Samsung Asic Production: Does Bitmain Have a Competitor?

As many people know, Bitmain currently has an effective monopoly on many parts of the ASIC market, with the most efficient Bitcoin miners being the S9. (There is the supposed Dragonmint 16T, but no one has seen that yet, so well see.) Seeing how the S9 has been out for well over a year and a half, it seems that Bitmain would release the new supposed S11 anytime now. With the announcement of Samsung beginning production of ASIC chips, many have thought that a company of this size participating in ASIC production might knock Bitmain off their throne, but this isn’t the case.

Is Samsung Making ASICS?

The answer to this is no. Samsung, although becoming a producer of ASIC chips, will not directly produce ASIC miners. Samsung has only received orders from producers of ASICs for the production of the chips used in ASIC miners. Samsung has yet to clarify who ordered the chips, so it could be Bitmain or another ASIC manufacturer. Up till now, a Taiwanese company, TSMC, has been the main producer of the ASIC chips for miners.

When Will Production Begin?

It seems to have already started. In order to meet these orders, Samsung has specific “foundries” dedicated to the development of chips for external orders. These chips have been designed in order to strip all unnecessary functions and only leave hardware that is used in mining in order to both optimize hardware speed and electricity consumption.Samsung specifically stated that they have no involvement in how the chips are being used. Getting into this field seems to be a no brainer for Samsung as much of the tech used in producing graphic cards is also applicable to making ASICs.

Who Are the Chips For?

Although it is not known who the chips are for, there is a there is a company in Japan named GMO Internet that has announced will be mass producing ASICs, and they have already produced a 12nm chip, with a 7nm in development. They have announced they will use these to mine for themselves as well as producing them for retail sales. Unless Bitmain or Canaan are switching suppliers, Samsung could be the supplier for GMO. This is on top of Japanese company SBI Holdings building a Bitcoin Cash mine after stating that it will use Bitcoin Cash for international payments. Once these miners are produced, unless Bitmain and others producers being making miners with the same size of chips, they will quickly be beat out of the market(The S9 and Dragonmint use 16nm)

Is this going to bring the much needed decentralization of mining?

Maybe. That remains to be seen. But it definitely is not a bad thing that more companies are getting involved in the ASIC space, as this allows for more development and more distribution of assets that will hopefully bring about the end of Bitmain’s effective monopoly and secure a much healthier and distributed Bitcoin mining space.

Koreans, Do They Care?

Um, I'm not sure about this one. I mean, there is news articles about it, so obviously it has some attention. But with electricity prices being high here, and most people liking Ethereum mining over Bitcoin, it doesn't seem likely that Koreans will be lining up to get ASIC miners just because a Korean company is helping make them. On the Korean government side though, it may help regulators be a bit more lax on regulations. Seeing that the biggest company in Korea who touches nearly half the economy has skin in the Bitcoin game, the government might not want to hurt its own best friend by over regulating the industry, whether that be exchanges or mining.