When the scrypt ASICs come out...

[Casino Gambling Guy]

When the scrypt ASICs come out what would be best mining alternative for someone who can't afford to upgrade?

Please don't say stop mining 

[rutzap]

My best guess is to keep mining altcoins. There will always be a currency out there which has no asics mining!

[techstorm2]

I moved away from litecoin a while ago and have been mining alts ever since, converting to ltc/btc but keeping alt coins as well.

Try ones which are CPU specific
Quark
Dimecoin

Ive also done earthcoin, dogecoin

[aleix]

Vertcoin

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=404364.0


 

[ArpFlush]

I moved away from litecoin a while ago and have been mining alts ever since, converting to ltc/btc but keeping alt coins as well.

Try ones which are CPU specific
Quark
Dimecoin

Ive also done earthcoin, dogecoin

I like Quarkcoin and I'm mining it with a basic laptop: 1 quark a day 
Earthcoin and Dogecoin are not so bad neither.

[Joohansson]

I like Quarkcoin and I'm mining it with a basic laptop: 1 quark a day 
Earthcoin and Dogecoin are not so bad neither.

Are you sure? I tried that on a intel i7 with 12 threads and got 1 Mh/s and 0.04 QRK/day?? I would need 23 of those CPU to get 1 QRK/day, or have I missed something? What I can see the reward for QRK is extremly low.

[whtchocla7e]

When Scrypt ASICs come out, it'll be time to switch to another algorithm. Make them hardware manufacturers play perpetual catch up..

[greyman]

To be honest, I don't quite get this anti-ASIC sentiment. I tried to mine LTC on my PC and it wasn't worth it, and there are even no scrypt ASICs yet. I think this "no ASIC so normal people with their own PCs can mine" philosophy works only in the early stages of the scrypt-coin, after the difficulty raises it isn't worth it, when you don't have free electricity.

Today, I would need at least one rig with 3 graphics cards to mine litecoins for example, but this thing would be noisy and consumes a lot of electricity, so I basically can't put it in my apartment. I would much prefer to be able to buy dedicated scrypt ASIC and mine with it. It will be more eco-friendly and will not be mis-using graphics cards.

To sum it up, I don't support this proposal, I want the scrypt-asics to be sold.

[cryptomining]

When the scrypt ASICs come out what would be best mining alternative for someone who can't afford to upgrade?

Please don't say stop mining 

you got a long till any asics come out, buy a gpu.

[repairguy]

To be honest, I don't quite get this anti-ASIC sentiment. I tried to mine LTC on my PC and it wasn't worth it, and there are even no scrypt ASICs yet. I think this "no ASIC so normal people with their own PCs can mine" philosophy works only in the early stages of the scrypt-coin, after the difficulty raises it isn't worth it, when you don't have free electricity.

Today, I would need at least one rig with 3 graphics cards to mine litecoins for example, but this thing would be noisy and consumes a lot of electricity, so I basically can't put it in my apartment. I would much prefer to be able to buy dedicated scrypt ASIC and mine with it. It will be more eco-friendly and will not be mis-using graphics cards.

To sum it up, I don't support this proposal, I want the scrypt-asics to be sold.

The problem with asics(my opinion of it atleast) Is that once the asics go online the difficulty goes to the point were noone can profit unless they have an asic.  The result is the asic manufactures control the supply and use their products against the system (by mining themselves) and gouge everyone to get in, I hope that it will stabilize eventually, but asic manufactures are gaming everyone.

[greyman]

The problem with asics(my opinion of it atleast) Is that once the asics go online the difficulty goes to the point were noone can profit unless they have an asic.  The result is the asic manufactures control the supply and use their products against the system (by mining themselves) and gouge everyone to get in, I hope that it will stabilize eventually, but asic manufactures are gaming everyone.

Ok, I mostly agree with what you are saying. My only reservation is, that what you are describing here, is already (to a large degree) valid for litecoin as well. You need to assemble for-mining-only hardware (rig with graphics cards), otherwise you can't profit from mining (and you also have hard time to compete with those who have got free electricity). The crux of the problem is still there, and it isn't any cheaper (or easier) to build scrypt-rig, comparing to buy ASIC.

[Abdussamad]

To be honest, I don't quite get this anti-ASIC sentiment. I tried to mine LTC on my PC and it wasn't worth it, and there are even no scrypt ASICs yet. I think this "no ASIC so normal people with their own PCs can mine" philosophy works only in the early stages of the scrypt-coin, after the difficulty raises it isn't worth it, when you don't have free electricity.

Today, I would need at least one rig with 3 graphics cards to mine litecoins for example, but this thing would be noisy and consumes a lot of electricity, so I basically can't put it in my apartment. I would much prefer to be able to buy dedicated scrypt ASIC and mine with it. It will be more eco-friendly and will not be mis-using graphics cards.

To sum it up, I don't support this proposal, I want the scrypt-asics to be sold.

ASICs aren't available everywhere. You can buy a GPU pretty much anywhere on the planet but ASICs tend to only be available where they are made i.e. China and where there is a lot of demand i.e. Western countries. In other parts of the planet there isn't enough demand to justify shipping them there and importing stuff isn't something that ordinary people can do anyway - there are a lot of hoops that you have to jump through such as dealing with  overzealous customs officers. Another problem with ASICs is that to buy them you need crypto. That rules out those places where buying crypto isn't easy (which is why you are looking at mining in the first place).

TLDR: GPUs are democratic, ASICs are elitist.

[Airwhale]

If you look at the ASICs coming out,  they are not radically faster than GPUs at scrypt mining.  They are more efficient in terms of power draw,  but GPU computing is going to be far from obsolete.  Look at the prices/Mhash of Alpha-Ts asics for example,  it is like $2000/5mhash,  and they project their product being shipped in the fall.  Gridseed is priced similarly.   I'd say GPUs are at least 1+ years of from being obsolete. 

[kalus]

scrypt asics can't be made fast enough.  from easyquest's litecoin thread today:

I went onto https://www.litecoinpool.org/pools to see a better chart. What I found is this.

Litecoin, the largest scryptcoin, is currently vulnerable to a 51% attack with enough hashes.  we need a lot of asics to secure the scrypt currencies, or a lot of value will be lost.  we need GPU, ASIC, anything to shore up these coins.  

[R-T-B]

You do realize unknown is pretty much everyone who solo mines or does not report as a "big pool," right?  There's no way in hell that'd ever be one person.

Anyhow, due to the memory intensive nature of scrypt, ASICS will come, but they won't be the night and day difference they were with bitcoin.  It's just not possible.

[kalus]

You do realize unknown is pretty much everyone who solo mines or does not report as a "big pool," right?  There's no way in hell that'd ever be one person.

Anyhow, due to the memory intensive nature of scrypt, ASICS will come, but they won't be the night and day difference they were with bitcoin.  It's just not possible.

what i'm saying is the global hashrate of litecoin is small enough that a few groups could get together and attack the blockchain.  I'm not saying the attack is happening, i'm saying that it's possible.

Even if you think it's 'just not possible' for litecoin, it could happen to weaker scrypt coins, which is all of them.  the ASICS are required to protect litecoin (yes, litecoin!) and all the other altcoins.  

[El Dude]

scrypt asics can't be made fast enough.  from easyquest's litecoin thread today:

I went onto https://www.litecoinpool.org/pools to see a better chart. What I found is this.

Litecoin, the largest scryptcoin, is currently vulnerable to a 51% attack with enough hashes.  we need a lot of asics to secure the scrypt currencies, or a lot of value will be lost.  we need GPU, ASIC, anything to shore up these coins.  

stop trolling , its not vulnerable at all.

[kalus]

stop trolling , its not vulnerable at all.

so litecoin is too big to fail?

[El Dude]

stop trolling , its not vulnerable at all.

so litecoin is too big to fail?

yes litecoin and bitcoin have the biggest networks.

[tokyoghetto]

I want scrypt asics to come out. People here bitching about not being able to make money is embarrassing. If all you care about is making money, then you are missing the whole point of cryptocurrencies. We need asics to increase the diff and secure the network. we need more efficient miners instead of power hungry GPUs.

Its evolution baby.