Exclusive: Shenma's next-generation mining machine M50S may be released at the end of the year, with a capacity of about 30J/T and will continue to use Samsung's 8nm

Wu Blockchain learned that Shenma's next-generation main mining machine M50S has started research and development at the beginning of the year, and may be released for trial production at the end of the year, start selling futures at the beginning of next year, and deliver in the middle of the year.

M50S will continue to use Samsung 8nm chips, and the energy efficiency ratio may be increased to about 30J/T . The price is currently uncertain, or it needs to be determined based on the future currency price. The name may also change and may not be called M50S. Based on the current currency price, the price may increase by 30%-50% based on M30S. However, Shenma may also launch an upgraded version of M30S before then.

Currently, the high-end market of Bitcoin mining machines is monopolized by Shenma and Bitmain. Only these two companies can produce mining machines within 40J/T. They rely on Samsung and TSMC, the only two high-end wafer foundries in the world. With the current price of the currency and the future bullish situation, the high-computing mining machines of the two companies are in a situation of "one machine is hard to find".

From the chip perspective, TSMC's process has a greater advantage, and the advantage is getting bigger and bigger. Currently, TSMC's 5nm has begun mass production, and Bitmain is also one of the first companies to use TSMC's 5nm. In contrast, Samsung's 7nm and 5nm developments were unsuccessful. Therefore, Shenma's next-generation mining machine M50S still uses Samsung's 8nm chip.

Bitmain is facing well-known internal strife problems. Although the performance and stability of S19 are OK, the fierce internal strife has caused the mining machine to be unable to be shipped normally, and to some extent missed the bull market in 2020. At present, Wu Jihan has taken back the Beijing legal person and successfully rebuilt the supply chain and factory that were taken away by Zhan Ketuan. Shipments have begun one after another. The domestic T19 for October is being sold, and overseas futures have been sold until April.

However, the subsequent struggles and changes between the two sides may still bring variables. What's worse is that the research and development has stagnated. Zhan Ketuan originally planned to tape out the 5nm Bitcoin chip in September, but the progress has been delayed and the quality cannot be guaranteed. This also brings opportunities to mining machine companies such as Shenma and Canaan. If the M50S (30J/T) is successfully launched, it will exceed the current main model of Antminer, S19 (34.5J/T).

In the past, TSMC's high-end production capacity was monopolized by Bitmain. In this case, competing for TSMC's 7nm/5nm high-end production capacity next year has become an important choice for other mining machine manufacturers. However, judging from the use of 8nm chips in the M50S, Shenma currently seems to be completely leaning towards Samsung, perhaps because it is temporarily unable to reach a cooperation with TSMC. However, Shenma's production capacity in 2020 is also seriously insufficient, and it is suspected that the judgment at the beginning of the year was relatively conservative and did not order enough production capacity.

After the founder and CEO of Shenma, Yang Zuoxing, was involved in a lawsuit, COO Chen Jianbing took the stage, but Yang Zuoxing was still in charge of R&D. Shenma has a smaller team of less than 100 people. Compared with other mining machine companies, it is very focused on Bitcoin mining machines and has a calm and conservative style, which is in sharp contrast to Bitmain's earlier full ecological development and gambling nature.

The equity structure of Shenma Mining Machine in mainland China is more complicated than that of Canaan and Bitmain. Shenzhen Qianhai Panxin Technology Co., Ltd. is 100% controlled by Yanji Technology (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Qianhai Panxin is 100% controlled by Yanji (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd., and Yanji (Shanghai) is 100% controlled by Shenma's main body Shenzhen Bit Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.

On July 20, Yang Zuoxing resigned as the executive director and legal representative of Shenzhen Qianhai Panxin Technology Co., Ltd., and was replaced by Yang Jinrong. On August 21, Yang Zuoxing resigned as the legal representative of Shenzhen Bitwei, the main company of Shenma in China, and was replaced by Yang Jinrong. At the same time, Wu Gang, Shenyu, Wang Chun and other directors also withdrew from the company's main personnel. However, this does not mean that the control of Shenma has changed (the real control is in Yanji Hong Kong, which has not disclosed its shareholder structure, or a higher-level Cayman company). The change in the domestic structure may be related to the aforementioned lawsuit.