Why can't asic miners mine alt coins?

[bjalbert]

Sorry for noob questions but can't find answer:

- Can asic miners be used for anything other than bitcoin mining? how about LTC?
- How do some miners get such high hash rates on alt coins. I can see 5-10 Ghash/s using video cards but some numbers I see are asic mining hash rates.

Thanks in advance

[Don007]

Because the algorithm of the most altcoins (such as Litecoin) is different from the algorithm from bitcoins.  Altcoins like Litecoin use "Scrypt" and Bitcoins uses "Sha 256 (or something)".

I'm not sure what you mean with your second question, but better graphic cards (GPU's) get higher hashrates.  "Scrypt" is harder to mine than Sha-256 (with a GPU), that's why it shows a hash rate which is less.

[pontiacg5]

No, ASIC is application specific integrated circuit. They are specific to SHA-256, not scrypt.

All you see is a lot of GPUs, or maybe a botnet?

You can't see 50gh/s from one user? Why is that? It's only around 25,000W of power, a 220V 200A service would run that just fine. I have that at my house, and could (am  ) rent a shop for $750/mo with the same service.

That would generate about $1000 a day and only cost about $28,000. This is why all graphics cards are sold out, everywhere.