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Bitmain Unveils Cheaper T19 Bitcoin Miner to Regain Lost Market Share

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Bitmain Unveils Cheaper T19 Bitcoin Miner to Regain Lost Market Share

Bitmain on Monday released the Antminer T19, a cheaper bitcoin mining machine, in an effort to regain lost market share.

The Beijing-based company said the Antminer T19 has computing power or hashrate of 84 terahash per second (TH/s) and power efficiency of 37.5 joules per terahash (J/TH).

The latest hardware is modeled after Bitmain’s more efficient BTC miner, Antminer S19, only cheaper. With hashrate of 95 TH/s, the S19 model costs $1,785, some 2% higher compared to the T19 series, which is selling at $1,750.

“The Antminer T19 is housed with the same generation of custom-built chips found in the Antminer S19 and S19 Pro, ensuring capable and efficient operations for mining cryptocurrencies,” said Bitmain in a blog post.

According to F2pool, a global bitcoin mining network, the new T19 model generates up to $3.17 of profit each day. That compares with earnings of $3.96 per day for the Antminer S19. The figures are based on an average electricity cost of $0.05 per kilowatt per hour.

The T19 goes on sale on June 1, with a limit of two miners per customer “to prevent hoarding and to ensure that more individual buyers can purchase miners,” Bitmain declared. The new mining equipment will be shipped between June 21 and 30, it said.

It is more efficient than the previous T17 model, which, together with the Antminer S17, has failed at a higher rate of 20% – 30%. The “normal” failure rate is generally 5%. Antminer T19 comes with “upgraded firmware,” ostensibly to offer “faster start-up speeds.”

The new miner comes at a time Bitmain has given up ground to emerging competitor Microbt. The release also coincides with Bitcoin’s programmed supply cut of May 11, which slashed miner revenue by 50% to 6.25 BTC per block. The halving has forced miners to look for more efficient mining equipment.

According to Coinshares, Bitmain may have lost 10% of its dominant market share in 2019, as Microbt, maker of the Whatsminer series, continued to sell more mining power throughout the world. The trend is expected to have continued in 2020.

Earlier on Monday, Canadian firm Bitfarms Ltd. announced the purchase of 1,847 Whatsminer M20S BTC mining machines. Delivered within four to five weeks, the mining hardware is expected to add approximately 133 petahash per second (PH/s) to the company’s installed computing power and improve computing efficiency to over 15 PH per megawatt, it said.

What do you think about Bitmain’s new product? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Bitmain Unveils Cheaper T19 Bitcoin Miner to Regain Lost Market Share appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Bitcoin Hashrate Bounces Back- 2x the Mining Pools, Farm Diversification, 100 Exahash

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Around 18 days ago, the Bitcoin protocol experienced it’s third block reward halving and the network saw a 33% hashrate loss. Since then, however, bitcoin miners have increased in both number and hashpower, as the network has seen a 15-20 exahash per second (EH/s) increase. Moreover, on May 22, there were 17 mining pools hashing away at the Bitcoin network and now there are 32 pools.

Bitcoin Hashrate Rebounds

Mining bitcoin is a competitive industry. The mining competition grows stronger each and every year. After the Bitcoin (BTC) network’s third halving, a number of miners dropped off the network. During the worst of it, the overall SHA256 hashrate lost around 47 exahash per second (EH/s).

Since then the hashrate has increased around 15 to 20 EH/s, depending on which monitoring tool you use. For instance, Blockchain.com’s data shows the hashrate measured on May 27, 2020, is around 92 EH/s. According to the web portal fork.lol, which gives a closer look at today’s current hashrate, data shows the BTC hashrate is above the 100 EH/s zone.

Last week, news.Bitcoin.com’s post-halving mining report had shown that there were only 17 pools at that time. Today there are 32 BTC mining pools and F2pool is still the most dominant mining operation. A number of smaller farms and pools seemed to have joined the fray during the last seven days.

Today there is F2pool, Btc.com, Poolin, Antpool, Viabtc, Slushpool, Huobi, Btc.top, 58coin&1thash, Bitfury, Okex, Bytepool, Novablock, Wayi.cn, Bitcoin.com, Lubian, Spiderpool, Bixen, Bitclub, Binance, 1m1x, Ukrpool, Mining City, Kanopool, Bitminter, Hummerpool, Solock, Ckpool, Eobot, Luxor, and Tiger Pool.

Next-Generation Mining Rig Shipments and Whatsminer Orders Diversify Into the US and Europe

Reports also noted last week that officials from Sichuan China were allegedly giving mining operations in the region a hard time. Purportedly mining operations had been dealing with electrical shortages, and some operations were allegedly forced to shut down machines. More recent reports from China say that bitcoin miners expect the BTC hashrate to rise.

One report highlights the situation when the columnist, lylian Teng, discussed the subject with a few bitcoin mining industry leaders from Chengdu. According to miners from the region, the latest next-generation Antminers have been shipped to large farms. Both S19s and Microbt’s Whatsminer M30 series have allegedly been sent out to customers.

Furthermore, lylian Teng talked to Whatsminer representative, Sully Yu, who told the reporter that despite deliveries and mining rig shipments, some mining operations are having difficulties.

“The mining circle is suffering from big changes. It is those capitals who dare to buy (high-powered mining machines), small miners dare not,” Sully Yu told Teng. “Big capitals are eyeing on the long-term return from bitcoin mining, and the mining activity is developing into a large-scale, intensive, and refined industry. It will be unrealistic to expect a quick payback from mining like it used to.”

Interestingly, Sully Yu also disclosed that Microbt has seen a lot more international orders. North America and Europe have accounted for 40% of the company’s latest orders according to Yu’s statements.

What do you think about the hashrate increase and next-generation mining shipments? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Bitcoin Hashrate Bounces Back- 2x the Mining Pools, Farm Diversification, 100 Exahash appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Iranian President Calls for Launching a Cryptocurrency Mining Strategy

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Iranian President Calls for Launching a Cryptocurrency Mining Strategy

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for a mining strategy throughout the oil-rich nation. The latest statements from the Iranian President follows Iran’s moves to restrict specific crypto trading platforms over “currency smuggling” mandates.

On May 20, 2020, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani told the press that the country needs to spur a cryptocurrency mining strategy, in order for the country to prosper economically amid U.S. sanctions. Reports stemming from the regional news outlet Arzdigital which claims Rouhani has told his administration to start drafting a crypto mining strategy for Iran as soon as possible.

Rouhani said that the energy department, the country’s central bank, and the finance minister need to devise a new scheme that welcomes bitcoin miners. This includes Iranian regulatory policy toward mining farms located in the country and taxes.

Iran recently recognized cryptocurrency mining operations as an official industry last year. Iranian officials have already been issuing licenses to farms that are willing to cooperate with the Iranian governments.

In January 2020 it was reported that the Iranian lawmakers licensed over 1,000 mining operations in the country. In the summer months of 2019, Iran represented 2% of the Bitcoin network’s entire global hashrate. Since then however, recent migration has made it so Iran now has 4% of the total hashrate according to statistics.

Iranian President Calls for Launching a Cryptocurrency Mining Strategy
As of May 23, 2020, Iran captures 4% of the overall Bitcoin network hashrate.

Rouhani’s statements are a bit confusing after the Iranian government made it harder for international crypto exchanges to operate in collaboration with the country. This week the Iranian parliament released a proposal that aims to curb “currency smuggling” by heightening regulations for international crypto exchanges. Essentially, the Iranian parliament wants the exchanges that are based in Iran licensed and they are required to follow currency smuggling mandates.

Speculators assume that Iran is trying to keep funds from being spent abroad and wants to squash capital outflow by putting pressure on Iranian crypto exchanges for working with international operations. Iran, despite the fact that it is heavily sanctioned by the U.S. is prospering because of cryptocurrency innovation and encouraging the mining industry to migrate to the region.

Data shows that mining farms in Iran are paying as little as $0.01 to 0.05 for hourly kilowatt rates. However, during certain times of the year, the Iranian government has said that electrical rates could shift for mining operations when electricity demand is high.

What do you think about President Hassan Rouhani’s statements about encouraging an Iranian mining strategy? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Iranian President Calls for Launching a Cryptocurrency Mining Strategy appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Bitcoin Hashrate Slides 33% Since Halving – Difficulty Drops, Issues in Sichuan China

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It’s been 11 days since the third bitcoin block reward halving. Data now shows that the overall SHA256 hashrate lost around 47 exahash per second (EH/s), since the all-time high of 140 EH/s on May 3. With more than 33% of the hashrate lost, reports stemming from Sichuan China indicate that bitcoin mining operations have been dealing with electrical shortages, and some operations have been forced to shut down machines.

Bitcoin Hashrate Lost 47 Exahash of Hashrate Since the ATH, Difficulty Sees a 6% Downward Adjustment

Just before the third bitcoin halving, which cut miner revenue by 50%, the overall BTC hashrate spiked to around 140 EH/s on May 3, 2020. The network hit this monumental milestone, seven days before the notorious block reward halving. After the halving was complete, observers noted that the hashrate only dipped by 10-15% around 48 hours later. However, hashrate charts and data have some significant lag, and most of the time hashrate is measured in 3-12 hour intervals.

Bitcoin Hashrate Slides by 33% Since Halving - Difficulty Drops, Issues in
May 20, 2020, Blockchain.com BTC hashrate stats.

For instance, Blockchain.com statistics show the BTC hashrate is 93 EH/s on May 20. Fork.lol data shows that the hashrate has dropped even lower to just above 80 EH/s during certain periods, between May 20 until May 22. From the all-time high (ATH) on May 3, the BTC chain has lost 47 EH/s so far or roughly 33% since the ATH.

Bitcoin Hashrate Slides by 33% Since Halving - Difficulty Drops, Issues in
May 22, 2020, Fork.lol BTC hashrate stats, 12-hour intervals.

The BTC network difficulty also dropped by 6% on May 20, 2020, and whenever the difficulty drops it can be attributed to miners leaving the network. Additionally, the price of BTC has dropped from a high of $9,900 to a low of 9,100 on May 22. When the price of BTC drops lower in value it makes it more difficult for miners to prosper. Even the first signs of miners dropping off the network, meant a downward adjustment was in the cards for BTC’s overall mining difficulty. Today there are 17 known mining pools processing blocks on the BTC network. The top five BTC mining pools include F2pool, Poolin, Antpool, Btc.com, and Okex. F2pool on May 22, 2020 shows that it currently commands 27% of the BTC network hashrate.

Sichuan Miners Face Delayed Wet Season, Electrical Shortages, and Kickback from Local Governments

One reason miners may be dropping off the network is due to issues in the Chinese province of Sichuan right now. There are two reports written by the regional financial columnist, lylian Teng, that show miners in the Sichuan region have a number of difficulties to deal with at the moment. One issue is the fact that the temperature in Sichuan has been hotter than usual which has been deterring the start of the region’s massive wet season.

The wet season every year, helps fuel hydropower plants that are located all around the province of Sichuan. Chinese bitcoin miners have always flocked to Sichuan, and the region is probably one of the most densely populated mining operation locations worldwide. lylian Teng reports that the local Sichuan government has been complaining that the region’s electrical load has increased by 22%.

Bitcoin Hashrate Slides by 33% Since Halving - Difficulty Drops, Issues in
Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. The photo shows a man with an umbrella watching Jinjiang river in flood after heavy rain in Sichuan province, two years ago when the wet season was very powerful.

There has been a “shortfall of hydroelectricity supply,” the report notes. This issue has led to electrical shortages and some mining operations have had to shut down machines. Teng discussed the subject with local mining operations who have told her that the “rainy season this year has delayed and the prolonged high temperatures in Sichuan have led to a surge in electricity demand.”

“Some mines have got power cut for over three days, and some are only allowed to mine during the night,” explains a mining farm owner who operates in Sichuan. “Areas close to Sichuan’s capital city Chengdu like Wenchuan are suffering from severe power outages, while remote places like Ya’an and Kangding, with small electricity demand and sufficient rainfall, see few power failures,” the miner added.

Bitcoin Hashrate Slides by 33% Since Halving - Difficulty Drops, Issues in
Concentrations of global bitcoin miners according to Coinshares stats in December 2019. At that time, China captured 65% of BTC’s processing power and the Sichuan region has always been the most densely populated mining region in the world.

Another report notes that bitcoin mining in the province may be “attracting too much attention” and assumes a government “crackdown” could come to fruition. A leaked Sichuan government document indicates that local officials believe bitcoin miners are taking advantage of the region’s cheap electricity.

“The notice has since surfaced which indicates that the province’s top finance regulator, Sichuan Financial Office has requested local governments to make an orderly exit from supporting bitcoin mining,” lylian Teng’s second report discloses. Teng’s findings further state:

The notice reportedly issued to all local offices of the financial regulator went on to request that regional governments use mandatory measures around power supply, electricity price, land use, taxation and environment protection to ensure existing bitcoin mining activities are phased out.

Documents that allegedly stem from China’s Sichuan province and obtained by the regional reporter lylian Teng. Document one (left) discusses the electrical shortages, and document two (right) talks about regulating bitcoin mining operations.

There’s a lot of mixed messages when it comes to the local Chinese governments and bitcoin mining rules. The latest news on alleged crackdowns in Sichuan, follows the report that had shown the local government of Ya’an city in China’s Sichuan province, was encouraging bitcoin mining throughout the province. In 2018, however, Sichuan lawmakers had an entirely different opinion and a number of statements published or leaked had shown a few Sichuan politicians called mining operations “wasteful” and discouraged the business.

What do you think about the hashrate drop and issues in China’s Sichuan province? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Bitcoin Hashrate Slides 33% Since Halving – Difficulty Drops, Issues in Sichuan China appeared first on Bitcoin News.