On Sept. 7, 2024, Bitcoin’s hashrate hit an all-time high of 693 exahash per second (EH/s), according to the seven-day simple moving average (SMA) from hashrateindex.com. To put that in perspective, it’s equivalent to 693,000 petahash per second (PH/s) or an astounding 693,000,000 terahash per second (TH/s).

Rewind almost 11 years to Nov. 2013, and Bitcoin’s hashrate was just 5 PH/s or 5,000 TH/s. Back then, Bitmain introduced the Antminer S1, their first application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) bitcoin miner, which delivered a modest 180 gigahash per second—just 0.18 TH/s.

The evolution of Bitmain bitcoin miners from 2013 to 2020. Source: Bitmain

A few months later, Bitmain stepped up its game, releasing the Antminer S2, which boosted the hash rate to 1 TH/s. In 2014 alone, the company rolled out the S2, S3, S4, and S5 models. It was a time when competition was fierce, with other players like Kncminer, Hashcoins, Butterfly Labs, Asicminer, Canaan, and Gridseed vying for a piece of the action.

Fast forward to late 2016 and 2017, when Bitmain unleashed a range of S9 models, with hashrates ranging from 10 TH/s to 14.5 TH/s. At its peak, it’s estimated that the S9 series powered more than half of the entire Bitcoin network’s hashrate.

Aside from Bitmain and Canaan, most of the companies mentioned above couldn’t stick around in the mining hardware game. By the time the S9 reached its peak, Antminers had some serious competition from Bitfury, Innosilicon, Canaan, and Ebit. Back in March 2018, Bitfury’s B8 miner brought in an estimated $32.54 per day in profits, running at around 49 TH/s.

Meanwhile, a 14 TH/s Antminer S9 was generating roughly $10.83 per day in March 2018. Fast forward to September 2024, and with the current hashprice sitting at 0.0438 per TH/s, the once-mighty S9, consuming power at $0.04 per kWh, is now losing about $2.70 per day. Tough times for the S9.

Jump ahead to Bitmain’s latest hydro-powered device: the Antminer S21 XP Hydro, which cranks out a whopping 473 TH/s. The only real rival to this machine is Microbt’s hydro-cooled M63S+, pushing close with 450 TH/s. But Bitmain didn’t stop there.

Bitmain introducing the new Antminer U3S21EXPH which produces up to 860 TH/s.

This week the firm upped the ante with the U3S21EXPH, which adds a cool 387 TH/s on top of the S21 XP Hydro’s output. This next-generation ASIC is 81.81% faster than the S21 XP Hydro and a massive 477,677% more powerful than the 2013 S1 model.

The Antminer U3S21EXPH specifications.

At $0.04 per kWh, the U3S21EXPH is projected to rake in $34.36 in daily profits. Of course, that doesn’t factor in the cost of the unit itself. Bitmain is currently selling older models at around $23 to $27 per TH/s, so at the lower end, one of these next-gen machines could set a buyer back $19,780.

Regardless of the price, this cutting-edge mining gear shows that the zettahash era is just around the corner. With the leap from 473 TH/s to 860 TH/s, ASIC mining machines have not hit a performance ceiling yet. The real question is: will we ever hit it, or will the rapid advances in power and efficiency just keep rolling on?

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