Bitmain Announces Aleo Blockchain Mining Machines

Bitmain, the largest manufacturer of bitcoin mining rigs, has announced plans to release Aleo blockchain mining machines. Aleo is a proof-of-work blockchain that employs zero-knowledge proofs to achieve privacy.

China-based company WeChat announced in a post that it planned to launch an “Antminer” model for Aleo, which is currently in the testnet phase.

In the preceding year, the founders of Aleo successfully raised $200 million in Series B funding. Together, Kora Management and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led this round.

In addition to Tiger Global and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), investors in this round of funding included Samsung Next, Slow Ventures, and Sea Capital.

Bitmain provided no information regarding the launch schedule in its statement.

Bitmain has launched new Aleo-based miners after attracting public attention earlier this month for its internal announcement to delay staff payments for September due to reported cash flow issues.

This decision was made after Bitmain garnered public attention earlier this month. According to crypto journalist Colin Wu, the company has reimbursed the salaries of its employees.

Despite this, the organization has made progress in various other fields. Bitmain’s most recent Antminer S21 model, released in September, has already garnered interest from some miners, and another entity acquired the company.

CleanSpark, a Nasdaq-listed American bitcoin miner, has gained 4.4 exahashes per second of S21 mining rigs.

In addition, Bitmain has announced plans to invest $54 million in the defunct bitcoin mining company Core Scientific.

Bitmain is the company that designs and manufactures the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips used for Bitcoin mining. Antpool is one of the most well-known and prominent cryptocurrency mining pools in the world.