The war between Bitcoin mining companies increases before it halves

MicroBT, headquartered in Shenzhen, China, is launching three new high-end bitcoin miners in a fierce competition with Bitmain before the network is halved in less than 30 days.

Chen Jianbing, COO of MicroBT, announced at an online event on Friday that the three new WhatsMiner M30S +, M30S ++ and M31S + models are available both in stock and in pre-orders that are shipped in up to 30 pieces can days.

This measure underlines MicroBT’s tough competition in the multi-billion dollar mining machinery market with its main competitor Bitmain, which plans to deliver the first batch of its latest AntMiner S19 and S19 Pro miners in May.

At the event, Chen highlighted MicroBT’s rapid growth in 2019 after selling 600,000 WhatsMiner M20 series units, which, as reported in February, were impacted by Bitmain’s longstanding market dominance.

The COO said that The sales volume in 2019 also doubled compared to 2018. increased the computing power sold to 35 million terahashes per second (TH / s). This corresponded to 35% of the total hash rate of the Bitcoin network at the end of December.

The new models complement MicroBT’s M30 product line, which also includes the previously released WhatsMiner M30S and M31S.

Efficiency war

With the latest devices from the two major manufacturers to be delivered soon, the Bitcoin market for mining hardware enters the so-called “3X era”, which refers to a mining efficiency of less than 40 watts per year Terahash (W / T) .

For more context, the W / T measures how much electricity a mining machine consumes for every Terahash computing power. Since bitcoin mining is a very energy-intensive computing process, a miner with a lower W / T ratio could achieve a higher operating margin.

This metric has grown significantly in importance with the upcoming halving of Bitcoin, reducing the amount of Bitcoin mining deserves from around 1800 to 900 units per day.

According to the company, the M30S + can calculate with 100 TH / s and an efficiency of 34 W / T, while the M30S ++ can calculate with 31 W / T up to 112 TH / s. The previously published M30S is said to offer an efficiency of 38 W / T.

The M31S + and the previous M31S have an efficiency of 42 W / T. However, Chen said that the new model has the option to switch to a low voltage mode to improve efficiency below 40 W / T.

To put this in the right light: According to the specifications of Bitmain, the AntMiner S19 and S19 Pro machines with 95 TH / s and 110 TH / s can expect an efficiency of 34 W / T and 30 W / T, respectively.

Hard times

But you could say that All mining manufacturers are facing a difficult time selling equipment under current market conditions, with mining operations resigning to see how Bitcoin’s price will develop after halving.

Leading manufacturers had to cut prices for their mining equipment after Bitcoin’s price drop on March 12, the biggest sale since 2013.

Vincent Zhang, sales manager at MicroBT, said at the launch event that the WhatsMiner M30S is now priced at $ 1,962, compared to $ 2,500 when it was launched. For the new models announced today, the M30S + and M30S ++ will cost $ 2,740 and $ 3,899, respectively.

After the recent price cuts, manufacturers like Bitmain also had to partially reimburse customers who pre-order at the highest price, a policy that the company has maintained in recent years.

Zhang said that MicroBT is now also applying this policy to satisfy customers. As with Bitmain, users who pre-ordered at a price above the retail value will be rewarded with the difference in cash at the time of delivery. These can only be exchanged up to 10% of the value of the additional goods purchased from MicroBT.

Although MicroBT gained a large market share in 2019, delivery of the devices to customers on time as promised was difficult and delays of up to several months occurred.

Zhang said the company will compensate customers with cash coupons worth 0.3% of the value of a pre-ordered machine for each day that delivery is delayed beyond the promised date.

It should also be noted that MicroBT extends its warranty for the M30 series to one year after delivery, longer than the industry standard six month warranty.

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Translated version of Wolfie Zhao’s article published on CoinDesk.