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I was shocked how difficult it was to get a 1080TI at the local store. Pardon my ignorance but with all the demand for graphics cards for cryptocurrency mining

I was shocked how difficult it was to get a 1080TI at the local store. Pardon my ignorance but with all the demand for graphics cards for cryptocurrency mining, why has a viable ASIC not become commonplace so miners aren't grabbing up every available graphics card they can find making it hard for non-miners to have anything and driving up prices. I'm hoping that mining moves more to ASIC and deep learning gets more desktop based "tensor" options. This is a very strange market right now with companies trying to appeal to everyone instead of specializing more and not really serving anyone well.

cbg0 9y ago
If the coin you're mining goes bust you can still sell the GPU and recoup some of the investment. With ASICs there's not much of a market for that.
- mrep 9y ago
  Also, most coins try to design them to be ASIC resistant because they do not want them to become centralized.
  - glup 9y ago
    I've heard this elsewhere but it wasn't clear to me what that being ASIC resistant actually entails
    - ansible 9y ago
      The algorithms used for Ether and some other altcoins require more RAM than is economically available for the current ASIC implementations. This was specifically done to deter use of ASICs.
    - mrep 9y ago
      From what I have seen on HN, the algorithms are very memory heavy. Lots of relevant discussion in this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16378417 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16378417 Pro tip: google "hacker news" + whatever your interested in to find lots of high quality comments about a topic on old articles. That is how I found the previous link and what I do when looking into new technologies.
soneil 9y ago
I think ASICs are still winning for bitcoin itself, but they currently have two big problems for a lot of buyers. First, absolutely zero resale value. Once either the difficulty raises, or the value of the coin falls, to the point where you're spending more on power than you're generating in currency, your ASIC goes in the trash. Second, the algorithm they use is baked in. So an ASIC built for bitcoin can only be used for other sha256-based currencies. With a GPU, when you realise you're not cost-effective for BTC, you can try your hand at Eth instead.
Obi_Juan_Kenobi 9y ago
Many cryptocurrencies are designed to be efficiently mined on GPUs, with the idea that mining would be more decentralized. This may be effective to an extent, but in the case of rapidly rising prices like we're seeing now / over the past months, there are some side effects. Furthermore, in the 'alt' space (i.e. not-Bitcoin), there is a lot of competition and you don't want to tie up large capital expenses to inflexible hardware. GPUs can mine whatever trendy coin is currently pumping. Miners switch to mining different coins in order to maximize return.

cbg0 9y ago

If the coin you're mining goes bust you can still sell the GPU and recoup some of the investment. With ASICs there's not much of a market for that.

mrep 9y ago
Also, most coins try to design them to be ASIC resistant because they do not want them to become centralized.
- glup 9y ago
  I've heard this elsewhere but it wasn't clear to me what that being ASIC resistant actually entails
  - ansible 9y ago
    The algorithms used for Ether and some other altcoins require more RAM than is economically available for the current ASIC implementations. This was specifically done to deter use of ASICs.
  - mrep 9y ago
    From what I have seen on HN, the algorithms are very memory heavy. Lots of relevant discussion in this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16378417 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16378417 Pro tip: google "hacker news" + whatever your interested in to find lots of high quality comments about a topic on old articles. That is how I found the previous link and what I do when looking into new technologies.

soneil 9y ago

I think ASICs are still winning for bitcoin itself, but they currently have two big problems for a lot of buyers. First, absolutely zero resale value. Once either the difficulty raises, or the value of the coin falls, to the point where you're spending more on power than you're generating in currency, your ASIC goes in the trash. Second, the algorithm they use is baked in. So an ASIC built for bitcoin can only be used for other sha256-based currencies. With a GPU, when you realise you're not cost-effective for BTC, you can try your hand at Eth instead.

Obi_Juan_Kenobi 9y ago

Many cryptocurrencies are designed to be efficiently mined on GPUs, with the idea that mining would be more decentralized. This may be effective to an extent, but in the case of rapidly rising prices like we're seeing now / over the past months, there are some side effects. Furthermore, in the 'alt' space (i.e. not-Bitcoin), there is a lot of competition and you don't want to tie up large capital expenses to inflexible hardware. GPUs can mine whatever trendy coin is currently pumping. Miners switch to mining different coins in order to maximize return.