Chinese Bitcoin Miner Might Be Trying To Corner ASIC Chip Market

Bitmain, which specializes in custom mining chips and miners, has come under increased scrutiny due to the Chinese firm’s control over the production of so much bitcoin hardware and hashing power. Some bitcoin participants are beginning to fear a negative outcome for bitcoin with so few producers of the digital currency’s mining hardware. In 2013, companies like Black Arrow Software, Cointerra, Hashfast, Vmc, Kncminer and others offered different hardware miner models. Today, the competition for consumer-grade mining hardware has largely dwindled to two companies: Canaan and Bitmain. The-Beijing based Bitmain announced Tuesday the launch of its new Antminer T9, which features fewer ASIC chips and increased power consumption over the hardware provider’s prior models, leaving questions as to how they’ve made their overall system more efficient. Also Read: Why Bitcoin is Close to a Record Breaking 3 Exahashes of Processing Power