What is the strongest miner?

What is the strongest miner?

As cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) become more widespread and the price of the flagship digital asset has grown dramatically since the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto’s whitepaper, more people are interested in getting a piece of the pie for themselves.

Although Bitcoin can be purchased on crypto exchanges with fiat or digital money, it can also be acquired through mining and the best way to mine it on a larger scale is through mining rigs. These are normally powerful, highly-specialized sets of hardware elements used for mining operations exclusively. Today, there is a very wide array of different crypto mining hardware to choose from, and the ultimate choice boils down to weighing between hash rate (affecting how much crypto is earned), money invested (how much you pay for the rig), and power consumed (its effect on the environment).

Antminer S19 Pro

With its 110 Th/s hash power, Bitmain’s Antminer S19 Pro is a mining beast ideal for industry-level operations. Despite costing a whopping $10,290, it is the best illustration of the maxim “you get what you pay for.”

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Namely, it is one of the leading performers in terms of hash rate and efficiency, but also consumes the most power – 3,250 W (±5% variation). S19 Pro comes with four cooling fans to keep its running temperature down.

DragonMint T1

Boasting a lower yet decently profitable hash rate of 16TH/s, Halong Mining’s DragonMint T1 is the middle road for those that want a small, but solid mining rig but don’t want to break their budget. Specifically, this trusty little device comes with a price tag of $1,371, includes three chipboards, and consumes 1,480W of power. Furthermore, it is considered one of the more reliable mining devices as it limits the power supply to 12 V.

AntMiner L3+

One of the fastest commercially available Bitcoin mining rigs on the market, AntMiner L3+ packs some serious power, including a hash rate of 504 Mh/s (±7%). It uses up around 800W (±10%) of energy. Featuring a PCI Express connector and built-in control panel, it requires no separate host computer to run. L3+ falls among more affordable mining rigs as it can be purchased for $482. However, the power supply for it is sold separately.

AntMiner D3

At only $249.95, a slightly older yet very popular AntMiner D3 is truly a budget mining machine. Its hash rate is 19.3 Gh/s (±5%), and it consumes 1,200W (±10%) of electricity. However, there’s a small, yet potentially deal-breaking catch. With this piece of mining equipment, a user can only mine Dash (DASH) coins but they can then be converted into Bitcoins to increase profits.

AvalonMiner 1246

Another power player, Canaan’s AvalonMiner 1246 prides itself on the efficiency of 90 Th/s (±3%), as well as two 7-blade cooling fans that prevent dust accumulation on the dashboard, which prolongs its lifespan. If it encounters a malfunction affecting its hash rate, 1246 will automatically alert the user. That said, this machine consumes 3,420 W (-5%, +8%) and costs $4,599.

Need an alternative?

If completely relying on the local power grid for the mining operations is an uncomfortable notion, a more skillful person keen on building things can always assemble their own, albeit weaker mining rig, that would operate solely using solar power. The results may vary.

Largest Bitcoin Mining Farms in the World

Did you there are different types of data centers? Check out more of our data center resources:

• What is a Data Center?
• What is a Colocation Data Center?
• What is an Edge Data Center?

Learn How to Increase Data Center Energy Efficiency

The data center industry has paved the way for Bitcoin mining farms to drive sustainability. Check out our best content on increasing data center energy efficiency:

• What is Data Center Sustainability?
• Top 30 Data Center Sustainability Metrics
• World’s Leading Data Center and Cloud Operators with Zero Carbon Goals
• Green Data Centers Around the World
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• 3 Ways Modern Data Centers are Driving Energy Efficiency
• How is Climate Change Impacting Data Centers Worldwide?

Largest Bitcoin Mining Farms in the World

If all Bitcoin mining operations were a country, they would rank 61st in terms of energy consumption. This is because Bitcoin networks are estimated to contain the computing power equivalent to over 3.7 million supercomputers.

Fundamentally, Bitcoin mining operations and traditional data centers are similar in basic design and operational principles. Power must be brought into the building and distributed to the equipment, air distribution systems cool the equipment, and the building provides protection from outdoor conditions and security threats.

For many Bitcoin mining operations, the owners, exact locations, and details are not made entirely public. However, some of the largest Bitcoin mining farms in the world include:

• Dalian, China
  • Hashrate: 360,000 TH
  • Monthly energy cost: $1,170,000
  • Mines 750 Bitcoin every month
  • Mines 3% of all Bitcoins
  • Hashrate: 1,000 GH
  • Strategically placed in a cold climate
  • Largest cloud mining company in the world
  • Estimated to consume the most electricity of any company in Iceland
  • Hashrate: 38 PH
  • Monthly energy cost: $120,000
  • Mines 600 BTC every month
  • Hashrate: 1.3 PH
  • Located in Washington state due to it having some of the cheapest power in the US at $0.0842 per kWh
  • Started in the owner’s basement
  • Located in a factory building in a small village with attractive energy costs
  • Cool climate helps the mining process and prevents further overheating of equipment
  • One of the oldest mining farms in the world
  • Since 2011, has deployed more than 500 megawatts of computing power and mined more than 600,000 Bitcoin
  • Uses a two-phase immersion cooling system that delivers energy savings as high as 95%

  Key Differences Between Bitcoin Mining Farms and Traditional Data Centers

  While Bitcoin mining farms and traditional data centers share some similarities, several key differences distinguish the two:

  • Server design. Whereas enterprise servers must be able to handle a multitude of applications, mining servers are designed to accomplish only one task. Mining servers can operate in temperatures as high as 90°F and 10% to 80% relative humidity. A powerful mining server might have an electrical demand of 1.4 kW or more and dissipates high amounts of heat. As such, some manufacturers include a controller that varies the server’s fan speed, voltage, and clock speed based on its temperature. Mining servers also have larger cross-sectional areas to allow for better airflow across their specialized chips to enable better heat dissipation.
  • Building structure. Mining farms are often found in storage facilities or warehouses. They have low levels of reliability and are not entirely protected from extreme weather events. Operational errors and spontaneous failures of site infrastructure are not uncommon, and there is often little to no redundancy in cooling systems. With less cooling infrastructure, the mechanical rooms are smaller, which creates more space for mining servers but increases the required power capacity.
  • Air distribution. In a traditional data center, servers are mounted in racks that secure them in place, allow for cable management, and enable proper airflow. In a mining farm, servers are often mounted on industrial shelving units, allowing for quick replacement in the event of a device failure. This shelving is cost-effective to purchase and install. The openness of this configuration allows air to flow above, below, and on both sides of the equipment. Since there is no formal airflow management like hot/cold aisle containment, the air temperature at the inlet of the servers varies greatly.
  • Cooling. By reducing or eliminating cooling system components like chillers, cooling towers, pumps, piping, and ductwork, mining farms can significantly reduce energy costs. Plus, with servers that can operate in high temperatures, outdoor air can often be used for cooling with no mechanical cooling required. Therefore, the geographic location of a mining farm is highly important. Cooler locations with servers that can operate in the hottest temperatures result in the highest energy efficiency. Some data centers that accommodate cryptocurrency mining are leveraging liquid immersion cooling in which liquid surrounds the servers, absorbs the heat, and converts to gas to dissipate the heat.
  • Energy consumption and efficiency. Energy costs are the primary concern for mining farms. Unlike enterprise servers where it is difficult to draw a one-to-one correlation between a server’s energy consumption and its return-on-investment, this metric is easily obtainable for mining servers since they only perform one task. Understanding the influencing parameters on energy consumption and financial return is important to maximizing profit.
  • Reliability. Reliability is not a not key concern for mining farms, unlike their enterprise counterparts. This is because if a server fails, it is simply quickly replaced. Money is lost, but it is not on the same level as an enterprise data center experiencing downtime and impacting hundreds or thousands of customers.
  • Maximum capacity. Mining farms are densely packed with power-hungry equipment that runs at maximum capacity 24x7x365 compared to traditional data centers whose workloads fluctuate with demand. Mining data centers have reached hundreds of kilowatts per rack, orders of magnitude higher than racks in traditional data centers.
  • Sustainability concerns. The industrial scale and massive power consumption inherent to cryptocurrency mining operations have led to negative attention from governments, media, and consumers. Countries like China, Russia, Vietnam, Bolivia, Columbia, and Ecuador have already banned Bitcoin from being used as payment for goods and services.

  Can Data Centers Pave the Way to a Greener Bitcoin?

  Bitcoin mining currently consumes around 110 terawatt-hours per year. This is 0.55% of global energy consumption and is roughly equivalent to the annual energy demand of Malaysia or Sweden.

  The current carbon emissions caused by Bitcoin mining is equivalent to 1 million transatlantic flights, or the energy output of the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Hungary, or Peru.

  The majority of Bitcoin mining is done where energy is abundant and cheap. For example, 65% of the current hashrate is based in China where coal power is cheap, hydro and wind power are plentiful, and locally manufactured mining hardware is cost-effective and convenient to deliver.

  Estimates for what percentage of Bitcoin mining uses renewable energy range from 39% to 73%. Also, Bitcoin mining rigs’ short shelf-life is expected to result in a substantial amount of electronic waste.

  Bitcoin mining is continuing to grow as an industry. Beowulf Mining expects to deploy 500 megawatts of Bitcoin capacity by 2025. Riot Blockchain projects that its energy consumption will grow from 51 megawatts to 257 megawatts by the end of 2022. BitFarms says it may add as much as 210 megawatts of capacity at an operation in Argentina.

  In the future, the entire Bitcoin network is estimated to consume up to 185 terawatt-hours each year, almost as much as all global data centers consume annually.

  This consumed energy would result in 90.2 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, comparable to the carbon footprint of metropolitan London and more than annual emissions related to global gold mining. As such, there are growing sustainability concerns about Bitcoin mining.

  A decade ago, the data center industry faced similar concerns and was able to dramatically increase efficiency and use of renewables to the point where many organizations are now targeting zero carbon emissions. Energy consumption by global data centers grew by just 6% from 2010-2018 while the number of physical servers grew 30% and virtual machines increased by 550%. This was an impressive reversal from the 90% growth in data center energy consumption from 2000-2005.

  Bitcoin miners may need to learn from their traditional counterparts to avoid regulators’ enforcing higher electricity rates, equipment confiscation, additional taxes, or restrictions on cryptocurrencies.

  Best Bitcoin Miners, Reviewed for 2023

  

  Interested in mining bitcoin? Today, efficient and reliable specialised bitcoin mining hardware is necessary to mine bitcoin. In this review, you discover a list of bitcoin miners so that you can find the best bitcoin miner for you.

  Evolution of Bitcoin Mining Hardware

  Bitcoin mining refers to the use of your computing power to process transactions on the Bitcoin network for which you are rewarded in the form of new bitcoin. The process is competitive since the bitcoin reward is given to the miner who solves the mathematical computation first. Consequently, miners focus on machines that offer high computational power to contend with the ever-increasing mining difficulty to remain profitable.

  

  Initially, miners relied on CPU mining through their PCs and laptops but the method became untenable due to the slow computational speeds. So, miners moved on to use GPUs (graphical processing units) in computer graphic cards since they produced more hashing power and consumed less energy.

  By 2011, GPUs were overtaken by field-programmable gate array (FPGA) processors that are joined to PCs using a USB connection. An FPGA was better than its predecessors in terms of power consumption. Furthermore, these devices ushered the establishment of concentrated mining farms.

  Currently, BTC miners use ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) devices as they are the most efficient and powerful bitcoin miner hardware available today.

  How to Choose a Bitcoin Miner

  There are three main things to look out for when buying a bitcoin miner:

  1. Hash rate: Hash rate represents the number of calculations that a miner can perform in a second. Therefore, the higher the hash rate the more chances you have to solve the complex algorithms and earn bitcoin.
  2. Price: There is the common phrase “cheap is expensive”. This applies to bitcoin miners where cheap hardware will mine fewer bitcoin and prove unprofitable in the long run. If you want fast and efficient hardware you will have to invest more.
  3. Energy consumption: It is important for you to check the electricity rating in watts and determine whether mining income covers your electricity costs. Obviously, the more powerful hardware you buy, the higher your energy expenses. However, there are some cost-efficient solutions out there.

  Below you will find a list of the top five best bitcoin miners you can purchase today.

  Top 5 Best Bitcoin Miners

  The Dragonmint T16

  

  Image by halongmining.com

  The Dragonmint T16 is one of the most impressive mining rigs today. The Halong Mining ASIC miner was made available for shipment in March 2018. The mining hardware is efficient in terms of energy consumption and overall effectiveness.

  Dragonmint T16 is user-friendly and comes with a comprehensible and easy to follow manual. The bitcoin miner utilises SHA–256 algorithm with a hash rate of 16 TH/s. It deploys a DM8575 GHS chip that consumes approximately 0.075 J/GH of electricity. In addition, it has an ethernet connection and dual fan.

  Moreover, thanks to the implementation of the ASICBOOST algorithm in Dragonmint T16, the efficiency can be improved by 20 percent. Taking into account its power consumption level, hash rate, and price, the mining rig offers miners a higher chance of profitability compared to other hardware. While it is profitable in large-scale mining operations, it will also benefit individual miners.

  Here is a summary of the main features:

  • Hash rate: 16TH/s
  • Weight: 19 pounds
  • Power consumption: 1600W
  • Efficiency: 0.075J/GH
  • Price: $2,700

  Bitmain Antminer S9

  

  Image by Bitmain.com

  The Bitcoin Antminer S9 is the latest version of the popular hardware solution. Widely regarded as one of the best bitcoin miners in 2017, the mining rig has an enormous hash rate of 14 TH/s, which is more than sufficient for efficient mining.

  The ASIC machine needs 1350 W power supply, and you should use Antminer APW-12 1600 Watt if you want to achieve maximum energy efficiency. This makes it twice more efficient than its predecessor the S7 model. Also, you can increase your earning potential by joining a mining pool, and purchase multiple mining rigs. You stand to make up to $1,900 per chip.

  Here is a summary of the main features:

  • Hash rate: 13.5 TH/s
  • Weight: 10.14 pounds
  • Power consumption: 1350W
  • Efficiency: 0.098J/GH
  • Price: from $425

  Bitmain Antminer S7

  

  Image by Bitmain.com

  The Bitmain Antminer S7 is one of the most popular bitcoin miners since it is easy to set up. In addition, the mining hardware is reasonably priced, powerful and efficient. Launched in 2015, the mining rig gained notoriety the following year with users claiming to experience an average of 4.7 to 4.9 TH/s hash rate.

  However, with computations becoming more difficult, it is doubtful that running only one device alone will generate a profit. In order to maximise from your Antminer S7, you can either buy multiple units or optimise one. While the mining rig was originally priced at about $2,000 during its release the price has gone down to almost $200 at the time of writing this article.

  While it is no longer in production, you can buy a used device on Amazon or eBay.

  Here is a summary of the main features:

  • Hash rate: 4.73 TH/s
  • Weight: 7.5 pounds
  • Power consumption: 1300 W
  • Efficiency: 0.098 J/GH
  • Price: from $99(used model)

  AvalonMiner 741

  

  Image by Amazon.com

  The AvalonMiner 741 is a bitcoin miner from Canaan company and has an overall efficiency of 0.16 J/GH, which is higher compared to other devices within its price range. Also, this bitcoin miner offers a variety of customisation options.

  The mining hardware has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to navigate for new users. The device is also easy to set up and use. To get started you have to download the firmware of the mining rig. Subsequently, the controller has to be plugged in and connected and the cables connected to the mining rig.

  Avalon 741 has a set of LED lights that indicate hardware’s status whether it is inactive, active, overheating or even failing. The lights also show the status of your connection (the miner) to the controller.

  The ASIC bitcoin miner provides a hash rate of 7.3 TH/s and consists of an innovative cooling system that allows 88 chips to function as a single unit, as well as support the mining running on 24/7.

  Here is a summary of the main features:

  • Hash rate: 7.3 TH/s
  • Weight: 4.3 kg
  • Power consumption: 1150W
  • Efficiency: 0.16 J/GH
  • Price: from $200 (used models)

  Bitmain Antminer S9i

  

  Image by Bitmain.com

  The Bitmain Antminer S9i is presently considered the most popular bitcoin miner in the market. The mining hardware has eclipsed Antminer S9, which is currently sold out on Bitmain, as the largest ASIC model in the Antminer series.

  Released in May 2018, the S9i is considered to be similar to the S9 model except for a few minor upgrades. The notable improvement between the two variants is improved energy efficiency for the S9i model.

  Therefore, the Antminer S9i is widely regarded as a more efficient option with a rating of 0.094 W/GH. In addition, the hardware has an in-built web interface that allows for easy configuration of the device. This removes the necessity of downloading any mining software so as to set up the rig.

  The S9i enables bitcoin mining, bitcoin cash, and other SHA256-based coins. You can buy the device together with the power source on the Bitmain website though this will likely increase the cost.

  Here is a summary of the main features:

  • Hash rate: 14 TH/s
  • Weight: 10.3 pounds
  • Power consumption: 1320W
  • Efficiency: 0.094 W/GH
  • Price: $385

  Choosing the right bitcoin mining hardware for your mining operation can make the difference between being profitable and unprofitable. Moreover, it is also important to choose the right bitcoin mining software to ensure that your miners are running efficiently.

  Any of the five bitcoin miners in the list should be a good choice for your mining farm, whether you are a small-scale at-home miner or a large mining company.