An application-specific integrated circuit (or ASIC) is one that’s been designed to do one thing really well. A Bitcoin miner is an ASIC that’s dedicated to mining bitcoin. Using an ASIC Bitcoin miner has become absolutely essential to minors because its technology is totally dedicated to solving the SHA-256 hashing algorithm. Nowadays there is no other way to execute this process as efficiently.

Bitcoin has attracted a lot of attention for its earning potential, and that popularity has made mining it much more difficult. Only 21 million Bitcoins can ever be mined, and it’s getting harder to do so as more miners get in on the game. It’s now harder than ever to mind bitcoin’s dedicated equipment has to be used. It’s no longer enough just to use an off-the-shelf PC because that can’t compete with the professional mining operations which have been popping up all over the world. ASIC Bitcoin Miners appear in countries where electricity is cheap and cooling is plentiful, if not free (like in Iceland.)

Bitcoin has been lauded as a turning point in the future of currencies. It’s innovative and has the potential to revolutionize the nature of money. Even though at its heart it’s nothing more than a particular type of code, it shows the way towards a future in which money is no longer centralized. No one can say for certain if it will still be the dominant cryptic seniors to come, but what we can say for now is that using an ASIC bitcoin miner is undeniably essential for anyone with more than a passing interest in producing this cryptocurrency.