Ethereum DAG File Problem
Ethash (Ethereum mining algorithm) has a special DAG file that is loaded to the GPU/ASIC memory before the mining process starts. We described in detail how it works in our post When Will My Graphics Card Stop Mining Ether?
DAG file size is always growing. You could always find the current DAG size on 2Miners Ethereum pool main page. On August 17th DAG file for ETH reached 5 GB.
Most likely this was the last important milestone for the Ethereum DAG file and it will never reach the next one (6GB). Ethereum devs plan to change the consensus mechanism from PoW to PoS in September which will end the ETH mining in general.
Innosilicon A10 Affected by the DAG File Size
A10 is a popular Ethereum ASIC miner produced by Innosilicon. Originally it was mining only Ethereum (ETH) and other Ethash coins. Recently the manufacturer released the firmware that allows also Ethereum Classic (ETC) mining bearing in mind the future end of the ETH mining. ETC is slightly different from ETH as it uses its own Etchash algorithm (Ethash algorithm modification). More information on the new firmware could be found in our post Innosilicon Released New Mining Firmware to Mine Ethereum Classic on ASIC.
The new ETC firmware can not be used to mine ETH and vice versa, it is not possible to mine ETC with the old ETH firmware. Ethereum mining is currently more profitable than Ethereum Classic mining so many ASIC owners prefered to mine ETH and not to update to the new firmware to mine ETC.
As soon as the Ethereum DAG file reached 5 GB all the Innosilicon A10 stopped working. No matter how much memory they had. It looks like a firmware bug. However, it could be related to the hardware configuration as well. Unfortunately, Innosilicon has not released any information about this matter. Their twitter account is almost dead.
Lucky owners of Innosilicon A11 could still continue Ethereum mining. It seems this device uses different firmware.
How to Mine With Innosilicon A10 and A10 Pro
Hopefully, there are solutions you could use to still generate some profit with Innosilicon A10 ASICs. There are other coins that use Ethash algo that have the smaller DAG file. There is also the ETC firmware available. Let’s have a look at the 2CryptoCalc.com mining calculator and enter the 700 MH/s hashrate for both Ethash and Etchash algorithms.
Ethereum is the most profitable coin $19.22/day followed by Ethereum Classic $13.64/day. You could not mine ETP with Innosilicon…
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