Bitmain Announces the Antminer X3, a CryptoNight ASIC Miner

There is never a boring day in the world of cryptocurrency. Something new happens every day, even though not everyone will like every new development. In the case of Bitmain, the company is hopping on the CryptoNight ASIC mining bandwagon. Its most recent unit, known as the Antminer X3, will certainly be of great interest to a lot of people.

Why The Antminer X3 Matters

Anyone who has been involved in cryptocurrency for more than two weeks will know that different cryptocurrencies have different mining algorithms. As such, there is different mining hardware for different coins, depending on how each underlying algorithm works exactly. While CPU and GPU mining are no longer suitable for Bitcoin itself, there are quite a few altcoins for which this approach still makes sense.

Among those coins are Ethereum, Dash, Zcash, Monero, and a few others. It seems Bitmain, the world’s leading customer-oriented mining ASIC manufacturer, is looking for ways to enter these markets sooner rather than later. As of right now, it is working on building the Antminer X3, a completely new mining unit designed to mine CryptoNight currencies.

Consequently, any currency using the CryptoNight algorithm will be affected by ASIC miners hitting the network very soon. One currency notably absent from this list is Monero, as its developers are allegedly working on changes to ensure their altcoin remains ASIC-resistant at all times, regardless of new developments in the area of ASIC mining. It’s a smart approach, but there are other coins using this algorithm which can still be mined with the Antminer X3.

While we have little information on this new mining unit, the cost is quite steep. With a price of $11,999 for the first batch – which surprisingly lowers to $7,599 for the second batch – the investment will not be worth it for a lot of people. Considering the cost of electricity and the volatility of all altcoin markets, it is evident this mining unit will not be the biggest success anytime soon.

The Antminer X3 provides a hashrate of 220 KH/s, which is well above what most GPUs can provide as of right now. It is unclear how Bitmain aims to achieve this, as the company has not revealed any specifics on its chipset specs or other parts which make up this mining unit. Moreover, there is no official indication as to whether or not a lot of people have been waiting for such an ASIC miner.

What makes this news even more interesting is that Bitmain is limiting the number of units people can order from each batch. Unlike other models, customers can order only one Antminer X3 per batch. Rest assured some people will try to bypass this limitation in rather creative ways, but it is evident the company wants to make the distribution of its new miners as fair as possible.