Report: The S9, the flagship smartphone, contributes 23% of the total Bitcoin hashrate

Source: The Block

By Celia Wan

The position of a certain model of mining machine in the total Bitcoin network computing power may be a topic of interest to miners and equipment manufacturers because it indicates the speed at which the market adopts new products. Recently, Coin Metrics found that the S9 Antminer launched by Bitmain accounts for about 23% of the total Bitcoin network computing power.

The company's research estimates that in 2018, the S9 contributed 78% of the network's computing power, making it one of the best-selling mining machines on the market at the time. However, since then, this number has steadily declined, while the market share of other mining machines has increased.

Is this number reasonable? In March this year, according to Coindesk, the head of Spark Capital estimated that the total computing power contributed by S9 was about 20% to 25%; at the beginning of this year, mining equipment company Blockware Solutions said in a conversation with The Block that the figure was about 50%.

However, Coin Metrics' research is not based on experience, but on the network's distribution of nonce random numbers. The arrangement of these arbitrary numbers (which miners include in the hash of each block) can hint at how the use of mining hardware has changed over the years. (For more information, see "The Dynasty Change of Bitcoin Mining Machines: Tracking S9 and S17 Miners through Nonce Distribution Map")

In fact, this trend is not surprising. In the past two years, with the launch of new models of mining machines, such as the S17 and T17 launched by Bitmain in early 2019, which quickly became popular alternatives to the S9, the company also released the latest S19 series; in April this year, MicroBT, the world's second largest miner, also launched the Shenma M30 series of mining machines. With the continuous iteration of new mining machines, the market share of S9 is bound to continue to decline.

Next week, the Bitcoin network will see its third block reward halving in history, when the block reward will drop from 12.5 bitcoins to 6.25 bitcoins. Over the past year, many mining farms have upgraded their equipment to more efficient models to offset the expected decline in mining revenue.

However, the fate of the S9 as an outdated model may not end in the short term. As Bitcoin prices rebound from their lows in mid-March and parts of southwest China enter the rainy season, some miners may choose to continue using the S9 because it is still profitable.

Original link: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/63892/report-bitcoin-antminer-s9-bitcoin-hash-rate