Beijing based Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturing giant Bitmain has announced the sales details for the company’s latest range of crypto-specific chips. According to the company, the Antminer 17 series will be capable of mining more than 50 trillion hashes per second.
Sales will take place in two batches over the next two days. Shipping is expected to occur later in the month on a first bought, first served basis.
Could New Bitcoin Miners Give Bitmain the Edge in a Competitive Market?
One of the planet’s largest and best-known manufacturers of Bitcoin mining hardware has just revealed the specifications and sales dates of its next generation crypto mining chips. The Antminer 17 series will be available in three different models. Two of these are available from today or tomorrow (depending on where in the world you live) whilst the third will be sold at a currently undisclosed date. All the new pieces of hardware feature the second generation BM1397 mining chips, which is the the firm’s most efficient to date.
The Antminer S17 Pro comes in two versions – the 53 TH/s and the 50TH/s. Both Bitcoin miners have three different mining modes than allows the customer to optimise their unit for either energy efficiency, flat out power, or a happy medium. Turbo mode runs at 45 Joules per Terahash, the normal one at 39.5 J/TH, and the power-saving mode at 36 J/TH.
Likewise, the Antminer S17 comes in two versions. Oddly, the Pro version is not the more powerful of the newly announced products since the standard S17s are listed by Bitmain as being capable of 56 and 53 TH/s respectively. However, the standard does only feature two modes, with the more energy preserving unit running at 42 J/TH and the normal mode running at 45 J/TH.
Sales will take place in two batches several hours apart. For those crypto miners in North, Central, and South America, the first will be released today at 23:00 PDT, with the second being available tomorrow from 09:00 PDT. Customers living in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa will first be offered the Antminer 17 series tomorrow at 09:00 MSK and then at 19:00 MSK on the same day. Finally, those wanting a new Antminer in Asia will be able to pick one up tomorrow from 14:00 CST and on April 10 at 00:00 CST. The units will ship between April 20 and April 30. They will do so on a first buy, first ship basis.
With such a high hash rate, the new Antminers could seriously put pressure back on those manufacturers that have stepped up recently to challenge the Beijing-based giant. The likes of Microbt Mining and Asicminer both claim to offer machines with higher hash rates. For this reason, much of the industry will be eyeing the price of the new Antminer Bitcoin miners when sales begin. For now, prices remain a mystery but if they are priced at less than the competition, the new units could prove very popular indeed.
Bitmain seems to have had a pretty rough start to 2019. Reports from the beginning of the year state that the firm was forced to layoff around half its staff and shutdown its Tel Aviv offices. The crypto mining firm had planned to go public on the Hong Kong stock exchange, a process, which for now, seems to have stalled.
Related Reading: Regulator Rules Cryptocurrency Mining Contracts Can be Securities
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