Blockchain and BitFury mining: everything you wanted to know

A well-known blockchain company that was created outside of China, BitFury, is engaged in the development of software for the Bitcoin blockchain, industrial mining and related hardware.

Cryptocurrency is generated on the basis of software and unique technological solutions that have our own development.

BitFury has representative offices in many countries around the world, including the USA, China, as well as on the European continent - Iceland, Georgia and England. Data centers are located in Iceland and Georgia.

Overview and technical characteristics of the miner

ASIC B8 from Bitfury is not an industrial design of mining products, but has impressive characteristics and size. The metal body of the device is compatible in size with 19″ server racks. The miner has 6 compartments with cross ventilation. 6 motherboards are covered by the same number of aluminum radiators. 576 chips of type BF16BTC8162 are located 96 pieces on the board.

The remaining characteristics and parameters of Bitfury B8 are as follows:

• Productivity: up to 50 TH/s.
• Chip technology: 16 nm.
• Communication output: Ethernet 100 Mb/s LAN.
• Energy efficiency: 0.13 J/GH.
• Power consumption: 6400 W.
• Dimensions: 270x440x650 mm.
• Weight: 37 kg.

At the front of the device there is a connector for 2 power supplies, signal LEDs, a communication port (LAN) and signal indicators.

Payback periods for BTC and BCH

By pre-order, Bitfury B8 can be purchased for 7-8 thousand dollars, but the estimated date of arrival of the miner is calculated with a delay of almost six months. So the B8 ordered in January 2018 will only be available in the summer.

Current retail prices from resellers start from 1.3 million rubles (22.5 thousand dollars). You should focus on them to calculate the miner’s payback.

1. 
   BTC.

   With the Moscow tariff for electricity consumption of 0.09 $/kWh and the current cryptocurrency exchange rate of about 15 thousand dollars, the monthly profit when calculated using the Cryptocompare calculator is $2,700. Annual production is estimated at 2.45 BTC, but taking into account the increase in mining difficulty, the value will be about 2 BTC. Another 5 thousand dollars per year will be spent on electricity. With this calculation, the payback of the device for BTC mining is about 8-9 months.
2. BCH. When setting the initial parameters, the calculator shows that daily income will be $142, electricity costs will be almost $14, total daily profit will be about $128, and annual profit will be $46,720. From this price we need to subtract the cost of the miner itself ($22,500), which gives us an estimated payback within six months at the current rate of this cryptocurrency. However, you cannot rely entirely on such calculations, since BCH is even more susceptible to exchange rate changes than BTC.

The Bitfury B8 miner is included in the list of equipment officially permitted for import and sale in Russia. But when ordering directly from abroad, it must be taken into account that the official permit does not remove customs restrictions and duties in the amount of 30% of the value for goods weighing more than 31 kg, for an amount exceeding 1000 euros per month. Bitfury's 37kg ASIC falls under both paragraphs.

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ASIC BitFury B8: description, characteristics, reviews, where to buy

Bitfury is one of the well-known ASIC manufacturers. It also specializes in software development and chip production. In 2016, it was the Bitfury developers who began producing innovative chips using the 16 nm process technology. They almost instantly gained worldwide popularity. Some sources even claimed that Russian-made ASIC miners are being developed on BitFury chips, but there is no official information about this.

The new ASIC BitFury B8 uses exactly these chips for mining. What else attracts miners to this device? Let's take a closer look.

Some terminology

When getting to know digital currencies, users have a legitimate question: “What is a cryptocurrency?” Cryptocurrency is a digital asset that uses cryptographic encryption methods for security. Often this is an area for investment and earnings, which is of interest to many today.

Digital currency is obtained through mining. In a simple description, this term can be understood as the extraction of virtual coins through the use of special integrated applications or video cards. If it’s more complex, mining is a set of mathematical calculations that are best handled by video card processors (although previously such calculations were carried out mainly using the computer’s central processor). This type of activity is especially attractive because in order to start earning money, you do not need any special knowledge or skills. You just need to buy an ASIC, install it and start working. However, in this case, everything should be calculated well in order to make a profit in the end result.

An ASIC miner is a special device on chips that is intended for mining cryptocurrency. It can be rack mounted, which is perfect for data centers. The main advantages of ASIC miners include data decryption using specified algorithms.

ASIC miner BitFury B8 - overview of the main characteristics

The device is designed for industrial mining of cryptocurrency using the SHA-256 algorithm and has the following characteristics.

Connecting and setting up ASIC BitFury

Connecting the ASIC miner BitFury B8 ASIC miner 47 TH is carried out as follows:

• connect the power supplies to the electrical network using the cables supplied with the equipment;
• connect the Ethernet cable;
• determine the IP address of the ASIC miner BitFury B8;
• go to settings through the address bar of the browser;
• specify parameters for working with the pool.

Price and profitability level of ASIC BitFury B8 50 TH/s

Today you can buy this device model on the official website of the manufacturer by making a pre-order, since the official start of sales is scheduled for the summer of 2018. Its independent import into Russia is possible, because the device has passed the appropriate notification.

Users who don't want to wait until summer can turn to online stores or retailers.

The price of ASIC BitFury B8 50 TH/s in Russia is about 600 thousand rubles.

This is the most powerful version, but at the same time, it is worth noting that the price range is very wide. Some sellers on Avito offer a new product for 400 thousand, and in some advertisements the price tag is 800 thousand rubles.

To determine the level of profitability and payback, consider a model with an indicator of 50 TH/s and an energy consumption level of 6400 Watt. By mining Bitcoin, the BitFury B8 ASIC will bring the user almost 2,314 rubles per day or 69,410 rubles per month. We did not take into account electricity tariffs. In different regions, the profit margin and payback period of a miner may differ. For a more accurate calculation, you need to subtract the amount spent on electricity from the monthly income. The BitFury ASIC consumes 4608 kWh per month.

Of course, any calculations in advance will not be 100% accurate, because along with an increase in the overall level of mining capacity, the difficulty of extracting blocks will also increase. And this, in turn, will negatively affect the profitability of the miner.

The smaller the reward, the more progress, and no “horror scenarios”

BitFury's director is used to looking one step ahead, so he is confident that reducing emissions will have a positive impact on the network. Valery Vavilov believes that in this way Bitcoin companies are motivated to become more progressive.

However, none of the experts are seriously considering the implementation of any “horror scenario” (like the one recently described by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in a post on Medium). While arguing with Armstrong, Mo did not mince words: “The computing power of the network is not able to fall by 50%. This is simply impossible. Anyone who suggests a 50% drop in computing power is either panicking or doesn’t understand how mining works at all.”

Moe explained that Armstrong's premises are based on the assertion that the price of Bitcoin will not increase after the supply reduction. Moe believes this assumption is wrong because it does not take into account the dynamics of the industry. Meanwhile, just in the last few months, a lot of new mining equipment has come into operation.

Moe said nothing could happen to block overflow, which Armstrong described as another “horror scenario.” Mo described this part of Armstrong’s speech as “the most erroneous”: “It doesn’t really matter whether the block is 70% or even 140% full of its volume. Bitcoin is designed to function with full blocks, which is why it has transaction fees. If the wallet software is configured properly, then the fees are set automatically. And the user, if he has no time, will simply pay a few cents more.”

Vavilov also finds no basis for Armstrong’s gloomy forecasts. “There are already more than enough reasons for optimism: we see a steady increase in the popularity of blockchain technologies, and the Bitcoin blockchain in particular,” he says. – The trend towards protocol optimization is also very positive, including things like Segregated Witness, Lightning Network, sidechains and much more.

These technologies are being implemented through the combined efforts of the Bitcoin community, making the Bitcoin blockchain capable of accommodating more transactions and becoming more attractive to both users and businesses.”

ASIC Bitfury B8 - pros and cons, reviews

The equipment is not yet used on a large scale for crypto mining. This is a new product in mining and therefore there are not enough reviews about the Bitfury ASIC to judge the feasibility of such an investment.

We will highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the model from the perspective of the declared characteristics and those few reviews that are already on the Internet.

What conclusions can be drawn about the BitFury B8 ASIC miner? This is definitely a powerful equipment for mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies using the SHA-256 algorithm. A hashrate of 50 TH/s is a serious request, while the cost of over half a million rubles, energy consumption of 6.4 kWh and the instability of the cryptocurrency market cast doubt on the feasibility of such an investment.

For more information about the design features of the BitFury B8 ASIC miner, see the video below:

How the solution works

Server equipment is placed in large tanks, similar to aquariums.
They are filled with a special liquid 3M Novec 7100. It does not conduct electricity, does not burn, does not emit toxins and does not harm servers. For this reason, 3M brand fluids are also called “dry water”. Equipment cooling occurs in two stages. The chips heat up and generate heat, causing the Novec liquid to boil and turn into steam. The vapors rise to the condenser coil, which is shaped like a coil spring.

Then comes the second phase - the coil (it itself is water-cooled) turns the steam into liquid, and it flows back into the tank. The condensation process takes very little time, since Novec 7100 boils at only 61°C. This approach allows you to save up to 95% of energy with minimal fluid loss.

The new cooling system allows you to reduce the PUE coefficient of the data center to 1.02 and increase the density of equipment placement - there is no need to allocate additional space for cooling units. The “refrigeration system” itself acts as a rack and effectively handles 40 megawatts of computing power (252 kW per rack) without excessive consumption of electricity.

What is ASIC for mining

This abbreviation refers to a device that can perform cryptographic operations related to the mining of Bitcoin or altcoins. Depending on the manufacturer and the specific model, they can work with different encryption algorithms, so they are best suited for certain cryptocurrencies.

The ASIC miner operates on the basis of integrated circuits, which ensures high performance when performing calculations. All this is packaged in a specially designed case with thoughtful cooling to extend the life of the equipment.

What advantages can you get if you buy an ASIC?

Everyone knows about the opportunity to mine cryptocurrency on their own computer or a farm created on the basis of video cards. But for this you need to have some knowledge, be able to assemble stacks of several GPUs, configure special programs, etc. Having decided to buy an ASIC, the task becomes easier, and the following positive aspects appear:

• increased hashrate;
• ease of maintenance and periodic maintenance;
• less power consumption compared to conventional video cards for mining;
• excellent combination of price and performance, thanks to which the purchased device quickly pays for itself and begins to generate net profit;
• a well-thought-out cooling system inside the case allows you to extend the operating time of the equipment and maintain its stability.

If everything consisted exclusively of advantages, then everyone would mine this way, but this is not entirely true. Therefore, it is impossible not to note several features of ASIC miners that must be taken into account before purchasing:

• The manufacturer offers only 1 or several algorithms with which mining is possible.
• Good cooling is impossible without many fans, so the device makes noise, sometimes quite noticeable.
• A ready-made machine for mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies consumes quite a lot of energy, so a good power supply is required.
• If a piece of equipment fails, it can be difficult to fix the problem yourself, and you have to contact a service center for help.
• As the complexity of mining and DAG files increases, the ASIC will lose efficiency, and the only way to restore it will be to purchase a new model.

How we develop software products

How we transferred Exonum from Iron to actix-web

When creating our private blockchain development platform Exonum, we used the Iron web framework. However, over time, its authors stopped releasing updates and it became outdated. actix-web was chosen as a replacement for Iron. In this article, we share our experience of migrating Exonum to a new framework using generalized programming techniques: we will provide the code “before” and “after” updating the entire backend.

A look at Tokio: how an asynchronous event handler works

Another article about the development of our Exonum framework. We talk about how we implemented the Tokio asynchronous event handler to replace the Mio library. We provide code and diagrams for implementing event loops for working with Exonum blockchain nodes, and also talk about the functional components of Tokio - futures and streams.

First binding for Exonum: why we chose Java

Exonum is written in Rust, as this language is focused on memory safety (which is important when creating blockchains). However, Rust is a rather difficult language to learn. To make working with the Exonum platform easier for users, we wrote a binding library in Java. In the article we tell you why we chose Java and provide guidance on creating Exonum services in the “new” language.

How to deanonymize Bitcoin blockchain users and why it is necessary

Blockchain is an anonymous network in which the identities of address owners are unknown.
Cybercriminals use this to withdraw funds obtained illegally (for example, using ransomware viruses like WannaCry). However, it is still possible to determine the owner of a particular wallet on the Bitcoin network. To do this, we have developed a special clustering method that combines addresses belonging to the same owner. Searching for information in various sources, manual registration on exchanges and other methods make it possible to determine the owners of the resulting clusters. In this article, we described how our approach works, compared it with similar methods, and shared test results.

Monitor for Lightning Network from the Lightning Peach team

Last September, our Lightning Peach developers introduced a monitoring system for Lightning Network nodes - LN Monitor. It tracks the number of connected nodes in the network, the average lifetime of established bidirectional channels, commission rates, and much more. In the article we analyze the capabilities of the tool using real LN data - with graphs and explanations.

How to choose ASIC for mining

Key parameters to pay attention to:

• price;
• hashrate, also known as performance;
• algorithm for what coin can be mined;
• power consumption.

Based on this, we can make a preliminary conclusion about the payback of a specific ASIC in mining.

You can also look at these points:

• the ability to independently replace internal elements and perform periodic maintenance;
• noise level at maximum load;
• warranty from the manufacturer and what is included in it;
• weight;
• dimensions.

All this will allow you to buy an ASIC that suits your specific needs and desired income.

ASIC rental

Nowadays, renting such devices is becoming very popular. Let us immediately make a reservation that this opportunity has several negative aspects, which is why we cannot unequivocally recommend it.

Virtual rental means that you will mine crypto in the cloud and will not be able to have physical access to the equipment. On the one hand, you don’t have to monitor the performance, clean anything, etc. However, there are scammers on the Internet who will simply charge you for rent, and in the end you will be left with nothing.

Physical rent is possible if someone in your city already has a large mining farm and is ready to give it or part of it for use. But here you need to understand that it is unlikely that anyone will rent out equipment if it can already generate a constant income.

Opinions about Bitfury

Most experts note that the brand owner made the right decision by focusing on the development of blockchain technology for a number of countries.

Papuna Ugrekhelidze, Georgia:

“The land issue has always been difficult in Georgia - mountains, Black Sea coast, plains, etc. To make the land cadastre as convenient as possible, we turned to Vavilov, he made our country the first in the world to transfer the registration of land and property rights to blockchain technology.”

National land cadastre of Ukraine:

“We saw the positive results of our Georgian colleagues, and realized that we can also become leaders in the implementation of blockchain technology in our country, based on the unique development of Vavilov’s company. During 2022, the system must be fully tested and at the end of 2022, the entire land cadastre, as well as the registration of Ukrainian property rights in the country, will switch to the blockchain method.”

Representative of the EY audit consulting center:

“As an audit and integrated consulting firm, we are moving away from traditional audit processes by opening up innovative audit opportunities for energy, business and government clients using blockchain, developed in collaboration with Bitfury.”

Ripple payment network:

“Around the summer of 2022, we, together with Vavilov’s company, managed to develop a joint code and were the first to introduce into the Lightning Network structure a completely new protocol of the latest generation, Interledger, which allows transactions and additional operations between various blockchain groups, including between private and government agencies, public and non-public clients."

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Comparison of video card rigs for mining with ASIC

For example, let's take Innosilicon A10 Pro+ with 750 MH/s. His opponent will be farms from RTX 30 series GPUs with a similar hashrate on Ethereum.

As can be seen from the table, even when taking into account the recommended price, and not the price for which they are actually sold now, video cards perform worse. Of course, if you compare them with outdated ASIC s9 and the like, they may turn out to be profitable, but still we are looking at the situation in 2022.

Is it worth buying an ASIC for mining in 2022?

We will not give a specific answer to this question, since when choosing, it is necessary to take into account a lot of nuances. If a video card becomes obsolete, then it can always be sold on the secondary market, which cannot be done with the old ASIC s9 and devices similar in time of release. In the case of ASIC, you only have to mine 1 coin, so you need to think about which algorithm to bet on, and a regular GPU can process any cryptocurrency.

At the same time, purchasing an ASIC is cheaper than a farm and provides higher mining speed. It also consumes comparatively less energy, which ultimately results in increased income.

Each option has its pros and cons, but here we have proposed the TOP ASICs for 2022 and that’s all. At the same time, we are not saying that now you need to invest in them, or, conversely, exclusively in video cards and farms.

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A slight reduction in network processing power won't hurt

One of the most common is the fear that after limiting the emission, the interest of miners in the further production of bitcoins will weaken and this may negatively affect the power of the network.

However, our experts did not seem too worried about this. “Those who cannot adapt will quickly leave this market, so we expect some reduction in the computing power of the Bitcoin network,” explained Valery Vavilov. “But we don’t expect it to be significant.” And, most importantly, even if computing power drops, this will not affect the security of the network.”

Samson Mo spoke in the same spirit, highlighting the role of Chinese miners, who currently make up the largest share of all global Bitcoin producers:

“It is likely that after the block reward is halved, the overall hashing power of the network will decrease somewhat as small miners will be unable to continue mining. But in the long term, this effect will not have a significant impact. Outside of China, many small miners use the PPLNS [block generation reward] model, so they are more dependent on a combination of circumstances, but in China the PPS model is popular almost everywhere, allowing you to earn a stable and predictable income. This allows Chinese miners to optimize their costs and reduce risks in anticipation of emission reductions.”

Both experts have no doubt that the reduction in rewards will have a positive impact on the price of the cryptocurrency. “Only over the weekend of June 11 and 12, the price increased by 20%,” Vavilov noted, “and the rate is still very stable. This shows that the reduction in emissions is perceived positively by the community and has an impact on the market now, when the event itself has not yet occurred.” Samson Mo is even more optimistic: “The upward trend we see is only the first wave of growth [in Bitcoin prices] caused by the [upcoming] event. After this, the upward trend in price will continue as the supply of new bitcoins to the market will be halved. Does this threaten anyone? This opinion seems far-fetched to me.” In addition, he believes that many miners are also very positive about the price increase, which means that in the short term they are not particularly worried about the price.

Bitcoin mining farm