Bitcoin miners double down on efficiency and renewable energy at the World Digital Mining Summit

Bitmain rolled out its next generation Antminer S21 and S21 Hydro ASIC miners at the World Digital Mining Summit in Hong Kong on Sept 22, revealing the crucial performance stats that the entire industry has been waiting for. The S21 has a hasrate at 200 TH/s and an efficiency at 17.5 J/T while the S21 hydro hashes at 335 TH/s and 16 J/T which is notable given that until recently, most Bitcoin ASICS were operating above the 20 J/T level.

With electricity costs continuing to rise year-over-year and the Bitcoin halving projected to occur in April 2024, ASIC efficiency is quickly becoming the paramount focus of miners and many are also pivoting toward folding in renewable energy sources as a core component of their operations.

Bitcoin miners focus on efficiency and renewable energy

Sustainable development in the mining industry was a core theme discussed in a majority of the panels at the WDMS and in the opening roundtable team members from Terrawulf, Core Scientific, CleanSpark and Iris Energy shared their perspectives on how further integration of renewable energy sources will become a critical strategy to implement for many miners after the April 2024 Bitcoin supply halving.

According to Nazar Khan, Terrawulf COO,

“There’s a significant transition going on in the supply side of the generation process, there’s a concerted effort to decarbonize the entire supply stack and so when we talk about Bitocin miners consuming more renewable energy that’s part of a broader theme that’s happening across the United States without Bitcoin mining as well. The role that we play is locating our Bitcoin mining loads in places where that’s happening and how do we facilitate that decarbonization process. 

One impact of the upcoming supply halving is that miners will maintain the same capital and operational costs, plus the need to pay down any revolving debts, while essentially seeing their block reward distribution cut in half.

For this reason, miners will either need to increase the percentage of their hashrate that is derived from sustainable energy sources or make efficiency adjustments to their ASIC fleet in order maintain or increase their profitability.

Regarding the rollout of the Antminer XP 21 and its potential impact on the mining industry, BMC founder Justin Kramer said:

“The S21, if reliable, fairly priced, and readily available, and yes,that’s a lot of if’s with Bitmain’s history, could…