Firmware: The Key Lever for Bitcoin Mining Efficiency

Summary

The firmware layer between ASIC hardware and mining pool software has become a strategic focus for improving efficiency and forming competitive advantages. Currently, about 56% of the global SHA-256 hash power uses non-original firmware, with Vnish leading with a 26.4% share. The economic situation after the halving in 2024, fluctuations in energy prices, and the demand for automated management of large mining machine clusters are driving miners towards open and debuggable system architectures. A well-known stablecoin company has decided to open-source its proprietary mining operating system before the fourth quarter of 2025, further solidifying this trend, which may make the maintenance costs of closed-source firmware more widespread.

Development History

In 2011, CGMiner laid the foundation for factory firmware as the first general-purpose ASIC Mining program. In October 2018, the open-source Braiins OS implemented the AsicBoost feature on a certain brand of mining machines, saving about 13% in power consumption. Between 2018 and 2020, Vnish and MSK emerged, introducing a commercial automated tuning and 2-3% development cost model. In 2022, a certain American mining pool operator launched LuxOS, whose computing power increased from 3 EH/s to 13.7 EH/s. In March 2024, a publicly listed mining company deployed a self-developed firmware and control board combination across 200,000 mining machines and opened it to the entire industry.

Market Landscape (2025 Forecast)

The main firmware suppliers include Vnish (26.40%), Braiins OS/+ (5-6% open source and paid versions), LuxOS (4-5%), original factory firmware (44%), and other solutions (about 18%). In terms of hardware, a major mining machine manufacturer accounts for about 75% of ASIC shipments, followed by two other manufacturers with 18% and 7%, respectively.

Mining Demand

Firmware is crucial for miners, primarily reflected in the following aspects:

1. Efficiency and Profit Protection: Chip-level automatic tuning can improve energy efficiency by 8-20%.
2. Mining Machine Cluster Automation: Provides API for cluster management, reducing operational costs and auditing risks.
3. Security and Auditability: Open-source firmware eliminates concerns about hidden development costs or "kill switches".
4. Asset lifespan: Temperature-aware tuning can extend the lifespan of the computing power board.

The Impact of Open Source Trends

A well-known stablecoin company plans to launch an open-source mining operating system, which may impact the existing development cost model and promote decentralization and ecosystem standardization. This initiative also creates a potential hedge for the company to respond to stablecoin reserve audits.

Investment Impact

1. Firmware suppliers: There is a risk of price compression, but the overall market size is expanding.
2. ASIC Manufacturers: Need to consider collaborating with open-source architectures or launching high-performance official firmware.
3. Mining operators: Software complexity becomes the core competitive advantage.
4. Capital Markets: Listed mining companies with proprietary firmware may achieve a valuation premium.

Main Risks

1. Security vulnerabilities: Open source code repositories require strict code signing and continuous integration audits.
2. Regulatory Uncertainty: Open-source algorithms may face export control risks.
3. Manufacturer Resistance: Firmware locking may be upgraded, increasing the cost of replacing the control board.

Conclusion

The firmware layer has become a key profit center and decentralized carrier for Bitcoin mining. With the development of open-source trends, competitive advantages will shift from closed-source automatic tuning to ecosystem coverage, data analysis, and energy grid integration services. Investors should evaluate mining machine operators and service providers from the perspective of software leverage and open-source fit.