Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Miner
An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is a type of circuit that has been designed for a single specific purpose. An ASIC miner refers to a device that uses microprocessors for the sole purpose of "mining" digital currency. Generally, each ASIC miner is constructed to mine a specific digital currency. So, a bitcoin ASIC miner can mine only bitcoin. One way to think about bitcoin ASICs is as specialized bitcoin mining computers, or “bitcoin generators," that are optimized to solve the mining algorithm.
Developing and manufacturing ASICs as mining devices is costly and complex. Because ASICs are built especially for mining cryptocurrency, they do the job faster than less powerful computers. ASIC chips for cryptocurrency mining have become increasingly efficient, with the latest generation operating at around just 29.5 Joules per Terahash.
Understanding Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Miners
Instead of being general-purpose integrated circuits—like RAM chips or PC or mobile device microprocessors—ASICs employed in cryptocurrency mining are specific integrated circuits designed solely to maintain the bitcoin blockchain—a public shared database that stores digital information.
Originally, bitcoin’s creator intended for bitcoin to be mined on central processing units (CPUs)—your laptop or desktop computer. However, bitcoin ASICs surpassed both CPUs and graphics processing units (GPUs) in terms of their reduced electricity consumption and greater computing capacity. After first gaining traction in mid-2013 when other hardware mining devices started hitting their bottlenecks in mining, Bitcoin ASIC miners have retained their lead.
Bitmain Confirms Halting Its Shipment of Antminers to Chinese Customers
Bitmain, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of bitcoin mining machines, confirmed it will halt shipping Antminers to mainland China.
“From October 11, 2021, Antminer will stop shipping to mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan),” according to a statement from Bitmain’s official WeChat account. The move doesn’t affect Bitmain’s overseas customers and the company said that it has increased the supply of Antbox to speed up the construction of overseas mines.
On Sept. 28 CoinDesk cited three sources who said that Bitmain was planning to suspend sales of its machines to miners in mainland China, after the sweeping ban on crypto activity imposed by the country’s government.
China’s crackdown on the crypto industry has created an opportunity for the miners outside of the region to participate in the sector, resulting in a recovery in bitcoin network’s hashrate, or computing power, which is a key gauge of mining activity.
What's inside a WhatsMiner? Disassembling a Bitcoin ASIC
In early December of last year, mining machine manufacturer MicroBT announced the parameters of the WhatsMiner M30 series, indicating that the power consumption ratio of the entire series of bitcoin mining rigs would be lower than 50W/T, which caused concern among cryptocurrency mining practitioners. In mid-May this year, Bitcoin will usher in the third halving of its block subsidy in history, also regarded as a critical period for the computing power of the entire Bitcoin network. Miners are also updating their equipment for the arrival of the halving.
In the current epidemic situation, miners and people in the entire cryptocurrency industry are in a difficult winter period. At this difficult time, MicroBT hopes to spend the time with users and stick to their beliefs. At 10:30 p.m. EDT on April 16, 2020 MicroBT will hold the Global WhatsMiner M30 Launch Event to explain in detail the full lineup of the M30 series products and sales strategies.
In the current epidemic situation, the online event can break the shackles of physical space by going digital and delivering the latest news of the M30 launch efficiently. Since MicroBT announced the news of the new product launch of the WhatsMiner M30 series, it has aroused concern among peers in the mining and blockchain industries. Therefore, MicroBT has also been sharing the latest news through its twitter and telegram group.
In addition to the official community, MicroBT is also accelerating the expansion and improvement of the company's internal and external business. MicroBT is expanding in overseas markets and improving the quality of after-sales services. It has officially established a cooperation with HMTech which has become the first after-sales partner of WhatsMiner in North America. In terms of user operations, Jorden Chen, who is experienced in traditional industry operations, serves as the COO of MicroBT, bringing mature management and operational experience to the emerging bitcoin mining industry, which has enabled MicroBT's business operations and customer service capacity to grow rapidly.