Bitcoin: To ASIC, or not to ASIC?

[cryptocoinsnews]

If you have been following the Bitcoin developments over the past few years, one of the biggest concerns among miners has been the increasing difficulty. As we all know, the higher the difficulty, the longer it takes to mine Bitcoins (or parts of it).

One of the solutions for this potential issue has been investing massively in hardware. On the Bitcointalk forums, you can find pictures of people’s mining rigs consisting of anywhere from a few, up to 50+ graphics cards, all hashing away. Keep in mind, that those cards are not cheap, and you still have to pay the electricity bill afterwards.

Read more here:
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2013/09/04/bitcoin-to-asic-or-not-to-asic/

What do you think?

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1713908343

[vaio127]

If one is really serious about mining Bitcoin these days, ASICs are the only option.  However, GPUs are more versatile and can mine altcoins also.

[cryptocoinsnews]

If one is really serious about mining Bitcoin these days, ASICs are the only option.  However, GPUs are more versatile and can mine altcoins also.

Seems reasonable..

[atomicchaos]

At this point in the arms race, it's not wise to enter it with a handgun. Big players are already established and will continue to grow, and mining is out of the "hobbiest" mode. Prices continue to fall, and will do that for the months to come.

[Jazkal]

For Bitcoin, ASIC's are the only game if you need to at least break even. GPU mining of Alts is still in the positive, unless your electric prices are just really bad. But even in the lower cost electric ranges, profits continue to go down (I see 30-40% drop over the last two weeks, but it does fluctuate).

[Bitweasil]

At this point in the arms race, it's not wise to enter it with a handgun.

Meanwhile, people are paying lots of money for squirt guns, thinking they'll get rich...

[Random8]

From reading this article it seems that the author, "Crypto", does not understand that "USB Erupters" use ASICs. Perhaps he can someday accumulate enough Bitcoins to buy a clue.

-R