A recent press release from cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain has announced the launch of a groundbreaking new mining product—the Antminer S9 Hydro. The new miner features an innovate water cooling system, offering lower noise outputs and higher energy savings. This is the eighth new product launched by Bitmain this year and may serve to address concerns surrounding Bitmain’s declining market-share in crypto mining products.
Like its predecessors, the new Antminer S9 Hydro supports the SHA256 algorithm, specializing in mining mainstream digital currencies like BTC and BCH.
“Antminer S9 Hydro has a rated hashrate of 18T and a wall power consumption of about 1728W,” reads the press release. “Unlike traditional air cooled miners, S9 Hydro adopts a water cooled system for heat dissipation and it can mine along with a specific power source: the APW5. Individuals or families can use a S9 Hydro-Hex external water circulation module for heat dissipation, while in large mining farms, low noise and high energy saving mining effects can be achieved with outdoor water source.”
The new water cooling design of the Antminer S9 Hydro works to reduce heat dissipation and high energy costs commonly associated with other crypto mining products. The S9 Hydro easily links to any outdoor water source which is used to cool down the computing boards and other components inside the unit. While running, the S9 is reported to lower chip temperatures by 5 degrees celsius, significantly improving performance and stability.
The water cooling system also greatly reduces noise production coming from the miner. The S9 hydro can decrease noise by up to 20db compared to traditional air cooled miners:
“In large mining farms equipped with outdoor water source, the reduction of chip temperature will help save about 8%-12% of the electricity, an obvious energy-saving advantage. Unlike the use of fans of air cooled miners, the water cooling system can directly enter the inside of the miner to dissipate heat, and ensuring the long-term operation stability.”
Lastly, the S9 boasts significant improvements in dustproofing and ease of maintenance. According to Bitmain, 95 percent of the power consumption of the S9 can be moved external via the water circulation system. This greatly reduces the required air volume of the miner and effectively removes dust deposits inside of the machine, dramatically reducing the risks of short circuiting or corrosion of the miner’s internal components.
Suggested Reading : Learn more about proof-of-work (PoW) mining in our guide to Bitcoin.
Bitmain Seeks to Recapture Market Dominance on Mining Products
Recent analysis published by Alliance Bernstein has claimed that “Bitmain’s uninterrupted cash flow unfortunately is now in question as competitors may catch up in technologies.”
The suspected lack of cash flow for Bitmain has been largely attributed to the mining giant losing its grip on its past market dominance in mining product sales. The Alliance Bernstein report states,
“In 2017 Bitmain had the best mining rig and was able to fund the working capital with customer deposits and hence happily saw its operating cashflow surge to US $1.3B, on our analysis. As coin price plummeted, customer deposits dwindled & Bitmain was forced to draw from its operating cash flow in 1Q18. Going forward, the competitiveness of Bitmain’s chips is in question, as Bitmain failed in a 10nmchip & possibly other projects too. Rivals now may have caught up in technologies and Bitmain’s inventory (US$1.2B as of 1Q18) may face major a write-down risk.”
However, the innovative design of the Antminer S9 Hydro may help Bitmain reclaim dominance in the crypto mining market. Bitmain is currently preparing for an IPO listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange scheduled for Q4 of 2018 or Q1 of 2019. Bitmain’s IPO offering could be as high as $18 billion at a $50 billion—twice the size of Coinbase’s IPO and nearly $2 billion higher than Facebook’s IPO.
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