Quote from: lanciaominer on June 30, 2018, 04:45:43 AM

i don't see the point of ASICS saving power as well. Not bashing here but ASICS saving power i can't comprehend. People would just end up buying more asics and hash and in the end what you will have would be same or more power consumption with higher network hashrate and difficulty. Profit would simply readjust and be the same in times like this. ASICS in general i feel is sort of like a nuclear arms race.

The only time i see asics being a viable choice would be perhaps a portfolio diversification where you have x amount of GPU and require x amount of asics to balance your mining venture.

Whether you like ASICs or not is kind of a null point considering they are being produced regardless. I understand the argument that people will just buy more and the same amount of electricity will be used regardless. This argument ignores all of the drawbacks to asics though and only considers the benefits of high hashrate with lower power. Keep in mind:

1. ASICs cost significantly more than a GPU
2. They can only mine one algorithm
3. They are useless for any other function.
4. Warranty and support are dismal
5. Their value is strictly tied to the coin(s) they can mine.

So you are really weighing versatility with lower performance vs no versatility with high performance. For this reason alone, GPUs aren't going anywhere. I'm not a green peace, save the earth type of person. i don't think ASICs are good because they save electricity. But as someone who has worked in the technology sector for 15 years you can't discount a technology that is more efficient just because its different than what you own. Half of these coins that are forking are nowhere close to the goals of their projects yet they are wasting resources to accommodate older, slower, and more power hungry devices. And whats going to happen when nvidia releases their new cards? Should we cripple the algorithms because now some people have faster, more efficient hardware?

And just as a disclaimer, I am 100% GPU. I've owned 1 asic, the A3. I owned it for 2 months, made $1000 and sold it for what I paid for it. It was loud and hot, not for me. Really the only reason I think the Z9 is so great is because its neither hot nor loud. I am still not going to buy one though.