A Brief History of Cryptocurrency Mining
Mining is how new units of Bitcoins are released into the world. The first miners were able to earn coins relatively fast just using what computing power they had in their homes. But now, the process has become more complicated and evolved. Cryptocurrencies require huge amounts of energy to mine. It’s estimated that 0.21% of all of the world’s electricity goes to powering Bitcoin farms. This raises the question of how to mine cryptocurrencies effectively? While some ways remain valid and completely relevant to present-day realities, others are hopelessly wrong. Let’s examine these methods in more detail.
CPU Mining
Mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first bitcoin block on January 3, 2009. As the only miner at that time, he did not need specialized equipment to launch the Bitcoin blockchain. Even a standard PC was powerful enough to create bitcoin blocks. The brain of a computer is a central processing unit (a.k.a. CPU or microprocessor). This element handles all the instructions and performs arithmetic, logical, and basic input/output operations. In the early years of digital gold, the computing capacity required to receive mining rewards could be easily covered by CPU devices owing to a lack of competition. However, over time, the hardware needed to mine coins had improved considerably. The reason for this is that new miners are joining the Bitcoin network and competing for block rewards.
GPU Mining
A developer under the pseudonym “ArtForz” was one of the first people to mine the digital currency with GPUs using a code he created himself. That was the beginning of a new era of mining. GPUs, graphics processing units, were created specifically for video processing. Yes, they can do mathematical calculations and perform many other tasks. But then again, they were designed specifically for video processing, not for decision-making. Video processing is a great deal of similar work where pixels on the screen are always “told” what they should do. In order to perform its work effectively, the GPU is designed so that it can quickly handle large amounts of repetitive operations. Meanwhile, it is quite slow at switching to a new task. GPUs contain more ALUs, arithmetic logic units, in comparison to CPUs. As a result, a GPU performs cumbersome mathematical calculations much faster than its predecessor.
FPGA Mining
Perhaps Field Programmable Gate Array took the shortest period in the history of mining. This device allowed us to reach a hash rate of 500 MH/s and above. Meanwhile, it had low power consumption. Unfortunately, FPGAs were 40–50% more expensive than graphics cards and could not be sold as well as the latter. That was the reason people showed little interest in FPGAs. Such devices would be desirable only for future prospects.
ASIC Mining
An Application-Specific Integrated Circuit is perfect for mining on a specific algorithm. Owing to this narrow focus, the chips allow you to achieve incredibly high hash rates compared to most of the above methods. These devices are set up in several clicks. They are very easy to use and are ten times more efficient at the mathematical game than traditional graphics cards.
Taking a walk down memory lane, Butterfly Labs introduced new ASIC chips for BTC mining in the summer of 2012. This invention found immense popularity. Biggies such as Innosilicon and Asicminer with similar chips came into being in China a couple of months later. The next was Avalon. So in fact, the Chinese became the ancestor of ASIC mining. The capacity of the very first device was 270 Mh/s. It literally turned the industry upside down.
GPU Farms
With the emergence of GPU farms, miners let their imagination run wild. The introduction of PCI-E cables solved the problem of connecting several video cards to the motherboard; DVI dismissed the need for using monitors; connecting video cards directly to the power supply fixed the problem with outages, etc. Miners themselves found a magic formula of an effective device for crypto mining which allowed them to stay afloat under the growing complexity of the network.
What is more, combinations made up of graphics cards allowed us to achieve a higher level of hash rate. KH/s have been gradually turning into MH/s, GH/s, and TH/s, which gave a new impetus to the industry.
The only downside is that the farms produce too much noise. But don’t worry. WinMiner has a suitable solution for you. This is a special platform where anyone can mine the most profitable coins for the time being. The service uses a complex algorithm to maximize the use of PCs in crypto mining. Users don’t need to buy new hardware. They can simply turn their computer’s idle hours into passive income.
Another advantage of the service is an intuitive interface. Even a complete newbie can handle this whole thing by himself. It’s totally possible that the platform will play a key role in attracting more people to the space. If you want to know more, visit the official website. See for yourself what mining “in one click” really is.
Concluding Thoughts
The history of mining has a great many facets. One of the most important methods for generating crypto has evolved considerably since the appearance of Bitcoin. Miners gave a wide range of devices a try. Today, the market is dominated by ASICs and GPU farms. Technology is developing exponentially and it is impossible to predict the future confidently!
