Linzhi Begins Roll-Out of Ethereum Miner ‘Phoenix’

Ethereum’s mining competitors simply obtained a bit hotter, even because the second-largest blockchain by market cap has begun the formal means of eliminating its dependency on the business all collectively.

Shenzhen, China-based mining agency Linzhi Inc. has begun rolling out a brand new Ethereum ASIC miner dubbed the Phoenix, reportedly thrice extra highly effective than high choices accessible right this moment. As reported by CoinDesk, the journey to provide a extra highly effective and environment friendly Ethash ASIC miner was begun some two years in the past by Chen Min, former CTO of mining big Canaan.

Mining pool F2 Pool launched a demo of the brand new machine on YouTube Saturday. The Phoenix outpaces the following finest A10+ Pro at 2,600 megahashes per second MH/s to round 500 MH/s. Linzhi’s new machine can be extra vitality environment friendly clocking in at 3,000 watts per hour to the A10+ Professional’s 1,300 W, F2 Pool says.

“In case you look again on CoinDesk reporting about Linzhi courting again to the primary article in September, 2018, it’s clear we had delays,” Linzhi Director of Operations Wolfgang Spraul instructed CoinDesk in an e-mail. “Some resulting from underestimating the expertise, then some due” to the coronavirus pandemic.

Spraul stated the agency is rolling out pre-orders and restricted portions to “builders, neighborhood, pool operators, and so on.” Innosilicon carries the A10+ Professional for about $4,440 per unit whereas Linzhi has but to launch a public worth determine.

The brand new product comes because the Ethereum community has begun a technical transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake (PoS). That course of started Dec. 1 with the launch of the Beacon Chain. That chain acts as a central conductor for the brand new blockchain community which makes use of coin deposits as a method of securing the community, referred to as “staking,” over mining.

Nonetheless, miners have at the very least a two-year runway with PoW on Ethereum. The present community, Eth 1.x, gained’t be moved over to the brand new PoS blockchain till part 1.5 of Eth 2.0.

The present Linzhi Phoenix demoed by F2 Pool will want at the very least one improve to remain helpful earlier than that transition, nevertheless.  

The Ethereum community’s directed acyclic graph (DAG) – a part of Ethereum’s PoW algorithm referred to as Ethash – stands at just under 4 gb, whereas every Linzhi Phoenix solely has a 4.4 GB reminiscence. The incumbent A10, alternatively, can home between 6 and eight gigabytes, F2 Pool says. 

The Phoenix will want a bump in reminiscence dimension or aftermarket elements if it isn’t to change into out of date earlier than part 1.5. Spraul instructed CoinDesk in an e-mail that the Phoenix miners presently rolling out are restricted to portions of pre-orders. The agency is “engaged on a successor with a rise in DAG reminiscence – no specs but,” he stated.

After all, different Ethash-based cryptocurrencies equivalent to Ethereum Traditional will nonetheless be utilizing proof-of-work, that means a market will nonetheless exist for the Phoenix even after Eth 2.0 part 1.5.