Before you get HEAVILY invested in ETH Mining you should read this

[sp_]

So has the the value of the coin. From $0.6 to $6.50 in a few months. +1000%

[Matias]

Putting aside ETH valuation, rising difficulty, and the specter of PoS somewhere down the road, the Ethereum hash algo will *never* be implemented on an ASIC. It was designed that way. ASICs are great for doing fixed calculations on a (small) block of data. However, the ETH algo is much more than calculations. To be able to perform the hash, you first most load the DAG data, which is current approaching 1.4 GB. That size increases every "epoch", which is approximately 30,000 blocks or, currently, -6 days. It increases because it changes, i.e. it has to be periodically loaded again. For each ETH hash, there are 64 *random* 128 *byte* reads of the DAG, with an intermediate FNV hash between each access. The ETH algo is not compute bound, it's memory access time bound. The limit of current memory cycle times is the limit of the maximum ETH hash rate. An ASIC can do absolutely nothing to improve that, nothing. Not to mention, current mining ASICs don't have any significant memory interface capabilities that could address the needs of the ETH algo. Saying you're at risk mining ETH with GPUs, because ASICs are going to come along, as they did with BTC, etc. is a complete fallacy, it's nonsense, and it reflects a total lack of understanding of what the ETH algo was designed to do, and does very well. The *only* viable way to mine ETH is with GPUs, and that won't change until PoS comes to be.

-Best Care
  David

Propably stupid question, but isn't there faster memory than what is used in GPUs? That one, what is used in processors? What if someone builds a dedicated ETH miner using that? Or would that betoo expensive?

[Marvell1]

Putting aside ETH valuation, rising difficulty, and the specter of PoS somewhere down the road, the Ethereum hash algo will *never* be implemented on an ASIC. It was designed that way. ASICs are great for doing fixed calculations on a (small) block of data. However, the ETH algo is much more than calculations. To be able to perform the hash, you first most load the DAG data, which is current approaching 1.4 GB. That size increases every "epoch", which is approximately 30,000 blocks or, currently, -6 days. It increases because it changes, i.e. it has to be periodically loaded again. For each ETH hash, there are 64 *random* 128 *byte* reads of the DAG, with an intermediate FNV hash between each access. The ETH algo is not compute bound, it's memory access time bound. The limit of current memory cycle times is the limit of the maximum ETH hash rate. An ASIC can do absolutely nothing to improve that, nothing. Not to mention, current mining ASICs don't have any significant memory interface capabilities that could address the needs of the ETH algo. Saying you're at risk mining ETH with GPUs, because ASICs are going to come along, as they did with BTC, etc. is a complete fallacy, it's nonsense, and it reflects a total lack of understanding of what the ETH algo was designed to do, and does very well. The *only* viable way to mine ETH is with GPUs, and that won't change until PoS comes to be.

-Best Care
  David

Propably stupid question, but isn't there faster memory than what is used in GPUs? That one, what is used in processors? What if someone builds a dedicated ETH miner using that? Or would that betoo expensive?

You're right dumb question, either buy a gpu or gtfo there's no shortcut and please dont ask if you can use a bitcoin miner to mine eth jesus

[Matias]

Putting aside ETH valuation, rising difficulty, and the specter of PoS somewhere down the road, the Ethereum hash algo will *never* be implemented on an ASIC. It was designed that way. ASICs are great for doing fixed calculations on a (small) block of data. However, the ETH algo is much more than calculations. To be able to perform the hash, you first most load the DAG data, which is current approaching 1.4 GB. That size increases every "epoch", which is approximately 30,000 blocks or, currently, -6 days. It increases because it changes, i.e. it has to be periodically loaded again. For each ETH hash, there are 64 *random* 128 *byte* reads of the DAG, with an intermediate FNV hash between each access. The ETH algo is not compute bound, it's memory access time bound. The limit of current memory cycle times is the limit of the maximum ETH hash rate. An ASIC can do absolutely nothing to improve that, nothing. Not to mention, current mining ASICs don't have any significant memory interface capabilities that could address the needs of the ETH algo. Saying you're at risk mining ETH with GPUs, because ASICs are going to come along, as they did with BTC, etc. is a complete fallacy, it's nonsense, and it reflects a total lack of understanding of what the ETH algo was designed to do, and does very well. The *only* viable way to mine ETH is with GPUs, and that won't change until PoS comes to be.

-Best Care
  David

Propably stupid question, but isn't there faster memory than what is used in GPUs? That one, what is used in processors? What if someone builds a dedicated ETH miner using that? Or would that betoo expensive?

You're right dumb question, either buy a gpu or gtfo there's no shortcut and please dont ask if you can use a bitcoin miner to mine eth jesus

Eh....

I did not mean that I would do that. You probably did not read the post that I quoted. Question was, can some company build a dedicated ETH miner (using faster memory than GPUs have), which would disrupt ETH mining business just as ASICs have done to the BTC mining.

PS. I'm not Jesus

[Marvell1]

Even if your theory was sound eth is only  POW for the next 12 months even if we see delays in serenity which is the pow fork you're talking 16 months max , there is no where near enough lead time for anything more than maybe fpa development ASICs are out of the qestion

[adaseb]

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

You should worry about the GPUs that everybody is buying right now and increasing the hashrate or that price won't crash.

[Vaccomondus]

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

You should worry about the GPUs that everybody is buying right now and increasing the hashrate or that price won't crash.

you should worry more about those with cheap electricty, those are the real plague that promote centralization, gpu or asic

[Marvell1]

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

You should worry about the GPUs that everybody is buying right now and increasing the hashrate or that price won't crash.

you should worry more about those with cheap electricty, those are the real plague that promote centralization, gpu or asic

Yeah mostly the Chinese, at least ethereum is still profitable with high electricity costs right now

[miayama]

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

You should worry about the GPUs that everybody is buying right now and increasing the hashrate or that price won't crash.

you should worry more about those with cheap electricty, those are the real plague that promote centralization, gpu or asic

Yeah mostly the Chinese, at least ethereum is still profitable with high electricity costs right now

The Chinese have cheap electricity. But in some Arab countries, they also have cheap electricity. They can mine a lot of the coins.

[Ziskinberg]

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

You should worry about the GPUs that everybody is buying right now and increasing the hashrate or that price won't crash.

you should worry more about those with cheap electricty, those are the real plague that promote centralization, gpu or asic

Yeah mostly the Chinese, at least ethereum is still profitable with high electricity costs right now

The Chinese have cheap electricity. But in some Arab countries, they also have cheap electricity. They can mine a lot of the coins.

If the oil price stay around $30 levels, there will be no more cheap electricity in the Arab countries in the next few years.

[mrcashking]

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

You should worry about the GPUs that everybody is buying right now and increasing the hashrate or that price won't crash.

you should worry more about those with cheap electricty, those are the real plague that promote centralization, gpu or asic

Why would you accuse them while the benefits they have are much lesser than the West already ?

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

I dont think that would be happening ever cause if it gets to POS algo then it is pretty much useless IMO.

Mining would be at its best when funded by itself & not by any jobs or other assets.

[miayama]

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

You should worry about the GPUs that everybody is buying right now and increasing the hashrate or that price won't crash.

you should worry more about those with cheap electricty, those are the real plague that promote centralization, gpu or asic

Why would you accuse them while the benefits they have are much lesser than the West already ?

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

I dont think that would be happening ever cause if it gets to POS algo then it is pretty much useless IMO.

Mining would be at its best when funded by itself & not by any jobs or other assets.

PoS will start early next year, so there is no need to worry about ASIC.

[Vaccomondus]

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

You should worry about the GPUs that everybody is buying right now and increasing the hashrate or that price won't crash.

you should worry more about those with cheap electricty, those are the real plague that promote centralization, gpu or asic

Why would you accuse them while the benefits they have are much lesser than the West already ?

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

I dont think that would be happening ever cause if it gets to POS algo then it is pretty much useless IMO.

Mining would be at its best when funded by itself & not by any jobs or other assets.

PoS will start early next year, so there is no need to worry about ASIC.

there is not only ethereum to mine, its clone are good enough

[miayama]

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

You should worry about the GPUs that everybody is buying right now and increasing the hashrate or that price won't crash.

you should worry more about those with cheap electricty, those are the real plague that promote centralization, gpu or asic

Why would you accuse them while the benefits they have are much lesser than the West already ?

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

I dont think that would be happening ever cause if it gets to POS algo then it is pretty much useless IMO.

Mining would be at its best when funded by itself & not by any jobs or other assets.

PoS will start early next year, so there is no need to worry about ASIC.

there is not only ethereum to mine, its clone are good enough

It depend on if they will change to PoS or not. If they can be PoW mined for 3 more years, it is good.

[Vaccomondus]

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

You should worry about the GPUs that everybody is buying right now and increasing the hashrate or that price won't crash.

you should worry more about those with cheap electricty, those are the real plague that promote centralization, gpu or asic

Why would you accuse them while the benefits they have are much lesser than the West already ?

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

I dont think that would be happening ever cause if it gets to POS algo then it is pretty much useless IMO.

Mining would be at its best when funded by itself & not by any jobs or other assets.

PoS will start early next year, so there is no need to worry about ASIC.

there is not only ethereum to mine, its clone are good enough

It depend on if they will change to PoS or not. If they can be PoW mined for 3 more years, it is good.

expanse is not going to pos ever, they said so

[Boathouse]

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

You should worry about the GPUs that everybody is buying right now and increasing the hashrate or that price won't crash.

you should worry more about those with cheap electricty, those are the real plague that promote centralization, gpu or asic

Why would you accuse them while the benefits they have are much lesser than the West already ?

You don't have to worry about ASICs coming in and start mining ETH.

I dont think that would be happening ever cause if it gets to POS algo then it is pretty much useless IMO.

Mining would be at its best when funded by itself & not by any jobs or other assets.

PoS will start early next year, so there is no need to worry about ASIC.

there is not only ethereum to mine, its clone are good enough

It depend on if they will change to PoS or not. If they can be PoW mined for 3 more years, it is good.

expanse is not going to pos ever, they said so

It is great news. I might mine some Expanse in the future.

How fast does Expanse DAG file grow?

[target]

I believe so. so not for long though ETH might not even be mine using GPUs.  If I have to mine, I would probably just wait til someone sells Asic miner for ETH. To which I too think its possible.
But since the day miners learned about ETH, and if its profitable i'm sure there are tons of those who already bought hardware.

[Castreat]

I believe so. so not for long though ETH might not even be mine using GPUs.  If I have to mine, I would probably just wait til someone sells Asic miner for ETH. To which I too think its possible.
But since the day miners learned about ETH, and if its profitable i'm sure there are tons of those who already bought hardware.

The PoW of Ethereum mining will finish later this year or early next year. So there is incentive to make ASIC.

[fr4nkthetank]

meh methinks when 2gb is not enough for eth, the hashrate will drop by quite a bit, and those people will have to go back mining something else.

[philipma1957]

Okay I dusted off a hd7970 rig

Has a special cooler runs quiet.

So a hd7970 = a r280 

so what does this earn in a day?

and power is not an issue.  as If it earns 5 bucks a day I will run it in the solar array.

so lets call power free.