Bitmain's line of ASICs for Equihash called Antminer Z9 and Z9 mini have significantly revived the mining industry and caused a lot of discussion. Most people are divided into two sides, one of which treats these models with skepticism, and the other with undisguised delight. That is why it is extremely important to understand what both models of the Antminer Z9 series actually are, the best investment in ASIC mining for 2022 or a dubious purchase with a huge payback period.
In this article we will touch on all the features, details and facts regarding these devices from Bitmain for the second half of summer 2022.
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.
General overview of the device
The start of sales for Z9 mini was given on July 20, 2018. The Equihash algorithm and the Zcash currency (as it is best known by it) were previously considered resistant to ASIC mining, so the emergence of a powerful specialized tool for their mining can have a significant impact on the exchange rate. It’s difficult to talk about how this impact will be, since there isn’t enough feedback yet. But you can analyze the characteristics and predict profitability now.
The manufacturer claims the hashrate produced by the device is 10 ksol/s. This will consume 300 W of electricity. The device turned out to be truly compact: its weight is just over 2 kg, length – 20.6 cm, width – 12.4 cm, and height – 15.5 cm. Connection to the network is made using a standard ethernet scheme. The cost of the device at the start of sales was stated at 850 USD.
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.
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.
Shaky positions of Zcash and risks when purchasing devices on Equihash
The example of ASICs Z9 and Z9 mini from Bitmain clearly showed the situation in the field of cryptocurrency mining. Many experts are already predicting the “kill” of mining on video cards, as representatives of Zcash announced that the cryptocurrency will not switch to another algorithm or make forks against ASICs.
This was one of the main reasons why the “fattest”, as they are called by miners, ASICs, were released under the Equihash algorithm. As a result, miners with NVidia graphics cards will suffer the most, because owners of AMD devices can still earn income from ether. As the difficulty of mining increases, Zcash ASICs will displace most video cards due to a significant decrease in their profitability. At least until some changes and measures against ASICs take place.
A positive factor is rumors about the next pump, which should once again increase the relevance of ASICs and reduce the degree of negativity for buyers who did not manage to purchase devices in the “first wave”. However, at the end of July this information is just a forecast, without any specifics.
In general, analysts recommend not to give in too much to marketing promises with huge profits on new ASICs. Very soon, the difficulty of Zcash mining will increase significantly and all current “figures” and calculations will become irrelevant.
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.”
Checking the completion of actions
After completing all operations, we make sure that they are correct. We go to the page of the 2Miners mining pool, after which we enter the wallet in the “Miner Address” window. It is located in the middle at the top.
In response, the site will share the statistics of the specified miner. For example, this is what the activity of several Antminer Z9 mini looks like.
If you have any problems, ask questions in the Telegram chat of the 2Miners mining pool. At the same time, join a friendly community.
Subscribe to our channel on Telegram. We will teach you to distinguish goodness from scam.
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.
Application prospects
It is still quite difficult to assess what prospects await devices from Bitman on the market, what will happen to Zcash and what awaits GPU mining in the near future. To predict the situation and decide whether to buy this device, you need to assume how two main factors will change:
- Complexity of the Zcash network.
- ZEC/USD exchange rate.
As an example, most experts cite the Dash cryptocurrency, where the appearance of the Antminer D3 miner caused a rise in the complexity of the network. This will hit miners who use single GPUs and farms based on them especially hard.
With the hard fork that took place on June 26, Zcash did not acquire any additional resistance to the sudden growth of the network. Top officials of the currency say there are no plans to introduce “ASIC stability” in the coming months. Therefore, we can assume a drop in the efficiency of devices from Bitmain.
Answer the question “Is it worth buying?” today is very difficult. Obviously, those who can buy the Z9 mini in the first wave will make a profit, but then the purchase will be a pure lottery. One of the most reliable ways to get Zcash is to buy currency on exchanges. But those who have the opportunity to purchase this miner now can count on good profits.
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.
