Bitmain rolled out its next-generation Antminer S21 and S21 Hydro ASIC miners at the World Digital Mining Summit (WDMS) in Hong Kong on Sept. 22, revealing the essential efficiency stats the whole business has been ready for. The S21 has a hash charge of 200 terahashes per second (TH/s) and an efficiency of 17.5 joules per terahash (J/T), whereas the S21 hydro hashes at 335 TH/s and 16 J/T, which is notable provided that till not too long ago, most Bitcoin ASICS have been working above the 20 J/T stage.
With electrical energy prices persevering with to rise year-over-year and the Bitcoin halving projected to happen in April 2024, ASIC efficiency is rapidly turning into the paramount focus of miners, and many are additionally pivoting towards folding in renewable energy sources as a core part of their operations.
Bitcoin miners focus on efficiency and renewable energy
Sustainable development in the mining industry was a core theme mentioned in a majority of the panels at the WDMS. In the opening roundtable, staff members from Terrawulf, Core Scientific, CleanSpark and Iris Energy shared their views on how additional integration of renewable energy sources will change into a vital technique to implement for a lot of miners after the April 2024 Bitcoin provide halving.
Based on Nazar Khan, Terrawulf’s chief working officer:
“There’s a big transition going on in the provide facet of the era course of; there’s a concerted effort to decarbonize the whole provide stack, and so after we discuss Bitcoin miners consuming extra renewable energy, that’s a part of a broader theme that’s taking place throughout the United States with out Bitcoin mining as properly. The position that we play is finding our Bitcoin mining masses in locations the place that’s taking place and how can we facilitate that decarbonization course of.“
One impression of the upcoming provide halving is that miners will keep the similar capital and operational prices, plus the must pay down any revolving money owed, whereas basically seeing their block reward distribution minimize in half.
Because of this, miners will both want to extend the proportion of their hash charge derived from sustainable energy sources or make efficiency changes to their ASIC fleet to take care of or enhance their profitability.
Relating to the rollout of the Antminer S21 and its potential impression on the mining business, BMC founder Justin Kramer stated:
“The S21, if dependable, pretty priced and available — and sure, that’s lots of ifs with Bitmain’s historical past — might revolutionize the crypto mining panorama with its efficiency. It’s principally packing the energy of two S19 100T miners into one unit. Regardless of this, the burgeoning aftermarket firmware market, coupled with hydro/immersion techniques, give miners extra instruments to maintain older era miners, equivalent to the S19, worthwhile additionally. Thus, whereas the S21 represents a notable development, it might not render sub 110 TH/s miners totally out of date.”
When requested about what else caught this eye from the S21 launch, Kramer famous that:
“I like that Bitmain is rewarding environmentally pleasant mining farms with higher pricing and superior supply with their new Carbon Impartial Certificates. However, I’ll add that, it was a bit of stunning after I observed that each new S21 fashions provide 33% extra hash charge (S21 200T versus 151T on S19j XP; S21 hydro is 335T versus the S19 XP Hydro at 257T). Is that this a coincidence? I’m uncertain, and it possible alerts extra of the similar systematic mannequin releases from Bitmain the place a slight tweak to the firmware and possibly a couple of different gadgets which are adjusted leads to a average enhance in hash charge and a brand-new miner.”
Bitcoin is en path to turning into an ESG asset
A theme of the previous few years has been a rise in Bitcoin miners and BTC advocates pushing again in opposition to the assertion that Bitcoin mining is dangerous for the atmosphere, and that the business’s reliance on carbon-based energy manufacturing accelerates emissions.
Countering this angle, Hong Kong Sustaintech Basis professor in accounting and finance, Haitian Lu, bluntly introduced that:
“Bitcoin mining is selling renewable energy adoption in lots of areas.”
Lu defined that “over the years, Bitcoin mining has change into extra environment friendly and can also be utilizing cleaner energy. Historical past tells us that human growth from an agricultural society to industrialization to the way forward for a digitalized economic system goes with each growing energy consumption per capita. What makes the distinction is human’s potential to make use of renewable energy will increase, thus reaching sustainable growth.”
Like the views shared by different panelists, Lu stated that Bitcoin miners’ participation in demand response agreements with energy producers and distributors results in energy grid efficiency, and they “present an financial incentive for the growth of renewable energy “promotion and growth of renewable energy tasks.”
Along with Bitcoin mining tapping into stranded energy, encouraging the growth of renewable energy tasks and serving to to stability electrical grids, the efficiency developments of next-generation ASICs like the Antminer S21 scale back miners’ energy consumption whereas additionally permitting them to spice up their income.
