Bitcoin Forum

From the article: "Bitmain, which designs application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips and manufacturers cryptocurrency miners, has reportedly made $1.1 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2018 alone.

According to a recent report by Fortune that cites a term sheet for the company’s upcoming IPO obtained from insiders, Bitmain currently claims a 50% net margin and has conservative estimates of $2 to $3 billion for its full-year profit."

Read More (https://sludgefeed.com/bitmain-had-1-1-billion-in-profits-in-q1/)

Well, seems mining is still profitable and people are making money from it. Bitmain has a one of the largest mining farms in the cryptospace and so I'm not suprised about this. That's also a good light showing there are still many people performing Bitcoin transactions.

That's no joke. I really hope we see stronger competitors emerge in the next year or so.


Bitmain ≠ "people." They're not like any other miners at all. They derive lots of profits from hardware manufacture, and by mining with customer hardware during the shipping period.

I agree, this is bad. The amount of power that this company holds is concerning , i hope that they will not  become much bigger.

Jihan doesn't even bother to do much effort to counter these allegations other than him saying that the hardware is being tested. :D

How far can they stretch the term testing, lol.... If we look at the severe changes (fluctuations) in hashrate, there is some serious stuff going on that is largely coming from Bitmain's pools, which strongly raises suspicions that they are indeed abusing customer's hardware. People in this space get smarter with the day, and as time goes by more and more people will see how Bitmain is trying to gain an unfair advantage over the rest of the participants. It's ridiculous....

There should be if a startup from China can make $1.1 billion in only 1 quarter. The cryptocoin mining industry has become a very big pie that surely many other entrepreneurs would want to compete for a piece.

Bitman is a company that stood since 2013 and always produces a good design chip, because in the manufacture of integrated circuits Bitman company has a team consisting of experienced designers, economists and engineers are very compact, they assume that a good design will increase the power of users without increasing the cost .
Basically the Bitman company always produces the energy efficiency design so it is the most powerful and economical.

That won't be happening anytime soon imo. Jihan has got the resources to buy up the best engineers and pay them 200% more than a startup could offer. Also, Chinese people have a culture to Follow the master, So for these engineers, if they get an offer from Bitmain "The master" in this case. Do you really think they won't accept it? The reason Bitmain has reached the stage at which it is purely because of these Cultural values. Plus it's not easy to find engineers who have such extensive knowledge of Cryptos along with ASIC Design.

This field requires research and money which not every startup is blessed with. Unless the startup can land an Angel Investor, the chances of a competition rising are slim.

Yes, the real danger won't come from startups, but from giants such as Intel, TSMC and Samsung. They have the expertise, loads of cash, the best engineers, and the best hardware to produce even faster and more energy efficient miners. Bitmain has had just luck as first mover, but they will see their market share shrink significantly in the forthcoming years, which is a win for Bitcoin.

The only thing Bitmain is doing currently is boasting and lobbying, which will work against them because the only thing they are doing is signalling that they are making tons of money, and when others smell money, they'll jump in and knock Bitmain off its throne. Bitmain was better off operating low-key and still generate billions in profits, but their confidence to go public like this will turn out to be their downfall.

@1Referee

What I am worried about is these giants partnering up with Bitmain. Just like Intel Partnered up with Nvidia and ruled the gaming industry for a good two decades or so. Imagine Bitmain partnering up with Samsung or Intel. We will enter the dark times for sure and the amount of propaganda they will be able to pour out into the public will be unlike we have seen.

You also have to keep in mind that These giants will hesitate too entering a new market. Breaking a monopoly is not an easy task especially when its related to a currency where their profits aren't guaranteed. Do you really think their Risk Management teams won't consider the volatility of bitcoin? It's one of the reasons we haven't seen any ASICs from these giants.

But that is $1.1 billion in only 1 quarter, and another projected $3 billion for the rest of the year from only just a 6 year old startup. Bigger, older companies that have the resources to compete would surely also want their piece of that pie for themselves.

There is such a thing as market saturation.

Bitmain can't just continue to churn out miners to make a profit. There's diminishing returns as difficulty goes sky-high.

They'll have to shift to something else, but who knows what the hell that will be. Also, competitors will be nipping at their heels - everyone wants a piece of that billion dollar revenue pie.

They've been branching out into altcoin mining hardware for a while now. There's still markets to tap there. Launching Bcash also allowed them to recycle old hardware due to much lower difficulty -- plus, both overt and covert ASICBoost work on Bcash.

I also noticed this a little while back: Bitcoin Mining Giant Bitmain Is Making a Major Pivot to AI (https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-mining-firm-bitmain-is-making-a-major-pivot-to-ai/)

I reckon Asics for the other mining algorithms which they already begun, but that will not be enough. They want to manufacture a machine for all highly liquid cryptocoin. Then diversify to cryptocoin hedgefunds hehe, or maybe datacenters for blockchains?

do you know who profited the most during the Gold Rush?
the people who sold shovels,food and other equipment to miners
history repeats itself,usually,there is nothing new
Bitmain profited 1.1 bil and will keep making profits,add to that the mining they do on their ASICs before they ship them

They've obviously delved deeply into altcoins, and I don't see that going away. Even considering the communities that forked to brick Bitmain's ASICs, those seem like a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme. There is just so much a greed buffering demand for mining hardware right now, and for the foreseeable future.


Indeed, we really shouldn't be surprised. Most gold miners left poor -- and so too will most crypto miners who blindly invest into mining hardware. Sort of depressing when you think about it....

Well, they have seen the opportunity and they seize it. Cryptocurrency is a growing market that's why an opportunity if creating something that is needed is an ideal business. Just as what others say, "Strike while the iron is hot." Later on, maybe ASICs wouldn't be not that in demand as it is now so I am pretty sure, they would take this opportunity again to have a product that would be in demand.

Cryptocurrency-related businesses is in nowadays and has astounding earnings that's why there are many ICOs now attempting to earn from this current trend but only a few of them succeed because there are so many of them already. Sadly, there are scammers as well that is taking this opportunity and they are the one destroying the image of cryptocurrency.

it is not enough to see the opportunity,to be able to seize it :)
I see many opportunities,although I do not posess either technical knowledge or resources or enough business skills (maybe usually a comination of that)to make it work
Bitmain found their niche,they were capable of producing a product that none else could compete with for a long time
so they,kinda,monopolized the market and reaped the benefits

It will be interesting to see how long they can keep that up, and if they manage to keep growing, what will Bitmain turn into?

All the naysayers talk about crypto as it not having any value without speculation, but they more than likely would want to invest in Bitmain itself. It's a company, generates revenue, and billions in profit.

No old-school investor will pass on such an opportunity. If they play it smart, there is definitely a lot to gain for Bitmain. They are literally popping up in every corner of the crypto industry. It's a goldmine for them.

They are going big on EOS as well.

Have we a verification of these figures from some Big4 companies and according to IFRS?

It would be ironic if Bitmain goes into AI and ends up inventing "SkyNet" to enslave us all.

That's your cheery Friday afternoon thought of the day ;)

@TraderTimm. I reckon Jihan will. I read an article about it hehehe.

In any case, I also read an article that Sony has patented some hardware specifications that are giving away signs that they are also wanting to go in the Asic manufacturing industry. If I am not mistaken, Samsung have also started.