Tag: Blockchain

In the last blog post, we shared the most accessible level of crypto mining at home. In this post, we are showcasing home-mining that involves more skills. Our engineer, foenix, walks us through how he sets up his miner on his balcony.

Miner Profile

  • Name: foenix
  • Mining Experience: 5 years
  • Motto: Passive, silent money is good money

As an electrical engineer by trade, working on chip design, I was always fascinated by how generic hardware, such as GPUs, can be used for other applications other than 3D graphics. When Bitcoin became popular, my first encounter with mining was with an old i7–3930k. It was a great introduction to how the whole ecosystem worked. I then moved on to ETH using old AMD cards that were lying around, and now, I’m into ASICs designed strictly for mining.

With limited power at home, I am always looking for hardware that can help power blockchains that provide valuable services. With SC200 miners, I am able to mine the Siacoin needed to use the awesome Sia-powered tools such as Skynet and Siastream. Currently, I am working to transition all my digital backups and media onto the Sia network, even hosting a bit of storage myself to help contribute.

With that said, I have my miners set up on my balcony. In Toronto where I reside, the average monthly temperature does not exceed 30°C, which is perfect for mining. If you live in a colder climate, mining outdoors might be a good option for you.

One of the benefits of mining on the balcony is that you don’t hear the noise once you close the door, and the setup does not add to the clutter at home.

Materials Needed

  • A plastic storage box
    – This is the one I have, but you can use any storage box you like
  • Your miner
  • A PSU
  • A router or wifi extender
  • A furnace or car filter
  • A power bar
  • An ethernet cable
  • A box cutter and/or drill

The Process

I cut two holes in the storage box. One is for the freestanding power outlet at the bottom, and one is for ventilation with the orange-framed car filter on the side. If your outlet is on the wall, then you should cut a hole on the side of the box, just big enough for the cords to pass through. You may need a drill to help cut the storage box.

Since the box resides outdoors, filtered airflow will prevent dust from accumulating inside of the rig. I chose a filter that is smaller than the sides of the box but big enough that it would allow ample air ventilation. Either a car or furnace filter should work.

Then I measured the filter, marked where I wanted to place the filter on the box and cut along the marked lines to create a hole. I covered the hole with the filter. I got mine from Canadian Tire and the filters are easily found in any hardware store. The more affordable options may be available at dollar stores.

After the box was cut, I arranged the placement of all the components inside the box. You can see how I arranged the mine from the picture below. I put a metal rack inside the box so that I could stack the PSUs on top.

I could have stacked more miners. As per our previous post, we have explained how to calculate your power usage. My balcony outlet is 15 AMP, 120V. Technically speaking, I could support up to 1800 watts in total. This translates to running 2 SC200s at 500 watts each, saving 700 watts for the espresso machine 🙂

I then set up the miner as per the instructions. Once the miner is running, close the lid, and it’s done!

And that’s my two cents for mining at home. If you feel inspired or would like to share your setup, please feel free to comment down below or tag us on Twitter @epicblockchain.

Emerging blockchain hardware: ASIC mining

In response to cryptocurrency markets, various companies, often with inadequate experience, have produced ASIC miners. In the rush to capitalize on the market, robust system design is often an afterthought by some companies. There could even be an argument that this aspect is completely overlooked. Producing an ASIC is more than just writing a few lines of code.

The adoption and success of a mining operation depends on full-system thinking, end-to-end reliability, and close collaboration with mining farms.

Who can step up to these challenges?

Some of the recent ASIC hardware providers have been struggling with poor integration into the mining infrastructure, field failures and major gaps between specifications and real-life results. While others have just disappeared.

But there are also new players emerging.

Introducing ePIC Blockchain Technologies

This brings us to a promising North America based start-up, ePIC Blockchain Technologies.

This high performance, experienced team applies the best practices for engineering design and operational excellence from the telecom, PC and mobile industries to the ASIC hardware mining space.

SoC design and system design are highly specialized fields of engineering. Combining these specialized design skills with a deep understanding of architectural trade-offs and blockchain algorithms is the recipe for success.

At its core, this is the team inside ePIC.

To date, the industry has been preoccupied with nano-marketing name dropping. It is fashionable for companies to tout their ASIC based on the technology node. However, that may be a distraction from what is lacking.

The end-customer should not care which node their ASIC is manufactured on. What matters is the quality of the design.

The proliferation of multiple variants, 5–6 in some cases, of a manufacturer’s product is another interesting artifact of the current suite of mining providers. Is it a deliberate marketing plan for different price-points? Or is it a design and manufacturing flow that is not well understood and controlled? Could it be a very wide cross-section of performance and power outputs that are produced and pushed out to the unsuspecting customer?

What really matters to the ASIC mining customer?

The answer is simple. Get the job done right and on-spec.

Launched recently, the SC200 miner is the product that showcases ePIC’s world-class system design capabilities.

From ASIC to mining rig: a visual glimpse into bringing a product to market

Work doesn’t stop just because silicon is in hand.

Full understanding of the system is required to bring a quality product to market. Having a chip that works in isolation is not enough. Having both the depth and breadth is what distinguishes ePIC from other companies.

Here are a few examples of the behind-the-scenes due diligence taken prior to the introduction of the SC200 to the market. And it serves as a macro lens into the systematic approach that is needed for future generations of ASIC hardware miners.

Leading the way

In any industry, what distinguishes the leaders is straightforward — “ what they deliver just works as advertised”.

ePIC Blockchain Technologies is bringing this philosophy and track record to the ASIC hardware blockchain mining industry. World-class engineering design and a maniacal focus on operational excellence are ingrained in the ePIC culture.