Bitcoin Forum

I heard that the computing power of ASIC mining machines is equivalent to thousands of GPUs. If you use it to run VanitySearch, it will be very fast.

Can the VanitySearch code be run on ASIC mining machines?

A Bitcoin mining ASIC is optimized around the SHA-256 computation.

The process of creating a vanity address consists of generating a private key, deriving the public key, converting that to an address, and finally checking if the address matches the desired outcome. Part of the conversion step involves a SHA-256 computation.

So, it seems unlikely that an ASIC is useful for creating a vanity address because SHA-256 is only a small part of the vanity address process.

I'll remind you that ASIC stands for Application-specific integrated circuit. It can only can perform one or few tasks designed by the creator. While FPGA exists, IMO it's not practical alternative since,
1. Many FPGA board usually have relative low raw power compared with GPU.
2. You (or someone else) need to port the vanity search program in order to support FPGA you use.

It depends on what you are looking for. If you are actually talking about raw power GPUs win in that aspect but the difference is in what they are built to handle GPUs are better at handling multiple tasks at a time unlike WSIC wares. Mining and vanity gen is not a multitasking software so GPU's raw power will be useless in that aspect.

ASICs are basically built to handle a single task efficiently and since they focus on one task at a time they have the upper hand in this situation over GPUs.