Can an ASIC mine any cryptocurrency?

No. An ASIC is hardwired for one algorithm. An SHA-256 miner works on Bitcoin and SHA-256d forks only; Scrypt hardware works on Litecoin-family coins. GPUs are the flexible (but inefficient) middle ground.

What is a Bitaxe good for?

Small SHA-256 community chains, where its 1–2 TH/s is a meaningful share of network hashrate and solo blocks are realistic. On Bitcoin itself it's an educational toy.

Do ASICs get outdated?

Yes — efficiency (J/TH) improves with each generation, and on large coins older machines become unprofitable against electricity. On small community coins, raw efficiency matters far less than your share of the network.

From Bitaxe to Antminer: choosing ASIC hardware without the hype

MineCraft Pool · 2025-06-15 · hardware explainer

TL;DR — An ASIC is a chip built for exactly one hashing algorithm — that focus makes it 1000× more efficient than a GPU but useless for anything else. SHA-256 machines (Antminer S-series, home-made Bitaxes) mine Bitcoin and its forks; Scrypt machines (Antminer L-series) mine Litecoin-family coins. Pick hardware by the algorithm of the coin you want to mine.

A mining ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) is a chip designed to compute one thing: the hash function of a specific blockchain. A GPU can calculate many kinds of math; an SHA-256 ASIC calculates only SHA-256, but does it thousands of times more efficiently per watt. That efficiency is why Bitcoin mining moved from CPUs to GPUs to FPGAs to ASICs between 2009 and 2013 — and why it stayed there.

The two families that matter

Family	Algorithm	Mines	Typical hardware
SHA-256	sha256d	Bitcoin and its forks (community chains like Maza, Palladium, Aureus, BTC1)	Antminer S19/S21-class; Bitaxe home devices (1–2 TH/s, 15–25 W)
Scrypt	scrypt	Litecoin, Dogecoin, community Scrypt coins (e.g. Lambda)	Antminer L3+/L7-class

The lesson: hardware follows the algorithm, not the brand. An SHA-256 Bitaxe physically cannot mine a Scrypt coin, and vice versa. Before buying anything, decide which chain you want to mine and check its algorithm on the pool's stats page.

Bitaxe: the home ASIC

A Bitaxe is an open-source, credit-card-sized SHA-256 miner built around a single BM1366/BM1370 chip. It delivers 1–2 TH/s at 15–25 W — silent enough for a shelf and cheap enough to be a weekend project. Against Bitcoin's industrial hashrate it wins nothing, but on small community chains (network hashrate of a few TH/s) the same device becomes a visible percentage of the network and solo-finds real blocks. That contrast — lottery ticket on BTC, working miner on a community chain — is the whole Bitaxe story.

How to choose, in four checks

Algorithm of your target coin (SHA-256 vs Scrypt vs something else entirely).
Network hashrate vs your rig — the pool stats page shows both; your device should be at least a fraction of a percent for solo to be meaningful.
Power cost at the wall — watts × 24 h × your tariff. At $0.10/kWh a Bitaxe costs ~5 cents/day; an S19 costs ~$3–4/day and needs real coins to beat that.
Pool fee and payout threshold for that coin — see our fees explainer.

FAQ

Can an ASIC mine any cryptocurrency?: No. An ASIC is hardwired for one algorithm. An SHA-256 miner works on Bitcoin and SHA-256d forks only; Scrypt hardware works on Litecoin-family coins. GPUs are the flexible (but inefficient) middle ground.
What is a Bitaxe good for?: Small SHA-256 community chains, where its 1–2 TH/s is a meaningful share of network hashrate and solo blocks are realistic. On Bitcoin itself it's an educational toy.
Do ASICs get outdated?: Yes — efficiency (J/TH) improves with each generation, and on large coins older machines become unprofitable against electricity. On small community coins, raw efficiency matters far less than your share of the network.