Bitmain launches their Antminer Z9 Mini Zcash mining ASIC
Bitmain launches their Antminer Z9 Mini Zcash mining ASIC
Bitmain has revealed their new Antminer Z9 Mini, the company’s first Equihash ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) cryptocurrency miner, delivering efficiency levels which are much higher than the graphics cards that are typically used to mine cryptocurrencies.
Equihash is currently used for several major cryptocurrency mining networks, with Zcash and Bitcoin Gold being major examples, with Bitmain’s Antminer Z9 Mini offering a hash rate of 10k Sol/s with a power consumption of 300W, which is an insane number given the hashing power of modern GPU hardware. Nicehash currently lists AMD’s RX Vega 64 with an Equihash hash rate of 505.92 Sol/s on their profitability calculator, making Bitmain’s ZCash miner almost 20 times more powerful.
Bitmain has priced their Antminer Z9 at $1,999, which seems like a reasonable price given its hashing power and relative efficiency when compared to modern graphics cards. The big question is whether or not the miner will still be worth that around it’s 20-30th June shipping date, as Bitcoin Gold has already confirmed that they plan to hard fork their currency to maintain ASIC resistance.
The problem with ASIC miners is that they quickly increase the difficulty of mining, making standard PC hardware unprofitable, forcing hobbyist miners out of the market while centralising a currency’s network to a small number of users who utilise expensive ASIC miners. This centralisation is what has already happened with Bitcoin. To alleviate these concerns, Bitmain has set a limit of one ASIC miner per person for their Antminer Z9.
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