BITMAIN has created a CryptoNight mining ASIC – The Antminer X3

BITMAIN has created a CryptoNight mining ASIC - The Antiminer X3

BITMAIN has created a CryptoNight mining ASIC – The Antminer X3

BITMAIN, a creator of Cryptocurrency mining Application Specific Circuits (ASICs) has revealed their new CryptoNight Antminer X3, a unit which can offer extreme levels of performance per watt when compared to regular PC hardware like CPUs and GPUs. 

Today CPUs and GPUs are typically used to mine CryptoNight, Radeon RX Vega GPUs being extremely popular for users of this hashing algorithm. At this time, Ryzen and Threadripper series CPUs are also popular amongst hobbyist miners, though this is set to change with the introduction of the Antminer X3, which is set to start shipping in mid-May.

As an example, a Radeon RX Vega 64 is said to deliver a hash rate of around 1.5KH/s, whereas the Antminer can offer a hash rate of 220KH/s with a power consumption of 550W, with Bitmain calling this hash rate a conservative estimate. These units are expected to become more efficient as they reach their shipping date. 

To put this into perspective, taking an RX Vega 64 GPU’s hash rate as around 1.5 KH/s, this unit can outperform a total of 146 RX Vega 64 GPUs, while consuming much less power. This sheer performance is why the Antminer X3 can command a price tag of $11,999. 

  

BITMAIN has created a CryptoNight mining ASIC - The Antiminer X3

 

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. 

Monero revealed in February that they plan to make regular changes to their PoW (Proof of Work) hashing algorithm with regular forks at least twice a year. The first of these forks are coming this month, potentially making this miner useless for Monero mining before it is released publically. 

Regardless, CryptoNight is used for a variety of cryptocurrencies, with Monero only being a single example, which means that this miner will still be useful for other cryptocurrencies that use Cryptonight. 

The introduction of ASICs for Monero mining will eventually make mining unprofitable for CPU and GPU miners, taking out one of many hashing algorithms from the PC space. Existing miners in time will likely move to a different profitable algorithm, which means that mining demand will not be affected much by the introduction of Bitmain’s Antminer X3.    

You can join the discussion on BITMAIN’s CryptoNight Mining Antminer X3 ASICs on the OC3D Forums.Â