Dragonmint – heard of it yet? It’s highly likely with how much attention this new ASIC mining rig’s already garnered in the crypto space.
Indeed, it seems everyone’s talking about this new rig – apparently for good reason, too, as the Dragonmint’s being bill as the “world’s most efficient Bitcoin miner.”
A pretty impressive claim that suggests pretty impressive hardware.
Could current Bitcoin mining rig dominators Bitmain soon be getting a run for their money?
Let’s take a closer look.
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To start: inside the new Dragonmint
When it comes to contemporary Bitcoin mining rigs, Bitmain’s Antminer S9 is arguably the global standard.
Interestingly, then, the Dragonmint 16T model is said to be “30 percent more energy efficient” than the S9. If true, that’s quite a significant boost.
Accordingly, a single tube Dragonmint rig can generate 16 TH/s, or 16,000,000,000,000 hashes per second.
The worlds most efficient Bitcoin miner https://t.co/CKcH2C0i7N 🚀
— Halong Mining (@HalongMining) November 22, 2017
The 16T’s modified chips are apparently based on DM8575 ASIC chips – these modifications allowing each of the Dragonmint’s chips to achieve 85 GH/s.
As the Dragonmint has yet to hit the market, though, the verdict’s still out. Like the lot of Doubting Thomases we are, we’ll believe definitively once these rigs and their specs have been tested by the general public.
What about the price?
Right now, the going price for a 16T is $1,595.
But that’s not all that meets the eye – you have to order five 16Ts at the moment to meet the minimum purchase requirements. So five times $1,595.
You can also nab a 1600 watt power supply unit with your order. Just keep in mind that shipments won’t be going out until March 2018.
Who’s behind Dragonmint?
Btcdrak, a pseudonymous Bitcoin Core dev who wants to break up Bitmain’s dominance in the mining hardware market by offering a new rig that’s superior to Antminer S9s.
As for the actual firm behind Dragonmint, that’d be Halong Mining.
Major Bitcore Core dev and Blockstream CEO Adam Back is a major supporter of Btcdrak’s latest venture, too. While not involved in the rigs production, Back has endorsed the product, declaring on Twitter that he’s already ordered $200,000 USD worth of the new 16Ts.
I can confirm I personally ordered $200k #dragonmint's and pre-paid another $80k group buy.
— Adam Back (@adam3us) November 22, 2017
I can confirm I have seen #DragonMint's operating in person. they are very real, specs as advertised. this is huge, biggest Bitcoin news this year. site https://t.co/cFPfuGllGe explains it's development story back to Dec 2016. happy thanksgiving Bitcoin news for US Bitcoiners.
— Adam Back (@adam3us) November 22, 2017
Suspicions abound, though
Some in the community are taking a “sounds too good to be true” approach.
Many on social media have already cried foul over Dragonmint, alleging it’s improbable that Dragonmint could come out with new hardware that’s so far ahead of the competition within just one year.
This allegation has led some to believe that Dragonmints are just modified S9 rigs, as suggested by Twitter user @digitsu:
Somebody should test and see if these new #dragonmint miners aren't just modified S9s with ASICBOOST turned ON by default and working with SEGWIT. Seems too fishy that a new chip can improve efficiency by so much in just one year. pic.twitter.com/PGRqmW3Cia
— Jerry David Chan (@digitsu) November 23, 2017
Yet, for now, there’s no proof that such “modifications” are the case. And until legitimate evidence is presented to that end, we’ll have to chalk these suspicions up as precisely that – suspicions.
If the Dragonmint ends up being the real deal, then Bitcoin mining is about to get a lot more efficient for a lot of people. We’ll all have to keep our eyes peeled and see what happens next.
Featured Image via Twitter
