Denis Stepanov 10.10.2018
This offer from one of the leaders in the mining equipment market led to a rush of cedi crypto users focused on the production and circulation of the ZCash cryptocurrency.
The coin has gained popularity due to the high degree of anonymity of transactions and resistance to mining with specialized equipment (ASIC).
However, the entry of the z9 mini from Bitmain to the market showed that the developers are not sitting idly by and no network in the future is protected from the arrival of “industrial” mining.
Antminer z9 mini - ASIC that abolished GPU mining of ZCash
At the beginning of May 2022, the largest manufacturer of specialized mining equipment, Bitmain (China), announced the release of Antminer Z9 mini for mining the cryptocurrencies zcash, zclassic, hush, bitcoin gold. In fact, the model was tailored specifically for zcash mining, since it is the most influential and popular coin on the Equihash algorithm, and it is the one that ensures the profit of the equipment.
This event caused mixed reactions from the community. GPU miners were especially dissatisfied, for whom the appearance of the Equihash ASIC made further work pointless. In addition, the creation of ASICs for specific coins inevitably leads to the concentration of large computing power in one hand and the centralization of mining, and this contradicts the basic principle of cryptocurrencies.
However, the first batches of Z9 mini sold out instantly due to its excellent technical characteristics: high performance, low power consumption and a short payback period.
Differences between Antminer Z9 and Z9 mini
Z9 ASICs from Z9 mini were released specifically for Zcash
Two months later, another ASIC model for zec mining appeared - Antminer Z9. This is an industrial version, which cost 3.5 times more than its younger brother with the “mini” prefix, but its performance was four times higher. Thus, Chinese manufacturers decided to please everyone: both owners of large farms and those who mine coins at home. However, this manufacturer’s strategy again caused dissatisfaction among some miners.
The owners of the “mini” considered themselves deceived, and unpleasant statements about “Bitmain” appeared on social networks and on specialized forums. Many of those who paid in advance for the first model have not yet received it, but the company has already released a version four times more powerful and thereby sharply reduced the chances of Mini buyers to make a decent profit.
But that's not all. If you carefully read the technical specifications of both devices, it seems that the Z9 mini is just a raw version of the Z9. Even visually, the second model looks like two minis placed on top of each other. And the built-in performance of the younger model up to 16 ksol\sec is evidence that the developers simply “put the squeeze” on the performance of mini-ASICs and promptly released them for sale.
Installing ASIC Antminer S9
How to install and configure Antminer S9
So, the device has been purchased. What's next? And then it’s worth noting that the design is equipped with rather noisy fans, and this can be a problem when installing the Antminer S9 in a residential area. Therefore, it is better to choose a garage or basement for installation; most importantly, the working area should not be very dusty and with low humidity. The dust problem can be solved by installing special filters, but the main thing here is not to overdo it, so that new problems do not arise, for example, ASIC overheating.
There are many interesting solutions invented by miners themselves to solve problems associated with the production process of devices. But it is worth understanding that in some cases these may be additional costs that will reduce the overall profit from the miner.
As for installing the equipment, let's start with connecting the power. We connect the miner to the network and wait until the green light comes on. So, the Antminer S9 is noisy, the green light is on, which means you can proceed directly to the setup.
Preparing ASIC Antminer S9 for work
Setting up Antminer S9
The entire process of setting up the equipment will take just a few minutes.
First, we need to find out the miner's IP address. This can be done by downloading the program on the website bitmain.com in the “Support” section. We launch IP.Reporter, see the IP address and enter it in the browser. We go to the miner’s control panel and enter the default password “root”.
Control panel (admin panel) ASIC Antminer S9
Next, go to the settings and open the “Mining Configuration” / “General Settings” section. Here we enter the pool address, wallet and password:
Window for setting up the connection of ASIC Antminer S9 to a mining pool
After this, we save the settings and see that ASIC Antminer S9 has switched to operating mode. From this moment the equipment begins to earn money.
To check information about the operation of the device, go to the “Miner Status” tab, which displays data on hashrate, mined blocks, pool settings and others.
ASIC Antminer S9 operating parameters window
If any component of the miner does not work correctly, we recommend rebooting the miner in the “System” / “Reboot” tab.
Window for rebooting ASIC Antminer S9
Overclocking and firmware
When the ASIC is started, the equipment begins to operate in normal mode, meeting the indicators declared by the manufacturer. But over time, its productivity may decrease, which will subsequently negatively affect not only the work of the miner, but also the income from his work as a whole.
In order to make miners more efficient, official ASIC manufacturers and third-party developers have created solutions in the form of programs to improve the operation of the equipment. There are plenty of them on the Internet.
To download special software, go to the “System” / “Upgrade” tab, and install the update there.
Window for installing software for overclocking Antminer S9
The flashing process itself takes a few minutes, but in the end its owner will be able to get:
- Reducing noise levels by reconfiguring fans;
- Dust resistance, which increases the service life of the equipment and eliminates the need for regular cleaning;
- More efficient mining (increases power overclocking);
- Reduced energy consumption, thereby increasing profitability;
- Possibility of mining cryptocurrencies using a different algorithm, etc.
The last step to activate the installed software is to reboot the miner.
Before you start experimenting with Antminer S9, you need to check the power of the power supply, as there may be certain limitations:
- With a power of 1400 W, an increase of 0.5 TH/s is possible;
- With a power of 1600 W - up to 2 TH/s.
It is also necessary to remember that such software can not only improve the operation of the miner, but also, on the contrary, lead to its breakdown or failure of functionality.
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Attention! If you use firmware from third-party suppliers, the ASIC manufacturer declines all responsibility for the consequences, so you need to be very careful when installing and overclocking the miner.
Although the same applies to those who want to install official software from the manufacturer. Thus, according to reports, it is not recommended to update the firmware from Bitmain until 2022, as it leads to the failure of some functions previously available for this model. And since the manufacturer’s warranty period is only 6 months, the user will most likely have to be left alone with their problems.
Overclocking Antminer S9
Does it make sense to buy a z9 mini?
Frankly speaking, the early release of the z9 mini looks like an attempt to maintain sales levels or like a banal war with Innosilicon, which around the same time brought to the market the very successful A9 ZMaster model, which is far ahead in terms of profitability of not only the z9 mini, but also z9.
However, multiple negative reviews did not affect the level of sales of new devices from Bitmain. Many of those who were unable to buy the device when it was first shipped are now waiting for the price reduction that should follow as network complexity increases. Then they can count on a small but stable profit.
As for the mini owners, today they found themselves out of the game. This is clearly evidenced by calculations that take into account the total number of ASICs released, the plans of Bitmain and Innosilicon, and changes in the operation of the Equihash algorithm.
One cannot help but mention the rumors that have spread about an alleged conspiracy between Zcash and Bitmain. This became known, in particular, from the words of a former Zcash cryptographer, who quit, not wanting to participate in the deception.
Of course, this information has not yet been proven, but discontent in the community continues to grow. Adding fuel to the fire was Zcash’s statement that after a lengthy debate, they decided not to change the hashing algorithm and divide the network through a hard fork to counter ASICs, as other companies do. In this regard, many community members became disillusioned with ASIC mining as such. Comparisons with fraudulent Ponzi schemes (financial pyramids), where only those who managed to fit in first, win. And these are the manufacturers themselves (they are also the owners of huge mining farms) and large companies that have agreements with them for priority supplies.
In this regard, many experts today recommend simply buying cryptocurrency rather than gambling with companies making multimillion-dollar profits.
Table of technical characteristics of Z9 mini and Z9, comparison with video cards
The power supply is not included in both models; it must be purchased separately (price: $177).
For comparison: together with the power supply, the Z9 mini costs approximately the same as an Nvidia 1080Ti or Ge Force GTX 1-80TI video card (just over $1 thousand), while its performance is seven times higher. And if you consider that GPUs consume more power, the advantage becomes even more obvious. That is why, from the moment of its appearance and first testing, Antminer z9 mini began to be called the “video card killer.”
About performance
It is more than sufficient, especially when compared with video cards. Let's count together.
Z9 mini produces 10,000 sol/s. The top video card used for Zcash mining Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, taking into account overclocking, produces no more than 834 sol/s.
It turns out that one ASIC covers the performance of 12 overclocked video cards.
The average retail price for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is $1000. This means that purchasing an ASIC is more than 6 times more profitable than creating a farm, even without taking into account the costs of other components for the mining rig.
Energy consumption also deserves special attention. Bitmain's Z9 mini consumes no more than 300 watts at full load.
The same amount is consumed by one of the above-mentioned video cards. The economic justification for energy consumption is more than 12 times.
Among the video cards from AMD, there are also no competitors to the miner. A farm with similar performance on video cards looks like this.
Among other things, do not forget about the space occupied by the equipment. Here the Z9 mini also wins multiple times.
go
Payback period
When assessing the prospects of individual ASIC models, it is necessary to take into account many criteria, the most significant of which are the rate of the mined cryptocurrency and the complexity of the network. Moreover, if the impact of the exchange rate on profitability can be called moderate, then the constantly increasing complexity of the network is a critical factor.
So, at the time of the start of sales of ASIC Z9 mini, the daily income from its work was $45-50. But this is only theoretical. In fact, buyers from Russia (as well as many other countries) do not have the opportunity to order a device directly from the manufacturer, and are forced to turn to Chinese resellers. And this is not only an overpayment for the equipment, but also a much more significant disadvantage - a long delivery time, which can reach 40-60 days. Note that by July productivity had dropped to $14-18. This means that valuable time was lost when new equipment generates maximum income.
In the meantime, resellers use prepaid ASICs to their advantage. Often they deliberately delay sending in order to “skim the cream,” that is, to use the equipment before the massive influx, when the complexity of the network has not yet had time to grow. Of course, not all resellers do this, but the trend is obvious.
Most likely, the same situation will repeat with Antminer Z9 as with all other models: they will simply become unprofitable. Experts predict that at the beginning of October the complexity of the Zcash network will increase by x3-x4. Taking into account the low exchange rate ($118.5 at the time of writing), the efficiency of the Z9 by this time will be approximately the same as the Z9 mini shows today.
All this will radically change the payback period, therefore, when planning a purchase, you should not pay attention to the profitability figures declared by the manufacturer: they are relevant only for the first batch of ASICs. As you understand, it is simply impossible to make any forecasts regarding the profitability of a purchase in such a situation. An approximate calculation of the expected profit can be made using an online calculator on the sites WhatToMine, NiceHash, AsicTrade, etc.
Payback of ASIC Antminer Z9 as of May 3, 2022
To calculate the payback, go to the website whattomine.com and enter a hashrate of 10,000 sol/s, a power of 300 W and a price of 10 cents per 1 kW.
We get the following results:
With an ASIC price of $2,105, it will pay for itself in about 2 months, calculated as of today, May 3, 2022.
The payback is of course very good, but there are always nuances.
We have seen more than once how the release of a new ASIC with the advent of these devices among buyers exponentially increased the payback of these devices as they entered the market.
This was the case with ASIC D3 for Dash, when at the time of purchase it showed a profitability of $126 per day, and at the time of delivery of the first batch to buyers, the profitability dropped to $6 per day and the reason for this was a strong increase in the network hashrate, which led to an increase in complexity and a decrease income. This happened with other ASICs from Bitmain.
Antminer Z9 mini settings
The Z9 mini's controls are located at the top of the body. To start the device, go to general settings and rewrite the addresses. For example, to get started with Zclassic you need to enter the following data:
URL: stratum+tcp://solo.zcl.2miners.com:6161
Worker: t1QYUhupWRtqHf57YtEhCC1wgcUVGi22LC5.Miner_Z9
Password: x
As you can see from the example above, you need to enter the pool address and port with increased complexity in the URL column (this is a prerequisite), and in the WORKER column - the address of your zec wallet. If you wish, you can enter the name of the device at the end - Miner_Z9 (separated by a dot), and put the letter “X” in the PASSWORD field.
You can immediately set the speed of the coolers (the window with percentages is located at the bottom).
To set up mining of any other coin, go to the corresponding page of the 2Miners website.
Once again, we draw your attention to the fact that to mine zec on ASIC ANTMINER Z9 you need to choose a high complexity port, this is a prerequisite. In the 2Miners settings, two ports are always offered: with normal and increased difficulty.
Antminer Z9 miner review
Today there is a huge selection of cryptocurrencies and among them you should pay attention to the most popular ones. For example, the ZCash cryptocurrency, which is included in the rating of the most popular on the crypto market. It is ranked 20th in the ranking by capitalization and there are several reasons for this. One of the main reasons is privacy and security of payment transactions, which are two key criteria for many users.
Antminer Z9 review
Cryptocurrency miners consider ZEC a fairly stable digital currency, which is protected from sudden increases in hash rate and centralization. Since until some time the Equihash algorithm was stable for the development of narrow-profile computing technologies.
Today everything has changed somewhat, as Bitmain introduced the ASIC - Antminer Z9 mini. Manufacturers have accelerated well and created an effective ASIC for crypto mining. It is worth noting that this has quite a strong impact on the crypto market. Including even the fact that this reduces and increases the exchange rate of these currencies. However, at the initial stages, the presented ASIC is an opportunity to make good money. That is why you should familiarize yourself with the benefits of a new device in the initial steps. A short review will allow you to get acquainted with its hash rate and income indicators.
Description miner Antminer Z9 mini
Before taking a closer look at the installation, you should learn the key features of Antminer Z9.
- The hashing algorithm used is Equihash.
- Hash rate - 10000 sol/s.
- Electricity consumption - 300 W.
- Power supply – 4 6-pin connectors.
- The start date of trading is June 20.
- Cost: $1,999.
Considering that Equihash is used in relation to ZCash and many other cryptocurrencies, Antminer Z9 mini should pay attention to the mining of other digital currencies that operate on this protocol. One of the most famous cryptocurrencies is Bitcoin Gold. In addition, Bitcoin Private still operates on the basis of Equihash.
To protect the bulk purchase of the installation, the company has set a limit on the sale of ASICs. One buyer can purchase no more than one unit.
Antminer Z9 review
Hash rate indicators
The hash rate of Antminer Z9 mini is 10 thousand sol/s. These are quite good indicators. To verify this, you should compare it with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti video card, which even when overclocked has 12 times less performance. This means that Antminer Z9 mini will be 6 times more profitable than purchasing 2 1080 Ti. Retail value is approximately $1,000. Taking into account the cost of assembling the farm, as well as the difference in energy use, you get much more benefits from the Antminer Z9 mini.
AMD video cards also have no serious rivals for the new device. Antminer Z9 mini alone is capable of delivering more performance than two farms, which are built on 5 Radeon RX Vega 64 video cards. The performance of one graphics adapter is approximately 500 sol/s, and the power consumption is higher. The new ASIC is compact, at least it will require much less space than a mining rig. Considering all this, the Antminer Z9 mini is a pretty great buy, even without first doing the income calculations.
Miner income and payback
To roughly estimate the profitability and time it will take for the device to pay for itself, you can use the CryptoCompare.com calculator. This calculator provides support for many cryptocurrencies and produces good calculation results. In addition, it is also worth taking into account the fact that none of the calculators is capable of producing more approximate and accurate results, so it is also worth taking into account market indicators, namely such as: changes in currency value, increase in hash rate and difficulty production in the future. According to preliminary indicators, at today's ZEC price, the income using a new device every day will be approximately $36. These are quite good indicators, since in this situation the profit per month will be more than $1,000, and per year - 13 thousand dollars. Thus, without taking into account auxiliary factors, the payback period for Antminer Z9 mini will be approximately 2 months. Such profitability has not been achieved before from farms that are built on the basis of video cards. And it is worth noting that these are not all the advantages of Antminer Z9. You can get acquainted with them in more detail after you use this miner yourself.
Conclusions from the review
If you are interested in Antminer Z9 mini, then you should take it fully armed. Because it will be a profitable purchase. You should find various ways to purchase a new ASIC from the first batch as quickly as possible and start mining cryptocurrencies. However, you should be careful. It is recommended to buy the installation only in the official Bitmain store and from trusted equipment sellers. This will avoid scammers.
Additionally, shipping should be taken into account. This is something you shouldn't skimp on. It is also important that transporting the order does not take too much time. In particular, this is important given that, under certain circumstances, the parcel may be subject to inspections by the state postal service.
For those who did not manage to purchase the Antminer Z9 mini miner from the first batch, you should think about whether you need to order a second one. Since, given the fact that the market is volatile, profitability and attractiveness can decrease significantly. The emergence of ASICs for Equihash will certainly cause changes in the market. The release of Antminer Z9 mini will certainly please those who want to purchase a video card. After some time, their availability will increase and many interesting and profitable offers will appear on the secondary market. Antminer Z9 is a great buy for those who want to make good profits from cryptocurrency mining. A short review helped confirm this and now the choice is yours.
What would you add to the Antminer Z9 review? Share it in the comments to this article.
