What are the most profitable cryptocurrencies for mining ?, Part IV

Mining is the most important activity for the maintenance of the Blockchain of a cryptocurrency. However, and although it was intended to guarantee the decentralization of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The concentration of mining power has been an inevitable consequence of the increasing difficulty of BTC mining. This leads to the need for specialized equipment, called the Specific Application Integrated Circuit or ASIC to undermine the currency. We will talk about these equipment and the farms that use them today.

ASIC teams in the crypto world

With the passage of time, and as the difficulty of mining Bitcoin increases, it becomes increasingly complicated for a normal person to undermine BTC alone with their equipment. And it is that, when becoming the mathematical operations that must be solved more and more complex. The computing power of a simple computer is no longer enough.

Therefore, at first they began using graphics cards included in normal equipment, as a solution to the problem. Well, they provided greater processing capacity to normal equipment, for a cost that varies between 300 and 1000 dollars. Allowing anyone with this amount of money to continue mining Bitcoins normally.

However, the difficulty of mining has done nothing but increase in recent years. Making Bitcoins mining simply using a graphics card has become impossible. Requiring now much more advanced and expensive instruments, to perform the same work that a normal desktop computer could do before.

These are the ASIC mining machines. Large equipment that consumes a lot of electrical energy and is dedicated exclusively to mining Bitcoins. So they have an important processing power. These teams are in the market for prices that vary between 1000 and 5000 dollars, depending on their power. Which represents a significant increase in costs for miners, in relation to the price of a simple graphics card.

At present, there are many companies in the market dedicated to the manufacture of mining equipment. Sometimes these same companies are those that are dedicated to the task of mining Bitcoins. Constituting important mining farms, with an excessive influence on the Bitcoin Blockchain.

Mining farms

An example of this coincidence between Bitcoin mining farm and mining equipment manufacturer is the Bitmain company. One of the leading companies in the ASIC equipment market. And at the same time the most important mining farm in all of China.

Although at first one could think that the concentration of mining power in a few companies would bring greater order to the crypto world. The truth is that the opposite has happened, because these mining farms have enough power to block any decision on the Bitcoin chain. Leading several times to postpone important decisions, such as the increase in the size of the Blockchain blocks, for their particular interests.

Currently, there are a couple of dozens of large mining farms around the world, which concentrate a large number of ASIC equipment. The main ones being located in China, Russia and the United States, with GigaWatt located in Washington D.C. and founded in 2012 at the head.

While mining farms located in the United States enjoy the climate of freedom to do business in that country. In China and Russia there are other advantages such as the cold Russian climate that saves machine cooling costs. Or the prices of the Chinese electric energy that allows to increase the profitability of these companies.

In short, although farms and ASIC equipment can be a difficult element to accept within the crypto world. The truth is that they are fully consolidated in it. Therefore, the best solution for a user who wants to start mining BTC is to accept its existence and find an ASIC device available in your country and at an acceptable price.

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