Bitmain Announces Next-Generation Antminer Equipped With 7nmChip

Bitmain Announces Next-Generation Antminer Equipped With 7nm Chip

Mining

At the World Digital Mining Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia the blockchain firm and mining manufacturer, Bitmain Technologies, announced a new Antminer will be launched soon equipped with 7nm semiconductor technology. The firm’s CEO Jihan Wu reported that Bitmain’s next-generation ASIC BM1391 Finfet chip integrates more than a billion transistors for optimal SHA256 mining performance.

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Bitmain Announces the Production of New Antminers With 7nm Technology

Bitmain Announces Next-Generation Antminer Equipped With 7nm ChipOver the past few months, a slew of new SHA256 mining rigs and new semiconductors have been revealed to the public. New mining rig models with far better performance and efficiency are being manufactured by GMO Group, Canaan, and other companies. Bitmain Technologies has been releasing new miners, but most of them have been for different consensus algorithms and not SHA256. The last Bitcoin (SHA256) miner the company revealed was a new water-cooled Antminer that focuses more on operation longevity. On Friday, the firm’s CEO Jihan Wu made an announcement at the World Digital Mining Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia, revealing the next Antminer is coming soon.

On stage, Mr. Wu explains that Bitmain has created a new 7nm semiconductor that integrates more than a billion transistors called the BM1391 chip. According to the company the 7nm Finfet design is built for maximum efficiency. Mr. Wu emphasizes the new model creates a circuit structure that can process a significant hashrate while keeping low energy at the same time. According to BM1391 tests, Bitmain notes the ratio of energy consumption to the mining capacity is as low as 42J/TH.

Bitmain Announces Next-Generation Antminer Equipped With 7nm Chip
Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu announces the manufacturing of new Antminers equipped with 7nm chip technology at the World Mining Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Blockchain Innovation Bolstering Hardware and Software Acceleration

Mr. Wu also detailed during his keynote speech at the summit, the firm will begin mass production of the new 7nm equipped Antminers. The Bitmain CEO explains he is a big believer in blockchain technology and as “applications continue to develop, the industry’s market capitalization as a whole will drive growth.” This, in turn, produces better data processing, and hardware and software acceleration tethered to this innovative protocol, Mr. Wu explains at the summit. Mr. Wu notes the competitive process Bitcoin has unleashed on the mining industry in particular.

Mr. Wu declared on stage at the summit:

Even if someone makes a better chip in the future, we will make a better one. Bitmain will continue to develop the best ASICs in the world.

As we mentioned above, there’s been a bunch of new chips and SHA256 mining rigs announced this year, and just recently we also reported on the significant demand for 10nm and 7nm semiconductors. Limited availability has made 10nm and 7nm chips harder to obtain, but it seems Bitmain has been able to gain access to the next generation 7nm tape out process with one of the large foundries. For instance, the recently announced Whatsminer M10 uses older 16nm chips, but still claims the machine can process upwards of 30+TH/s. Just yesterday the blockchain firm and mining company Bitfury detailed the launch of a 14nm chip using older generation semiconductor technology.

Overall the introduction of new chipsets and mining rigs from various manufacturers, and the new Antminers with 7nm technology, the competition should increase the Bitcoin protocol’s SHA256 mining security and decentralization at the same time.

What do you think about the latest announcement from Bitmain Technologies? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comment section below.

Images via Shutterstock, Twitter, and Bitmain Technologies.

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Bitmain Nears 51% of the Bitcoin Hashrate

This week’s headlines inspire fear and uncertainty. Bitmain owns the two largest Bitcoin mining pools: AntPool and BTC.com. Combined, they have produced 42.3% of new blocks over the past seven days.

The reason for concern is that once a majority of miners confirm a transaction, it becomes irreversible. If a single entity gains control over 51% of the hashrate, they could double-spend coins, and devalue the entire currency. The decentralized nature of mining is what guards against false transactions, and protects the network.

Who is Bitmain?

Founded in 2013, Bitmain is the largest manufacturer of ASIC miners. Their hardware is said to be used for 70% of all bitcoin mining, that alone is cause for concern. In April 2017 these miners were shown to possess a vulnerability that would allow Bitmain to remotely shut down the miners it produced, at any time. Although they claimed it a bug, and unintentional, it was a significant warning sign that Bitmain’s dominance places the security of the Bitcoin network in jeopardy.

At around the same time, developers were working on the SegWit protocol, aimed at making Bitcoin scaleable. Meanwhile, Bitmain was developing AsicBoost, which would allow their miners to operate 30% more efficiently. However, SegWit and AsicBoost were incompatible with each other. Whenever the protocol of Bitcoin is updated, a majority of miners must signal approval for it to be accepted. In this case, Bitmain was vocally opposed to SegWit and set their miners to reject the protocol upgrade. The community complained that Bitmain’s opposition to SegWit was so they could make more money with AsicBoost.

The fact that they possess so much power in the Bitcoin network is cause for concern on its own. Especially after the events of April 2017, Bitmain is eyed with suspicion by most of the crypto community. Even if most of the community despises Bitmain, they got to the position they’re in now by producing the most reliable hardware. As long as they deliver the most efficient and reliable equipment, miners will continue to purchase it. Now that they have become so large and successful, economies of scale make it very difficult for any competitor to surpass them.

Will Bitmain be the End of Bitcoin?

It’s healthy to be suspicious of any entity gaining so much influence in a network that relies on the distribution of power. However, although they are far from benevolent, the concern of a 51% attack is most likely unwarranted. Bitmain makes a lot of money mining cryptocurrencies, manufacturing ASIC miners, and hosting mining pools. They are said to have earned $4 Billion last year from those efforts. Bitmain has a lot to lose from an attack on the Bitcoin network. Anyone who succeeded in a double-spend would devalue the entire network. Attacking bitcoin would amount to attacking their own source of income.

For those reasons, I think Bitcoin is most likely safe from a 51% attack. That would require a desire to eliminate bitcoin from the world, and enough money and power that you could afford to lose a whole bunch of it for the sole purpose of taking down Bitcoin.