ASIC mining firms CoinTerra and HashFast have updated their product offerings as they jockey for position in the 28 nm hardware space.
CoinTerra announced a new entry-level unit and slashed the price on its flagship ASIC miner whilst HashFast announced a higher-performance unit to complement its smaller device.
new 1 TH/s TerraMiner II, based on the same GoldStrike1 chip as its 2 TH/sec TerraMiner IV, will sell for $3,499.
January batches of the firm’s TerraMiner IV have been priced at $5,999 for January delivery to customers. At the end of last month, CoinTerra had already cut pricing on the December batch of the TerraMiner IV from $15,750 to $13,999. This latest reduction means that those willing to wait a month for shipment will get the units 57% cheaper.
CoinTerra's competitor, HashFast, has also been fleshing out its product line. It initially offered its 400 GH/sec BabyJet ASIC miner for $5,600, creating a nominal price of $14 per GH/sec ($11 if, as reports suggested, the device could be overclocked to 500 GH/sec).
While CoinTerra fleshed out its product range with an entry-level unit this week, HashFast moved upmarket, announcing its Sierra unit. Intended for datacenters, the Sierra features three of the firm’s Golden Nonce chips, offering a nominal 1.2 TH/sec. The firm promises power consumption of under 0.65 W per GH/sec.
HashFast, which initially offered its miner protection program as a mandatory feature with its BabyJet, is now offering both the Sierra and the BabyJet either with or without the protection. The program offered to add more hashing power for customers who failed to see an ROI in bitcoin terms on units over a three-month period.
Without the insurance, the 1.2 TH/sec Sierra costs $9,500, compared to the 1 TH/sec TerraMiner II’s $3,499. Adding the protection will increase the Sierra’s price to $14,000.
Second-batch 400 GH/sec BabyJets can now be purchased for $3,500 without miner protection. Adding insurance costs another $1,500 but the grand total still comes in at $600 less than HashFast was charging earlier this month.
Some miners prefer to pay less and not get the protection, explained HashFast’s VP of marketing John Skordenis, adding that batch one customers didn’t have the option to buy without the protection. “Our pricing was more than competitive during batch 1, even without the miner protection program,” he said.
Sierras sold without price protection cost $7.92 per GH/sec. TerraMiner II units will cost $3.5 per GH/sec. However, the Sierra’s more expensive price comes with a time advantage: while Sierras will begin shipping in November, TerraMiner II customers will have to wait until January.