In my previous post I briefly talked about how monero has updated it's network and is now ASIC resistant I also said that I'll do a whole post about ASICs and here it is....
What Are ASICs?
ASICs or Application Specific Integrated Circuits are machines that are only made to mine cryptocurrencies. Most ASICs are specifically made to mine a particular algorithm like the SHA-256 or ethash.
When Bitcoin was in its early stage most of the miners used to mine with their CPUs and GPUs. The PoW system was working perfectly as the network was distributed and decentralized. When the value of Bitcoin slowly increased companies started creating ASICs and this made mining with CPUs and GPUs useless.
ASICs have more processing power than a regular GPU, When it comes to PoW the first miner to solve the PoW hash gets the block rewards. The funny thing is that most of the ASICs are manufactured by Chinese companies.
Are ASICs Bad?
ASICs are are a double-edged sword and they have their advantages and disadvantages
They increase the security of a network to a certain extent, I know what you might be thinking how can something that increase centralization do any sort of good?
The main problem with a network that's run by a low power CPUs and GPUs is that doing a 51% attack is easier. The higher the network's hash rate the more secure it is(Not a actual saying).
But it also is the reason for the development of Mining farms etc...
I have mixed feeling about ASICs to be honest...
Yeah that's pretty much it...
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://warrior-sage.vornix.blog/2018/10/24/75/