A rig (rig — rigging, setup) is a hardware complex designed for the extraction (mining) of cryptocurrency. In its classic form, a rig is a personal computer to which several graphics cards are connected — often five or more. The graphics cards perform the parallel computations needed to solve the cryptographic problems underlying the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism.

In addition to graphics cards, a rig includes a motherboard with a sufficient number of expansion slots, a powerful power supply, a cooling system and a frame (often of an open type) for housing the components. There are also specialized devices — ASICs, tailored to a specific mining algorithm and many times more efficient than graphics cards for particular coins.

Key characteristics of a rig

• hash rate — the total computing power;
• energy consumption, which directly affects the cost of mining;
• cooling efficiency and stability of operation under load.

The economic viability of a rig is determined by the balance between the cost of equipment and electricity and the profitability of the coin being mined. Mining involves wear of the equipment, noise and significant heat dissipation, so a rig is set up taking into account the network difficulty, the chosen algorithm and the placement conditions.