Proto just entered the ASIC miner manufacturer landscape with bang, giving bitcoin miners the modular, hashboard-swapping design they have long-desired.
Proto, the ASIC miner division of Jack Dorsey’s Block, unveiled Rig, its flagship ASIC miner model at a launch event in Dalton, Georgia today.
The air-cooled model packs 9 hashboards per unit and clocks in at ~800 TH/s with a nameplate efficiency of 14.1 J/TH. Rig’s modular design allows miners to swap hashboards when upgrading without having to purchase new, fully-equipped units ,and it can also be formatted for immersions set ups.
Concurrent with the launch, Proto also announced Proto Fleet, an open source ASIC miner software management tool for power management, ASIC fleet management, and unit diagnostics. Proto did not disclose initial pricing for the unit.
The Proto team estimates that the swappable hashboard design will save miners 15-20% when they refresh their fleets and could extend the lifespan of full units to 10 years.
“During our initial explorations, we heard from mining operators that legacy hardware is not optimized for a lot of existing infrastructure. Shoebox machines often leave power unused at the wall, hashrate is limited by the amount of space a machine takes up on a rack, and upgrading from one generation to the next means essentially starting over with entirely new machines,” Proto Hardware Lead Thomas Templeton said.
“Proto Rig is designed to solve for rackspace density, get the most out of existing electrical infrastructure, and make upgrades extremely easy and efficient,” he continued.
Rig’s form factor should ease headaches and costs for bitcoin miners when they upgrade their fleets, delivering a design choice that miners have long requested from leading ASIC manufacturers like Bitmain and MicroBT.
“Great job on the hardware design … nice to see a supplier actually listen to feedback from industry! Power dense, ease of maintenance / repair in mind, nice square form factor. Very well done,” Upstream Data Founder Steve Barbour commented on the release.
Proto hosted the unveiling at Cores Scientific’s Dalton, Georgia, where a portion of Core Scientific’s 15 EH/s order of the model are actively hashing. Proto plans to ship the bulk of Core Scientific’s order in the second half of this year.
In a research note, JPMorgan noted that Rig offers a “compelling design and near best-in-class efficiency.” The note estimates that the ASIC miner manufacturing sector brings in $4-5 billion per year.
