Antminer S9 teams still produce 23% of the Bitcoin hashrate

According to new studies by Coin Metrics, Bitmain’s Antminer S9 produce around 23% of Bitcoin’s total hash performance.

The company’s investigation found that The S9 contributed up to 78% of total network hash performance for 2018when the mining hardware product was the best-selling on the market. However, that number has steadily declined since then, while other miners’ share of the network has increased.

The composition of the Hashrate The entire mining equipment network was of interest to ASIC miners and manufacturers as it shows the pace at which the market is launching new products.

In fact, the Bitcoin network will go through the third halving next week when the block reward drops from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BT. For this reason, many miners switched their equipment to more efficient models in the past year in order to counteract the expected decline in sales.

In March, the China-based Spark Capital Fund estimated this The total hashrate provided by the S9 was approximately 20% to 25%. At the beginning of the year, the brokerage company for mining machinery, Blockware Solutions, put this figure at around 50%.

Instead of basing these estimates on experience, Coin Metrics Research calculated the percentage of S9 based on the distribution of the nonces. The nonces are numerical values ​​that mining teams generate randomly to obtain the right to add a block to the blockchain. Drawing charts of the distribution of nonces over time show empty space lines, indicating that some parts of the nonces are not shown as often.

According to research, these lines are likely caused by the way S9 and S7, another series of Antminer products, show the Nonces; this is not entirely accidental. Therefore, the area of ​​empty space can be caused by the fact that S9 and S7 skip certain areas of nonces and are a proxy for use in the network.

However The fate of the S9 as an outdated model may not be over yetAt least for the moment. As the Bitcoin price recovers from its March decline and some regions of southwestern China are entering the rainy season, some miners may choose to stay with the S9 as the profit margin remains sustainable.

At a performance at an event late last month, Bitmains sales manager Kun Yu expressed the same view and advised those with access to cheap energy to keep or increase their S9 inventory. “For water mine owners, it is recommended that more attention be paid to the S9K models,” said Yu.

Translated version of Celia Wan’s article published in The Block.