Crypto mining hardware producer Bitmain yesterday announced two new ASIC Bitcoin mining machines. The Antminer S17+, the S17’s successor, and the T17+, the T17’s successor, were announced at the World Digital Mining Summit (WDMS) in Frankfurt.
The hash rate of the Antminer S17+ is 73 terahashes per second (TH/s), with a power efficiency of 40 joules per trillion hashes (J/TH), while the hash rate of the T17+ is 64 TH/s, with a power efficiency of 50 J/TH.
That’s a big improvement from Bitmain’s previous offering. The S17 offered 53TH/s, with an energy efficiency of 40 J/TH. The T17 offered 40TH/s, with an energy efficiency of 55 J/TH. According to the announcement, the new miners also reduce the space between the air inlet and outlets by 50 percent. This, claims Bitmain, helps cool the miners, makes them quieter to run, and ensures their safety.
The S17 + and T17+ will be available for sale Friday morning, and Bitmain promises to deliver them by early December.
“Our new Antminers are at the forefront of mining innovation. They each represent the future of its rig design and power efficiency. We remain committed to our research and development capabilities and will continue to improve our devices,” said Jihan Wu, co-founder of Bitmain, at the WDMS.
ASIC miners are mining computers specially designed to take advantage of Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work system, whereby miners stake computational power to earn Bitcoin by confirming transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. The more powerful your computer, the more Bitcoin you generate.
The crypto bear market hit Bitmain particularly hard, with the company making losses of $310m in the first quarter of 2019 and shuttering its Amsterdam office in January. Since then, Bitmain’s been on a drive to increase efficiency and sustainability in the crypto mining industry; last month it launched the World Digital Mining Map, a platform to connect owners of mining hardware to owners of mining farms.