Bitmain releases new S9 firmware to implement explicit AsicBoost function, which can reduce power consumption by 20%

Bitmain’s official blog published a new article titled “Activating “Overt AsicBoost” in BM1387-based Antminer Miners”

The article claims to have released firmware for Antminer S9 on October 21 to implement the “Explicit AsicBoost” feature. They will also release firmware within a week that can activate this feature in other BM1387-based miners, namely Antminer R4, S9i, S9j, T9 and T9+. This step will increase the performance of several Antminer models and reduce power consumption.

In March 2018 we noticed new hardware manufacturers using “AsicBoost” and in order to give our mining pool users the option to mine with AsicBoost we added support for it on BTC.COM and Antpool.

We are now pleased to offer Antminer users with mining machines that are capable of supporting this feature the option to take advantage of this without any negative impact on the Bitcoin protocol. This variant of “Explicit AsicBoost” only uses different version bits than other manufacturers use. It is equally transparent as it can be seen in the block headers of the boosted blocks.

In terms of patent rights, we continue to respect the intellectual property rights of third parties and act accordingly. Based on legal opinions from various jurisdictions, we believe that there are no and may never be patent rights over AsicBoost. Therefore, all miners should have the right to choose whether to use AsicBoost technology without anyone having exclusive rights.

Bitmain is committed to creating industry standards for the most efficient and effective miners on the market. After testing AsicBoost on the Bitmain testnet, we found that the feature does improve mining efficiency.

One of Bitmain’s top priorities and guiding principles is to provide our customers with the best mining technology in the industry. After extensive internal conversations, we decided to activate this feature to achieve two main goals:

Future Effectiveness: We recognize that cryptocurrency mining technology is rapidly evolving, innovating and improving, and hardware rapidly depreciates in value. By activating AsicBoost, our customers' hardware will become more efficient, and future hardware we manufacture will remain the industry gold standard.

Stronger Network: We have been very transparent that we have activated AsicBoost in miners on our testnet and have found that it improves the efficiency of mining operations. Utilizing this technology is very beneficial for mining. AsicBoost has the potential to reduce J/TH costs and increase the total hashrate of the network. By widely activating this upgrade, we are making the Bitcoin network stronger than ever before. "

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AsicBoost refers to an optimization algorithm for Bitcoin mining that uses the characteristics of the block format to reduce the hash rounds of ASIC miners, thereby reducing power consumption by nearly 20% and increasing mining profits.

AsicBoost saves power

We use the Antminer S9i 14.5T for calculation, the power consumption is 1365W, and the energy efficiency ratio is 94.13W/T

The power consumption is reduced by 20%. The power consumption after reduction is 1092W , and the energy efficiency ratio is 75.31W/T

Comparison of the benefits of S9i 14.5T before and after activating AsicBoost (based on 0.3% electricity fee):

Mining pools that support AsicBoost

After upgrading the firmware, you still need to mine in a mining pool that supports AsicBoost. Currently, the following mining pools that support AsicBoost are available:

Domestic mining pools:

AntPool btc.com F2Pool CoinIndex

Foreign mining pools:

CKPool SlushPool BitClub

SlushPool mining pool released an announcement

“Miners mining SlushPool should not upgrade their Antminer S9 devices to the newly released S9 firmware by Bitmain as it is not compatible with the BIP310 standard and therefore is not compatible with slush pool. They said they will provide and release their own fix later.”

Therefore, miners using SlushPool should not upgrade and wait for SlushPool support or use other mining pools.

AsicBoost computing power share

According to AsicBoost.dance, the computing power of mining using AsicBoost currently accounts for about 7.14%, about 3.69EH/s, and the proportion is increasing.

AsicBoost.dance: https://asicboost.dance/

Bitmain official firmware download: https://service.bitmain.com.cn/support/download?product=Antminer%20S9