Can I mine Bitcoin with Antminer Z15?

The Bitmain Antminer Z15 was released in June 2020. It can hash cryptocurrency at 420k sols/s, consumes 1510 watts of electricity, and weighs around 9kg. It also has decent profitability. But what is the profitability of Antminer Z15 when used to mine Bitcoin?

Can it mine Bitcoin?

Well, no. The miner uses the equihash algorithm, which is only suitable for mining crypto based on Equihash. These include Zcash (Zec), Hush, Pirate (ARRR), ZenCash (Zen), Horizen (Zen), or Komodo (KMD). 

Of these, Zcash is the most popular Equihash cryptocurrency mined with the Antminer Z15. 

Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 algorithm designed by the United States’ NSA. This is best mined with a rig running the same algorithm. Bitcoin mining software is also very taxing on the hardware and typically requires a lot of processing power to be of any worth. This makes its power demands quite high. 

What is the most popular coin to mine with Antminer D15?

That would be Zcash (Zec). According to ASIC Miner Value, the rig brings around $26.18 per day while consuming $4.35 worth of electricity. This puts the net daily profits of Z cash at $21.83. In a month, that would be $654.89 and $7,858.67 in a year. 

Other miner profit calculator sites also put the profit minor of Bitmain Antminer Z15 at around $7,800 a year. 

Can I still make money from mining other cryptocurrencies? 

Yes. As long as the crypto is based on the equihash algorithm, you can earn a decent return from mining with the Bitmain Antminer Z15. In fact, most Equihash-based cryptos bring in around the same rate as Zcash (ZEC), but it remains the most popular coin to mine with the Antminer D15. 

Some coins, like Pirate (ARRR), will sometimes bring in more profits than Zcash. Using Whattomine calculator and an energy cost of $0.12/kWh, we find that;

• Pirate (ARRR) brings in $22.40 net profit every day. This is $672.00 in a month and $8,064 in a year.
• Horizon (ZEN) brings around $19.26 in a day, translating to monthly and annual profits of $577.80 and $6,933.60 respectively. 
• Nicehash-Equihash has profits of $21.84 per day. So in a month, you would have made around $655.2, which becomes $7,862.4 in a year.
• The least profitable coin to mine with Antminer Z15 is Komodo (KMD). It brings in $11.71 a day, $351.3 a month, and $4215.6 in a year. 

Take these profitability estimates with a grain of salt since the price of crypto can be pretty volatile. It may go up and make mining all the more worth it or drop and result in lower profits. The network difficulty also determines how viable it is to mine with the Antminer Z15. 

Bitmain Antminer Z15 prices

This rig can be found at the launch price of $4,075 from the manufacturer Bitmain. However, it's currently out of stock, and the only option is to buy from resellers, where you’ll find the rig selling at $9500 to $13,000.