CryptoNight (Monero) ASIC saga proves why STEEM's proof of brain is still the most power efficient mining method (most profitable too!).

Four ASIC companies have launched CryptoNight miners. CryptoNight is the PoW algorithm for popular coins such as Monero and Bytecoin.

Bitmain sold first batch Antminer X3 at $11999 which can mines 280KH/s at 550 watt. They fire sold third batch just for $1900 which will arrive on June.

Another ASIC manufacturer Baikal sold their Giant N one for 5 on fire sale at $1900. Giant N can mine at 20KH/s at 60 watt.

There are another two ASICminers are Drgonmint X1/X2 and PinIdea RR-200 with similar hashing power.

Unfortunately, none of them are making ASICminer any profit at all and probably bound for huge loss

The most profitable CryptnNight coin Monero hardforked to four different coins. Monero main chain switched to CryptoNight V7 which is currently ASIC resistant.

However, other forks (e.g. Monero Original) are though ASIC mineable vastly unprofitable due to their petty price.

The other profitable coin Bytecoin (BCN) is still mineable and has plan for hardforking.

Most if not all CryptoNight coins such as AEON, STELLITE (XTL), Electronium (ETN) either switched or soon will switch to ASIC resistant algorithms.

Whichever CryptoNight coins are available or in transition for switching, their difficulty is skyrocketing due to desperate ASIC miners.

When the most of the CryptoNight coins switched their algorithms, these thousand dollar ASIC swill be literally worthless.

Therefore, lots of CryptoNight coins will be left without developers and communities due to these hardforks.

This is another limitation of PoW coins other than ASIC fear and high power consumption.

Interestingly, there is a popular conspiracy theory among the anti-ASIC miners that ASIC manufacturers mine the coins first to recuperate their own ROI then they sell worthless miners to uncouth miners who bear all the risks.

This CryptoNight saga has brought worst case of ASIC mining case with Proof-of-Work Algorithm.

Earlier, BTC and LTC miners were profitable due to acceptance of ASICs. Moreover both BTC has forks that still allows ASICs such as BCH.

But most developers of the CryptoNight coins are strongly anti-ASIC. There is no CryptoNight coin on the horizon that will become popular and will be friendly to ASICs.

In one scenario, if most ASIC switched to Monero Original, its difficulty can skyrocket and profit will be negligible.

Only ASIC manufacturers can save a CryptoNight coin with their pump and dump scheme (pun intended). It is not impossible considering the history of Bitamin with Bitcoin Cash. However, at this moment it looks very unlikely.

On the other hand, similar to ASIC and GPU miners, STEEM users can buy STEEM miner, in this case, it is STEEM POWER, they can upvote their own posts and make a network of like minded users. They are almost guaranteed to earn some STEEM. With STEEM's potential to rise their ROI has very good chance to be multiplied.

Some Steemitians may argue that STEEM's voting mechanism is not fair. They think that they wrote wonderful posts and wait for someone to vote.

However, beauty (wonderfulness) is in the eye of the beholders. Currently, STEEM is a giant streaming machine, therefore, without marketing/advertisement or networking it is hard for newcomers to get some handsome upvotes.

Upcoming hivemind may solve some of these issues.

More over Proof-of-Brain (human brain) is the most efficient algorithm since brain consumes much less power than any super supercomputer.

Scientists believe human brain can perform at Exasflop level while the most powerful supercomputer is at 10s of petaflop level.

Therefore, imagine how much exaflops/exahash are used worldwide by Steemians to create contents to show their proof-of-brain rather than buying next-generation, super profitable ASICminer.

Image sources: Most images are open sourced (e.g. Pixabay, Wikimedia etc.) with Creative common license. Some images are used with due courtesy to respected owners.

Thanks for reading.
@riseofth
Cryptominer since 2013, occasional trader and tech blogger