Bitmain, a Bitcoin (BTC) mining manufacturer, just announced the release of a software update for their Antminer S9 devices. The update will increase efficiency, cut costs, and boost the Bitcoin network’s hashrate on their Antminer S9 miners.
“Overt AsicBoost” functionality will improve overall mining efficiency for Antminer users. Additionally, it will also reduce Bitcoin mining’s carbon footprint.
A Breakdown of Bitmain’s Overt AsicBoost
Bitmain’s new development intends to keep their miners at the forefront of the Bitcoin mining industry. “Bitmain is committed to creating the industry standard for the most efficient and effective miners on the market. After testing AsicBoost on the Bitmain testnet, we found that the functionality does improve mining efficiency,” the Bitmain administrative team wrote in their announcement.
Their new functionality has two main objectives. The first is to make sure mining is effective in the years to come. Namely, Bitcoin mining is becoming increasingly difficult and will cap off at 21 million Bitcoin.
As a result, mining hardware rapidly becomes outdated or inefficient. Bitmain believes this development will allow their customers to remain at the forefront of the mining community.
Next, they hope to aid in the creation of a stronger Bitcoin network. Bitmain states that the AsicBoost has the potential to reduce cost and increase the network’s hashrate, making the Bitcoin network “stronger than ever before.”
What’s Next For Bitmain Miners?
We’ve released new firmware to activate “Overt #AsicBoost” on the #Antminer S9. Firmware for other BM1387-based models coming soon. Learn more about this decision here: https://t.co/hfEfFslyxp Download link: https://t.co/KpkClmWPZk
— BITMAIN [Not giving away ETH] (@BITMAINtech) October 22, 2018
Bitmain’s announcement also includes plans for future releases. They plan to roll out firmware to activate this functionality in other models such as the Antminer R4, S9i, S9j, T9 and T9+.
This October 22nd AsicBoost announcement and forth-coming updates are relatively controversial in the Bitcoin mining community. Some believe that the method to be exploitive to Bitcoin’s proof-of-work algorithm to increase efficiency.
The Overt AsicBoost is now available for download. And more capabilities will soon be available for Bitmain’s mining models.
