As a beginner mining worker, one might feel confused facing a lot of options for mining products.

 

The algorithm

The first thing to do is to find out what’s the algorithm the currency you want mine is based on.

Unlike using graphic cards to mine, ASIC miners are usually developed to mine a specific algorithm. With the same algorithm, multiple currencies are issued. For example, Antminer S9 is developed to mine currencies based on SHA256 algorithm including BTC and BCH.

 

The hashrate

The second important specification when selecting a miner is the hash power.

As the mining difficulty increases, higher hash power means you can mine more currencies. But attention that hash power depends on hardware, the chips to be exact. It is costly and technology-intensive process of developing chips, during the same period of time, the hashing power of different models will not vary significantly.

However sometimes we see some products with significantly higher hash power than most of the manufacturers. For example, the average hash power for some algorithm is 10T, but some manufacturer claims 40T for their products. This is made possible usually not because of new generation of chips developed, rather because that the manufacturer is simply adding more quantity of chips to their machines which is pretty much no difference from bundling 4 units of 10T together.

Such way of making machines will inevitably cause larger size of the machine. If heat dissipation is not well-designed, the performance and longevity of the machine will be compromised. Once any damage occurs, it’s costly to get it repaired. Therefore when purchasing the miners, comparing their hash rate is not the only consideration, their sizes and weights are to be taken into account also.

 

The power consumption

Another important specification to look at is the power consumption. Unless you don’t pay electricity bills, you need to consider the ratio of hash rate/watt. The higher the ratio, the higher the RIO. It is the same case with the ratio of hash power/price.

Except for the above specifications, when purchasing miners, be aware of fraudulent products which usually claim very high hash power yet very low prices. Only shop with proven reliable manufacturers and sellers.

 

Appendix

A series of articles on cryptocurrency mining for beginners on EastShore:

• A Brief History of the Cryptocurrency Miners | EastShore Mining Devices
• To trade crypto coins or to mine crypto coins? | EastShore Mining Devices
• What happens when 21 million bitcoins were exhausted? | EastShore Mining Devices
• Know the currency you are mining: find useful info in the white paper | EastShore Mining Devices
• Ten Traps to Avoid If You Are Newbie to Crypto Mining | EastShore Mining Devices
• How to Select Cryptocurrency Mining Pools? | EastShore Mining Devices
• How do I choose my miner? | EastShore Mining Devices