Riot Blockchain Intends to Double Bitcoin Mining Hashpower After Halving

Riot Blockchain, the US based mining company, has acquired 1,040 Antminer S19 from Bitcoin hardware equipment manufacturer Bitmain for mining.

Earlier, the company had bought 1,000 S19 Pros. The second lot of miners, which was not part of the original plan, cost the company an additional $1.90 million.

Riot, which expects the hardware to get shipped and installed in Q3 2020, anticipates the forthcoming 2,040 S19s to boost its operational hashrate by 80% next year.

Overall, the Riot anticipates that it will gain a functional hashrate of 457 petahashes per second while consuming roughly 16.50 megawatts of electricitiry after installation.

Bitmain spokesperson in North America pointed out that the company “has been working with Riot Blockchain for several years,” and added that Riot is “using [Bitmain’s] Antminer products for operating their data centers.”

Riot’s bulk order to Bitmain arrived on the same day the latter acknowledge having issues with S17s exported in recent times, with miners complaining hardware failure rates of up to 30%.

The company stated that it is discussing with its clients to address the problem of defective hardware and requested all the affected clients to get in touch straightaway.

As the coronavirus outbreak had a negative impact on business activities at its Oklahoma facility, Riot Blockchain shifted a part of its S17 miners purchased recently to a facility run by mining company, Coinmint, in New York during April.

A week before, a request asking a New Jersey Judge to dismiss a two-year case against Riot Blockchain was approved. The case alleges Riot Blockchain of misdirecting investors in the beginning of 2018.