ASICs are coming fast, and we must act soon to prevent long term damage to the Dogecoin community. Please read and help convince others that something needs to be done soon!
Normally, to mine Dogecoin, you can use almost any computer with a decent video card, and each day you can claim some Dogecoins for doing your part in contributing to the dogecoin network. For as little as 200 dollars, you can get something like a 270x, and get around 2000 dogecoins a day, using the calculator here. The great thing about this is that it is not very expensive to contribute, and also you have the added benefit of being able to use the video card for other things, like running applications, playing games, and many other things that you normally use a computer for, so it is a win/win. You can also choose to resell the video card, and they are usually easy to recoup some of the cost from them.
Because of this, it makes it very easy for the average person to get involved with dogecoin. This makes it much more likely that they will be an active member of the community, and an educated shibe from learning how to get involved.
So what are ASICs and how will they be bad?
ASICs are specialized machines that are designed to mine cryptocurrency much more efficiently. Instead of spending 200 bucks, getting a PC upgrade that you can use for many other things, and getting a pretty efficient video card for mining dogecoins. You spend 5000-10000 dollars or more, and get a specialized machine that does nothing but mine dogecoins, and because it does it so well, other people using video cards can no longer compete. They are also generally very hard to purchase, and are often on back order for months.
The net effect is that the average shibe is pushed out of mining. Running their video cards to mine will no longer be worth it, and the number of enthusiastic, active shibes will be reduced. New dogecoins will fall into the hands of the new people who pay 5000-10000 or more for a specialized machine, making dogecoin much more centralized. Less people will have dogecoins to tip, and Dogecoin will begin to feel like Bitcoin, where you can read about it, but you won’t really understand how to get involved or learn from it, because you have to spend thousands of dollars for a specialized machine that can do nothing but mine coins.
For a healthy community and continued adoption of new shibes, we must stop ASICs from becoming widespread!
So how do we stop it?
Until recently, using ASICs for mining dogecoins wasn’t possible because dogecoin is based on litecoin, which used an ASIC resistant algorithm for mining. The algorithm is now becoming obsolete and ASICs are beginning to overcome it. The algorithm is capable of being upgraded, much like other digital currencies like Vertcoin have done, but we must act fast!
We need the dogecoin developers to act quickly and add in ASIC resistant upgrades to dogecoin before its too late. Help spread the word and let the average shibe stay involved in mining! Within 6 months ASICs will be all over dogecoin unless we stop it now!