Author

Topic: Will all altcoins go in the way of the ASIC miner eventually? (Read 131 times)

legendary
Activity: 2590
Merit: 3015
Welt Am Draht
This was amazingly helpful.  If I had merit, I would of awarded you some.  Will we ever see GPU company's put some form of hardware fail safe that will prevent this, or will the demand of the bottom line and its shareholders continue keeping the price of cards at an all time high?

I'm sure they would absolutely love to get rid of miners. They're not the ones gouging customers, it's the resellers. You can pay retail via Nvidia directly for instance but they disappear instantly.

Because of what GPUs do I assume they'll always be perfect for mining. Even if there's some sort of patch the incentive would be enormous to find a workaround.
newbie
Activity: 13
Merit: 0

So would I be right in saying due that due to ASIC miners it's not profitable anymore to mine by GPU for bitcoin or even litecoin now?


Correct. ASICs blow them out of the water. But the bigger problem is the stranglehold ASIC makers have over any coin that uses them. It's a super specialised area and a very hard one to succeed so this breeds centralisation.

That's why many people favour GPU mining. The actual hardware makers probably don't actually want anything to do with cryptocurrencies which makes for a much healthier situation.

Because ASICs are otherwise totally useless it's only natural that the people designing and making them will mine with them too, and hoard them.

This was amazingly helpful.  If I had merit, I would of awarded you some.  Will we ever see GPU company's put some form of hardware fail safe that will prevent this, or will the demand of the bottom line and its shareholders continue keeping the price of cards at an all time high?
legendary
Activity: 2590
Merit: 3015
Welt Am Draht

So would I be right in saying due that due to ASIC miners it's not profitable anymore to mine by GPU for bitcoin or even litecoin now?


Correct. ASICs blow them out of the water. But the bigger problem is the stranglehold ASIC makers have over any coin that uses them. It's a super specialised area and a very hard one to succeed so this breeds centralisation.

That's why many people favour GPU mining. The actual hardware makers probably don't actually want anything to do with cryptocurrencies which makes for a much healthier situation.

Because ASICs are otherwise totally useless it's only natural that the people designing and making them will mine with them too, and hoard them.
newbie
Activity: 50
Merit: 0
There has to be an operation willing to develop and build the chips. Many coins are far too small and always will be to justify that, though of course it depends on what algorithm they use.

I think we have more than enough evidence of the damage ASICs have done to Bitcoin for there to be many a coin developer and community who'll do anything necessary to prevent them.

So would I be right in saying due that due to ASIC miners it's not profitable anymore to mine by GPU for bitcoin or even litecoin now?
legendary
Activity: 2590
Merit: 3015
Welt Am Draht
There has to be an operation willing to develop and build the chips. Many coins are far too small and always will be to justify that, though of course it depends on what algorithm they use.

I think we have more than enough evidence of the damage ASICs have done to Bitcoin for there to be many a coin developer and community who'll do anything necessary to prevent them.
newbie
Activity: 50
Merit: 0
Hi,

I'm hoping someone can explain.

Other then ASIC resistant coins will all other altcoins, at some point, need an ASIC miner? If so, why? And is there a way to determine when that will happen?

Thanks in advance.



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