Braiins Systems: The Miner Antminer S9 is compatible with AsicBoost

Slush Pool operator and operating system developer for mining devices Braiins OS (bOS), Czech company Braiins Systems, found that Antminer S9 from the manufacturer Bitmain is compatible with the open-source AsicBoost protocol optimization algorithm.

Antminer S9 is actually capable of supporting overt # AsicBoost , however, the functionality is disabled by vendors FPGA design. We want to enable it. ✌️ https://t.co/MW8oARcTmH

– braiins ⚡️ (@braiins_systems) October 19, 2018

According to the study, the technology can allow miners to save up to 13% of the cost of electricity. Braiins Systems plans to upgrade the existing version of its operating system and give users access to AsicBoost.

According to Braiins, the Bitmain bmminer software can theoretically query the pool for a specific version of the bits in the block header via an unknown stratum extension incompatible with the BIP310. However, the problem is that bmminer does not tell the backend of the programmable gate array which bits in the version field can be modified.

So, when a bmminer activates a multi-version property and gets four midstate [first half of a 128-byte hash] for a mining chip with an incorrectly specified version field, three of the four balloons [block signatures] proposed by the device will be rejected by all pools.

The developers are convinced that the most reasonable solution would be to rewrite the bit stream of the programmable gate array from scratch, which will allow to generate the midstate from the correct first 64 bytes of the block header and use AsicBoost. However, Braiins Systems emphasizes that if Bitmain rewrites this part of the code for bmminer and makes it open, the changes will immediately be added to the bOS operating system.

Recall, bOS was introduced in late September. The operating system standardizes the principles of device operation and interaction with the Slush Pool, and users gain complete control over the miners in order to avoid manufacturers introducing various exploits into the firmware of their products.

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