Chen Min, the previous chief chip maker at Bitcoin mining chip developer canaan creative, is turning her attention to Ethereum. Announcing her venture at the Ethereum Classic Summit in Seoul capital of South Korea, Chen’s new company, Linzhi, will target building cryptocurrency mining devices, and its first official product are a series of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners designed specifically for Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.
Ethereum ASIC miners are comparatively new. The first group arrived five months ago in April by way of Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain. Known as Antminer E3s, they were 1st shipped out last July and cost approximately $800 per unit. The first batch sold out soon despite many selling limits, as well as Bitmain’s “one unit per user” principle, and restrictions on shipping to both Taiwan and China. The company had been touting its new technology since early February.
Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland was one of the first voices to break the news. Rolland explained, “During our travels through Asia last week, we confirmed that Bitmain has already developed an ASIC for mining Ethereum, and is readying the supply chain for shipments in [Q2 2018].”
Unfortunately, the Ethereum community has posed several issues for Bitmain by seeking to halt the use of ASICs, that they believe cause centralization and prevent honest competition in the mining arena. Recently, a developer put forth an Ethereum improvement proposal (EIP) suggesting an Ethereum Network hard fork that would ultimately prevent the use of ASICs in Ethereum mining.
In addition to this EIP impediment, Bitmain faced criticism for the release of its latest chip, the Antminer X3, that was designed to mine Monero. The currency’s founder, Riccardo “Fluffypony” Spagni, claimed that the chip would be rendered inoperable by the time it was ready for release given that Monero was scheduled for a hard fork that would build it immune to ASICs.
Furthermore, Monero would undergo biannual changes that developers asserted would discourage both the centralization of mining and the use of ASICs when mining the currency. Before selling the chip, Bitmain posted on its website that the risks of cryptocurrency mining could be “related to changes in exchange rates of the cryptocurrency or to changes in the algorithm that's used to mine the cryptocurrency.” It also asked customers to “please deliberate well before making a purchase,” as they'd not be processing any refunds.
During her speak at the Ethereum Classic Summit this week, Chen claimed that Linzhi’s new Ethereum miner would use only one-eighth of the power consumed by Bitmain’s devices. In addition, she said it might run at about 1,400 million hashes per second — a sizable increase compared to the 190 million hashes per second that Bitmain’s Antminers produce. If Chen’s claims hold up, Linzhi’s product might produce as much as $20 in ether per day — regarding $17 over what miners would make using a Bitmain miner. At this rate, Chen believes the money people would pay for a unit may be earned back in as little as four months.
The miner is slated for release by April 2019, though Chen has yet to offer a figure of what a single mining unit might cost.
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