Program a FPGA for bitcoin mining

[dreamer81]

Anyone in here who have knowledge about programming a FPGA to be effective at bitcoin mining?
And what is needed?

regards

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[NotFuzzyWarm]

Why do no new folks bother to read any pinned messages these days? At the very top is critical information that they would soon find to be their answer to the most basic questions...

Snippet from point-3 in the link I gave:

3. Mining BITCOIN is done exclusively with dedicated BITCOIN mining hardware based on ASICs - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application-specific_integrated_circuit . You CAN NOT meaningfully mine bitcoin today with CPU, GPU or even FPGAs. Bitcoin difficulty adapts to match the amount of mining done on the network and has reached levels trillions of times too high to mine meaningfully with PCs, laptops, tablets, phones, webpages, javascript, GPUs, and even generalised SHA hardware.

In short - you are almost 10 years too late to use FPGA to mine Bitcoin  

[BitMaxz]

In case if you still want to try it there is an official thread about bitcoin mining with FPGAs
It's too old but you can check them from this link below

- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9047.0

Since you can't mine bitcoin with FPGA then you can able to mine other coins.
Check this https://fpga.guide/en/

[YOSHIE]

Anyone in here who have knowledge about programming a FPGA to be effective at bitcoin mining?

You can start the thread below.

Topic: DIY FPGA Mining rig for any algorithm with fast ROI

Topic: Custom FPGA build

You can still have a long discussion about the FPGA program, you will find an effective discussion there, if you want.

You are free to ask everything there about FPGA.

[fillippone]

Earlier today I opened a thread on this board on a mining company using renewable energy in Italy:

ALPS BLOCKCHAIN: mining in Italy from 100% renewable energy

They write:

In parallel, ALPS Blockchain is pursuing the development of mining farms based on FPGA technology, an acronym for Field Programmable Gate Array: it is a programmable chip, designed to be configured through software after production. Contains programmable logic blocks and memory elements. It has the characteristic of being flexible, reprogrammable, and usable for other purposes, including artificial intelligence, data processing, data mining, or for the mining of digital currencies whose algorithms are not already supported by ASIC. FPGA cards are cards that, despite a lower energy efficiency, are not linked to a specific mining algorithm, and can therefore be addressed to the mining of different coins depending on the market trend. It is a niche technology: to use FPGAs for mining, they must be programmed through specific software called bitstreams. They can be developed for most Proof-of-Work-based digital currencies, so FPGA boards are very versatile. the advantage of FPGA-based solutions is given by the lower consumption: if an ASICS consumes 3kW, an FPGA board consumes 250W, thus adapting to solutions that are not purely industrial.
This type of solution requires a strong propensity for research and development, an area in which Alps Blockchain dedicates a lot of energy. In the R&D field, efforts are directed both in the field of software, dealing personally with the development of customized firmware for both FPGA and ASICS boards, to make them more and more performing, but also from the hardware point of view, designing more and more efficient liquid cooling systems specific for each ASICS technology, FPGA or GPU. Finally, ALPS Blockchain has developed a series of software for the management of mining farms: monitoring systems based on IoT, auto-switching algorithms, reporting systems, and everything necessary for the management of operations.

Maybe you can contact them, or hope they will write on the forum.

[n0nce]

2 things:

they must be programmed through specific software called bitstreams. They can be developed for most Proof-of-Work-based digital currencies, so FPGA boards are very versatile.

This is correct.

the advantage of FPGA-based solutions is given by the lower consumption: if an ASICS consumes 3kW, an FPGA board consumes 250W

This is misleading. A 250W FPGA will never outperform a 250W ASIC, let alone a 3kW ASIC.

That's the one big drawback of FPGAs. They will always lose against ASIC, while having the upside of being reprogrammable.
Otherwise every Bitcoin miner would use FPGAs

But yeah, there are coins that like change algorithm all the time to prevent ASIC mining and stuff like that, there FPGAs really come in handy.

[fillippone]

This is misleading. A 250W FPGA will never outperform a 250W ASIC, let alone a 3kW ASIC.

That's the one big drawback of FPGAs. They will always lose against ASIC, while having the upside of being reprogrammable.
Otherwise every Bitcoin miner would use FPGAs

But yeah, there are coins that like change algorithm all the time to prevent ASIC mining and stuff like that, there FPGAs really come in handy.

I think they were referring to pure electrical consumption. I heard in a video the CFO of the company, referring to that: even if FFPGA are way less efficient compared to ASICS as per H/s/KW, FPGA have the advantage of consuming way less energy, thus allowing the installation outside the traditional, industrial settings (like offices for example).

[n0nce]

I think they were referring to pure electrical consumption. I heard in a video the CFO of the company, referring to that: even if FFPGA are way less efficient compared to ASICS as per H/s/KW, FPGA have the advantage of consuming way less energy, thus allowing the installation outside the traditional, industrial settings (like offices for example).

I know, but the wording is very misleading imho.
The main advantage of FPGAs is not really the lower power draw, but the versatility.

If you're looking for mining at lower power draw, there's graphics cards at ~200W each, pod miners ~100-200W and USB miners like Compac F, that pull ~20W.
But they also generate less Bitcoin / crypto.

You could even run an underclocked S9 at home at under 1kW.

[fillippone]

The main advantage of FPGAs is not really the lower power draw, but the versatility.

Of course, sorry if I didn't make myself extra clear on that: the FFPG are used to mine coins that are "ASICS RESISTANT" as they have intrinsically some characteristics that cannot be managed by an Asics. Nevertheless ALPS keeps pushing for this technology to create an efficient miner also in small offices, houses, etc...
 

[kano]

The main advantage of FPGAs is not really the lower power draw, but the versatility.

Of course, sorry if I didn't make myself extra clear on that: the FFPG are used to mine coins that are "ASICS RESISTANT" as they have intrinsically some characteristics that cannot be managed by an Asics. Nevertheless ALPS keeps pushing for this technology to create an efficient miner also in small offices, houses, etc...

To word it correctly, whoever 'ALPS' is, they're scammers.
People will always try to convince others to buy things that are useless, and pretend they are worth way more so you'll pay a lot for them.

You see it all the time on ebay even with ASIC miners, people selling old miners for 10 times more than they will ever make mining on free electricity.

Look at it this way:
You can order a $200 tiny USB miner that does 300GH/s or more, at 15W or 20000MH/J
There's no way you could even get near 20th of that performance per Watt with an FPGA.

The FPGAs almost 10 years ago were doing about 20MH/J
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

While you might think that since then, FPGAs have increased in performance per W used, they've done nothing like 1000 times in reality and they can't due to what an FPGA is vs what an ASIC is.
It's the 'FP' that causes that, Field Programmable, i.e. changing the paths in the chip.

As for discussion about "ASICS RESISTANT", none of that belongs on this part of the forum, take it to the scamcoin area.

[fillippone]

As for discussion about "ASICS RESISTANT", none of that belongs on this part of the forum, take it to the scamcoin area.

I never said those FGPA rigs are used to mine Bitcoin. They are researching FGPA rigs to mine shitcoins, yes.
This was reported here because it is part of ALPS activity, for sure I won’t open another thread in the shitcoin section of the forum, because that would mean I have to go to the shitcoin part of the forum in the first place: something I never do!

But again, I think the guys at ALPS are looking at the thread, so if you have any doubt, please post there!