Over the last year, the cryptocurrency industry has undergone a major slowdown. Moreover, the constantly falling prices of Bitcoin has had a ripple-effect on the crypto mining industry as well. However, this hasn’t deterred industry players to continue innovating and to introduce news high-end mining equipment to the market.
As crypto mining involves solving complex mathematical equations, it requires energy intensive hardware. A major challenge for mining hardware manufacturers is to keep in the check the prices of their hardware without compromising on performance.
Bitmain Unveils Its Antminer 17 Series Chipsets
On Monday, April 8, Bitmain revealed the specifications for its Antminer 17 series chips which include the Antminer S17 Pro, Antminer S17, and Antminer T17.
All three feature second-generation 7nm BM1397 mining chips with a major focus on improved hashrate and power efficiency.
The Antminer S17 comes in two different models each having two mining modes – low-power mode and normal mode. However, the PRO version of the S17 features three mining modes – low power, normal, and turbo mode.
Each of these modes works at different power efficiencies and provides wide customization options to miners to switch between “different settings to accommodate various mining requirements”.
The Antminer T17 is a stripped-down version of the S17 with less hashrate, but also less power consumption.
Starting today, the company will open up orders across Asia, North and South America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
MicroBT’s WhatsMiner M20 To Challenge the Antimer Offering
Although Bitmain has long been seen as a top player in the crypto mining industry, other companies are still making a road for themselves.
Shenzhen-based crypto mining chip manufacturer MicroBT is emerging as a strong player in the industry. To counter Bitmain’s Antminer, MicroBT has unveiled the Whatsminer which the company calls as a major “game changer”.
As per the claims by MicroBT, the company’s WhatsMiner M10 was 30 percent more efficient in comparison to Bitmain’s S9 Hydro. Now, to counter the new Antminer S17 series, MicroBT is likely to release its new WhatsMiner M20 this year in July 2019.
The WhatsMiner M20 is likely to come in three different variants – M20v1, M20v2, and M20S. These models will have a hashrate of 48TH/s, 58TH/s, and 72TH/s respectively.
Industry experts say that Bitmain will have to closely watch out the growing competition from MicroBT. Kristy-Leigh Minehan, chief technology officer at Core Scientific, notes that besides performance and power efficiency, price is another factor Bitmain needs to work on with the growing competition.
Minehan noted that “to compare to MicroBT’s products—a M20S, for example, does 72 TH/s total, with 46W per chip. Bitmain will need to have a similar specification or ‘beat’ them entirely to ‘claim’ the throne back from MicroBT”.
