WHAT IS A BITCOIN MINER?
As much as cryptocurrency mining was originally designed to be something everyone could do with their home computer, those days are long gone. Today, whether you’re mining Bitcoin, Litecoin, DASH, or a host of other cryptocurrencies — the most effective way to do so is with a piece of hardware known as an ASIC miner.
It’s not a desktop PC or a dedicated graphics card mining rig — it’s something else. Application specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, are chips that are designed with a singular purpose, ranging from audio processing to managing a cellphone call. In the case of cryptocurrency mining though, these chips are built into specifically-designed motherboards and power supplies, constructed into a single unit. It’s not just a purpose built machine though, it’s purposely designed and developed hardware right down to the chip level.