What is the difference between Ethereum mining and Bitcoin mining?

What is the difference between Ethereum mining and Bitcoin mining?

Compared with Bitcoin mining, Ethereum mining is more niche, and fewer people know and participate. Today’s article, we help you better understand Ethereum mining by comparing it with Bitcoin mining.

1. Mining algorithm, equipment, hash rate scale

Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 encryption algorithm, and when mining, the competition is the hash rate. To increase the hash rate, Bitcoin has gone through four stages CPU mining, GPU mining, FPGA mining, and ASIC mining, and the degree of specialization is getting higher and higher.

Ethereum uses the Ethash encryption algorithm. It is necessary to read the memory and store the DAG file during the mining process. Since the bandwidth of each reading is limited, and the existing computer technology is challenging to make a qualitative breakthrough in this problem. Therefore, no matter how the computing efficiency of the computer is improved, the memory reading efficiency will still not be significantly improved.

Due to the different encryption algorithms of the two, their mining equipment and hash rate scales are very different.

Bitcoin mining equipment is mainly ASIC miners with a very high degree of specialization. The hash rate of a single miner is up to 110T/s (Antminer S19 Pro), and the hash rate of the entire network is above 120EH/s.

Ethereum's mining equipment is mainly GPU miners, but there are also specialized ASIC miners, such as the Innosilicon A10 PRO. On the one hand, the "ASIC resistance" of the Ethereum mining algorithm has raised the threshold for developing ASIC miners. On the other hand, miners cannot continue to mine because the consensus mechanism will be transformed into POS after Ethereum is upgraded to 2.0.

2. The proportion of electricity bills for miners

ASIC miners have a high hash rate and high power consumption. For example, the latest Antminer S19 Pro has a power consumption of 3250W and needs to consume 78 kWh of electricity every day. According to the current currency price and the electricity price of 0.034$ during the flood season, the electricity cost accounts for The ratio is 30.68%. Other older-generation Bitcoin ASIC miners, such as the Antminer T17 series, generally account for more than 50% of electricity bills.

In contrast, GPU miners have low power consumption and a low proportion of electricity bills. For example, for a GPU miner with 5600XT 8 cards, according to the electricity price of 0.054$, the daily electricity bill is about 1.55$, and the electricity bill accounts for about 11.5%; another example is the 1660S 8-card GPU miner, the daily electricity bill is about 1.03$, and the electricity bill accounts for about 10.3%.

3. Miner hosting

Earning the electricity price difference is the primary profit model of the mining farm. The more electricity you sell, the more the mining farm earns. Bitcoin ASIC miners have high power consumption and relatively simple maintenance, which are very popular among mining farms. There are many mining farms for miners to choose from when hosting miners.

Compared with the Bitcoin ASIC miner, the GPU miner of Ethereum occupies a 1:3 area, which means that the space of 3 ASIC miners can only accommodate one GPU miner.

In addition, GPU miners have high requirements on the environment of mining farms. Therefore, the mining farm should also do the anti-static treatment in addition to the conventional dust-proof, moisture-proof, and temperature control work.

After the GPU miner is shut down and restarted, the hash rate will generally drop, which increases the workload of on-site operation and maintenance. Therefore, when choosing a managed mining farm, the stability of the mining farm’s power supply and its operation and maintenance capabilities are essential factors to consider.

GPU miners are not popular in many mining farms, and there are fewer managed mining farms to choose from. Generally speaking, when GPU miners are hosted, the electricity price charged by mining farms is generally higher than that of ASIC miners.

4. Block reward and mining period

Bitcoin’s block reward is deterministic and halved every 4 years until all Bitcoins are mined in 2140. So as long as the mining output can cover the electricity expenses, miners can continue to mine until 2140.

The block reward of Ethereum, the earliest is 5ETH. However, in October 2017, the Byzantine upgrade of Ethereum reduced the block reward from 5ETH to 3ETH; in March 2019, when Constantinople was upgraded, the block reward was reduced from 3ETH to 2ETH.

The consensus mechanism of Ethereum 2.0 will be upgraded to PoS, and all miners will not be able to continue mining. When the upgrade takes time, how long the miners can mine, and whether the block reward of Ethereum will continue to decrease in steps during the upgrade process, there are uncertainties.

5. Finally

The difference in encryption algorithms has led to significant differences in mining equipment and hash rate scale between Ethereum and Bitcoin. Ethereum's mining equipment is mainly GPU miner, but there are also specialized ASIC miners, such as the Innosilicon A10 PRO.

The electricity cost of the Ethereum GPU miner is low. Still, it is large and has high requirements on the mining farm's environment and operation and maintenance capabilities. Therefore, there are relatively few mining farms to choose from when hosting.

The residual value of GPU miners is high, but the potential risk of the physical mining of Ethereum cannot be ignored. This must be taken into account before purchasing a GPU miner for mining.