Bitmain Antminer- ASIC Overview, is it worth Buying

Overview Bitmain Antminer E3 – the reaction of the crypto community, Vitalik Buterin and other Ethereum developers, ASIC specifications, price and reasons for its jumps, whether to buy.

Mining of popular cryptocurrency on video cards has long lost its relevance. The more expensive the asset, the more members of the network it is mined, the higher the complexity of mining, respectively. In this regard, the capacity of video cards is not enough. This situation is the case with almost all expensive crypto coins (Bitcoin, Lightcoin, Desch), except Ethereum. For the Ethash (DaggerHashimoto) algorithm, on which Ethereum works, ASIC equipment has not been developed for a long time, this is due to the features of encryption. The situation radically changed in the spring of 2018, when it became aware of the appearance of Antminer E3.

A novelty can be called, probably, the most sensational in the world of mining lately. So much controversy, scandals and rumors broke out around the device, as many asiki did not fall out in the entire history. And this is despite the fact that no one has used it specifically for mining. What is interesting about the first ASIC for Ether, what are its characteristics, how relevant is it, and whether it is worth buying it – all the answers in our material.

The history of the appearance of Antminer E3 batch 1

The reaction of the Crypto Community

The equipment was presented by the Chinese manufacturer Bitmain in early April. The first batch of miners bought up within a few hours at a price of $ 800. It should be noted that there was a restriction on the sale of 1 ASIC per 1 hand, and delivery is planned from July 16 to July 31. 

After that, crypto forums literally flashed comments. First of all, everyone was waiting for the reaction of Vitalik Buterin – the founder of Ethereum. Earlier, he stated that there is no such algorithm for which, sooner or later, no special equipment will be developed, therefore it is not worth paying attention to it. Regarding the Asics for Ethereum, he wrote back in February: “I’m not sure that it is worth spending too many resources, except for the fact that Casper should be implemented faster.”

April 6 at the meeting of the developers of Ethereum discussed the issue of hard fork and other solutions to protect the network from new miners. However, Buterin himself said that Ethereum is not Bitcoin, where the network is controlled by miners and the best way out of the current situation is to follow the plan and implement the Casper protocol, developed on the basis of the Proof-Of-Stake algorithm. 

The developer noted that the worst case scenario, in which most of the hash rate will be in the hands of Bitmain, will only contribute to the accelerated implementation of Casper. At the same time, Buterin said that if the community demands, then actions against the new miners will be taken.

Now, according to the roadmap of the project, it is planned to switch from Proof-of-Work to hybrid PoS (Proof-of-Stake). Such a solution involves reducing the reward to 0.6 ETH per block. Under these conditions, the relevance of Antminer E3, which also gets to buyers only in July 2018, is in great doubt. There are other factors that cause skepticism about the device, but we’ll talk about them below.

Specifications Bitmain Antminer E3 And Price

Performance and energy efficiency ASIC can not be called optimal. According to Vitalik Buterin, mining at Antmainer will be only 2.5 times more efficient than on farms, and for a short time. By its parameters, the Antminer E3 corresponds to a farm of six AMD RX 480/580 video cards. However, the price was attractive in this case. Antminer E3 batch 1 sold for $ 800 per unit (by the way, 1 AMD RX 580 graphics card costs around $ 400). Amid such news, AMD shares sank 3.8%.

On the official website at the time of this writing, the price of Antminer E3 batch 2 is 1,872 dollars. At the same time, there are no limits on the number of models in one hand. ASIC Antminer E3 can be ordered in any quantity. Delivery is scheduled at the same time as the first batch – July 16–31.

It is hard to say why such a sharp jump occurred. Perhaps the reason for this was Buterin’s statement that updating and carrying out Ethereum hard forks is not planned in order not to slow down existing projects and not slow down the development of a common ecosystem, and therefore for the time being the unit will be relevant for mining. However, there are rumors that it is possible that equipment developers have been able to improve energy efficiency or productivity, which affected the price of Antminer E3. According to the third version, Asik will be able to withstand the hard forks and will not be afraid of updates, therefore its cost is so overstated.

It is also worth noting that the site contains approximate technical characteristics of Antminer E3. According to the manufacturer, at the time of delivery, higher parameters are expected.

Bitmain Antmainer E3 – Is it Worth Buy?

All that was tempting in ASM Antmeyner E3 – the price of $ 800. Now it has risen to 1872 and here it is already possible to begin to doubt. In addition, add the cost of the power supply, pay for delivery and will be released more than 2 thousand. If you buy from Russian suppliers, the price is even higher and in general it makes you wonder whether it is worth buying ASIC Antminer E3? 

On the one hand, it is slightly cheaper than the assembly of a rack of 6 video cards and has the other advantages of Asiki over farms – compactness, ease of setup and ease of use. On the other hand, there are a number of negative factors:

1. The introduction of PoS and the transition to combined mining.
   
2. Decrease rewards from 3 to 0.6 ETH.
   
3. The possibility of hard forks.

All of the above can turn ASIC Antminer E3 into useless metal material even before July, when the first deliveries of models are planned. Is it worth the risk? Moreover, there were already precedents. Antminer X3 on the CryptoNight algorithm for mining Monero did not meet expectations in April after hard forks and is not used for mining Monero. Network developer Ricardo Spagni has already announced that he will take measures every six months to prevent the production of Asiki. 

Analyzing the current situation, we can draw the following conclusion: it is better to add money and build a farm on 6–10 video cards. Yes, it is more expensive, but such equipment can be reconfigured to any algorithm, but the asik will be at the dump. 

BITMAIN ETHEREUM ANTMINER E3 Review