There have been rumors about Bitmain releasing its ASICBoost firmware for some time. It reached a point where many were beginning to give up hope, but the wait looks to finally be over. Just a week before Bitcoin’s 10th birthday, the largest crypto mining firm in the world has released a firmware upgrade for its Antminer S7 ASIC mining rigs that will enable them to become more efficient as time progresses. The ASICBoost will essentially improve the longevity of its mining rigs and miners won’t have to upgrade their hardware so often to keep up with hardware changes.
We’ve released new firmware to activate “Overt #AsicBoost” on the #Antminer S9. Firmware for other BM1387-based models coming soon. Learn more about this decision here: https://t.co/hfEfFslyxp Download link: https://t.co/KpkClmWPZk
— BITMAIN [Not giving away ETH] (@BITMAINtech) October 22, 2018
Bitmain Keeping Tech for Itself
Despite the crypto mining community only getting this update now, Bitmain has in fact been using this new firmware for some time now. Bitmain keeps a large portion of each batch of crypto mining rigs for itself, so in order to keep them running at optimal efficiency for as long as possible it has to be utilizing this new firmware. Many have called Bitmain out for this practice in the past, and have complained about how unfair it’s being to its consumers. The feature was disabled and locked on all retail models, but now users can activate it once they upgrade the firmware.
Upgrade at Your Own Discretion
The new firmware upgrade has been causing problems of its own. A number of popular mining pools are not yet compatible with it, meaning that miners cannot connect to the pool to mine cryptos. Slush Pool – one of the most popular crypto mining pools – has noted that it’s not yet compatible with the upgrade, so all miners using its pool should delay upgrading their firmware for the time being. Unfortunately, many miners saw the firmware upgrade become available and jumped at the chance to make use of it, which means that their mining rigs are now idling.
Dear Miners, we strongly recommend you DON’T UPGRADE your S9 devices with the new Bitmain firmware. It is not compatible with BIP310 standard and as a result also not compatible with @slush_pool. We are working hard on providing our own fix asap and will keep you posted.
— Slush Pool ⚡️ (@slush_pool) October 22, 2018
Bitmain Showing Signs of Life
Towards the end of September, Bitmain looked like it was circling the drain and ready to collapse. However, it recently submitted a draft IPO application in a bid to raise funds to secure the future of the company and continue running the largest Bitcoin mining operation the world has ever seen. Bitmain singlehandedly gives China the ability to destroy Bitcoin at will, and there are fears that after the IPO shareholders will come together to dictate how it mines cryptos.
Sales of Bitmain mining rigs are starting to drop in America due to the Trump administration’s recent import tariff hikes, so this new firmware upgrade couldn’t have come at a better time for hardware owners in the states. Hardware will now be efficient for longer, helping miners to balance out the purchase cost and remain profitable. If you mine on Slush Pool it’s best to take your time and follow the official Twitter account to see what you can upgrade safely.
