Software-specific built-in circuit (ASIC) chips kind the spine of the bitcoin (BTC) mining business. ASIC machines are made for a single function: To unravel Bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm as quick as potential in an effort to gather block rewards.
They’re extraordinarily good at it. One of the crucial extensively used ASIC machines, the Antminer S19, is able to making 82 trillion computations per second — 820 occasions the variety of stars within the Milky Means. The $30 billion ASIC manufacturing market is dominated by Bitmain. The Chinese language firm’s machines energy roughly 80% of Bitcoin’s hashrate, in keeping with 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 may deliver an enormous bounce in effectivity, the corporate claims, whereas bettering transparency within the ASIC manufacturing course of.
“The 2 dominant gamers [Bitmain and MicroBT] are each personal corporations, and really opaque,” Jeff LaBerge, head of capital markets and strategic initiatives at Bitdeer, advised 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 tough for end-buyers to plan.”
“We would like our prospects to know the place we’re at in our manufacturing course of, what our roadmap is by way of 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, advised 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,” she mentioned.
“Whereas Canaan discloses its annual gross sales quantity for varied mining fashions, Bitdeer takes it a step additional by offering extra frequent supply quantity updates,” Wolfie Zhao, head of analysis at TheMinerMag, advised 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 be aware.”
Looking for effectivity
ASIC chips have used principally the identical blueprint since 2014. During the last decade, the most important will increase in ASIC energy effectivity have come on the foundry stage, as main world chipmaker TSMC has refined its manufacturing course of. Whereas miners have additionally made alterations to chip design, such modifications have solely introduced incremental features.
Even so, progress has been large. 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 totally 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 inclined to fall. “You’re additionally competing with Apple and Nvidia and a few of the greatest corporations 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 grew to become 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. Which means the A3 — which nonetheless makes use of the standard ASIC blueprint — may 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 predicted to eat 5 J/TH. It should seemingly be probably the most environment friendly ASIC machine in the marketplace by a major margin.
“Folks have identified for a very long time that you could possibly recycle [the electric] cost on a chip, however nobody’s actually been ready to determine how to do this in a approach that permits for top efficiency… We have cracked the code on how to do that in a really excessive efficiency software,” Basit advised 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 occasions, 4, 5, six occasions. 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 might be extremely lively, like GPUs and sign processing chips.”
Manufacturing chips
Making ASICs isn’t simple. 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 remedy the SHA-256 algorithm — it’s extraordinarily sophisticated to design. We’ve received a few of the greatest engineers on this planet engaged on this,” LaBerge mentioned. The corporate spends roughly $6-8 million on analysis per quarter.
To date, 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 yr, 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 possibly can’t simply go to TSMC and say, ‘Hey, I would like 100 exahash price of chips within the subsequent three months.’ There is a course of for going by way of that,” LaBerge mentioned. “You go in and ask them for chip allocation, they usually’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 shipped 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 price. 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 bunch of chips. Technically, a masks can be utilized to create an virtually 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 keeping with LaBerge, is that it’s purported to make the agency’s chip allocation course of simpler. “[Basit] challenged the group to give you a brand new structure that didn’t have to endure TSMC’s newest processes, however may 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 continually 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 amenities in Asia. From there, it could possibly 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, a few of the capital required for manufacturing ASICs comes from Bitdeer’s prospects.
Miners focused on buying Bitdeer’s ASICs usually put down a deposit of 25% to 50% of the full price 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 lately the agency, which was based in 2021, targeted on the internet hosting enterprise, which means that it supplied amenities for different bitcoin miners to put 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 normally 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 capable of significantly scale 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 provide Bitmain and MicroBT a run for his or her cash, and disrupt what LaBerge known as the duopoly of the ASIC market. “We wish to be the highest participant available in the market, completely,” LaBerge mentioned. “We imagine now we have the group and the expertise to do this.”
UPDATE (March 14, 2025, 15:30 UTC): Added the price of the SEALMINER A3 tape-out.
