Software-specific built-in circuit (ASIC) chips kind the spine of the bitcoin (BTC) mining business. ASIC machines are made for a single goal: To resolve Bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm as quick as doable with the intention to acquire block rewards.
They’re extraordinarily good at it. One of the vital extensively used ASIC machines, the Antminer S19, is able to making 82 trillion computations per second — 820 instances the variety of stars within the Milky Method. The $30 billion ASIC manufacturing market is dominated by Bitmain. The Chinese language firm’s machines energy roughly 80% of Bitcoin’s hashrate, in response to TheMinerMag.
However Singapore-based bitcoin mining agency Bitdeer (BTDR) intends to shake issues up with the discharge of a brand new ASIC chip structure. These new chips might convey an enormous bounce in effectivity, the corporate claims, whereas enhancing transparency within the ASIC manufacturing course of.
“The 2 dominant gamers [Bitmain and MicroBT] are each non-public firms, and really opaque,” Jeff LaBerge, head of capital markets and strategic initiatives at Bitdeer, informed CoinDesk in an interview. “They don’t actually interact with the media or give any kind of steering about what they’re doing from an R&D standpoint, and that makes it very troublesome for end-buyers to plan.”
“We would like our clients to know the place we’re at in our manufacturing course of, what our roadmap is when it comes to new chip designs, the place we’re at in our manufacturing cycles,” LaBerge mentioned.
Shanon Squires, chief mining officer at bitcoin internet hosting agency Compass Mining, informed CoinDesk that elevated visibility into ASIC manufacturing would assist miners plan new {hardware} shipments and make it simpler to foretell Bitcoin’s problem development. “Bitdeer’s dedication to transparency is nice for the mining business,” he mentioned.
“Whereas Canaan discloses its annual gross sales quantity for numerous mining fashions, Bitdeer takes it a step additional by offering extra frequent supply quantity updates,” Wolfie Zhao, head of analysis at TheMinerMag, informed CoinDesk. “Though each are smaller gamers within the {hardware} market, their efforts present good religion in selling transparency. Hopefully, this may encourage the bigger market incumbents to take notice.”
Searching for effectivity
ASIC chips have used principally the identical blueprint since 2014. During the last decade, the largest will increase in ASIC energy effectivity have come on the foundry stage, as main international chipmaker TSMC has refined its manufacturing course of. Whereas miners have additionally made alterations to chip design, such modifications have solely introduced incremental beneficial properties.
Even so, progress has been great. The very first ever ASIC, Canaan’s Avalon (2013) had an influence effectivity of 6,000 joules per terahash (J/TH). Bitmain’s Antminer S21XP Hydro, the present best machine in the marketplace, boasts 12 J/TH effectivity.
Bitdeer, which is listed on Nasdaq, needs to create a very new structure for its ASICs. “We really feel prefer it’s going to be essential to interrupt into what we name the single-digit effectivity vary,” LaBerge mentioned, referring to mining rigs with lower than 10 J/TH in effectivity.
Scaling up with the standard blueprint means utilizing progressively thinner chips. However thinner means chips usually tend to be faulty and yields per batch are likely to fall. “You’re additionally competing with Apple and Nvidia and among the largest firms on this planet for a similar supplies,” LaBerge mentioned.
Bitdeer’s Chief Technique Officer, Haris Basit, is main a group of engineers to create a brand new framework. Some members of that group labored on designs present in Bitmain’s first ASIC chips again in 2014 — the chips whose structure turned the usual throughout the business. (Bitmain didn’t reply to a request for remark.)
Bitdeer’s analysis has already had successes. The corporate’s most up-to-date product, the SEALMINER A3, achieved an influence effectivity of 9.7 J/TH throughout efficiency trials, the agency reported on Monday. Meaning the A3 — which nonetheless makes use of the standard ASIC blueprint — might find yourself taking the effectivity crown from the S21XP Hydro.
But the miner’s SEALMINER A4, which can make use of the agency’s new chip structure, is anticipated to devour 5 J/TH. It is going to seemingly be probably the most environment friendly ASIC machine in the marketplace by a big margin.
“Individuals have recognized for a very long time that you can recycle [the electric] cost on a chip, however nobody’s actually been ready to determine how to do this in a means that enables for top efficiency… We have cracked the code on how to do that in a really excessive efficiency utility,” Basit informed the Coin Tales podcast in December.
“As an alternative of simply utilizing [charge] as soon as and discharging it, we use it a number of instances, 4, 5, six instances. So we get [a] 75-80% enchancment in effectivity by doing that,” Basit added.
“Our SEALMINER A4 chips will use this expertise, nevertheless it must also be relevant extra typically in digital chips, particularly digital chips which can be extremely lively, like GPUs and sign processing chips.”
Manufacturing chips
Making ASICs isn’t straightforward. Bitdeer’s analysis group is split into two items (one in Singapore, one other in Silicon Valley) that each work on new chip designs. “For such a easy machine — all it does is clear up the SHA-256 algorithm — it’s extraordinarily difficult to design. We’ve received among the greatest engineers on this planet engaged on this,” LaBerge mentioned. The corporate spends roughly $6-8 million on analysis per quarter.
To this point, the agency has been delivering new merchandise at a quick tempo. Bitdeer pushed out each the SEALMINER A1 and A2 in 2024 and is anticipating the A3 to enter mass manufacturing within the latter half of 2025. It says the A4 ought to attain tape-out (the final stage of its designing course of) within the third quarter of the 12 months, with a launch seemingly in late-2025 or early 2026.
When a brand new chip design is finalized, Bitdeer sends the plans over to TSMC. Not solely is the Taiwanese agency the biggest chip producer on this planet, it’s additionally probably the most superior on a technological stage, which makes Bitdeer’s partnership with it essential.
“You may’t simply go to TSMC and say, ‘Hey, I need 100 exahash price of chips within the subsequent three months.’ There is a course of for going by that,” LaBerge mentioned. “You go in and ask them for chip allocation, and so they’ll give that based mostly on precedence.”
As soon as it has the plans in hand, TSMC produces a masks, which primarily features as a template for chips — just like the platen in a printing press. The masks is distributed to Bitdeer alongside threat chips (a small batch of chips that the corporate can use for trials) to verify the design works correctly. If the agency wants any alterations to be made to the design, that’s when it occurs. In that case, TSMC makes corrections based mostly on Bitdeer’s suggestions and sends over a brand new masks with new threat chips. All of this occurs at vital value. Bitdeer spent $14 million on the A2’s tape-out and $26 million on the A3’s.
When Bitdeer is happy with a design, TSMC makes use of the masks to mass-produce wafers. LaBerge in contrast wafers to sheets, every containing a whole lot of chips. Technically, a masks can be utilized to create an nearly limitless variety of wafers, however TSMC has finite assets and might solely produce a sure variety of chips, so companies find yourself competing for them.
One of many benefits of the A4’s design, in response to LaBerge, is that it’s speculated to make the agency’s chip allocation course of simpler. “[Basit] challenged the group to provide you with a brand new structure that didn’t must bear TSMC’s newest processes, however might step again a few generations, which might permit us to make use of a node that’s a lot much less in demand,” he mentioned. A semiconductor node is mainly a selected model of the agency’s chip manufacturing expertise; TSMC is consistently constructing new nodes in an effort to refine its processes.
It takes roughly three months for Bitdeer to obtain its masks and threat chips after first submitting its design to TSMC. Then, it’s one other three or 4 months for the corporate to obtain its chips as soon as it has given the foundry the inexperienced mild for mass manufacturing. The chips are despatched straight to Bitdeer’s manufacturing services in Asia. From there, it could take 4 to eight weeks for the mining rigs to be totally constructed and packaged.
Aiming for the highest
Regardless of all the prices incurred throughout manufacturing, among the capital required for manufacturing ASICs comes from Bitdeer’s clients.
Miners all for buying Bitdeer’s ASICs sometimes put down a deposit of 25% to 50% of the whole value of the order. The manufacturing cycle tends to common at six to seven months, so it doesn’t take lengthy for the corporate to recuperate its funds and make a revenue.
Constructing ASICs additionally creates benefits for Bitdeer’s personal mining operations. Up till not too long ago the agency, which was based in 2021, targeted on the internet hosting enterprise, that means that it offered services for different bitcoin miners to position their rigs. Bitdeer is slowly transitioning out of that mannequin and increasing its personal mining operations alongside its ASIC manufacturing arm.
The acquisition of ASICs is usually the costliest a part of increase a bitcoin mining operation. These machines often solely final round three or 4 years earlier than newer fashions make them out of date, so bitcoin mining companies are always trying to purchase extra.
Not solely is Bitdeer in a position to significantly cut back these prices by producing its personal machines, nevertheless it additionally has the choice of promoting its mining rigs to different companies relying on its wants.
Down the road, Bitdeer goals to offer Bitmain and MicroBT a run for his or her cash, and disrupt what LaBerge referred to as the duopoly of the ASIC market. “We wish to be the highest participant available in the market, completely,” LaBerge mentioned. “We consider we’ve got the group and the expertise to do this.”
UPDATE (March 14, 2025, 15:30 UTC): Added the price of the SEALMINER A3 tape-out.
