Quick note: If you’re in a hurry and want to skip the details, we recommend the AntMiner S9 as the best Bitcoin generator (about 80 days to ROI, currently). Otherwise, keep reading to learn more about Bitcoin mining hardware and why we use and recommend this model.
What is a Bitcoin Generator?
A Bitcoin Generator known as a Bitcoin Mining ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) is specialized hardware designed for only one purpose; to mine bitcoin. Here in this article, we will give a brief overview of Bitcoin mining history and how to determine which bitcoin mining hardware is currently the best in the industry.
Sidenote: If mining isn’t your thing, and you are just interested in purchasing some cryptocurrency as part of your investment portfolio, I personally use and recommend FTX Global Crypto Exchange (Use FTX US if a US resident)
Bitcoin Generator History – from CPU’s and GPU’s to FPGA’s and ASIC’s
When the pseudonymous and mysterious creator of Bitcoin, “Satoshi Nakamoto” first released the Bitcoin code to the wild in 2009, you could generate Bitcoins on a laptop CPU. As Bitcoin’s popularity and value began to grow, miners found ways to use high-end graphics cards or ‘GPU’s’ to mine Bitcoin (similar to how you can mine Ethereum on a DIY GPU mining rig today). In late 2012 and early 2013, some FPGA miners, or ‘field-programmable gate array’ miners were developed briefly but were soon eclipsed by the holy-grail of Bitcoin mining, the ASIC (application specific integrated circuit). These new ASIC’s completely changed the mining landscape as GPU’s were no longer profitable. We mined about a half dozen Bitcoins on our first mining rig, but within weeks of the first ASIC’s coming online, the mining difficulty had made GPU mining unprofitable and we moved on to mining other cryptocurrencies like Litecoin and Ethereum on my GPU mining rigs.
Best Bitcoin Generator – Speed and Power Efficiency
The most important specifications to consider when comparing the profitability of Bitcoin mining ASIC’s is how fast they can mine (measured in hashes per second) and how much electricity they consume while mining (measured in hashes per joule).
The market is competitive as newer and faster hardware has been developed since those early days of ASIC mining in 2013. But, one company (Bitmain) has consistently produced the best ASIC hardware miners in terms of cost and profitability. As a result, our number one recommendation is the Bitmain Antminer S9. This ASIC miner is capable of 14Th/s (terahash per second) and as of the date this article was written will pay for itself in 80 days at current mining difficulty and Bitcoin prices. The miner does not come with a power supply, so we’d recommend grabbing one of these to power your miner.
You can currently purchase the Antminer S9 today on Amazon or eBay.
Bitcoin Generator Noise Levels
As we mentioned in our Litecoin mining hardware review, these ASIC’s can be quite loud. Keep this in mind when you are determining where to place your ASIC’s in your home or office. One guy got creative and used a cooler to eliminate up to 40 decibals of noise from his Antminer S9. Check out the video below to see how he accomplished this.
Happy Mining!
Sidenote: If mining isn’t your thing, and you are just interested in purchasing some cryptocurrency as part of your investment portfolio, I personally use and recommend FTX Global Crypto Exchange (Use FTX US if a US resident)
