Bitcoins The Singapore-based miner has big plans to shake up ASICs with a new design and a greater commitment to transparency.<\/h2>\n
Updated Mar 14, 2025, 4:40\u202fp.m. <\/span>Published Mar 14, 2025, 3:09\u202fp.m. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips form the backbone of the bitcoin (BTC) mining industry. ASIC machines are made for a single purpose: To solve Bitcoin\u2019s SHA-256 algorithm as fast as possible in order to collect block rewards.<\/p>\n They\u2019re extremely good at it. One of the most widely used ASIC machines, the Antminer S19, is capable of making 82 trillion computations per second \u2014 820 times the number of stars in the Milky Way. The $30 billion ASIC manufacturing market is dominated by Bitmain. The Chinese company\u2019s machines power roughly 80% of Bitcoin\u2019s hashrate<\/a>, according to TheMinerMag.<\/p>\n But Singapore-based bitcoin mining firm Bitdeer (BTDR) intends to shake things up with the release of a new ASIC chip architecture. These new chips could bring a huge jump in efficiency, the company claims, while improving transparency in the ASIC manufacturing process. <\/p>\n \u201cThe two dominant players [Bitmain and MicroBT] are both private companies, and very opaque,\u201d Jeff LaBerge, head of capital markets and strategic initiatives at Bitdeer, told CoinDesk in an interview. \u201cThey don\u2019t really engage with the media or give any type of guidance about what they\u2019re doing from an R&D standpoint, and that makes it very difficult for end-buyers to plan.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe want our customers to know where we\u2019re at in our manufacturing process, what our roadmap is in terms of new chip designs, where we\u2019re at in our production cycles,\u201d LaBerge said.<\/p>\n Shanon Squires, chief mining officer at bitcoin hosting firm Compass Mining, told CoinDesk that increased visibility into ASIC production would help miners plan new hardware shipments and make it easier to predict Bitcoin\u2019s difficulty growth. \u201cBitdeer\u2019s commitment to transparency is great for the mining industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Canaan discloses its annual sales volume for various mining models, Bitdeer takes it a step further by providing more frequent delivery volume updates,\u201d Wolfie Zhao, head of research at TheMinerMag, told CoinDesk. \u201cAlthough both are smaller players in the hardware market, their efforts show good faith in promoting transparency. Hopefully, this will encourage the larger market incumbents to take note.\u201d<\/p>\n ASIC chips have used mostly the same blueprint since 2014. Over the last decade, the biggest increases in ASIC power efficiency have come at the foundry level, as leading global chipmaker TSMC has refined its manufacturing process. While miners have also made alterations to chip design, such modifications have only brought incremental gains.<\/p>\n Even so, progress has been tremendous. The very first ever ASIC, Canaan\u2019s Avalon (2013) had a power efficiency of 6,000 joules per terahash (J\/TH). Bitmain\u2019s Antminer S21XP Hydro, the current most efficient machine on the market, boasts 12 J\/TH efficiency.<\/p>\n Bitdeer, which is listed on Nasdaq, wants to create a completely new architecture for its ASICs. \u201cWe feel like it\u2019s going to be necessary to break into what we call the single-digit efficiency range,\u201d LaBerge said, referring to mining rigs with less than 10 J\/TH in efficiency.<\/p>\n Scaling up with the traditional blueprint means using progressively thinner chips. But thinner means chips are more likely to be defective and yields per batch tend to fall. \u201cYou\u2019re also competing with Apple and Nvidia and some of the biggest companies in the world for the same materials,\u201d LaBerge said. <\/p>\n Bitdeer\u2019s Chief Strategy Officer, Haris Basit, is leading a team of engineers to create a new framework. Some members of that team worked on designs found in Bitmain’s first ASIC chips back in 2014 \u2014 the chips whose architecture became the standard across the industry. (Bitmain did not respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n Bitdeer\u2019s research has already had successes. The company\u2019s most recent product, the SEALMINER A3, achieved a power efficiency of 9.7 J\/TH during performance trials, the firm reported<\/a> on Monday. That means the A3 \u2014 which still uses the traditional ASIC blueprint \u2014 could end up taking the efficiency crown from the S21XP Hydro.<\/p>\n Yet the miner\u2019s SEALMINER A4, which will employ the firm\u2019s new chip architecture, is expected to consume 5 J\/TH. It will likely be the most efficient ASIC machine on the market by a significant margin.<\/p>\nBitcoins Seeking efficiency<\/h2>\n
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