ASIC for mining - operating principle and efficiency

ASIC mining
The days when cryptocurrency could be mined on a home computer using the computing power of a processor or video card are surely becoming a thing of the past. Mining has long turned from a hobby for computer geeks into a profitable business on an industrial scale. And today, the most effective equipment for mining cryptocurrencies, be it Bitcoin, DASH, Litecoin or any other, are ASIC miners.

• What is ASIC mining
• How does an ASIC miner work?
• How and where to buy ASIC Best ASIC manufacturers Bitmain
• Canaan Creative
• Ebang Communication
• Bitfury

ASIC - what is it and how does it work?

In the broad sense of the word, an ASIC is an integrated circuit that has a narrow range of applications, determined by a strictly defined set of functions.

ASIC in mining is special equipment for mining cryptocurrencies of a certain algorithm.

ASICs have many chips and a large amount of memory, and therefore a higher hashrate, so ASIC mines more coins than GPUs. As soon as an ASIC appears for some algorithm, mining this algorithm on video cards becomes unprofitable: the power of the GPU cannot compete with the power of the ASIC.

Many coins try to protect their network from mining on ASICs, and as soon as an ASIC for their current algorithm appears, they immediately change it in order to remain available for mining on GPUs. Such coins are called ASIC stable.

However, coins do not always fulfill their promise to immediately change the algorithm and remain resistant to ASICs. An example is some coins of the Equihash algorithm.

antminer-l3

Let us immediately note that the ASIC cannot be inserted into a computer and used as a video card, for example, for games or other work with the computer.

ASIC is an independent equipment. This is its advantage and disadvantage at the same time. The fact is that if the mining of the algorithm for which you bought the ASIC is closed, then you will have no choice but to simply throw your equipment in the trash. We will look at all this in detail a little later.

The first ASICs appeared long before mining - in 1984 to work with graphics. Powerful microcircuits came into mining in 2012 to solve the first digital currency - Bitcoin, working on the SHA-256 algorithm.

Kinds

ASICs are created for a specific algorithm, but there are still differences. ASICS are different:

• Hashrate

Manufacturers are trying to overtake each other or simply improve their results, so with each new model ASICs become more and more powerful. At this rate, GPU mining may become completely unprofitable (it will only remain for ASIC-resistant algorithms).

• Algorithms for which they are created

ASICs are coming out with new algorithms, but the old ones are being competed in terms of performance.

• Cooling system

Since the ASIC consumes a large amount of electricity, it can overheat. Accordingly, to work well, it needs a good cooling system (just like a GPU).

• Manufacturers

At the moment, there are several large companies supplying the ASIC market - almost all of them concentrate their production in China. We will talk more about the manufacturers and their websites below.

Manufacturers - websites

The most popular ASIC manufacturer is Bitmain https://www.bitmain.com

bitmain

Bitman produces ASICs for the following algorithms:

• Sha-256
• Scrypt
• Ethash
• X11
• Blake (2b)
• CryptoNight
• Equihash

Note that Bitman is trying to create ASICs for other algorithms - they are in development.

An ASIC for the Ethash algorithm is not particularly dangerous for mining Ethereum coins, since it is not much more powerful than a regular video card rig (for example, from an AMD RX570).

As for the Equihash algorithm, the ASIC here is much more powerful than a conventional GPU farm; therefore, mining on video cards using this algorithm is unprofitable. Note that some Equihash coins have changed their algorithm in order to remain available for GPU mining.

The rest of the algorithms have been mined on ASICs for quite some time, unlike Equihash and Ethash, whose ASICs were released at the beginning of 2018. ASICs have replaced GPUs and monopolized the market on the algorithms listed above.

Bitmain Technologies was founded in 2013. The company's headquarters are located in Beijing, and Bitmain has offices in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, Singapore, Tbilisi, Qingdao, Chengdu, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Next we can highlight the company Innosilicon https://www.innosilicon.com

innosilicon

Innosilicon produces many computer components, including ASICs for various algorithms, for example, Equihash, SHA-256 and others. Innosilicon's headquarters are located in China.

Another well-known company producing ASICs is ASICminer Company https://asicminer.co

ASICminer company

They only produce ASICs, but there are not many models. Prices range from 4.5 thousand dollars to 20 thousand dollars. The headquarters of ASICminer Company is located in China.

As you may have noticed, most ASIC manufacturing companies are located in China. There are many manufacturers of ASICs, but they are either not so popular, or their prices for equipment are greatly inflated.

The table below shows more or less large ASIC manufacturers and provides links to their official websites.

The best ASICs

It is very difficult to say which ASIC is the best, since the complexity of all algorithms is constantly growing and new and more powerful ASICs are being released.

Don’t forget about the price of electricity in the place where you want to place the ASIC, since they consume a lot of electricity. The more expensive the electricity fee, the less profitable mining on ASIC is.

In fact, Russia is the most favorable country for ASIC mining, since electricity here is noticeably cheaper than in other countries.

Example of electricity prices:

In general, we can safely say that the price for electricity is the lowest in Russia, which means a larger number of ASICs will be available to citizens of the Russian Federation.

For example, let’s take the average price for electricity in Russia – it’s 4 rubles.

Below is a screenshot of the ASIC calculator with the price we set for electricity:

As you can see, a lot of ASICs are profitable for mining with such an electricity fee.

The best (profitable) ASICs at the moment are marked in green. The remaining colors are less profitable ASICs.

Now let’s take Poland, where the average price for electricity will be 12 rubles.

As you can see, there are fewer green (profitable) ASICs, and 2 times less yellow (average in terms of profitability) ASICs.

Now let’s take other European countries, where electricity costs an average of 20 rubles (the USA is also suitable for this example).

We see that the yellow color has now almost completely disappeared. A large number of ASICs have also appeared that mine with a small profit, one might say almost a rosette - they are indicated in orange. And, most importantly, a red color has appeared here, indicating ASICs that mine not even to the socket, but directly to the minus.

With this example, we wanted to say that the concept of “best ASIC” is flexible, since it depends on the most important factor - the price of electricity.

But in any case, the most profitable ASIC will most often be the newest (or just released), since its task is to beat competitors and its own previous models.

The best ASICs are produced by the following companies:

• Bitmain
• Pangolin
• ASICminer
• Baikal

Note that manufacturers often resort to releasing a new ASIC, making pre-sales for 1-2 months, and as soon as the ASICs purchased during the pre-sale period begin shipping, the same company releases an improved (read: more powerful) model for the same algorithm.

Let us repeat: it is difficult to name the most profitable and profitable ASIC, since this market is an arms race. Therefore, you will not be able to guess which ASIC you are buying: the newest one or not, since while it is on its way to you, a more powerful model may come out.

But there is another important factor: in the quality of an ASIC, not only power plays an important role, but also reliability and assembly. Here, again, everything is not so happy: apart from beautiful words from the manufacturer, you will not have any guarantee that the ASIC will not break in 2-3 months or faster, that it will not burn out, or simply that all the main coins of this algorithm will not go to waste. new algorithm to protect GPU mining.

We advise you to focus on the indicators of profitability calculators (taking into account prices for electricity), reviews of users who have already purchased this ASIC, as well as news of coins of the selected algorithm, if this is the first ASIC for this algorithm: are the coins going to switch to a new algorithm in order to become ASIC resistant.

We have listed the main companies that you can trust, but, as you can see, the best ASIC is selected taking into account your individual needs and, like any product, based on reviews from pioneers who are already using this ASIC.

New items

New ASIC products come out constantly and much more often than video cards.

New items can be distinguished:

1. In terms of power - new ASICs are more powerful than their previous models or competitors
2. According to the algorithms - ASICs that were released under the new algorithm: previously, coins of this algorithm were mined only by GPU mining.

The Bytwork team covers all new products in news articles and in a separate section about ASICs (hashrate, profitability, consumption): as soon as a new ASIC appears (more powerful or for a new algorithm), we report it. Therefore, follow our news!

Characteristics of Asic miners

Characteristics of Asic
All ASICs that will be discussed in this section are designed for Bitcoin mining, that is, to work with the SHA-256 algorithm. The remaining parameters of ASIC Antminer from Bitmain are significantly different, and if you compare the model released 5 years ago (S5) with the latest one (S19), the difference will be radical.

Asic Antminer S5

This ASIC was released at the end of 2014 and at that time was one of the most productive devices of this type. However, the Antminer S5 was initially received rather coldly by the mining community, since it was supplied in a semi-open case, which is why it was too loud for use in residential areas when turned on.

ASIC was also voracious in terms of power consumption (590 W) and could only boast of a hashrate indicator - 1,155 TH/s at that time was considered something out of science fiction. The 28nm BM1384 processor was responsible for computing operations. The weight of this ASIC is just under 3 kg.

Despite the mentioned disadvantages, this ASIC model was quite popular until 2022, but is now completely outdated and is no longer available.

Asic Antminer S7

ASIC Antminer S7 was presented in September 2015. It differed from its predecessor in a newer, but still 28nm chip (BM 1385), an additional fan, an increase in weight to 4 kg, performance up to 4.7 TH/s and power consumption up to 1300 W, i.e. energy efficiency has doubled.

In this model, Bitmain still did not solve the problem of increased noise - 65 dB was still more suitable for industrial use than for home use. And yet ASIC Antminer S7 managed to become one of the most popular ASICs for several years, thanks to its performance and stability.

At the moment, the model, of course, is outdated and is not produced. You can buy it for $100–150.

Asic Antminer S9

Asic Antminer S9
At the end of May 2016, Bitmain introduced another new product in its Antminer line - the S9 received an innovative 16nm BM1387 chip, which allowed it to achieve a hashing speed of 14 TH/s. At the same time, the power consumption was 1450 W, that is, it increased quite slightly compared to the S7. The same can be said about the weight of the ASIC - 4.2 kg compared to 4 kg for its predecessor.

Due to this increase in performance and energy efficiency, S9 at that time received the status of the most advanced ASIC on the market. At the same time, he was even forgiven for increasing the noise level to 75 dB, since ASIC miners, for the most part, began to be installed in garages and hangars.

ASIC Antminer S9 is still listed among miners as a profitable device, but you should not hope for serious profitability. Currently, this model can be purchased from local sellers for $800.

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ASIC Antminer S9: characteristics, price, payback

Asic Antminer S11

It went on sale in early December 2022, when the mining industry was in a state of stagnation due to the decline in the price of Bitcoin to almost $3,000.

This ASIC was equipped with a 10nm chip and had a hashrate of 20 TH/s. Energy consumption remained at the level of the previous model (1435 W), but the weight increased to 8.1 kg. The noise level remained virtually unchanged (76 dB).

A special feature of Antminer S11 is the presence of an energy-saving mode. When activated, power consumption is reduced by 40%, and the hashrate is reduced to 16–17 TH/s.

This ASIC did not gain widespread popularity, perhaps due to its release at the wrong time, but it still has characteristics acceptable for profitable mining. No longer officially produced. You can buy this ASIC for $1120.

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Asic Bitmain Antminer S11: price, setup and how to buy

Asic Antminer S15

Bitmain introduced this flagship ASIC a month earlier than its budget predecessor in the lineup - at the beginning of November 2018. ASIC Antminer S15 went on sale at a starting price of $1475, receiving a more advanced 7nm BM1391 chip and an increase in computing power of up to 28 TH/s.

Energy consumption was 1596 W in the most productive mode, and 850 W in the economical mode (with a hashrate of 17 TH/s). ASIC weight is about 7 kg. Noise level - 80 dB.

Until recently, it remained one of the most profitable ASICs in terms of price, performance and power consumption. Bitmain is no longer for sale on the website, but there are still plenty of offers online at a price of $800-1000.

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Asic Antminer S15: characteristics, installation, configuration

Asic Antminer S17

How to choose a miner
Goes on sale April 9, 2022. Like its predecessor, this ASIC is built on a 7nm chip, but of a newer model - BM1397. The ASIC hashrate was a record 53 TH/s for the date of its release with a power consumption of 2380 W.

In energy-saving mode, the hashrate drops to 35–50 Th/s, and power consumption to 1470–2100 W. The ASIC weighs 9.5 kg. The noise level produced in the maximum productive mode is 82 dB.

At the moment, ASIC Antminer S17 is one of the most profitable ASICs, but at the same time one of the most expensive - the manufacturer’s price is $2107.

Asic Antminer S19

This miner model was announced in February 2022, and its performance was almost twice that of its predecessors, and the only disadvantage of this equipment is its heaviness.

The Antminer S19 hashrate is 95 TH/s, and the more advanced professional model (Antminer S19 pro) is as much as 110 TH/s, while the energy efficiency is 3250 W.

It is impossible to buy these models from the manufacturer, only from local sellers. The average price of Antminer S19 is $2,118, and Antminer S19 pro is $3,769.

At the moment, this is one of the most productive models on the entire market.

Connection

Connecting an ASIC is not particularly different from connecting a GPU farm.

First of all, you need to power the ASIC itself from the power supply - insert PCI-e connectors and power to the board itself. Next, connect the power supply to the outlet.

ASIC connection

After the ASIC is powered, you need to connect the Internet to it using a LAN cable.

connecting an internet cable to the ASIC

That's it, the ASIC is assembled and working. Now we need to find it on our computer to connect it for mining.

To do this, we find the ASIC in our local network using any IP scanner.

search for ASIC via IP scanner

After you find the ASIC with the IP scanner program, copy its IP address and paste it into the browser. This will allow you to log into the ASIC web interface to configure it for a mining pool.

ASIC setup

Next, register on the ASIC website (in our case, on the Bitmain website).

registration on the Bitmain website

Next, we return to the ASIC setup page, which we got to by entering the ASIC’s IP address. We go to the configuration settings, and register the worker - the name that you used when registering on the Bitmain website (or another site), and also come up with and enter a password in the “Password” field.

After entering the data, save the settings, and the ASIC will automatically reboot.

setting up mining on ASICs

Next, go to the “miner status” section to make sure the ASIC is active.

Bitcoin mining on ASIC

We go to antpool (or another site, depending on the ASIC manufacturer) and enter our registration data. Here you can see all your ASIC performance statistics for mining Bitcoins (or another coin, depending on what algorithm your ASIC is based on).

bitcoin mining

This completes the setup. All that remains is to wait for the cryptocurrency to accumulate.

This is an approximate analysis of ASIC settings. From a technical point of view, it will be correct in 90% of cases. And from the point of view of setting up a mining pool, it may differ - the pool depends on the algorithm and your ASIC, our example is the setup of ASICs from Bitmain and antpool.

Power supplies - which ones are suitable?

Power supplies for ASICs are most often produced by ASIC manufacturing companies themselves.

For example, on the Bitmain website they always offer a power supply for the selected model when ordering.

You can also buy several regular power supplies, that is, those that power video card mining rigs or home computers. Such blocks can be bought at any store, the main thing is to choose a block with the required number of cables.

Do not forget to take a power supply with a watt reserve of 15-20% for stable operation.

Our website discusses in detail power supplies suitable for mining: their efficiency, drawdowns, ripple, internal equipment and much more.

power supply for asic

ASICs can also be powered by server units - their power should be from 1000 to 2500 Watts, depending on the consumption of the ASIC, respectively. They have disadvantages - high cost, little warranty and difficulty in finding a new, not used, unit.

Such server units from IMB, Dell, Bitmain and others have a good reputation.

server power supplies for mining

When choosing a power supply, focus on:

1. Brand (manufacturer reliability). On our website you can read about the most reliable manufacturers of computer units that can power ASICs https://bytwork.com/articles/kak-vybrat-blok-pitaniya-dlya-mayninga.
2. Power and equipment . Power should be with a small margin. The number of wires must be sufficient for power supply.
3. Guarantee
4. Price
5. Temperatures. The unit should not overheat.
6. Reliability . The block must be reliable, with good reviews.

Content

• The principle of operation of an ASIC miner What is ASIC mining
• The era of the birth of ASICs
• Mining and its features

The operating principle of an ASIC miner is based on the use of special chips (microprocessors) used to implement narrow-profile tasks. The goal is to obtain blocks of the crypto network, and subsequently, rewards. Depending on the algorithm, ASIC can mine different cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, Dash, Litecoin and others. Today, ASIC miners operate on X11, Blake, SHA-256, Scrypt and other algorithms. Let's consider what the features of ASICs are, what their operating principle is, and how the payback of the device is calculated.

Temperature and cooling

The optimal operating temperature for ASICs is 70-80 degrees. The smaller the room and the worse it is ventilated, the hotter they will be. This is due to the fact that ASICs consume a large amount of electricity, which means they give it back in the form of heat.

It also happens that just 1 ASIC can heat up to 80-90 degrees. This is already a critical temperature, although many experts claim that the operating temperature of such equipment can reach up to 110 degrees; at temperatures above this, parts will begin to melt.

Therefore, it is best to try to keep the operating temperature in the range of 70 to 85 degrees.

There are several ways to cool ASICs:

1. Ventilate the room . If possible, keep a window open to cool the room.
2. Use regular fans . They will blow off the residual hot air from the ASICs, making it cooler. Fans should be directed directly at the ASICs.
3. The third method is the most budget-friendly and produces almost no results, but some home miners resort to it. Place bowls of water and ice around the room : the ice will evaporate and the cold air will cool the apartment a little.
4. Using humidifiers . Since ASICs dry out the air, a humidifier will return freshness to the room and cool it a little. Remember that they cannot be used next to ASICs!
5. The fifth method is expensive, but at the same time the most effective in terms of cooling - air conditioning .
6. Make a hood in a room or room . This method is also very effective, but also expensive.

ASIC cooling

Reviews of the best ASIC models for 2017-2018

Let's consider the most powerful and popular models:

Antminer S9 with 13.5 Th/s ~ $2700

• HashRate: 13.5TH/s ±5%;
• Power consumption: 1350W;
• Energy efficiency: 0.1 J/GH;
• Voltage: 11.60 ~13.00V;
• Processor: 189x BM1387;
• Dimensions: 350mm(L)*135mm(W)*158mm(H);
• Cooling: 2x 12038 fan;
• Operating temperature: 25 °C to 40 °C;
• Connection: Ethernet;

Antminer R4 ~ $1000

• Hashrate: 8.6th/s (can vary in the 5% range);
• Power consumption: 845 W;
• Energy efficiency: 0.1 J/Gh;
• Noise level: 52dB (at ambient temperature 35°C);
• Processor: BM1387;
• Number of processors: 126;
• Voltage 11.60 ~13.00V;
• Dimensions: 515mm (length) x 100mm (width) x 222mm (height);
• Connection: Ethernet;

Antminer S7 ~ $500

• Hash Rate: 4.73 TH/s ±5%;
• Power consumption: 1293W;
• Energy efficiency: 0.25 J/GH;
• Voltage: 11.60 ~13.00V;
• Processor: 135x BM1385;
• Dimensions: 301mm(L)*123mm(W)*155mm(H);
• Cooling: 2x 12038 fan;
• Operating temperature: 0 °C to 40 °C;
• Connection: Ethernet;

Avalon 6 ~ $559.95

• Hashrate: 3.65 TH/s
• Energy efficiency: 270 J/th*s;
• Input voltage: no less than 11.6 V;
• Controller OS: software from Avalon;
• Dimensions: 354 mm x 136 mm x 150 mm;
• Cooling: cooler 12038 with 3800 rpm;
• Network controller: Raspberry Pi (version B or B+);
• Requires external power supply;
• Rated power: 990 W;
• Maximum power: 1200 W;

Antminer S5 ~ $139

• Hashrate: 1155 TH/s;
• Processor: BM1384;
• Network: Ethernet;
• Cooling: 1 fan model 12038 + 2 radiators on the working boards of the device;
• Power consumption: 590 W;
• Energy efficiency: 0.51 J/gh;
• Temperature: 0-35°C;
• Dimensions: 298 mm x 137 mm x 155 mm

Guarantee

A warranty on an ASIC is a very stretched concept. There is no guarantee as such. When buying equipment secondhand from resellers, most often you are buying a pig in a poke.

Even if you order an ASIC directly from the manufacturer, you also do not have a guarantee as such.

However, in 2022, Bitmain opened a service center in Russia. Now, owners of damaged ASICs just need to write to support on the official website and wait for instructions, after which they can send the ASIC to the specified address of the repair office in Russia.

So far, only Bitmain has done this. Yes, many other manufacturers have offices in different cities of the world, in addition to China, but they do not affect Russia.

In fact, before this service appeared in Russia, Bitmain ASICs and no other ASICs had any guarantee as such.

As for repairs, everything is a little simpler: in many cities of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, special ASIC repair workshops have opened (there are even opportunities to call specialists to your home). However, such services are not cheap at all.

Where to buy ASICs

In order to avoid embarrassment, it is preferable to order devices through the official websites of manufacturers or from official distributors. Prices for ASIC miners range from several hundred to several thousand dollars. The higher the cost, the higher the productivity and the shorter the payback period of the equipment. But ASICs are not always expensive; Bitmain recently introduced a budget ASIC miner.

ASIC miners are also sold through specialized websites and stores for dollars, euros or pounds sterling. You can buy ASICs inexpensively for rubles on Aliexpress or find them on Yandex.

Market. You should check the rating of a store or seller before making a purchase, and also read reviews. Otherwise, you risk purchasing a low-quality product.

Mining

What is being mined - algorithms

More and more ASICs are trying to capture new algorithms. Now we will look at current algorithms for ASICs.

• SHA-256 is the first algorithm. It runs Bitcoin
• Nist5
• Scrypt
• X11
• Quark
• Skein
• Groestl
• Lbry
• Pascal
• Blake(14r)
• CryptoNight
• Blake(2b)
• Qubit
• Myr-Groestl
• Equihash
• Ethash
• X11Gost
• Decred

Note that ASICs running the Ethash algorithm do not particularly pose a threat to GPU mining of these coins, since they are literally 10-15% more powerful than a regular farm of RX570 4GB video cards.

As for the other algorithms, they are all captured by ASICs and mining on GPUs is a disadvantage there. Let’s also add that many large coins changed the algorithm as soon as ASIC was released for them, thereby they abandoned ASICs in favor of mining on video cards.

It's always great news for GPU miners when coins keep their promises and remain ASIC stable.

However, for people who have pre-ordered ASICs of these algorithms, such news may be disappointing, since almost all companies producing ASICs make pre-orders and send ASICs only after 1-2 months. At the same time, the company is not given the opportunity to return the money, and the main coin for which the ASIC was purchased went to another algorithm - in this case, the ASIC simply does not pay off.

The Monero coin can serve as such an example: initially it was based on the CryptoNight algorithm, and as soon as the ASIC was released for it, it immediately changed it to a new one - CryptoNightV7.

Pools

There are many pools for ASICs. One of the largest is https://antpool.com, owned by Bitmain.

The following pools are also very good:

https://zpool.ca – suitable for both GPU and ASIC mining. https://www.suprnova.cc/ - differs from most in that registration is required. https://zergpool.com – for mining on GPUs and ASICs. https://unimining.net – has only a couple of algorithms for mining on ASICs. https://bsod.pw/ - a large pool for mining on GPU, for ASICs there are only a couple of algorithms. https://www.f2pool.com/ - ASIC algorithms only.

Income - how much they bring in per day

This question can be answered approximately, since income depends on two factors:

1. Constantly growing difficulties - due to the fact that more and more new players come to mining every day, the difficulty of mining increases, which means the number of mined coins decreases.
2. Exchange rates – since cryptocurrency prices change every day, the profit per day is constantly changing. Today, for example, you can receive ~$4 per day from 1 ASIC, tomorrow $2, and in a week already $16 per day. Or it could be the other way around.

Let's consider how much you can earn from one new, latest ASIC at the moment. All calculations are current at the time of writing (August 2022).

From one S9j using the SHA-256 algorithm Bitcoin coins per day:

Bitcoin mining on ASICs

• 0.000598 BTC per day
• $1.96 — net profit minus electricity charges (on average it was 7 rubles/day).

The cost of this ASIC is $575.

Let's consider ASICs for other algorithms. For example, on Scrypt and its Litecoin coin. From one Antminer L3++ per day you get:

mining Scrypt on ASICs

• 0.032873 LTC
• $0.40 - net profit minus electricity charges (the average cost was 7 rubles).

The cost of this ASIC is $289.

Today, the price of cryptocurrency has dropped significantly. It can be calculated that the payback for these ASICs at current rates will be almost 2 years, but this may change as soon as cryptocurrency prices rise.

When buying an ASIC, you must understand that there is no guarantee that you will pay off at all. However, you should not be afraid of falling rates due to constantly changing prices for cryptocurrency, but you need to have free money to pay for electricity.

If you decide to take out an ASIC on credit, always count on the worst ending, since the payback period can last up to two years or more. And the lifespan of an ASIC is most often no more than 1-1.5 years.

ASIC mining calculator for Bitcoin, Zcash, Ethereum, Monero

The most accurate calculator for ASICs is on the website https://asictrade.com/calc.html

In order to use the Bitcoin calculator, Ethereum calculator, Zcash calculator or Monero calculator, simply select the ASIC miner or GPU farm you are interested in from the drop-down list, or enter the device hashrate with consumption known to you, and then click on the “Calculate” button. The calculator will provide all the information about the miner’s consumption and current data on cryptocurrency earnings with automatic conversion into dollars, hryvnia, rubles and euros.

In addition to general data, this tool will provide you with visual tables that will collect information on earnings per day, week and month in various currencies, as well as on electricity consumption for the same time ranges.

Thus, the cryptocurrency calculator will be able to make the process of choosing the mining equipment you need as easy as possible, turning the lengthy process of counting into a quick and enjoyable experience.

Asics in Russia

Prices

Let's compare prices for ASICs in Russia and when ordering directly from China. In almost 100% of cases, ASICs in Russia will be more expensive.

For example, on the website of the official manufacturer Antminer E3 costs 84,419 rubles plus delivery - this is several thousand rubles at the current dollar exchange rate. In Russia, such an ASIC is sold in a store for 140,310 rubles. On Avito such an ASIC is sold for 110,000 rubles.

The difference is noticeable. Yes, you receive the goods from the reseller immediately and most often in your city - that is, on the spot, but without any guarantee at all that this store will not close tomorrow and the ASIC will be in working order.

From China you will have to wait for delivery, convert money, place an order and much more.

ASICs in Russia and China

Is it possible to buy a used ASIC in (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine)

Buying ASICs in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and other CIS countries is buying a “pig in a poke.” Let's look at this in more detail.

There is an opinion that the manufacturers themselves mine ASICs on their own equipment before selling them, and only then put them up for sale. However, manufacturers do not confirm these words, but we are sure that this is 99% true.

Now imagine that the ASIC you want to buy has already been used in mining for a week, a month, a couple of months by the manufacturer itself - not very encouraging, right?

Then these (already used) ASICs are bought by resellers in Russia or any other country. And until they are sold, resellers also mine on them. It turns out that they quickly bring the ASIC to the end of its service life.

It is unknown how much the reseller mined on it, how and where it was stored. Perhaps the ASIC had mined its own and was already out of order, and the technicians simply repaired it or simply warmed up the chips.

This ASIC will last you a day, a week, a month, perhaps even a year. But think for yourself: what is the chance that it will fail almost immediately and not even recoup the money invested? Plus, as we said above, an ASIC purchased from intermediaries is most often more expensive.

The Bytwork team does not recommend buying ASICs from resellers. Especially in dubious stores!

Schematic diagram of ASIC

As noted above, ASIC miners are structurally composed of several elements, but the main function is carried out by chips (microprocessors). The rest of the equipment is auxiliary and ensures the functionality of the main elements:

• The housing
  protects against mechanical stress and destruction of expensive parts.
• The power supply
  reduces the voltage to a safe level and rectifies it.
• Fans
  circulate air to remove excess heat from the chips. If these elements fail, microprocessors can overheat and fail.
• Boards
  - play the role of a base on which the above-mentioned chips and other parts - capacitors, transistors and others - are mounted.

Connectors are no less important. With their help, the ASIC miner connects to the local network and the Internet. Finding a circuit diagram of an ASIC, for example, for subsequent repairs or creating an analogue of the device, is a difficult task. Manufacturers hide their developments from prying eyes in order to maintain competitiveness and sales levels. Despite this, on forums and specialized sites you can come across diagrams drawn by experienced network users.

Differences between ASIC and GPU

ASIC or video card? – this is one of the frequently asked questions among miners and just crypto enthusiasts. Let's look at this in more detail.

gpu vs asics

Connecting and setting up ASIC and GPU

We have already done a full review of how to build a mining farm from scratch https://bytwork.com/articles/sborka-fermy-dlya-mayninga-s-nulya-2018. We described the collection of ASIC above. Their collection principles are completely different.

To assemble a farm on a GPU you will need:

1. The system assembly is where the video cards are connected: motherboard, processor, hard drive.
2. A power supply that can be purchased at a regular computer store.
3. Riser for connecting video cards.
4. Drivers
5. Setting up for mining (searching for pools, creating batch files, etc.)

Connecting an ASIC, as mentioned above, is much easier: you just need to power the ASIC with a power supply, insert an Internet cable into it, and configure it for any of the pools convenient for you.

It turns out that assembling and connecting an ASIC is much simpler than assembling a mining rig from scratch, largely because the ASIC is an independent equipment.

Power consumption

Recently, more and more economical ASICs have been released that consume less electricity than their older predecessors. On average, 1 ASIC consumes 1400 Watts.

Some modern ASICs, such as Antminer E3 for the Ethash algorithm, are more profitable in terms of energy consumption than a farm of video cards that gives the same hashrate.

Antminer E3 consumes only 800 Watts, in contrast to a farm of 6 video cards, which consume almost 1000 Watts and provide power equal to an ASIC.

Note that many ASICs continue to come out with huge power consumption. Sometimes these numbers can reach up to 3000 watts.

As for video cards, things are a little worse here, since the increased power on video cards is compensated by increasing the power consumption of the video card itself.

It comes to the point that 1 GPU for the summer of 2022 can consume up to 350 Watts. It turns out that a farm of 6 such cards will require ~ 2100 Watts + system + possibly an additional cooling system.

But there are also many profitable cards that consume only 150-170 Watts. Such as AMD RX 570 or, for example, Nvidia 1070.

We can safely say that so far there is a draw in this area. There are many ASICs with high power consumption, and there are also enough video cards with no less power consumption.

Comparison of ASIC and GPU: pros and cons

We discussed above what an ASIC is, its operating principle and structure.

We have written often and a lot about GPUs - a separate section of our website is dedicated to video cards.

Let’s visualize the differences between an ASIC and a video card.

Profitability of mining Ethereum using ASIC

Before purchasing an ASIC for mining and Ethereum production, we calculate the level of profit and future return on expenses. Average costs for setting up a farm for Ethereum mining:

• Bitmain Antminer E3. On the official website the price of the device is $800. To this amount are added the costs of delivery, which takes place within 10 days from the date of transfer of the full amount. Additionally, you will need a power supply (the original price is $95).
• Purchasing a computer and network equipment (if you don’t have it). As noted, a regular PC or laptop is suitable for mining Ethereum using an ASIC miner. This expense item is $300–500.
• Purchase of an uninterruptible power supply (optional) - about $100.

Let's give the profitability of Bitmain Antminer E3 when mining Ethereum as of March 13, 2022, excluding electricity costs (this parameter is individual for each region). We take into account that the ASIC power is 760 W. The device operates 24 hours a day and without interruption. This means that the monthly electricity consumption (only from the ASIC miner) will be 547.2 kW. The power consumption of a PC, laptop and other equipment is added to this indicator.

The hashrate of Bitmain Antminer E3 is 200 MH/s. With these parameters, the miner’s monthly profit is almost $110 (without electricity costs), taking into account the Ethereum rate at the time of writing. Annual income: $1,320. The total cost to create an ASIC farm is about $1,500 (using one device). This means that the payback period for ASIC for mining (as of the date indicated above) is 13.5 months.

When calculating, it is important to consider:

1 course. The price of Ethereum is adjusted regularly. Back on July 20, 2022, the ETH exchange rate was $236 per coin. As of March 13, 2022, the cost is $1,885. Before mining Ethereum on ASIC, you need to study the trends in the cryptosphere, read the opinions and forecasts of experts on changes in the exchange rate price.

2. Difficulty of extraction. The calculations take into account the complexity parameter. If this indicator increases, the efficiency of the ASIC miner used will decrease. The difficulty parameter is influenced by a number of factors, including the active use of ASIC miners by members of the crypto network.

3. Miner price. With the increase in demand for Ethereum mining using ASICs, the cost of the device may also increase. If the cost of the device increases, the payback period will also increase.

4. Cost of electricity. Electricity costs vary in each region. For example, in Moscow you will have to pay about $0.08 for 1 kWh. Taking into account that the ASIC consumes 547.2 kWh per month, the total monthly costs will be $49. If you work in a region with a lower cost of 1 kWh of electricity, the miner's costs will be lower. For example, in the Murmansk region of the Russian Federation, electricity costs are half as much.

When assembling a farm on an ASIC, it is important to take into account two negative factors - increased noise and heat generation. There are several solutions available here - the use of soundproof boxes with additional cooling or Ethereum mining in a separate room (additional costs for renting the room may be required).

Is it possible to assemble an ASIC with your own hands?

Is it possible to assemble an ASIC with your own hands? You must answer this question yourself. If you know a lot about electricity, you have skills in soldering and programming, as well as selecting computer components, then theoretically you will be able to assemble your own ASIC. Otherwise, you will have to hire specialists, which will hit your pocket hard.

In order to assemble an ASIC, you need to create a chip - the integrated board itself. To do this you need:

1. Preparation . It is necessary to accurately understand the mechanism of operation of the device. At this stage, device diagrams are created that make it possible to visualize the interaction between the chip nodes. You also need to make performance calculations, build temperature graphs and calculate other aspects.
2. Preparation of materials . At this stage, you need to select suitable materials (they must withstand the load placed on them) and prepare finished elements (resistors and capacitors).
3. Creating a printed circuit board . Here all parts are soldered - the board itself - ASIC - is produced. Checking and debugging is also performed if required.

Next, you need to create your own chip, but this is very expensive and will take a lot of time to develop, so it’s easier to buy ready-made ones.

We can already draw a small conclusion that it is almost impossible to assemble an ASIC yourself at home: it requires too much versatile knowledge and money.

Let's look at ASIC collection in more detail:

• First, you will need to assemble the chip or purchase it from manufacturers. And here you will encounter a problem, since you will hardly be able to buy ready-made microcircuits in Russia, which means you will have to negotiate with foreign manufacturers, most often with China.
• Secondly, it is necessary to create a program for the ASIC to mine the required cryptocurrency.
• Thirdly, you need to choose a power supply .
• Fourth, assemble the cooling system and housing .
• Fifth, solder all the parts and install the mining program.

All of the above is just the main work that needs to be done to assemble an ASIC at home; in addition to it, there will be many other small purchases and installations.

If you possess any of the skills that we talked about earlier, you most likely will not be able to assemble the entire ASIC, since it requires a huge amount of diverse knowledge, which means you will have to resort to outside help.

Writing a program to mine a specific algorithm from scratch will take a lot of time. And in general, the entire assembly of an ASIC from scratch will turn into a large sum, since you will still have to assemble several trial models in order to make sure that the ASIC is assembled reliably, is not dangerous, and, on top of that, brings more profit per day than the cost of electricity.

Which ASIC to mine Bitcoin on?

Let's consider which ASIC miner from the samples available on the market is better suited for decrypting Bitcoin blocks:

1. Butterfly Labs - has a card performance of 600 Ghash/s with an energy consumption of 0.6 kW.
2. ASIC Terra Miner - productivity in the region of 2 Terahesh with an electricity consumption of 2 kW/h.
3. Antminer S5 - has a hashrate: 1155 TH/s with a power consumption of 590 W.
4. Avalon 6 – will operate at a minimum input voltage of 11.6 V, with a power of 1200 W. An external power supply is required. As well as the Raspberry Pi network controller version B+.
5. ASIC Antminer S7 – The hashrate is 4.73 TH/s, but the manufacturer warns of an error of up or down 5%. Products in this series consume 1293 W of energy and operate with a minimum network resistance of 11.6 V.
6. Antminer S9 – this model has enough power to operate at a speed of 13.5 TH/s. It operates in a temperature range of +25 °C - 40 °C. The energy efficiency of the device is 0.1 Dg/Gh.

Conclusion

Does it make sense to buy an ASIC? – many miners face this question, especially now when coin mining capacity is constantly growing.

Of course it makes sense, especially if you have your own premises and inexpensive electricity. Let us remind you that due to the high noise level, you should not assemble a farm of ASICs (or even 1 ASIC) at home.

You can buy ASICs if you have free money, since when buying an ASIC, you will not be able to say exactly how long it will last: you can earn a lot of money on it, or you may not even recoup it.

pros

• High power = high hashrate
• Small dimensions
• Mining some of the most popular coins (Bitcoin, Litecoin and others)

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of equipment?

The advantages of ASIC devices include:

— ASIC miners consume less electricity compared to mining rigs on video cards due to the fact that they are better optimized and use fewer peripheral devices and electrical circuits;

— higher profitability compared to other mining devices at a lower price;

— ASICs are easier to install and configure;

- they take up little space;

— provide higher productivity due to unification.

Disadvantages of ASIC miners:

— ASICs allow you to switch between mining different cryptocurrencies only within the framework of one algorithm. If profitability decreases significantly, you will have to purchase either a new, more powerful device or exchange it for other equipment;

- higher heat generation and increased noise levels, which are necessary to maintain the operation of high-performance systems;

— narrow specialization makes ASIC devices unsuitable for solving any other problems in the absence of profitability;

— It will be difficult to find equipment repair specialists in certain regions if the ASIC breaks down.

Resetting the password on ASICs from Bitmain Antminer S9 and others:

1 The first option is to update the firmware on the ASIC. To do this, you need to download the firmware from the Bitmain website to an SD card. Insert the card and run ASIC. Wait 5-10 minutes.

2 Turn on the ASIC miner and wait 2 minutes. Then press RESET for 5 seconds.

3. On a running ASIC miner, press the IPREPORT and RESET buttons. Hold for 20 seconds and without releasing, turn off the power supply. wait 10 seconds, DO NOT RELEASE . Turn on the power supply while continuing to hold the two buttons for another 20 seconds until the ASIC miner reboots itself. When the reboot starts, you can release the buttons. After this, the login and password will be reset to the standard one. With the ASICE running, press and hold ipreport and reset for 20 seconds, turn off the power supply without releasing the pressed buttons, wait for 10 seconds without releasing the ipreport and reset buttons, turn on the power supply and hold ipreport and reset for another 20 seconds. then we release it and wait for it to boot.

At the moment, on April 16, 2022, at a Bitcoin price of 62,000 USD, ASIC Bitmain ANTminer S19 (110TH/s, 3250W) will earn you about 1000USD per month.

• Mining equipment
• For beginners

ASIC Miner Antminer L3: a brief overview

It is worth considering that in this brief review, the Asic Antminer L3 litecoin mining device will be used. The equipment began to be produced in 2022, and L3 has no competitors at all in the field of litecoin mining.

First of all, it is worth mentioning the L3 hashtag, it is equal to 504 MH/s and consumes about 800 W. As for the dimensions, the device is more than compact 35x13x19 centimeters.

Without packaging, the equipment weighs 4.4 kilograms. Thanks to its compact size and reasonable power consumption, the device is quite suitable for home use.

The ASIC connection algorithm for this model is described in detail in the accompanying documentation. In general, the setup process looks like this:

1. Connecting the power supply, starting the equipment.
2. Registering a wallet in the pool, selecting the appropriate settings in the wizard (the software is supplied with the hardware itself).

Antminer B3

The ASIC miner exclusively mines the Bytom cryptocurrency. This coin is interesting because of its partnership with Bitmain, from which one can draw conclusions about the possibility of a monopoly of the Chinese factory on the production of ASICs for Bytom. A total of 2,500 units were produced, and now it is no longer possible to buy Antminer B3 at the factory. The model is still available from various resellers.

• Antminer B3 hashrate: 1000 H/s (with firmware from Bitmain).
• Algorithm: Tensority.
• Power consumption: 360 W.
• Antminer B3 price with delivery to Russia: $2600.
• Daily profitability of Antminer B3: $7.
• Payback for Antminer B3: 371 days.

Calculation of ASIC payback for Antminer B3 can also be done using the whattomine service, in the Coins section.

Innosilicon A8+

This miner produces the following coins: MoneroOriginal, DinastyCoin, Karbo, Bytecoin.

• Algorithm: Cryptonight.
• Price of Innosilicon A8+ with delivery: $2800.
• Factory price of Innosilicon A8+: $2480.
• Innosilicon A8+ hashrate: 250 Kh/s.
• Power consumption: 460 W.
• Daily profitability of Innosilicon A8+: $16.
• Payback of Innosilicon A8+: 175 days.

The highest profitability rates on this equipment are obtained when selling capacity on the nicehash service. One advantage is the relatively low noise level. Let's compare Innosilicon A8+ with Antminer X3 from Bitmain.

Table with hashrate, efficiency and price - all models

Microbt

Microbt was founded in 2016 by the developer of the Antminer S9 miner. A former Bitmain employee was forced to leave the company due to disagreements with management.

Whatminer M30s

Competitor Bitmain

• Algorithm: SHA256;
• Hashrate: 100-110 Th/s;
• Power consumption: 3100 W
• Efficiency 38 ± 5% J/TH
• Dimensions in mm: 390x155x240