Bitfury is a well-respected company in the world of Bitcoin and blockchain. Not only are they aiding in creating network nodes and running a mining pool, but they also developing Bitcoin mining hardware. A new upgrade to their 16cm chip goes to show things will be getting fascinating over the coming years.
It is always positive to see more competition in the Bitcoin mining business. Not that Bitfury is a new player by any means, but they are the latest one to come up with significant mining chip developments. The company is now aiming to reach as much as 30% of the total network hashrate over the next few years, although a higher percentile would not be out of the question either.
A Screenshot of Bitfury Dominating Bitcoin Mining
On the other hand, the vast majority of Bitfury 16nm chips will be sold to third-party customers. Decentralization is a vital aspect of Bitcoin, and Bitfury wants miners from all over the world to use their chips. This attributes to decentralization in a way, even though most of the hardware will – most likely- end up in Chinese hands.
BAM: Our upgrade to 16nm chip tech finally on its way !! This is the most advanced tech for next 2 yrs! Go Go Go! Nothing stopping us now!! pic.twitter.com/eNC8PB7DXb
— George Kikvadze 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@BitfuryGeorge) October 13, 2016
The bigger question is whether or not these chips will be made available to the general public. Companies will be receiving the majority of these mining chips first, leaving very little hardware on the table for regular consumers. Since very few people buy chips to build their own mining boards, that is not entirely surprising either.
One Reddit user pointed out a very likely scenario for this mining chips. According to him, it is probably the chips will only be used by Bitfury and their close partners. No miners with these 16nm ASIC chips will be designed for the consumer market. After all, why sell something to others while you can make a lot of money from using it yourself?
Despite these potential drawbacks, the new 16nm chip is quite an improvement for the Bitcoin company. Their 28nm ASIC chip is five times less efficient, which is quite a significant factor. Reducing the electricity costs to operate a Bitcoin miner at high speeds is a positive evolution for the mining scene. It will be interesting to see how everything plays out in the coming months, though.
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock
