Tag: ant miner

 

Where Did They Go? 10,000 Antminers ‘Missing’ From a Facility in Mongolia

The power struggle at crypto mining giant Bitmain is continuing. Not only have the accusations of certain “illegal power seizures” made headlines, but the physical theft of mining hardware as well.
Bitmain-owned Antminer’s Wechat channel made a post alleging that former Bitmain staff has “illegally moved” around 10,000 Antiminer Bitcoin mining rigs from a Mongolia-based company-owned facility.

The machines included models from the S17 and T17 series, as well as the flagship S9 miners, and they were reportedly removed in mid-July. This reportedly caused serious economic losses to Bitmain and its customers. The fact that the incident has been reported to the police as well as public security authorities acts as further proof that this allegation is not just another story.
At stake is not only Bitmain’s personal hardware but also hardware belonging to its clients, as there are many who choose to have their mining hardware hosted at the manufacturer’s mining rigs.
Bitmain’s co-founder, Micree Ketuan Zhan, accused his other co-founder Jihan Wu of being the one responsible for the “illegal transfer” of the mining hardware.

Bitmain’s power brawl

This conflict seems to have drawn two co-founders further apart, as they are now furiously fighting over who has the position of the legal representative at Bitmain.
This public battle started in October 2019 when Jihan Wu reportedly considered Zhan responsible for the illegal power seizure.

This battle is apparently growing out of the business field, as Bitmain’s CFO was arrested in May after supposedly participating in a purported “mob attack” on the co-founder Micree Ketuan Zhan. In June, reports showed that Zhan had hired guards to forcibly seize control of the Bitmain’s Beijing office.
At present, Jihan Wu retains formal authority over Bitmain’s operations based in Hong Kong.

 

US Firm Buys 17,000 Bitcoin Mining Rigs From Bitmain

Core Scientific, a US-based blockchain hosting provider, signed a deal to buy the next-generation Bitcoin mining machines from Bitmain. The company will purchase over 17,000 S19 Antminers from the Chinese magnate Bitmain on behalf of its clients as well as for its own use. This purchase will be the largest number of S19 machines purchased by a single entity, according to Core Scientific.

Kevin Turner, former COO of Microsoft and current president and CEO of Core Scientific, said, “Core Scientific has received, and started testing the first of Bitmain’s newest S19 ASIC miners, and has seen material success in increasing existing hash rate to achieve a 110 TH/s (terahashes per second) ± 3%.”
All this is happening because the state of Texas started attracting a number of mining facilities with its pricing and incentives. Just last October, Bitmain opened a facility for Bitcoin mining in Rockdale, Texas.

Bitcoin interest growing in North America

Russell Cann, Core Scientific’s Chief Customer Service Officer, acknowledged the increased interest in the growing hash rate via North American mining operations. He said that he views the increase in interest can be attributed to the growing acceptance of cryptocurrencies as an asset class, as well as a testament to North America having much better investing characteristics than before. On top of that, when it comes to mining, North America has, in his opinion, stable geopolitical and regulatory environment, suitable climatic conditions as well as multiple energy sources available.
Cann noted that the most important thing for mining facilities is that they don’t have to worry about regulators changing their opinion on mining every other day, which is one of the main reasons they chose Texas. On top of that, the recent collapse of energy pricing just makes the whole North American region more attractive.