Litecoin Has Locked In SegWit Activation Successfully

28 Apr
2017

Litecoin (LTC) has reached the required threshold in order for SegWit to be activated and this will soon happen, so all users – miners and exchanges are advised to upgrade to the latest Litecoin 0.13.2. SegWit (Segregated Witness) and CSV (CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY) will be activated at block 1,201,536 which should hit sometime around 2017­05­11. There are some tips available for pool operators regarding the upcoming activation of SegWit and CSV support for Litecoin in order to make the transition problem free for everyone. You can check this PDF document with some more details on what the Litecoin developers recommend. The relevant BIPs are 68, 112, 113, 141, 143, 144, 147 and you can check more information about them here Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIP) should you need more details.

BitMain Up for Another Scandal With Antbleed Backdoor

27 Apr
2017

After the recent controversy surrounding BitMain and the alleged use of AsicBoost here comes another scandal for the popular ASIC manufacturer. It seems that the company has introduced a backdoor into the firmware of their Bitcoin mining hardware Antminer that allows it to stop miners remotely. Not that they are doing it or will do it at some point, but the ability to do so and control a very large portion of the global mining hashrate is not something that users want. The backdoor is now publicly called and it seems that all recent S9 hardware is affected, and L3, T9 and R4 series hardware are likely to be affected as well.

What is the Antbleed Backdoor:
The firmware checks-in with a central service randomly every 1 to 11 minutes. Each check-in transmits the Antminer serial number, MAC address and IP address. Bitmain can use this check-in data to cross check against customer sales and delivery records making it personally identifiable. The remote service can then return “false” which will stop the miner from mining.

– For more information regarding the Antbleed Backdoor and why it is important…

BitMain Announcing the New AntRouter R1-LTC

27 Apr
2017

The crypto ASIC miner manufacturer BitMain has just announced a new product, this time not a high-powered new miner, but a low power WiFi router with a built-in Scrypt mining functionality. The new AntRouter R1-LTC is very similar to the already available Bitcoin oriented product AntRouter R1, but instead of an ASIC chip capable of mining BTC it contains one that is designed for mining Litecoin instead. The mining functionality is powered by the company’s BM1485 ASIC chip allowing you to mine any Scrypt-based crypto coin and not only just LTC. Of course the single Scrypt ASIC chip inside the router is not going to make you rich overnight as it mines with a hashrate of just 1.29 MHS, but still it is a nice and interesting idea for a multiple functionalities built inside a single portable device. There is no price announced yet, but the sales of the device should start tomorrow 28th of April and we are going to see the price then, though you should expect that it will be very similar to the one of the R1 BTC model that is being sold for $39 USD. Unlike the BTC WiFi router that is only for solo mining BTC, the LTC version should be able to be used for mining with just about any Scrypt pool according to BitMain, so it will be a bit more flexible and usable solution.

BitMain AntRouter R1-LTC Specifications:
– WiFi standard: 802.11g/n, 2.4G
– WiFi transmission rate: 150Mbps
– ASIC chip type: BM1485
– Hashrate of chip: 1.29MH/s
– Power consumption: 3.78W +2.9% at the wall (220VAC Power efficiency @25C ,85% conversion efficiency of built-in AC to DC power supply)
– Mining power efficiency: 2.93 J/MH +2.9% at the wall (220VAC Power efficiency @25C ,85% conversion efficiency of built-in AC to DC power supply)
– AC voltage input: 100-220V AC
– Input current: 0.2A
– USB charging port voltage: 5V
– Operating temperature: 0 – 40°C
– Storage temperature: -40 – 85°C
– Operating humidity: 5%RH-95%RH,prevent condensation
– Product dimensions: 84.5mm(L) x 56.6mm(W) x 29mm(H)
– Weight: 148 grams

top