Bitcoin Forum

Other => Archival => Topic started by: digaran on March 18, 2023, 05:48:03 AM



Title: 🖤
Post by: digaran on March 18, 2023, 05:48:03 AM
🖤


Title: Re: Are bitcoin ASIC miners only capable of SHA-256, Or can we use them for SHA-512?
Post by: kano on March 18, 2023, 09:42:15 AM
Only sha256


Title: Re: Are bitcoin ASIC miners only capable of SHA-256, Or can we use them for SHA-512?
Post by: BitMaxz on March 18, 2023, 11:59:42 PM
As the above said you can only mine with SHA-256 algo so it only supports to mine BTC or any coins that use SHA-256 algo.
And there is no modded firmware that you can change it if you are planning to mine other altcoins only SHA256 coins you can mine.

If you are looking for them check this tool https://miningpoolstats.stream/
Then on the algo filter type SHA-256 to show all coins that you can mine with that algo.


Title: Re: Are bitcoin ASIC miners only capable of SHA-256, Or can we use them for SHA-512?
Post by: Skot on April 10, 2023, 07:25:18 PM
Ok guys thanks, a quick question though, it's hardware related as well. As I understand an ASIC takes the data, hashes it twice and checks for target hit, if no match, it increments the nonce does the same task until it finds the value below the target, So I could use it with a modified firmware to do just that but could I change the input data and the target which would be unrelated mining data?

Bitmain ASICs (the chips) get sent a pre-computed hash of the first 64 bytes of the header, called the midstate. The chips hash the second 64 bytes of the header which includes the time, a little bit of the Merkle root, nBits and a nonce. then the chips hash both of those hashes into the final result.

The issue is that the ASIC doesn't send back the final hash. it only sends back the nonce that made that hash fall below the target (and only if it did). If you want to know what the hash was, you need to compute it in software.


Title: Re: Are bitcoin ASIC miners only capable of SHA-256, Or can we use them for SHA-512?
Post by: Skot on April 12, 2023, 01:25:41 PM
The issue is that the ASIC doesn't send back the final hash. it only sends back the nonce that made that hash fall below the target (and only if it did). If you want to know what the hash was, you need to compute it in software.
Why not, too lazy? Lol, would doing that increase the speed somehow? the ASIC has already done the computing part so what is the reason not to send back the result?

it’s not needed for Bitcoin mining, so they don’t do it. The job of the ASIC (chip) is to roll the nonce, hash it with the block header and see if it’s below the target —hundreds of billions of times a second. Doing anything else is a waste of energy. (And tiny efficiency gains become significant when you have millions of chips running at a farm)


Title: Re: Are bitcoin ASIC miners only capable of SHA-256, Or can we use them for SHA-512?
Post by: Weezenhofnar on April 29, 2023, 07:55:23 AM
Bitcoin ASIC miners are designed specifically for the SHA-256 algorithm and cannot be used for SHA-512 mining or other algorithms without modifications.


Title: Re: Are bitcoin ASIC miners only capable of SHA-256, Or can we use them for SHA-512?
Post by: NotFuzzyWarm on April 29, 2023, 06:01:06 PM
Bitcoin ASIC miners are designed specifically for the SHA-256 algorithm and cannot be used for SHA-512 mining or other algorithms without modifications.
With said 'modifications' being replacing every single mining chip in it with a different ASIC designed for sha-512. Oh, you also have to replace the mining program as well because cgminer & Braiins are <drum roll please> written to only handle sha-256. In other words you are making a totally new and different machine...