Well, you can potentially stack multiple Xilinx Ultrascale FPGAs together and it can give you a decent enough hash rate for mining Bitcoin, why reserve the discussion for just altcoins? There are certain benefits to using FPGAs because they can be reprogrammed to do other things even though they are difficult to use. The profit margins for mining may be higher with ASICs but FPGA Bitcoin mining may still be worth it. Would really love to hear a more technical rationale for why public opinion is so against it, I personally think of it is as a viable option if you have multiple high end FPGA boards.

Well, I know a way to experiment with custom ICs without millions. Either way, I'd presume that the people who know how to write the HDL, test the chip and get it fabricated to functional CMOS devices won't hand out their secrets because the information is obscure while the profit motive is too high. I'm interested in doing it as an academic exercise but I wonder how people make money doing it currently.

Hi everyone,

I am curious if anyone here has built their own IC to mine Bitcoin. Hardware implementations of SHA256 can easily be looked up online, have any of you used these designs to build your own chips for mining? Would love to hear from anyone who has made a mining ASIC.

Why do you think so? If yes, which FPGA chips or boards would you recommend?