Posts Tagged ‘AntMiner S9’

Braiins OS, An Opensource Operating System for ASIC Miners

3, Oct 2018

Braiins is the company behind one of the oldest and most trusted Bitcoin mining pools – Slush Pool, and they something new and interesting to show – an alternative opensource operating system for Bitcoin ASIC miners in the form of what they call Braiins OS. It is the very first fully open-source, Linux-based operating system for cryptocurrency embedded devices with the initial release targeted on mining devices and more specifically Bitcoin ASIC miners. Braiins OS has been developed for two primary reasons: to be open-source and have no “hidden features” and to work stable following standards without issues.

The first release includes images for Antminer S9 and DragonMint T1 (only the variant with Xilinx based control boards). Braiins OS is currently mostly on par with the official vendor firmware at this point. It monitors the hardware and its working conditions, handles errors and provides various performance data, but more features will be introduced making it a more interesting alternative. Most importantly possible performance improvements are being looked into as that would probably please the miners the most. The Braiins OS is intended to integrate flawlessly with the Slush Pool, but it should be just fine with any other alternative pool for SHA256 mining, so you are not going to be limited in where to mine with it.

Be aware that Braiins OS is still in alpha stage and has not been tested on a large scale yet, so you might want to start by deploying to single miner to give it a go before deciding to deploy on larger scale!

– For more details about the alternative Braiins OS for Bitcoin ASIC miners…

Bitcoin ASIC Miners Still Hard to Get for Small Miners

28, Jan 2018

If you are a small crypto miner and not a large mining operation you may find it very hard to acquire up to date Bitcoin ASIC miners as the demand is still pretty high and the wait time is long. If you manage to find an ASIC miner is stock the chances are the price will be significantly higher as they are being resold with serious profit by people that prefer to make money this way instead of mining with the devices. At the moment there are pretty much 4 main manufacturers of Bitcoin ASIC miners that sell to end users and in small quantities and as you might expect they do not have anything in stock as the wait time is in months.

1. Bitmain AntMiner S9 (13.5 THS)
Bitmain is the most popular name among the ASIC manufacturers and probably the biggest one as well and even they are struggling to have stock of the AntMiner S9 ASIC miners they produce. It is interesting to note that the S9 has started shipping in the summer of 2016 and is still their top product. Bitmain has already sold all of their production up until the end of March, so when they release a new batch it will be scheduled for delivery sometime in April earliest.

2. Canaan AvalonMiner 821 (11 THS)
Canaan has been making their Avalon miners for years, though they were a bit slower in terms of specifications as compared to Bitmain and not as popular among end user miners. Their latest AvalonMiner 821 was announced in December last year and just started shipping its first batches for people that have preordered early. You can currently preorder AvalonMiner 821 for shipping/delivery in the second half of March, so you can probably get these a bit earlier than if you wait to preorder an AntMiner.

3. Ebang Ebit Miner E10 (18 THS)
Ebang’s Ebit miners are mostly popular in Asian countries, though they are trying to get to a wider market and their latest announcement of a 10 nm ASIC miner – the E10 made some waves. It is however an expensive device and still hard to get with a minimum purchase quantity of 20 units and all batches already sold through the end of March.

4. Halong Mining DragonMint 16T Miner (16 THS)
Halong Mining is a newcomer that just recently announced their plans to enter the Bitcoin ASIC miner market to try and fight with the market dominance that BitMain already has. They are still yet to start shipping their first devices in March this year and you cannot currently preorder units on their website with new batches probably to be available for April earliest.

Only BCC Payment Method Accepted for the Latest Batch of Antminer S9

1, Oct 2017

Something interesting and not so nice regarding Bitmain and their latest batch of Antminer S9 ASIC miners, it seems that although the company is listing prices in USD, BTC, BCC and LTC on their website it will only accept payment in BCC (Bitcoin Cash) for the batch of miners shipping November 21-30. As a maker and seller of these devices Bitmain of course has the right to sell them any way they want and accept the payment in the form they choose, but this way of essentially “forcing miners” to buy BCC to pay for the hardware (in case they do not have it) is probably not very “politically correct”. It is understandable that they want to support BCC, but is this the right way to do it or it will fire back with users going to alternative options for ASIC miners (not that there are many available unfortunately)…

The questionable text about BCC payment for the batch is under Payment and is quoted below:

Only BCC payment method is accepted in this batch, please use the exact amount mentioned in your order and complete the payment within one hour. After one hour, the order will expire and your payment may not be detected by the system automatically. If the payment is submitted but the receipt is delayed, we will make your payment “Valid” manually.


top