- bitmain
- products
- representatives
- pros
- farm
- conclusion
Any person seriously interested in mining digital money is familiar with the company that we will talk about today. In any case, he knows exactly its name, even if things have not yet come to the point of “personal acquaintance”.
The name of this company is BitMain. And any miner cannot avoid getting to know her for the simple reason that she is one of the most famous and largest manufacturers of products that our audience needs, such as equipment and software for crypto mining.
The company is Chinese (for some reason this is not surprising; now, no matter what, everything is Chinese) and its main “office” is located in Beijing, and has representative offices in several other Chinese cities, as well as in San Francisco and Israel.
Bi
The production of miners brought and continues to bring high profits to BitMain, but for some time now, apparently, this has ceased to satisfy the team, or people simply gathered there who cannot imagine their life without innovation and movement forward. But, be that as it may, they took the next step and went to create their own farms and their own pool.
Now anyone who has purchased equipment from this manufacturer can place it on HashNest farms and connect to the AntPool pool. Well, then, of course, do your favorite business of mining cue balls. Such a client must give the company part of the money for the electricity used, pay for the maintenance of his miner, etc., and can safely use the rest at his own discretion.
If someone doesn’t understand what the benefit is, we’ll explain. You don’t need to bother with transporting all the “hardware” necessary for work, you don’t need to rack your brains about where to place it all, and there are many other “don’ts” that will save you from worries and troubles.
But if anyone thought that the surprises from Bitmain ended there, then they greatly underestimated the Chinese developers. They moved on. If you purchased equipment from this manufacturer, you can go to the stock exchange through its farm and sell your power there to other users, in other words, organize a small business in cloud mining. Moreover, if you find out that you are all capricious and for some reason the HashNest services do not suit you, no problem - provide the same “cloud” services under your own brand (this can be organized through the API).
Popular BitMain products
The list of products produced by the company looks quite solid, and it is unrealistic and unnecessary to cover everything in one article. You can always find a detailed description of this or that device on the Internet, but we just want to introduce you better to this manufacturer.
Therefore, we will present you with a short introductory review of the most popular Bitmain products this year and start with the Antminer S9/T9 ASIC device. Today, this is perhaps one of the most productive ASICs for mining Bitcoin. And if you are going to do this “difficult” task, then with the help of this unit.
So, Antminer S9. As for the appearance, everything is standard and traditional - the body shape is elongated, rectangular, the device is made of aluminum. Coolers are located on the panels (front and rear). At the top there is a network card (controller), a slot for an SD card, an Ethernet interface and a couple of indicators.
Under the outer shell there are parallel processor boards with VM1387 chips, which are made in accordance with the latest technologies. There are 3 such boards inside the device. The proprietary software from the manufacturer is very convenient, which makes setting up and testing the ASIC simple and enjoyable. In this model, the Chinese have outdone themselves, increasing the energy efficiency of the chip by 2.5 times and the hashing rate by 2.75 times to 13 Th/s (previously it was 4.7 Th/s). The latter figure was raised by increasing the miner's power.
Don’t be surprised if, when you look at the official website, you find that the order button does not respond to your attempts. It can be inactive when the previous batch of ASICs has already been sold, and the new one has not yet arrived.
The work uses the SHA-256 algorithm.
Who didn't have time...
Previously, specialized online publications already reported that the well-known manufacturing company Obelisk announced in the very near future the release of new ASIC miners for mining Siacoin and Decred. And now, after the news from Bitmain, it becomes clear that Obelisk catastrophically did not have time to collect the cream of the crop.
However, even if ASICs from Obelisk came out at the same time as Bitmain devices, they would not have had any chance due to the almost twofold difference in hashrate not in favor of Obelisk.
Continuing the theme of missed opportunities, let’s say that from the start of sales of Antminer A3 to the message that all miners were sold... 10 minutes passed! It was announced on the official website that sales will resume in 10 days.
Cryptocurrency Siacoin
Other members of the Bitmain family
But, as you know, BTC mining, due to the greatly increased complexity, has almost completely switched to industrial “rails”. Therefore, it makes sense to pay attention to other promising cryptocurrencies, such as Dash or Litecoin, which are less profitable for now, but have great potential.
If we talk about BitMain products, then for DASH mining it is best to use the new generation ASIC Antminer D3 (15GH). Compared to its predecessors, this device is almost 10 times more efficient; this model costs about one and a half thousand dollars and is available for order. Hashrate 15 Ghash/s, X11 algorithm.
Well, for Litecoin mining, the Chinese manufacturer presents an improved Antminer L3+ Scrypt model. You can order this miner on the official resource, however, pre-orders for the second half of September are temporarily suspended. For customers who have already paid for the miner but were not among the lucky ones, the company offers a refund or wait for the next pre-order. Hashrate 504 Mhash/s.
Characteristics of Antminer DR3
The ASIC produces 7.8 terahash with a power consumption of 1410 watts. At the same time, the energy efficiency of the model reaches 194 joules per terahash. The new product weighs as much as 8 kilograms and costs $673. Unfortunately, at the moment the first batch of devices is already completely sold out. There is a limit for buyers - no more than two pieces of equipment per person.
You can purchase DR3 with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash or Litecoin. The first ASICs will be shipped to customers on September 26th. At the same time, Bitmain does not rule out delays in the production of the required amount of equipment. Let us remind you that the company now has quite a lot of work to do in connection with the release of the new 7-nanometer ASIC chip BM1391.
Advantages and disadvantages
Judging by the fact that Bitmain was able to become one of the world's leading manufacturers of crypto mining devices, its products are clearly in demand, which means it makes sense to purchase them. Another question is whether this is accessible to everyone and what problems they will encounter when purchasing and using the equipment.
Antminer Disadvantages:
- The first and for many decisive disadvantage is the fairly high cost of the product, for which you need to pay from one and a half thousand dollars.
- The second drawback is problems with delivery. The equipment is manufactured in China and delivered from there. And although the company claims that this process is problem-free, the reality turns out to be somewhat different.
- Go ahead. Even if you have the required amount and are willing to wait for the miner to arrive as long as necessary, this does not mean that you will buy it. These devices are constantly in high demand, and even through the official resource they cannot always be ordered.
- In addition, the Chinese “miners” make a lot of noise. And if you are unlucky and you receive a defective copy, then all issues regarding replacement of the defect will need to be resolved in English or Chinese (decide which one is closer to you?).
Now let's move on to the advantages. By the way, what seems like a drawback to some is a balm for the soul to others. We mean high cost and difficulty in purchasing. After all, these problems eliminate some potential competitors.
Well, seriously speaking, it’s really not for nothing that miners from BitMain have gained such popularity. Firstly, they pay for themselves quickly enough and begin to work to enrich the owner. Secondly, they are quite compact and in a small room you can place as many of them as you can afford (within reasonable limits, of course). The third advantage is the fairly low heat generation (up to 40 degrees), which is also very important in “home” conditions.
Equally important is that the equipment can be connected quickly and without problems, and it is possible to automatically switch from one pool to another. At the same time, the mining speed is very high, hundreds of times higher than mining on a card or processor.
BTC farm BitMain is an example that speaks volumes
In order for you to imagine the power and scale of the company’s activities, we decided to tell you about one of its Bitcoin farms.
It is located in a special city, which is called a ghost town. This is the city of Ordos and it is located in northern China. The city was built with the expectation that at least a million Chinese would settle here, but now its population is about 20 thousand people, that is, almost 98% of the built houses never received their occupants.
But he who thinks that there is no life in Ordos is greatly mistaken, and he dies. This is where the largest BTC farm of the BitMain company is located. And this is not fun, but a serious “adult” cryptocurrency mining business that brings in a solid income. And how could it be otherwise, if this farm accounts for about 4% of the total computing power of the global BTC network.
The enterprise is located in 8 one-story buildings, each of which is one and a half hundred meters long. All of them are crammed with computer technology. For Bitcoin mining, 7 buildings are allocated, 21 thousand devices are installed in them, and in the eighth barrack Litecoin is mined using 4 thousand pieces of equipment.
All this “lot” is served by 50 people who live right there in the hostel. Not all of these people are closely familiar with cryptocurrency; many monitor the smooth operation of equipment, check and repair breakdowns. The worst enemy of devices is dust, despite all protective measures, penetrating into the premises and causing overheating of the equipment. A lot of effort and money goes into maintaining the indoor temperature within 15-25 degrees, although outside the heat can exceed 30. You can only work here with earplugs, as coolers and fans make incredible noise. But there is a significant incentive to endure all this.
And this incentive lies in the very serious profit received by the farm every day. According to rough estimates, it is about 280 thousand dollars. Subtract from here the electricity payment of 39-40 thousand and the funds needed for various operating expenses, and you will still get a very significant income figure. And if you consider that BitMain has several such (maybe not so powerful) farms, you can imagine the scale with which the company operates, and what money is circulating here.
Estimated release date and predictions
According to data published in the Chinese media, the estimated release date of Antminer E3 is the 2nd-3rd quarter of 2020. No one has yet announced the exact dates for the launch of sales of the new product, which means it has every chance of becoming the next model in demand on the market. Some experts have already dubbed the new Antminer E3 a “GPU miner killer,” and on the one hand, the technical characteristics, in principle, allow us to consider it as such at the moment. On the other hand, back in 2020, Ethereum developers started talking about the possibility of switching from “Proof-of-Work” mining to “Proof-of-Stake” mining through the Casper protocol. Such a transition can make ether a cryptocurrency that is inaccessible for mining, in principle. However, despite the fact that there have been discussions about such a transition since 2015, it has not yet taken place, and it is unknown when this will happen. This means that BITMAIN fans may well have time to test the new Antminer E3 in “combat conditions” and check whether it is truly capable of outpacing standard GPU miners or not.
*The data provided is our assumption based on the information we have at the time of publication of this article.
