Bitmain to Release ASIC for Ethereum Network

2 mins

Despite nearing the time for the Merged but Bitmain states to have no concerns about releasing an ASIC for that Ethereuem network.

On Wednesday, the world's largest producer of bitcoin (BTC) miners will start selling a new Ethereum rig model on its website, as the second-biggest cryptocurrency network moves away from proof-of-work (PoW) technology.

  • Rig maker China announced on Twitter yesterday, saying "The Time Has Come."
  • Unlike bitcoin mining, which is mostly carried out by application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) - specialised chips that are designed for the task - ether mining generally uses graphics processing units (GPU), which are also used in other forms of computing. The rising popularity of ether mining was a key factor in driving up GPU prices in 2021, so much so that technology company Nvidia (NVDA) released mining-specific GPUs.
  • The price of GPUs has dropped significantly since the Ethereum network switched to proof-of-stake (PoS) mining. The changeover, known as the Merge, has been consistently postponed in recent months.
  • The Antminer E9, a new mining rig, was released over a year ago.
  • The new model that goes on sale at 9 a.m. ET (13:00 UTC) on Wednesday is slightly more energy efficient than the one described last year, using 8 joules/terahash (J/TH) instead of 8.5 J/TH. According to Bitmain, this model is equivalent to 25 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards, as opposed to 32 RTX 3080 which was promised last year.
  • Bitmain released the Antminer E3, another Ethereum mining rig, in 2018; however, it is no longer selling it on its website.
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