ASIC Ethereum chip
bitcoin uses SHA-256 encryption algorithm. When mining, it competes with computing power. In order to improve computing power, bitcoin has gone through four stages: CPU mining, GPU mining, FPGA mining and now ASIC mining machine mining, and the degree of specialization is getting higher and higher
Ethereum uses the ethash encryption algorithm. In the process of mining, it needs to read the memory and store the DAG file. Because the bandwidth of each read memory is limited, and the existing computer technology is difficult to have a qualitative breakthrough in this problem, so no matter how to improve the computing efficiency of the computer, the memory read efficiency will not be greatly improved. Therefore, in a sense, Ethereum's ethash encryption algorithm is ASIC resistant.
different encryption algorithms lead to great differences in mining equipment and computing power between bitcoin and Ethereum
at present, bitcoin mining equipment is mainly ASIC mining machine with a very high degree of specialization. The maximum computing power of a single mining machine is 110t / s, and the scale of computing power of the whole network is more than 120eh / s
the main mining equipment of Ethereum is video card miner, and there are very few specialized ASIC miner. On the one hand, the "ASIC resistance" of Ethereum mining algorithm improves the threshold of developing ASIC miner. On the other hand, after Ethereum is upgraded to 2.0, the consensus mechanism will be transformed into POS, and the miner can not continue mining
compared with the ASIC miner, the graphics card miner has two orders of magnitude difference in computing power. At present, the computing power of mainstream graphics card miner (8 cards) is about 420mh / s, and that of Ethereum is about 230th / s.
from the time dimension of the past two years, bitcoin's computing power of the whole network is growing rapidly, while Ethereum's computing power of the whole network is growing relatively slowly
The ASIC mining machine of 
bitcoin is monopolized by several major mining machine manufacturers, and miners can only buy it from the market; Although the graphics card miner of Ethereum is also manufactured by a special miner, the miner can buy accessories from the market and assemble them according to his own demand
POW: full name of proof of work
pos: proof of stake
both of them are the consensus mechanism of blockchain and the bookkeeping method of digital currency
the difference is:
1. POW mechanism: workload proof mechanism, that is, the proof of workload, is the requirement that must be met when generating a new transaction information (that is, a new block) to be added to the blockchain. In the blockchain network based on workload proof mechanism, the ability of nodes to obtain the correct numerical solution to generate blocks by calculating the numerical solution of random hash hash is the specific performance of node computing power
POS mechanism: the proof of rights and interests requires the certifier to provide a certain amount of ownership of cryptocurrency. The operation mode of the proof of rights and interests mechanism is that when creating a new block, the miners need to create a "currency right" transaction, and the transaction will send some coins to the miners themselves according to the preset proportion. According to the proportion and time of token owned by each node, the equity proof mechanism reces the mining difficulty of nodes proportionally according to the algorithm, so as to speed up the speed of searching for random numbersextended materials:
the concept of bitcoin was first proposed by Nakamoto in 2009. According to Nakamoto's ideas, the open source software and the P2P network on it were designed and released. Bitcoin is a kind of P2P digital currency. Point to point transmission means a decentralized payment system
unlike most currencies, bitcoin does not rely on specific currency institutions. It is generated by a large number of calculations based on specific algorithms. Bitcoin economy uses the distributed database composed of many nodes in the whole P2P network to confirm and record all transactions, and uses the design of cryptography to ensure the security of all aspects of currency circulation. The decentralized nature and algorithm of P2P can ensure that it is impossible to artificially manipulate the value of bitcoin through mass proction
A卡
1. Power consumption: 243w; Calculation force: 22.4m; Price: 1999 yuan; The number of eth g every 24 hours: 0.015; Revenue generated every 24 hours: 24.8 yuan; Expected payback time: 81.66 days
2. Power consumption of the whole machine: 159w; Calculation force: 24.3m; Price: 1599 yuan; Number of eth g every 24 hours: 0.017; Revenue generated every 24 hours: 27.9 yuan; Expected payback time: 57.31 days
3. Power consumption: 171w; Calculation force: 24.4m; Revenue generated every 24 hours: 27.87 yuan; Expected payback time: 71.73 days
4. Power consumption: 97W; Calculation force: 9.2; Price: 999 yuan; Number of eth g every 24 hours: 0.006; Revenue generated every 24 hours: 10.09 yuan; Expected payback time: 99.1 days
extended data
mining machine risk
1. The problem of electricity charge
in order to make the graphics card full load for a long time, the power consumption will be quite high, and the electricity charge will be higher and higher. Many professional mines at home and abroad are operated in areas with extremely low electricity charges, such as hydropower stations, while more users can only mine at home or in ordinary mines, so the electricity charges are not cheap. Even in a certain residential area in Yunnan, there was a case of crazy mining, which led to a large area trip of the residential area, and the transformer was burned
2. Hardware expenditure
mining is actually a competition of performance and equipment. Some mining machines are composed of more such graphics card arrays. With dozens or even hundreds of graphics cards, the cost of hardware and other costs is very high, and there is a considerable expenditure in mining
3, currency security
the withdrawal of bitcoin requires hundreds of keys, and most people will record this long string of numbers on the computer, but the frequent problems such as hard disk damage will make the key permanently lost, which also leads to the loss of bitcoin
many new users believe that the sole purpose of mining is to generate ether in a way that does not require a central issuer (see our guide "what is ether?"). It's true. The token of Ethereum is proced in the process of mining, with a mining rate of 5 Ethereum coins per piece. But mining is at least as important. Usually, banks are responsible for keeping accurate records of transactions. They make sure that money is not created out of thin air and that users don't cheat and spend money many times. However, blockchain introces a new way to keep records, the whole network instead of intermediary, to verify transactions and add them to the public ledger
Ethereum mining
although "no trust" or "trust minimization" monetary system is the goal, there are still people who need to ensure the security of financial records and ensure that no one cheats. Mining is one of the innovations that makes decentralized records possible. Miners have reached a consensus on the history of transactions in terms of preventing fraud (especially double spending on ether) - an interesting issue that hasn't been addressed before the decentralized currency works on the blockchain. While Ethereum is looking at other ways to reach a consensus on the effectiveness of the deal, mining currently keeps the platform together
how mining works
today, the mining process of Ethereum is almost the same as that of bitcoin. For each transaction, the miner can use the computer to guess the answer repeatedly and quickly until one of them wins. More specifically, the miner will run the unique header metadata (including time stamp and software version) of the block through the hash function (which will return a fixed length, unordered string of numbers and letters, which appears to be random), changing only the 'nonce value', which will affect the hash value of the result
if the miner finds a hash that matches the current target, the miner will be granted ether and broadcast the block across the network for each node to verify and add to their own ledger . If miner B finds the hash, miner a stops working on the current block and repeats the process for the next block. It's hard for miners to cheat in this game. There is no way to fake the work and come up with the right answer to the puzzle. That's why solving puzzles is called "proof of work."
on the other hand, others have little time to verify whether the hash value is correct, which is exactly what each node does. About every 12-15 seconds, a miner finds a stone. If the miner starts to solve the puzzle faster or slower than this, the algorithm will automatically re adjust the difficulty of the problem so that the miner can rebound to about 12 seconds of solution time
miners earn these ethers randomly, and their profitability depends on their luck and the computing power they put in. The specific workload verification algorithm used by Ethereum is called "ethash", which aims to require more memory, making it difficult to mine with expensive ASIC. Special mining chips are now the only profitable way to mine bitcoin
in a sense, ethash may have achieved this goal successfully, because dedicated ASIC is not available for Ethereum (at least not yet). In addition, as Ethereum aims to shift from proof of work mining to "proof of equity" (which we will discuss below), buying ASIC may not be a wise choice because it may not prove useful for a long time< However, Ethereum may never need miners. Developers plan to abandon proof of work, the algorithm currently used by the network to determine which transactions are valid and protect them from tampering to support proof of equity, which is guaranteed by token owners. If and when the algorithm is launched, proof of equity can become a means to achieve distributed consensus, and the consensus uses less resources.
after Ethereum is upgraded to version 2.0 POS mechanism, miners may switch mining machines to other networks
as Ethereum is finally ready to start its Ethereum 2.0 upgrade later this year, thus eliminating the long-term delay, the network will start to move towards the proof of rights model
therefore, the network will give up the workload proof consensus algorithm, so that eth miners have little choice. As their equipment will become obsolete, they will be forced to start mining counterfeit coins or re qualify as eth mortgagors. So, what is the current situation of Ethereum mining? With the coming transition, what will happen to the whole instry< At present, Ethereum consensus is based on POW system, which is similar to bitcoin (BTC). As a result, Ethereum's mining process is almost the same, as miners use their computing resources to earn rewards for each block they try to complete< However, there are still major differences between these processes. Although bitcoin mining has relied almost entirely on ASIC (large, loud machines designed specifically for cryptocurrency mining, most of which are concentrated in areas with low electricity prices), Ethereum's pow hash algorithm ethash is designed to support global chip manufacturers (such as NVIDIA and AMD). As Thomas Heller, global business director of cryptocurrency mining pool f2pool, explained in a conversation with cointegraph, GPU is much cheaper and easier to access than ASIC
"as ASIC is a very professional machine, when a new generation of procts is released, it is usually a huge technological leap. As a result, they have a much higher hash rate and are more energy efficient than the previous generation. This means that those manufacturers have spent a lot of money to research and develop it. Their machines are usually very expensive, and GPUs are much cheaper. "
Heller added that those who use GPU miners "have more flexibility to mine." For example, the popular NVIDIA geforce GTX 1080 Ti card can mine more than 15 different currencies, while ASIC units usually support only one currency
nevertheless, Ethereum is not completely immune to ASIC miners - at least in its current state. In April 2018, bitcontinent released antminer E3, an ASIC specially proced for mining Ethereum. Although widely praised for its hash rate of 180 megahashes per second and power consumption of 800 watts, it has received different responses from the Ethereum community. After the ASIC is inserted, a considerable number of GPU rig owners seem to suffer from loss of profits, and some are even forced to switch to other networks
"in the white paper, ETH must have ASIC resistance. I would like to say that the white paper stands for something "is one of the highest comments on the AR / ethermining topic about the topic discussed when antminer E3 was announced. Another reddit user argued that "the $800 only applies to 180mh."“ Split or die of a nation. "
some Ethereum users continue to suggest that bitmain's mining devices can lead to greater concentration, thus increasing the possibility of attack by 51%. Soon, a group of developers put forward "programmed workload proof" or progpow, which is an extension of the current Ethereum algorithm ethash, aiming to make GPU more competitive and promote decentralization
according to a paper published in March by Kristy Leigh Minehan, co-founder of progpow, about 40% of the hash rate of Ethereum is generated by bitmain ASIC. Alejandro de la Torre, the vice president of poolin, is the sixth largest pool of eth. He confirmed to cointegration that "GPU mining is still dominant" in Ethereum network, and added:
"at present, the profit of eth mining is not high, and the management threshold and cost of GPU equipment are higher than ASIC equipment. Compared with ASIC devices, GPU devices are more flexible, and you can use other algorithms to switch to other coins. "
progpow has not been integrated into Ethereum, and it is not clear when it will be finally implemented - in March, Ethereum core developers were debating whether progpow will really benefit the network in nearly two hours, and failed to reach a consensus. It is worth noting that a bitmain representative has previously told cointegraph that the mining hardware giant does not intend to extend the service life of antminer E3 to start operation after October 2020: "as far as we know, mining will end in October or some time after that."
a safe but uncertain future
indeed, Ethereum will stay away from mining in the future. Ethereum 2.0, which is planned to be launched later in 2020, is a major network upgrade on the blockchain, aiming to transfer its current POW consensus algorithm to a virtual POS (known as "block verifier")
more specifically, users are randomly selected considering their wealth in the network or their "interests". In other words, the more coins a POS verifier chooses to put in, the more coins accumulated as a reward
according to vitalik buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, e to the transition, the network will be more secure and the attack cost will be higher than the network of bitcoin, although the debate about the better consensus algorithm in the encryption community has lasted for many years. However, it is not clear when to start Ethereum 2.0, as many errors and management issues are reported to be delaying the process
another hypothetical benefit of POS system is that it has higher energy efficiency than pow blockchain. According to digiconomist, the cryptocurrency's total annual footprint is 59.31 terawatts per hour, which is comparable to the electricity consumption of Greece as a whole. However, since a report in July 2019 estimated that 74% of the exploitation of bitcoin was done using renewable energy, the environmental impact of bitcoin does not seem to be so serious
what will happen to the actual Ethereum miner? According to the documentation of Casper upgrade as part of Ethereum 2.0 roadmap, the network will initially support a hybrid model including both POW and POS, thus providing some space for block verifiers and GPU / ASIC miners. Jack O & 39, CEO of skale network; "There will definitely be a transition period when two networks are running at the same time," Holleran told cointegration The CEO of scale network (based on Ethereum's blockchain platform) gave a detailed description of this process:
"the transition from eth1 to eth2 takes time of course - it may be years rather than months. The good news about this slow transition is that dapps and defi platforms will be able to roam around based on survivability, security and real-world evidence of adoption. This is a positive impact on the Ethereum ecosystem. "
dig or not
once Ethereum is fully in the POS orbit, miners will have two options. One is to sell the equipment and use the money to accumulate more Eth and start mortgage. The other is the choice for GPU miners, which is simply switching to other ethash networks and mining counterfeit money. Nick foster, a representative of kabombacks, a US mining equipment dealer, told cointegration that most eth miners would choose the latter:
"what I want to say is that most of the miners have not really entered Ethereum or the mining of specific tokens. Yes, there is a certain amount of mineral deposits and holds, but I oppose the view that a large number of Shanzhai coin miners hold their coins at any time. "<
foster then described how he used 3gb GPU units to mine ethash's point-to-point blockchain asset ravencoin (RVN). Once it was unable to mine eth, he said, "this is the reason for mining crows. I immediately sold stability to BTC, and then sold it to US dollars to pay for my rights. I would say that a lot of people are adopting this strategy. "
as foster concludes, he wants eth miners to jump out of the network, and new players - those who don't invest in power infrastructure or drilling rigs - will take a stake in eth. He described the following:
"I can't imagine if I found a five-year lease with $0.04 of electricity and I was mining eth, I decided to sell everything and then continue to pay the rent so that I could hold eth as a share. Substitute. "
Marc fresa, founder of asic.to, a mining firmware company, agreed in a conversation with cointegraph: "if you invest in mining, you won't bet because you have enough room to grow."
one of the main counterfeit coins that may benefit from POW miners leaving Ethereum is Ethereum classic (etc), which is a more conservative version of the blockchain. It is reported that there is no POS related plan. As it also runs on the ethash algorithm, the startup of Ethereum 2.0 may lead to the migration of miners, so its hash rate may have a significant peak
eth's larger pools have similar options. When asked about the company's plans for Ethereum after pow, Heller told cointegraph that after the announcement of Ethereum's POS upgrade, f2pool launched a sister company called story.fish in early 2018. Story.fish has started to provide mortgage services for other POS and delegated POS projects, such as tezos (xtz), Cosmos (atom) and Cardano (ADA), e to numerous handover delays. For prin, e to the transition to POS, it "may temporarily give up supporting eth mining," de la Torre told cointegraph
other top eth pools, namely nanopool, ethermine, pool center, sparkpool and spiderpool, did not respond to requests for comment from cointegraph.
light wallets are good for imtoken, geekwallet, kcash, Cobo, etc.
Hardware wallets are good for ledger, trezor, etc., which involve large amount of digital currency or hold for a long time. Generally, hardware wallets are recommended
big body introces these personal good light wallets
1. Imtoken:
is a mobile light wallet app, which supports Eth and Ethereum erc2.0 standard tokens (such as EOS, DGD, SNT, qtum)
advantages: as Ethereum series light wallet, mtoken supports all the tokens of Ethereum erc2.0 standard, can control the miner's fee of each coin, can set the collection amount, and has convenient transaction record query, refreshing interface and easy operation, so it is suitable for ICO investors who need to receive a variety of erc2.0 standard tokens and trade infrequently
disadvantages: 1. The "discovery" mole of the wallet is not intuitive enough. 2. The tokens that can only be stored on the Ethereum platform, such as BTC and Neo, can't be stored. At the same time, the bifurcations of bitcoin can't be stored
2. Geek wallet
geek wallet is a simple and convenient light wallet, which supports the storage and management of mainstream digital currency assets such as bitcoin (BTC), lightcoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), EOS, usdt, etc. Using bip44 mnemonics, local private key, off-line signature and other security mechanisms, as well as mobile phone and computer al backup strategy, completely solve the loss of digital currency assets caused by hacker attacks, virus infection, mobile phone loss, forgetting mnemonics and other ways, and provide users with online Multi Chain digital assets one-stop management service. The platform also has tiaoshao market, which can carry out token trading of physical assets on the chain
advantages: it has high security factor, adopts local private key security mechanism, as well as mobile phone and computer al backup strategy, supports the current mainstream currency, and has a jump market on the platform, which can carry out token trading of physical assets on the chain
disadvantages: usdt transaction must use 0.0001 BTC as transaction handling fee, does not support some small currencies, page optimization is good, but the function is relatively few
3. Kcash
kcash is also a light wallet. At present, it supports BTC, ETH, LTC, etc, act and digital currency based on Ethereum and achain smart contract platform. Kcash has cross chain and cross contract technology, and the supported currencies are still increasing
advantages: as a Multi Chain Wallet, kcash supports multiple types of digital currencies and is very friendly to users who invest in multiple series of digital currencies. In addition, kcash also has the function of sending red packets, and in the future, it will launch currency transaction, bank card connection and other functions
deficiency: too many features lead to poor usability. In addition, there are some compatibility problems with Android versions. Some Android models will flash back when opening apps< Cobo
4. Cobo
Cobo is a professional digital asset management wallet, which can help you store your assets safely. The unique POS gain can help you increase the value of your assets. It supports more than 20 kinds of digital assets including eth, EOS and TRX, as well as more than 500 kinds of tokens
advantages: Cobo security is in the lead in the same level, using multiple security verification, hot and cold separation storage, HSM multi signature, Cobo provides you with stable income through intelligent voting, dpos vote pool, POS mining digital asset gain matrix
disadvantages: poor page optimization, complex functions, a little difficult to get started, and there is also a flash back problem of Android version
5. Ledger
Hardware wallet, which supports eth, BTC, zcash and other mainstream currencies, uses encryption chip technology to build security solutions for users, and is used to protect users' digital assets and block chain application security. This is a hardware bitcoin wallet specially designed for consumers. It provides enterprise level security hardware moles and hardware procts supporting the Internet of things
6, ledger
Hardware wallet, support eth, BTC, zcash and other mainstream currencies; Using encryption chip technology to build security solutions for users to protect users' digital assets and block chain application security. This is a hardware bitcoin wallet specially designed for consumers. It provides enterprise level security hardware moles and hardware procts supporting the Internet of things.
2) in terms of algorithm, the core algorithm sha256 adopted by bed and BTC has the same value attributes, but bed has established a new economic model through new technology development; Eth uses ethash algorithm
3) from the perspective of mining cost: BTC mining is becoming more and more difficult and has become an arena for mining equipment. At present, the latest 110t ant S19 Pro mining machine has adopted the latest 7Nm chip, and the price of the machine is nearly 20000 yuan. Some low computing power machines, such as the former king ant S9, can only be eliminated, resulting in a huge waste of resources; Eth uses graphics card GPU to mine, and the cost is also quite high; And bed can dig directly with the existing bitcoin miner or the obsolete bitcoin miner with low computing power, so the cost of miner is very low and the waste of resources is reced
4) from the perspective of total amount and upgrade space: the total amount of BTC is 21 million, and the current price is about ￥ 76000; The total amount of eth will reach 113 million, and the current price is about 2500 yuan; The total amount of bed and BTC is 21 million, and there is a huge space for upgrading.