All You Need to Know About ASIC vs. GPU Mining

As blockchain technology continues to evolve, mining remains a critical pillar of decentralization, security, and trust. With Proof-of-Work (PoW) at the core of many blockchains, the choice of mining hardware directly impacts the extent of decentralization and security of the entire blockchain networks.

For those navigating the shifting landscape of cryptocurrency mining, understanding the strengths and trade-offs between Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) is more important than ever. This guide provides a professional overview of both technologies - while also introducing how Abelian is embracing both ASIC and GPU mining for maximizing the decentralization and quantum-resistant security of the Abelian network.

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Understanding ASIC and GPU Mining

What is ASIC Mining?

ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) miners are precision-engineered machines built exclusively for one purpose: solving the cryptographic algorithms of a specific blockchain. Unlike general-purpose processors, these devices deliver exceptional performance by optimizing every aspect of the mining process - from hash rate output to energy consumption.

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Each ASIC mining machine can have many chips with quantities ranging from a few dozens to over a hundred. These chips are identical and used for doing parallel computation so that the more chips an ASIC mining machine has, the more computational power, namely hashrate, the machine possesses. These ASIC mining machines are easy to set up and usually very reliable as they don’t have many moving parts.

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Because of their single purpose, ASIC mining machines have high stickiness as they can only be used for the mining of one single blockchain in general rather than being able to hop among multiple blockchain networks. As a result, ASIC mining machines also improve the stability of computational complexity of a blockchain network, making the network robust and reliable.

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However, the downside of using ASIC mining machines for the PoW of a blockchain network is that it is more likely that the machines are falling into the hands of mostly professional miners which build specialized mining farms for this purpose.

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This may reduce the extent of decentralization and security when the number of ASIC miners is still not large enough. The centralization concern of ASIC mining also appears in the manufacturing of the ASIC mining machines. Take Bitcoin as an example, most Bitcoin mining machines are built by only a handful of manufacturers. It can be disastrous if these dominating mining machine manufacturers are compromised so that hackers can tamper those machines and consequently endanger the security of the entire blockchain network.

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What is GPU Mining?

GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) mining harnesses versatile computing hardware originally designed for intensive graphical processing - now repurposed for blockchain mining. Similar to ASIC, each GPU card contains hundreds of processing units and large-size memory (namely VRAM) which nowadays are popular for AI modeling and also for PoW mining.

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Unlike ASICs, which are single purpose, GPUs can be used to carry out a wide range of calculations, offering miners the freedom to diversify across multiple cryptocurrencies and adapt to shifting market conditions. In other words, GPU cards can easily be re-positioned to carry out mining for different blockchain networks. Also, the entry barrier for a miner to do GPU mining is relatively low. Furthermore, even some individuals can make use of their home desktop machines and their gaming GPU cards to conduct mining when they are not playing computer games. Hence GPU mining is generally believed to help make a blockchain network more decentralized.

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On the downside, GPU mining generally has a more frustrating hashrate since GPU cards join and leave a blockchain network more often, causing the network to be a bit less stable. However, when the GPU mining hashrate continues to grow for a popular and growing blockchain network, this is less of an issue as the majority of the GPU mining machines will be run dedicatedly by professional miners.

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As we can see, there are pros and cons for both ASIC and GPU mining. There are usually two camps of supporters for ASIC and GPU mining. All of these PoW approaches have the same objective, namely maximizing decentralization and security.

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Core Differences: ASIC vs. GPU

From miners’ perspective, miners are incentivized to invest in mining hardware as well as the electricity bills and operations cost because of the cryptocurrencies they earned. Cryptocurrencies are earned through the block rewards for each mined block of a blockchain network, and also through the gas fees charged from the sender of each transaction recorded in each block.

The evaluation on the return from investing on ASIC mining machines is relatively more straightforward. Due to the single purpose of most ASIC machines, it is also riskier for ASIC mining investors as their purchased ASIC machines can only be used to mine one single cryptocurrency leaving them at a higher risk on speculating the future price of the particular cryptocurrency at the beginning of buying the ASIC machines.

Relatively, it’s less of a concern for GPU miners. GPU cards can be used for mining in different blockchain networks. Sometimes, dual mining is possible and the GPU cards can be useful for mining multiple cryptocurrencies simultaneously. Furthermore, GPU cards can be used in some applications, for example, AI training and even gaming. Hence it’s less riskier for miners when they first put up a GPU mining farm.

With more miners joining a blockchain network, the chances of any individual successfully mining a block become increasingly slim, as they are competing with a growing number of participants for each new block. As a result, most miners now choose to join mining pools. These pools aggregate the hashrates of all connected miners, significantly increasing the pool’s overall chance of discovering a block. Once a block is mined, the pool distributes the rewards among its contributors based on their share of computational power. For instance, in the case of Abelian, the mining pool Maxpool collects the GPU power of all connected miners to mine blocks on the Abelian network, and distributes the rewards daily to participating miners.

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Abelian’s New Hybrid Mining – Embracing Both ASIC and GPU Mining

At Abelian, we’re not just responding to the evolution of mining - we’re actively shaping its next chapter. Our blockchain is built on a post-quantum Proof-of-Work foundation, designed to stay secure in a world where quantum computing is no longer theoretical. While others focus on what works today, we’re building for what’s coming next.

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Abelian’s PoW is quantum resistant. The underlying cryptographic hash function is SHA3-512 and is standardized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

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Currently, Abelian’s PoW is GPU-based. Anyone who has a GPU card can literally join the mining effort and contribute to the quantum-resistant security and decentralization of the Abelian network.

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To embrace both ASIC and GPU mining, the Abelian team once again innovates and brings to the world the first hybrid and quantum-resistant PoW consensus algorithm. In this new PoW system, both ASIC mining machines and GPU rigs can join the mining of ABEL at the same time. There are two sub-algorithms, one of them is designed and optimized for ASIC, and the other one for GPU. Both sub-algorithms are secure against quantum attacks. They also interact with each other to ensure that the overall PoW consensus algorithm is secure with the synergized hashrate from both ASIC and GPU mining machines. With hybrid mining, the Abelian network is as secure as the total hashrate contributed by both ASIC and GPU. The security is also maximized that even if collusion happens on more than 50% of the computation of one of the two types, the Abelian network remains secure. In fact, the overall PoW consensus algorithm even ensures the quantum-resistant security of the network as long as the colluded hashrate of adversaries is no more than 50% of the scaled computational complexity of both ASIC and GPU combined.

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About Abelian

Abelian is a quantum-resistant blockchain infrastructure which enables digital gold 2.0 and empowers the post-quantum crypto ecosystem. Learn more about the quantum-resistant Abelian blockchain & $ABEL Tokenomics at our documentation page.

Abelian welcomes feedback on technological developments and upcoming updates. Join us, engage in discussions, and stay informed through our social media and community channels. For more details, visit our Linktree: https://linktr.ee/officialpqabelian

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