Bitmain's New Antminer E3 - Competition for GPU Miners!
Bitmain is known for disrupting the mining market, and it appears that they have done it again!
Bright and early on April 3rd, 2018, Bitmain announced their EtHash miner.
We are pleased to announce the Antminer E3, world's most powerful and efficient EtHash ASIC miner.
~ BITMAIN (@BITMAINtech) April 3, 2018
Ordering limit of one miner per user and not available in China.
Limited stock, order here now: https://t.co/Zfw3afjJHs#antminerE3 pic.twitter.com/SjHu2eUThp
EtHash is the algorithm used for Ethereum, which has always had a firm stance on being ASIC resistant. In the description of the E3, Bitmain includes a disclaimer which calls this out by saying:
There are financial risks associated with mining cryptocurrencies. These risks can be related to changes in exchange rate of the cryptocurrency or to changes in the algorithm that is used to mine the cryptocurrency. Please deliberate well before making a purchase because we will not accept any requests for refund for orders of this batch.
Even though this miner is only $800 USD, I'm not going to risk getting this miner in time to make my return on investment before a hardfork is rolled out to turn these machines into shiny bricks. Especially since the expected shipping date is not until mid to late July 2018.