ASIC API
An ASIC's API is a service port, usually 4028, through which monitoring reads hashrate, temperatures and fan speeds without the web interface.
What the ASIC API is
The mining software inside an ASIC inherited its API from cgminer: on port 4028 it answers short commands like summary, stats, pools. Back comes a report in a format meant for programs: hashrate per board, temperatures, fan speeds, uptime, configured pools.
This port is what all monitoring lives on: polling a hundred miners over the API takes seconds, while doing it through web interfaces would be torture. Farm controllers, dashboards and homegrown scripts all talk to the ASIC the same way, through these same commands.
The API has a writing side too: changing pools, rebooting, and on custom firmware, switching profiles. This is where care begins: on stock firmware the writing commands often need no password, and anyone on the local network can rewrite your pools with a single line.
The conclusion is simple: port 4028 must never be visible from the internet, and the farm's local network deserves to be treated as a trusted zone and guarded accordingly. VPN on the outside, your own passwords on the inside.
The short version
| Port | 4028, inherited from cgminer |
| Basic commands | summary, stats, pools |
| What it reports | hashrate, temperatures, fan speeds, uptime |
| What it can change | pools, reboot, profiles |
| Security rule | never visible from the internet |
How to put it to work
Hook monitoring up over the API, not by parsing web pages: it is faster, steadier and does not break when the firmware changes.
Check from the local network whether the port accepts writing commands without a password: you should know this about your farm before strangers do.
Use the API for inventory: serial numbers, firmware versions and uptime come together in one script in a minute.
Close the port off from the internet and verify it from outside: scanners find open 4028 ports as quickly as web interfaces.
A usage example
A script polls thirty miners with the summary command once a minute and stores the numbers in a database. One morning glance at the chart answers every question: who overheated at night, whose hashrate sagged, who rebooted. The whole system is a hundred lines of code on top of port 4028.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Software
- Software firmware
- HashCore Toolkit firmware
Hardware
- ASIC Miner knowledge base
Questions and answers
How is the API different from the web interface
Two doors into the same data: the web is for a person, the API is for programs. Monitoring a hundred ASICs is only possible through the API.
Is it dangerous that the port has no password
On a trusted local network it is tolerable, facing the internet it is unacceptable. Some firmware can restrict the API to read-only, and that option is worth using.
My monitoring stopped seeing the ASIC over the API
Check the miner and the network first, then a firmware change: different software may answer in a slightly different format, and the monitoring parser trips over it.
How the terms connect
Every link in the chain is clickable. Orange marks where you are now.
Looking for an ASIC miner
The catalog holds 212 models. You can compare them by hashrate and by joules per terahash, then plug your own rate into the calculator and see what stays in your pocket.
Page written and checked by Denys Klimchuk. Updated .