Mining with an ASIC has its advantages and disadvantages. Let's examine these in order to understand if and when it is appropriate to use ASICs to mine Bitcoin. As you might recall, mining started on CPUs and then it moved over to GPUs, then briefly to FPGAs, and finally to ASICs. These machines are perhaps the last stop in hardware used for mining.
Currently, there isn't anything on the horizon that will replace ASICs any time soon. Quantum computers could theoretically be a candidate but such machines either do not exist or simply are not available to be acquired.
ASIC mining is the fourth (and perhaps the last) step in mining hardware evolution. Currently all the serious miners, including professional installations, use different types of ASICs to mine. They are the most energy efficient of all miners and of course, they are also the fastest hashing machines available. If you think of yourself as a serious miner, you should be running ASICs...
