Bitmain rival MicroBT launches 3 new bitcoin miners ahead of halving

Bitcoin • April 17, 2020, 7:50AM EDT
UPDATED: April 17, 2020, 8:30AM EDT
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MicroBT, a Chinese bitcoin miner manufacturer which is in a neck-and-neck competition with Bitmain, has launched three new machines.

These are WhatsMiner M30S+, M30S++ and M31S+, MicroBT COO Jianbing Chen announced in an online conference on Friday. 

Chen believes the bitcoin mining hardware market is now entering the "3X era" -  "low power consumption ratio, high stability, and one-year long warranty service" - referring to three features of new WhatsMiners.

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MicroBT recently said that the power consumption ratio of WhatsMiner M30 series would be lower than 50W/T (watts per terahash). A lower W/T ratio helps bitcoin miners with a higher gross margin.

At today's event, Chen also provided details on MicroBT's sales numbers. He said the firm sold 600,000 units of its WhatsMiner M20 series in 2019 as compared to 300,000 units of WhatsMiner M3 series in 2018.

The 2019 sales figure accounted for 35% of bitcoin's network total computing power, as compared to 9% in 2018, said Chen.

The launch of new WhatsMiner machines comes ahead of bitcoin's third halving in mid-May, which will see the amount of bitcoin produced with each new transaction block fall from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. Bitcoin miners are also updating their rigs to prepare for the halving and the new machines could help them. 

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