Bitmain Has Announced New 7nm BM1397 ASIC chip for SHA256 Mining

18 Feb
2019

Bitmain has just announced its next generation 7nm ASIC chip called BM1397 that is apparently capable of great performance and energy efficiency for mining cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), that use the SHA256 algorithm for their Proof of Work (PoW). The new BM1397 ASIC chip requires lower power and can offer an energy consumption to computing ratio as low as 30J/TH or with other words almost 30 percent improvement in power efficiency compared to their previous 7nm chip BM1391 that is already found in the company’s latest SHA256 ASIC miners.

The new BM1397 ASIC chip is made using TSMC’s 7nm FinFET manufacturing process and it is expected to be featured in the upcoming Antminer models named the S17 and T17 that will be announced by Bitmain at a later date. There are no detailed specifications available for the moment, however ~30% better power efficiency could mean up to about 30% higher performance for the same power as the currently available AntMiner S15 and S17 ASICs that sue the first generation of 7nm chips form Bitmain. It is not all about performance however…

Ethereum’s (ETH) Next Hardfork is Coming at the End of February

13 Feb
2019

The much anticipated Constantinople hardfork of Ethereum was initially planned for the middle of January, however a serious bug was discovered shortly before the time of the fork, so it was postponed. The new date for for Ethereum’s latest network hardfork system upgrade is around 27-28 February (end of the month) or more specifically at block number 7,280,000 (200,000 blocks later than the originally planed block). The hardfork will be in two parts, the first one will include all five EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals) including the problematic EIP 1283, that was the reason to postpone the fork initially, and the second part will be used to remove the problematic EIP 1283. So after the Constantinople and Petersburg hardfork (the two parts we are talking about) the Ethereum network will have the following 4 EIPs active – 145, 1014, 1052 and 1234.

The improvements to the Ethereum network that the new hardfork will bring are numerous and they focus on improving salability, speed and efficiency of the blockchain. There is however a change that is also important to the economics of the Ethereum network and one that is especially important for miners. EIP 1234 is going to adjust the block reward, so after the fork miners will be getting just 2 ETH coins per block instead of the 3 ETH that they are getting at the moment. There isn’t much needed from you to do in order to be ready for the hardfork if you are using or mining Ether, just make sure you update any local wallet or client that you might be running. Also make sure to not make any transactions around the time of the hardfork in order to avoid any possible issues with delayed transactions and lost coins, though normally such problems are not very likely.

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) Guide by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

12 Feb
2019

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released official guide regarding crypto Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in order to help both investors and professionals interested in participating or starting such a project. Companies and individuals are increasingly considering initial coin offerings (ICOs) as a way to raise capital or participate in investment opportunities. While these digital assets and the technology behind them may present a new and efficient means for carrying out financial transactions, they also bring increased risk of fraud and manipulation because the markets for these assets are less regulated than traditional capital markets.

– To chck out the ICOs guide by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)…

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