The end of January of the current year, 2014 can be added to the timeline of most important events in the history of cryptocurrencies as the first hardware for simultaneous mining of Bitcoin and Litecoin has been manufactured, successfully shipped and tested by experienced users. The virtual coins’ community is happy to congratulate the Chinese developers with this great success in opening new perspectives in the emission of highly-valuable online assets. The most important point to emphasize on is the fact that there are at least two companies from the country working on the task and competing with each other to claim the right to be first to present a prototype and series of units.

The Gridseed ASIC has announced one of the first items capable to provide combined or parallel mining of Litecoin and Bitcoin. The manufacturers describe the equipment as “most advanced ASIC to turbocharge Bitcoin & Litecoin mining on parallel.” The preset conditions of the hardware are rather humble and the device stands out due to the announced feature of combined generation:

  • Supports three modes: Litecoin only, Bitcoin only, parallel mining of both coins;
  • Mining speed: 1,6 GH/s (Bitcoin) and 60KH/s (Litecoin);
  • Peak performance: 2,25 GH/s (Bitcoin) and 70 KH/s (Litecoin);
  • Power consumption: 4-5 Watt.

The shipping of these particular items has not been reported, but is forecasted to happen very soon. The reviews are missing of course, but more data or contact can be found on the homepage of the project.  

The delay of Gridseed seems to be crucial as several videos of unpacking the LightningAsic has been successfully completed. The data issued on the web by users and competing producers, populate slightly different and more promising numbers of the LightningAsic unit than of the previous prototype:

  • Mining speed: 10 GH/s (Bitcoin or sha256) and 300KH/s (for SCRYPT or combined mining);
  • Power consumption: 60 Watt only on scrypt, 8 Watt USB machine, 52 Watt on sha256;
  • One controller operates 20 units in a set, consuming power equal to 1200W at combined mood, LTC only 160 W, BTC only 1040W;
  • The pack of 20 units generates 200 GH/s (Bitcoin) and 6 MH/s (combined).

These numbers prove that the name of the equipment is not exaggerated, but still the combined mood is not stable enough and the hardware has to be rebooted regularly to continue the mining. The set of 20 pieces costs 5000 dollars is the only configuration worth ordering not just to make plain tests, but to complete sterling emission of both coins.

The photographs of the items, working routine, contact data and other specifications are populated by the original source of information on the BitcoinTalk forum. The comments of the users provide the most adequate feedback and evaluation of the invention. Cointelegraph is going to follow the company as well as the development of units for combined coin mining and report the most recent news on time.