Riot Platforms, a global leader in the world of Bitcoin mining, is preparing to elevate its hashrate capacity to unparalleled heights with the acquisition of 33,280 mining rigs from MicroBT, a top mining equipment manufacturing company. The $162.9 million Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) order has turned heads, even amidst a wave of competitive investments in 2021. However, the machines are not slated to arrive until December 2023, with deployment anticipated for Q1 2024.
Riot CEO Jason Les expressed excitement about the groundbreaking Bitcoin miners, which are specifically designed and constructed for immersion cooling systems. The mining rigs are to be installed at Riot’s facility in Corsicana, a business-friendly community situated 50 miles southeast of Dallas, Texas.
The ASIC models purchased by Riot include MicroBT’s M56S+ and M56S++, the latter of which was unveiled in late April. This high-performance miner boasts a power efficiency of 22 J/TH, and an impressive maximum hashrate of 230 TH/s. Mining properties rely on hashrate to assess the number of hashes generated per second to address the complex mathematical problems that underpin Bitcoin blocks’ creation.
With this significant purchase, Riot’s hashrate capacity is expected to jump by 7.6 EH/s, reaching a total of 20.1 EH/s throughout its facilities. The company has also secured the option to acquire an additional 66,560 M56S++ miners by the end of 2022, which would elevate its capacity even further, to a staggering 35.4 EH/s.
The Bitcoin network’s total hashrate currently sits at 398 EH/s, as per ycharts data. Les anticipates that the deployment of these advanced mining machines will fortify Riot’s efficiency in the wake of the impending Bitcoin halving. Expected to take place in April 2024, the halving event will reduce miners’ block rewards to 3.125 BTC, which many experts predict will catalyze a surge in Bitcoin’s value.
CleanSpark CFO Gary A. Vecchiarelli also cited the halving in discussing his company’s $9.3 million acquisition of two Georgia mining sites last week. Additionally, Iris Energy, an NASDAQ traded company, confirmed their plans to expand capacity on Tuesday, prompting stocks to rise 21%.
Despite these exciting developments, the long-term impact of the mining rig purchases on Bitcoin’s value, ecosystem, and sustainability remains uncertain. As the mining industry swells, questions arise about how to best strike a balance between optimizing technological efficiency and confronting the environmental consequences that accompany extensive mining operations.
Source: Decrypt
