What is an ASIC?

 

An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is a type of circuit that has been designed for a single specific purpose. An ASIC miner refers to a device that uses microprocessors for the sole purpose of "mining" digital currency. Generally, each ASIC miner is constructed to mine a specific digital currency. So, a bitcoin ASIC miner can mine only bitcoin. One way to think about bitcoin ASICs is as specialized bitcoin mining computers, or “bitcoin generators," that are optimized to solve the mining algorithm.

Developing and manufacturing ASICs as mining devices is costly and complex. Because ASICs are built especially for mining cryptocurrency, they do the job faster than less powerful computers. ASIC chips for cryptocurrency mining have become increasingly efficient, with the latest generation operating at around just 29.5 Joules per Terahash.