Central Processing Unit or processor, is the heart of the computer. In the early days of bitcoin it was possible to mine bitcoin in the computer with a simple CPU. Nowadays, due to the degree of difficulty of bitcoin’s cryptography, more computing power is needed than the CPU’s or GPU’s of computers can provide. As a result, there are companies that have developed expensive CPU-based ASIC computers. ASIC stands for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit or application-specific integrated circuit. These ASICs are specifically built for mining using a large number of ‘system on chip’ processors. Besides bitcoin, there are altcoins, such as Monero, which can still be mined with simpler CPU’s. Even with your smartphone or tablet!
