Even though it has been hinted at for quite some time now, there is such a thing as an Ethereum ASIC miner. More specifically, Bitmain has unveiled the Antminer E3. The device will go on sale for the low price of $800 and can achieve a hashrate of up to 180MH/s. Given the current prices of GPUs, this may be a far better investment for novice miners.
For Ethereum, it has been a rather interesting year. With the overall interest in mining skyrocketing, this particular altcoin has made numerous headlines. In fact, it is one of the main reasons why gamers are annoyed with the high GPU prices as of right now. Miners are buying up top-end GPUs to mine Ethereum and other currencies. It drives up the price per graphics card, which not to the liking of gamers around the world.
Bitmain’s Potentially Obsolete Ethereum ASIC
Bitmain may have come up with a solution for this problem. More specifically, the new Antminer E3 is suited to mine Ethereum only. It does mine currencies using the Ethash algorithm as well, although those are fairly limited in number. With this unit, users can expect a hashrate of 180 MH/s at 800W. It is an efficient device, especially given its price of “just” $800.
The big question is how useful these devices will be. There is talk about Ethereum hard forking to nullify these ASICs altogether. Whether or not that venture will be successful, remains to be seen. Right now, there are a lot more questions than answers in this regard. If a hard fork were to happen, miners may become obsolete before they even arrive at customers’ homes.
Additionally, it is unclear how long Bitmain has been using similar devices. The company is revealing a bunch of new ASICs for different algorithms in quick succession. This seemingly confirms the company has been mining those currencies over the past few months. It would also indicate the company is in control of most cryptocurrency-related network hashrates, which is not a good sign. Rest assured there will be a fair amount of controversy regarding the Antminer E3.
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