does not need to be that strong, just a small box is enough.

In addition to Xunlei Wanke Cloud, there are also similar mining machines such as Traffic Box of Traffic Ore. In addition to the large differences in the size and performance of mining machines, CDN mining machines are more meaningful from the perspective of environmental protection and contribution to society, because ASIC mining machines and GPU mining machines consume a lot of electricity and energy, and it is a bit wasteful to use such huge electricity and computing power to maintain a network. CDN mining machines are different. The network bandwidth and storage space contributed by users are directly used to improve the network conditions, which is beneficial to society and has relatively low power consumption.

The author believes that the future development direction of cryptocurrency and mining machines should be to reduce resource consumption. This is also one of the reasons why new currencies such as Ethereum and newly forked LBTC are gradually moving away from the pure PoW consensus mechanism and exploring other consensus mechanisms such as PoS.

Forgotten by history: FPGA mining

Let's briefly introduce FPGA. It is a hardware substrate, equivalent to a blank sheet of paper. You can write whatever program you want to achieve. Compared with chips designed for specific purposes such as ASIC, it is much more flexible. However, with high flexibility comes low efficiency, so the computing power performance of FPGA mining machines is not as high as ASIC. Therefore, in 2012, a watermelon FPGA mining machine appeared in my country. After being popular for about half a year, few similar products appeared and it has basically been forgotten by the market. However, although FPGA is not as efficient as ASIC mining machines in calculating SHA256, it can be used for scrypt calculations and can be used to mine GPU mining machine coins. Perhaps it will rise again in the future.

The integration of blockchain and cloud technology: cloud mining machines

Finally, let's talk about cloud mining machines. They are not classified at the same level as the several types of mining machines mentioned above. Cloud mining machines are relative to local mining, and can be compared to the relationship between network disks and local hard disks. Simply put, you can mine without a mining machine, but use other people's mining machines remotely through the Internet. It can be said to be a cloud application, or a rental and hosting service. Cloud mining service providers provide mining machines, networks, operation and maintenance services, and users only need to pay a certain rental and hosting service fee, decide what cryptocurrency to mine, and then wait to receive the money. As for the tedious process of buying machines and maintenance, you don't have to worry about it at all, and the investment can be large or small, a few thousand or tens of thousands of yuan.

A cloud mining machine can be an ASIC mining machine, a GPU mining machine, or the CDN mining machine mentioned above. The only difference is the right to use and the way of using it. The ownership of the cloud mining machine does not belong to you, but is rented to you.