I have been looking into purchasing a Jasminer X4-U1 and I just discovered a major concern. Per BT-Miners, they state “as it only has 5Gb Ram capacity, it could only mine ETH till around June 2022 before ETH DAG file size go above 5Gb.” What I’m now realizing is that this ASIC miner is only able to mine ETH for a max of 5-6 months, then it can only mine ETH Classic - I think, which is 1/2 the profitability of ETH. I’m aware of the ETH proof of stake transition later in 2022/2023, but other ETH family coins will surpass DAG of 5Gb as well.
Can anyone shed some light on this? This means that to get your ROI, it’s not going to happen with ETH. Why doesn’t this new ASIC have more memory to handle the DAG surpassing 5Gb?
Very valid concern. Unless memory can be upgraded, $/day will drop precipitously once the DAG reaches 5Gb and one has to mine far less profitable ETHash and ETCHash alts.
With ETH moving to POS, perhaps in 2022 and perhaps not until 2023, why did Jasminer simply not install 6Gb? Even their flagship X4, a $52.5k rig, only has 5Gb vs the A11 Pro 1500 that has 8Gb. Seems short sighted, despite that I get that it saves them a few $$$ in production costs (and perhaps in light of limited chip availability)
RAM doesn’t contribute much when it comes to ASIC/Server mining. It’s a little more of a factor on GPU mining however. RAM is basically short term memory storage that allow a computer to readily access or run applications. The more applications stored in a computer the more RAM required. ASIC and Server Miners also have ROM, EEPROM, flash memory and other large building blocks on top of the already built-in RAM. Since these servers are “application-specific” additional large amounts of RAM isn’t exactly necessary. I’ve been looking at Jasminer as well. If I do decide on purchasing one the RAM size probably won’t be a determining factor
I guess the issue where a couple of us seem confused is that an ASIC reseller, Jasminer X4 1U-C ETC/ETH 5G Miner 450Mh/s（mine ETH till June 2022）, is cautioning about the memory. And they have every incentive to downplay the concern, or simply not mention it at all. From lower down on the above page:
I do get your point regarding other memory within the ASIC. That said and while I’m way over my skis (I’m not a computer engineer, programmer etc), my very rough understanding is that:
ROM (read-only) generally would be for firmware.
EEPROM, while erasable and programmable, usually only stores a small amount of info. E.g. firmware that can be modified
Flash memory is most often used for storage.
While RAM memory generally is used to retrieve info from storage and facilitate calculations. This is why the 5 Gb RAM is concerning with ETH DAG set to increase to 5Gb by June/July 2022.
If I’m way off base and you’ve more to share, I’m more than happy to be educated. I’ve a buddy that is potentially interested in the Jasminer (mainly due to noise and heat concerns with other ASIC rigs in his garage), and I’ve been trying to talk him out of it - especially if rewards might decline considerably by mid-next year (assuming ETH doesn’t move to POS by then)
At the end of this video, the same concern I have brought up is mentioned in this video related to the DAG 5Gb issue. So in the end, it does not sound as profitable as we may think. Figure profits will decrease 50% by this summer.
Someone sent a vid to me earlier today. F2Pool posted on Youtube about the Jasminers and they noted the 5Gb RAM limitation for mining ETH - citing ETC as an option. Skip to about 6:05 of the vid
Once the 5Gb RAM rigs can no longer mine ETH and/or ETH goes PoS, there’s going to be a lot of equipment migrating to mining ETC. So I think that anyone buying one of these rigs has to be happy with mining ETH for as long as possible, then mining ETC and other ETHash alts and switching around to optimize yield.
But it’s very difficult to run the math and having any of these Jasminer rigs breakeven before they have to mine another ETHash token - unless the value of ETH etc absolutely skyrockets between now and July or so. It’s really too bad they didn’t come out with these rigs 6 months ago. It’d have been a more interesting proposition then than now.
This is a smart play on behalf of the vendor, as it removes liability from the vendor. Properly advising the public what they are getting into is a good way to maintain a positive reputation and not later be labeled negatively. This label can easily sink a company, no matter how big they are.
I agree with your assessment. I see no way to break even on these things in less than 2 years. It would be a great form factor for a BTC or KDA miner if they were inclined to produce one though.
I reached out to Alex at who is the representative for Jasminer at sales@sunlune.com yesterday. Alex did confirm that there is no way to upgrade the 5Gb of Ram on the Jasminer X4 series… bummer.
I think this Jasminer may do well years down the road when electricity eats into profits, so it’s still a possibility when you look at the power consumption. I got a quote for a new Antminer Z15 at $17,000 not including CA tax. The Z15 is only profiting around $15 today after my residential electricity costs with a 3-year ROI as of today. The Jasminer X4-1Uc as of today has a $25 profit after electricity and on ETHC should be around $12 after electricity. The Jasminer is 1/2 the cost of the brand new Z-15.
I may just buy one now then sell it later in the year. Just looking at options for low-power miners. The options have dwindled down with this recent pullback in the Crypto market.
Thanks for tracking this down @achase . Still, seems shortsighted on their part to limit memory to 5Gb given where we are with the ETH DAG, unless their intention was to make a primarily (low power consumption) ETC miner.
My biggest concern is that once ETH moves to PoS, all that hashing power has to go somewhere as well. Next most logical candidate is ETC, but there are others. So there’s going to be a torrent of hashing moving to ETHash alts that simply don’t require that much hashing power. To compensate, difficulty will have to rise dramatically. So today’s $12/day ETC might be a fraction of that in the not too distant future
Of course it’s anyone’s guess when ETH actually will move to PoS. But either way, the Jasminers will need to move to ETC or other alts by mid-2022, give or take. And if ETH moves to PoS around the same time, or perhaps only a few months later . . . .
But I don’t have a crystal ball. I also thought I was an idiot paying $12.5k for KD5 rigs, so clearly I don’t know anything. I just try to do the best I can with the information that I have. You’ll only know in hindsight if buying the Jasminer was the right move. If you do buy one, I hope that it works out for you
My Jasminer X4 uC was working well with over 500 MH for months but now as of the end of June beginning of July it is only moning around 300MH of eth, I switched it to Eth classic and it went back to over 500 MH so im guessing it is the dag file or difficulty im not sure?
