Bitmain admits hardware problems with Antminer S17

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Chinese processing hardware manufacturer Bitmain has admitted there are problems with its Antminer S17, following a growing number of complaints posted to social media.

The company acknowledged that some users were experiencing problems, the first time it has acknowledged the difficulties many of their customers had been reporting online. According to a spokesperson for the company, Bitmain was beginning to negotiate with customers who had run into difficulties with their hardware.

Antminer is paying close attention to the issues of some products from the 17 series, which has recently been mentioned by the media.

The issue first raised its head earlier this month, after an entrepreneur started a Telegram group to highlight what he described as a “bad batch” of S17 units. According to the group, some 30% of the models delivered had experienced serious glitches or failed within a single month of operation.

Having grown to some 160 members, the group now contains several other mentions of users experiencing problems with their units.

The reports echo similar findings published by blockchain infrastructure company Blockstream, which suggested 20-30% of S17 customers were experiencing problems with their technology. CoinGeek has also spoken to several to large transaction processing companies in the space that have confirmed this news, saying that they’ve also experienced “failure rates of 2-3x for the T17 units compared with the S9s” while “Bitmain have reduced and closed repair centers in various global locations.”

The embarrassing acknowledgement comes as Bitmain prepares to ship out its latest batch of S19 units, which are expected to be delivered from May 11.

The S19 has been designed to process digital currencies more productively, ahead of the BTC halving due to take place soon.

According to the Bitmain representative, the company has “begun to negotiate solutions with customers who have encountered issues from the product. Antminer has always been adhering to the concept of placing customers first. If any customer has any product issues, please contact the official customer service of Antminer at any time.”