Core Developer’s DragonMint 16T aims to overthrow Bitmain’s mining empire

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The war has spilled over to the mining hardware arena. But will the DragonMint live up to its claims?

The longest serving pseudonymous Bitcoin Core contributor who goes by the user name BtcDrak announced yesterday that he has been helping develop a mining hardware—one that would supposedly overthrow mining colossus Bitmain’s reign over the mining hardware industry.

Called DragonMint, the miner series is initially releasing its flagship model 16T, which it says is “the world’s most efficient Bitcoin miner, running faster and cooler than any competing miners.” Should DragonMint succeed, it would end the longstanding and controversial hold that the China-based company Bitmain has over the industry, as it currently has no close competitor. Co-founder Jihan Wu claims that they supply over 70% of bitcoin mining rigs worldwide, and their mining pool Antpool currently possesses 17.9% of the overall hash rate for SegWit1x (legacy chain, BTC).

Announcing the most efficient Bitcoin miner in the world. https://t.co/sWHghdti5J pic.twitter.com/tCFVp2tVfr

— Halong Mining (@halongmining) November 22, 2017

“We started a mining project with the aim to bring much needed competition to the market,” BtcDrak said in an. “We want to ‘make SHA256 great again.”

Given the public clash between Core developers and Bitmain during the infamous scaling debate over Bitcoin’s legacy chain, the announcement isn’t getting off untainted by controversy. During the scaling wars, Bitmain supported large blocks, an opposing proposal to Core’s SegWit.

Although the specs and claims of their DragonMint 16T are ambitious, interested miners should tread lightly.The mining hardware is listed under the company Halong Mining, but not a lot of information on the company is listed on their website. So it may be best to wait a bit for reviews.

Throughout the past years, several competitors to Bitmain’s mining hardware have risen, and many have fallen to ashes. Yet, many are rising up in their place to take up the challenge. After all, the cryptocurrency mining industry it supports is a $4 billion industry, with Bitcoin miners reportedly making a global sum of $7 million a day. Yep. Per day.

Shortly after the announcement of DragonMint, another contender to Bitmain’s monopoly is supposedly underway: the E10 miner. Blockstream CSO Samson Mow said in a Tweet.

Ebang announces new 10 nanometer chips for their upcoming E10 miner. News is circulating in China & miners are very excited. The Antminer S9 is now obsolete. #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/rah3bmfTOA

— Samson Mow (@Excellion) November 23, 2017

As of writing, no further information about the E10 is available yet. But Mow says we’ll know more in the next few days.

#DragonMint miners are just the start. Another manufacturer with miners more efficient than Bitmain’s is coming soon. Expect more news in the next few days. It’s time to decentralize mining.

— Samson Mow (@Excellion) November 22, 2017

Politics aside, the rise of competitors to the mining hardware industry is definitely something to watch.

Note: Tokens in the SegWit chain are referred to as SegWit1X (BTC) and SegWit Gold (SWG) and are no longer Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is the only true Bitcoin as intended by the original Satoshi white paper. Bitcoin BCH is the only public block chain that offers safe and cheap microtransactions.