Bitmain has finally released its firmware for the popular Antminer S9 to enable what is called “overt AsicBoost.”In a recent blog post, Bitmain explains their rationale for the firmware release, citing that they originally “decided against activating this mathematical function in mining hardware” due to the “uncertainty surrounding the use of AsicBoost.” Bitmain previously released support for AsicBoost back in March 2018 by adding support for it on their mining pools BTC.com and Antpool. This, however, came after the company noticed blocks being mined on the blockchain using AsicBoost. Bitmain had not released firmware support for its own miners until yesterday’s blog post. Now, Bitmain has enabled AsicBoost on its own hardware, calling it “overt” because of the obvious use of AsicBoost when it is being used by miners (by looking at the blockheader in a block, it is easy to tell if the block was boosted). In one week, Bitmain will also release firmware to enable AsicBoost in its other hardware devices, namely the Antminer R4, S9i, S9j, T9 and T9+. What Is Overt AsicBoost?AsicBoost is a technology implemented in ASIC chips used for mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. When applied to these chips, AsicBoost allows miners to take a “shortcut” to finding a valid block, essentially saving some energy. The technology was originally patented and held by CoinTerra CTO Timo Hanke and RSK Chief Scientist Sergio...
