Archive for the ‘Mining Hardware’ Category

Quick Test of Bitmain’s Antminer X3 CryptoNight ASIC Miner

18, May 2018

We got our hands on a Bitmain Antminer X3 CryptoNight ASIC miner for a few days and have decided to give this soon-to-be or already way too expensive paperweight a quick test to see what you can expect from the device as they have been shipping for a week or two already to customers. The Antminer X3 is capable of delivering 220 KHS at 550W of power usage as per specifications and the device kind of manages to actually deliver on these numbers. The kind of part is because we’ve experienced some weird results trying to actually make the ASIC miner work properly on some popular pools and services such as NiceHash for example. When you point out the X3 to NiceHash’s CryptoNight (not CryptonightV7) stratum you get the device to connect and report extranonce support, but all you get are rejects and 0 as hashrate. So apparently the Antminer X3 does not work properly on NiceHash at the moment, even after flashing the latest available firmware that seemed a day newer than the one on the device we have tested. No go on NiceHash which seems as the best option for the moment considering that there are not that many CryptoNight coins left that offer good profit as most of the serious coins have already switched to the new ASIC-proof (for now at least) CryptoNight V7 algorithm.


Moving to a quick test on Nanopool’s Electroneum (ETN) mining pool as the next best thing after NiceHash in terms of profitability kind of worked, but not as we have expected. Here the miner connects and apparently works on the pool side, but the pool reports only about 20 KHS hashrate and not the full 220 KHS that it should. Locally the miner seems to work fine and the locally reported hashrate is also fine with a bit over 235 KHS average reported. People have reported success on some smaller ETN pools with the X3 ASIC miner, but even if you manage to make the device work properly on Electroneum you will not have a lot of time before ETH also forks and becomes unmineable with this miner.


The next thing to try was going for AntPool and Monero Classic (XMC) where with no surprise thins worked great out of the box, after all this is Bitmain’s mining pool, where they probably also test all the miners before shipping them to customers, so no surprise that it all works. The problem however is that you only get to mine XMC there and it is traded on only two exchanges according to CoinMarketCap, but at least it works and you can probably make a coin and a half to about two XMC coins per day at the moment or roughly maybe about $15-18 USD at the current rates and difficulty.

Here is how the situation looks profitability wise for the Antminer X3 ASIC miner on CryptoNight according to WhatToMine. The other possibly interesting coin to try mining with AntMiner X3 is ByteCoin (BCN) that has recently seen some boost in interest probably tied to the availability of the X3 ASIC miners in the hands of miners. So do you think that the BitMain AntMiner X3 is a soon-to-be or is already way too expensive paperweight? We definitely do not like the fact that it is not working properly on services like NiceHash or big pools like Nanopool out of the box, Bitmain should’ve had enough time to make sure possible issues have been resolved… and they can always release an update to fix problems like these while the devices are traveling to their customers. Can’t say we are happy for the short time we had with the X3 miner to give it a try and would definitely not recommend it at the moment, not that we did when they were announced either.

Buying a new home

7, May 2018

Buying a house could be the greatest financial decision you’ll ever make, so before you take the decision you want to be sure your finances are solid. Our goal is to guide you through everything you need to do to buy a house without all the stress. From the financing to taking your house inspection and everything in between, our team of experts will help you through the process.

First time buyers have it pretty tough, but hopefully you now know a few things to avoid being overconfident and getting into trouble. After all, nothing worth your money is ever easy to buy, and you’ll need everything  working just to avoid disaster. Get started by checking out our mortgage calculator here for the easiest way to determine the cost of your house.

We’ll show you step by step how to apply for a mortgage in just a few minutes. We’ll even show you the different loan options available to you, and we’ll show you how to compare all the mortgage lenders in one place, if you need help getting your loan approved, visit https://www.debtconsolidation.com/credit-repair/. We’ll even talk you through everything from asking for your bank to approve you to setting up a payment schedule.

A home is the place where you’ll spend the majority of your time, but you should also make sure it’s up to snuff when it comes to safety. Before you buy a home, you want to make sure that your home is in top condition and ready to take on the world, so you need to find the right home for you, and using a real estate agent can be useful for this. This home inspection tool will show you exactly how to do just that. Just select the month, day, and year you would like to see an inspection. Enter the address and you can see all of the repairs that are needed at that address. From roofing to electrical to plumbing (check out shower repairs melnbourne) you’ll find the products you need, and more importantly, the professionals you can call to get them done such as professional electricians from companies that offer electrical repair in Atlanta, GA.

It’s time to get those homeowners insurance costs under control. You need to think about how you will maintain the home if you aren’t paying for it. You can start by learning how to maintain your home with this simple home maintenance guide. From getting the cleaning you need, to remembering to replace toilet paper, this will tell you all you need to know about what’s on your way.

Bitmain Has Announced Antminer Z9 mini ASIC Miner for Equihash

3, May 2018

We already knew this was coming, but ow it is official Bitmain’s Antminer Z9 mini for the Equihash mining algorithm used by ZCash (ZEC) and quite a few other crypto currencies is going to start shipping around 20-30th of June. Bitmain is taking pre-orders for these new ASIC miners for Equihash at $1999 USD without power supply and shipping cost and they are able to deliver 10000 Sol/s at 300W, so not that much faster compared to a powerful GPU mining rig, but at lower price and power usage… similar to what the upcoming Ethash ASIC miners from Bitmain are offering at the moment. One more mining algorithm is going to slowly move towards ASIC miners apparently, though for now it will remain viable to be mined with GPUs and may as well be in the near future as well… at least for a while.

It is interesting to see what will be the reaction from different crypto coins that use the Equihash mining algorithm including, but not limited to ZCash (ZEC) as the first one to introduce the algorithm and the largest in terms of network hashrate one using it at the moment. For instance Bitcoin Gold (BTG) apparently has plans to fork in order to remain ASIC resistant or at least it seems that way from their recent tweets. There are already quite a few more Equihash crypto coins out there and there will be a discussion on ASIC miners for Equihash for sure, the other interesting and important question however is if these Antminer Z9 minis are already produced and Bitmain is “testing” them before starting to ship them out to customers at the end of next month.

– More about the upcoming Bitmain Antminer Z9 mini ASIC Miner for the Equihash algorithm…


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