Dear Steemit Friends,
The past week has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions with most cryptocurrencies losing a lot of the value they recently gained over the past year. We continue to see red day-over-day as wave after wave of negative news and FUD continuously headline most media outlets. For those of us who have been mining and trading currencies for years, this is just another day in the world of cryptocurrencies and our opportunity to pick up some cheap coins.
I decided to take a break from staring at the various exchanges, coinmarketcap, and my posting on STeemit to watch some TV, when all of a sudden I got a Tweet, Email, and Facebook notification from Bitmain announcing the arrival of a new product. Because it is always beneficial to get in on the first wave of shipments for new and untested equipment, I quickly clicked the link to check it out.
The new Antminer A3 - which retails for $2375 USD and will ship 10 days after fully paid is the new flagship miner for mining Blake(2a) coins. What this basically means is a miner was created to mine Siacoin which currently has a value of $0.040367 USD - but continues to drop in value like all other coins. Its current market cap is about $1,267,355,674 USD and has a supply of 31,396,146,174 SC.
Looking on the bitcointalk forums, a lot of people think this is going to be another miner that possibly ends up like the D3 - oversold and not profitable as soon as the first batch ships. I admit that I too am skeptical given that Bitmain has done a 360-degree turn again and changed their shipping time to 10 days rather than the recent 3-month pre-order that they switched to before.
Why do I think that you ask?
Bitmain admittedly is fairly trustworthy and makes some decent equipment (having bought several miners previously) and has a pretty good track record shipping equipment but with the latest crackdown in China on exchanges and cryptocurrency related businesses and mining facilities, it feels like they are just trying to quickly unload equipment which they had planned to release as pre-orders in order to lighten their load in case they need to move business elsewhere or discontinue mining. Of course, this can be considered FUD, but having felt the wrath of the D3 orders, I can't help but feel this way.
On the flip side, my curiosity is peaked and with the current specs of this new machine, I can't help but have itchy fingers ready to purchase a couple.
Using the mining profitability calculator for Siacoin and the current difficulty (9.14821394654102e+17) and considering the current overall Network Hashrate of 626.74 TH/s, earnings look good for this miner with an ROI of 1 week. That is, of course, the same thing I thought with the D3 when I ordered (2nd batch) of which I am now struggling to ROI quick enough - especially with the current drop in value.
Below is what the earnings look like currently
Hard to say NO to that right? Also with a 10 day lead time, you can guarantee that everyone who orders (including myself) will plug these puppies in as soon as they arrive (hopefully there are no shipping delays or damage on arrival). I am, however expecting the worst - that Bitmain will oversell, or at least sell a batch of 500 which will probably all hit the network at the same time cutting the overall profitability in half while adding their own hashrate to the mix as they prepare to ship the second batch. Afterall, they have to make their money quickly if something were to happen.
I may sound like a cynic, but that is just how business is done. As a supporter of cryptocurrencies though, I can't pass the chance up to make possibly make a quick return and some fast passive cash. I'm just hoping that I at least break even and am able to cover the cost of the miners and the cost of shipping - if I'm lucky, the hash rate and market price won't be too impacted. The bright side... Usually, when Bitmain releases a new miner, the market improves and often times we see some huge gains in value on cryptocurrency prices. It might be a good time to buy some Siacoin as well!
Anyways, I thought I would share the news and let everyone know in case you might be interested. This could as well serve as a turning point for the market and drive prices in a positive direction, but announcement of new technology in the crypto space is always exciting news. I will be one of the first in line (and maybe will have already purchased) to order a couple of these miners and if I am lucky enough to fight my way through to the order confirmation screen, you can be sure I will post an unboxing and review of this first-ever miner for Siacoin and other Blake(2a) currencies.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you found it interesting or want to check out my review once I receive one of the units, please feel free to Upvote, Follow me, and Resteem this post. I would appreciate it. Your support is always welcome and will help to fund future reviews of new and exciting hardware.
