The field vocabulary

ERCOT's rule that sets a Texas site's next-year transmission charges by its own load during summer's four highest 15-minute grid-wide peaks - a reason big sites curtail on hot afternoons.

A breaker carries only 80% of its rating on a continuous (24/7) load - so size the breaker at 125% of the load. 20A->16A, 30A->24A.

Bitmain's Windows batch tool for scanning and managing many Antminers.

How close the cold side of a cooling loop gets to the ultimate heat sink - supply-coolant minus ambient air at the dry cooler. A high approach means the heat rejection (dry cooler / facility), not the miner, is the limit.

Bitmain's S19-generation external PSU (12-15 V DC out, 200-240 V AC in). Sub-versions differ only by the printed label - match it exactly on a swap.

A Bitmain PSU family used on selected models. Verify exact miner/PSU revision and OEM compatibility; do not inherit APW17 for S21 hydro or immersion units, or substitute it for APW12.

An explosive electrical fault. Respect labeled boundaries; only qualified persons in arc-rated PPE work near energized gear.

Application-Specific Integrated Circuit - a chip built to do only one job (here, SHA-256 hashing) far faster and more efficiently than a CPU/GPU.

Avalon Universal Console - the USB-to-I²C/CAN dongle that bridges an Avalon host to its miners on older/chained setups.

Firmware profiling every chip to pick the best frequency/voltage - better efficiency than one global setting.

The percent of deployed time a miner is actually hashing. The KPI that eats all the others - a down unit scores zero everywhere. Fleets target ~95-99%.

A batch of transactions plus a header. Mining is the race to find a valid header hash for the next block - the winner extends the chain roughly every 10 minutes.

The 80-byte record an ASIC actually hashes: version, previous block hash, Merkle root, timestamp, nBits (the target), and the nonce.

The BTC paid to whoever mines a block - the subsidy (currently 3.125 BTC after the April 2024 halving) plus all the transaction fees in that block.

Custom Antminer firmware with per-chip autotuning and Stratum V2. Installed via Braiins Toolbox.

The GUI+CLI app that scans, installs, and manages Braiins OS+ across Antminers (auto-backs-up stock first).

A ~24-hour soak test on a newly deployed miner to catch infant-mortality faults and capture a performance baseline.

Coolant Distribution Unit - the pump, heat exchanger, filter, and sensors that run a hydro loop and isolate it from the facility water.

The mining daemon on Antminers (BTMiner on Whatsminer). It serves the status API on TCP port 4028.

The factory quality grade of a board's chips, written in its EEPROM. It tells firmware how hard those particular chips can be driven.

How an IP range is sized. /24 = 254 hosts, /16 = 65,534. Big flat L2 networks let one scan reach every miner.

The required first transaction in every block. It may claim the subsidy plus transaction fees; only the subsidy creates new bitcoin, while fees transfer existing value. It also carries coinbase data, often including an extranonce. Not the exchange.

Inclusion in the best chain is confirmation one; each successor adds one. Five successors give six confirmations. Settlement thresholds depend on risk and value; there is no fixed-time or absolute-finality guarantee.

The miner's small Linux computer - networking, web UI, and dispatching work to the hashboards.

Curtail = stop/near-stop for grid events; throttle = reduce speed (often thermal). Both lower power draw.

Deliberately pausing/throttling miners on command (e.g. for grid demand-response). Firmware can drop a unit to near-zero watts fast.

The temperature jump from cold-aisle intake to hot-aisle exhaust. A rising ΔT at the same load points to dust or blocked airflow.

The small % of hashrate (typically ~2-2.8%) custom firmware directs to its maker as payment.

The service that automatically hands each miner an IP address at boot. A unit sitting with no IP usually never got a DHCP lease.

Non-conductive immersion coolant (e.g. BitCool BC-888, mineral oil). Never mix types; read the SDS for handling.

Mainnet proof-of-work difficulty retargets every 2,016 blocks toward a long-term ten-minute average. Intervals remain random and responses to hashrate changes are delayed.

Every 2016 blocks (~2 weeks) the network re-tunes difficulty up or down to keep new blocks landing about 10 minutes apart as total hashrate shifts.

Resolves a pool hostname to an IP before Stratum connects. Bad DNS = 'pool connection failed' even when the web UI loads.

A group of ASIC chips wired in series and regulated together. One open chip kills the whole domain.

An outdoor radiator that rejects loop heat to the air with no water loss.

A tiny memory chip on each hashboard storing its ID, chip-bin, and calibration. If it can't be read, the board is skipped.

Exahash per second - a quintillion (10^18) hashes/sec, the scale of the whole network. PH/s (petahash, 10^15) is the step below, between a big farm and the network.

Avalon's richest API dump - per-chip PVT temps/voltages, chip count (TA), and ECHU/PS fault fields. A very detailed per-chip diagnostic surface.

Extra bytes a miner varies inside the coinbase transaction. Changing it rebuilds the Merkle root and yields a fresh header to search - how a miner keeps going after burning through the 32-bit nonce. Stratum splits it into extranonce1 (pool-assigned) and extranonce2 (miner-rolled).

A major US mining pool (largest by hashrate; FPPS payout) commonly used by North American farms.

Full Pay Per Share - steady payout including transaction fees; the pool absorbs variance. Common at large farms.

The ASIC clock speed in MHz. Higher = more hashrate but more heat and watts. Autotuning firmware picks it per chip.

The router address a miner uses to reach anything off its own subnet, including the pool. A wrong gateway means it pings locally but can't reach a pool.

The exact nonce that finally makes a header hash fall below the target (a real block) or below the pool's easier share target (a share).

Every 210,000 blocks (about four years) the block subsidy is cut in half. It went 6.25 -> 3.125 BTC in April 2024; the next drop (~1.5625) lands around 2028.

The fixed-length fingerprint a hash function outputs (256 bits for Bitcoin). Flip one input bit and the whole output scrambles unpredictably, and it can't be run backwards - so the only way to find a good one is to keep guessing.

A PCB carrying the ASIC chips that do the hashing. A typical air miner has three, driven by one control board.

Expected revenue per unit of hashrate per day (bundles BTC price, difficulty, subsidy, fees). Low hashprice -> curtail marginal machines.

How many hashes per second a machine - or the whole network - computes. A single modern unit does hundreds of TH/s; the network does hundreds of EH/s.

The finned metal block clamped over each ASIC (on a thermal pad) that pulls heat into the air or fluid. A loose or fallen heatsink overheats its chip fast.

A hardware error - a chip returned a bad nonce. Under ~1% is healthy.

Direct water cooling via blocks on the boards, a coolant loop, and a CDU (coolant distribution unit).

Submerging miners in non-conductive dielectric fluid to remove heat - no fans; denser deployments.

A tool that catches a miner's IP when you press its IP-report button on the same subnet.

A physical button on the control board that broadcasts the miner's IP+MAC to a listening tool on the subnet.

Joules per Terahash - efficiency. Lower is better: watts divided by hashrate. e.g. ~29.5 (S19j Pro) vs ~13.5 (S21 XP).

Lockout/Tagout - isolate and lock a disconnect, then verify zero energy before working. Each worker uses their own lock.

How the blocks a pool actually found compare to what the math expected over a window. Pools absorb this variance so your payout stays steady.

Commercial firmware (SOC 2 certified) with curtailment features and PSU-bypass; supports Antminer and select Whatsminer.

The permanent hardware address of a miner's network port. It's what the IP-report button pairs with the IP and what DHCP reservations key on.

The waiting room of unconfirmed transactions each node holds. Miners usually grab the highest-fee ones to pack the next block.

One hash at the top of a tree that commits to every transaction in the block. Change any transaction and the root - and the hash you're mining - changes with it.

Mean Time To Repair - average time from a unit faulting to it being back in service. A core fleet KPI; good spares, a site map, and fast triage are what drive it down.

The 4-byte 'compact' encoding of the current target that sits in every block header.

The combined hashing rate of miners, estimated from observed block production. Mainnet difficulty retargets every 2,016 blocks using block timing; it does not measure live global hashrate.

The 32-bit counter in the block header a miner changes every attempt while hunting for a header hash below the target. Its ~4.3 billion values are used up in a fraction of a second at TH/s speeds, so miners also roll the extranonce and version bits to keep searching.

A valid block that loses the race when two are found almost at once - only one stays on the main chain, and the other's work is wasted. (Different from a stale share.)

Pushing chips past stock frequency/voltage for more hashrate, trading away heat, power, and lifespan. Done through custom firmware.

Power Distribution Unit - distributes AC power to miners; power 'whips' run from it to each unit.

A small microcontroller on S17/S19 hashboards that enables power and hand-shakes with the control board. Removed on S21.

A service that combines many miners' hashrate so payouts are steady instead of a rare jackpot.

The TCP port the mining API listens on - polled by fleet monitoring platforms.

The liquid-tight flexible cable running from a panel/busway to a PDU or miner.

Pay Per Last N Shares - rewards loyalty with more variance; can pay more over time.

Bitcoin's security rule: to add a block you must find a header hash below the target. It takes trillions of tries to produce but is instant for everyone else to verify.

Power Supply Unit - converts its specified AC input to board DC. Voltage, phase, connectors and service compatibility depend on the exact miner/PSU revision.

Avalon's on-die Process-Voltage-Temperature sensor giving per-chip telemetry Antminer lacks.

A dripless coupling for hydro lines. Relieve pressure before separating one.

A unit's rolling-average real hashrate versus its nameplate rating. Dust, heat, throttling, and dead chips all show up here as a gap below 100%.

The share of submitted shares the pool throws out (stale + invalid). Under ~1% is healthy (under 0.5% excellent); a climbing reject rate flags overclock, network, or a failing board.

A rejected share is a submission the pool did not credit. Read its reason and job/session context first: stale, duplicate, target or authorization issues differ from invalid computation. Corroborate hardware faults with logs and operating data before replacing a board.

The flat signal cable between the control board and each hashboard. A loose or nicked ribbon throws 'find 0 asic', EEPROM, and temp-sensor errors - always reseat it first.

Return Merchandise Authorization - the process of sending a failed, often warranty-eligible, part back for credit/replacement.

Bitdeer's in-house 4 nm SHA-256 ASIC family (SEAL01/SEAL02) powering SEALMINER - the 4th major in-house miner silicon.

The one-way hash algorithm all Bitcoin mining is built on. Bitcoin runs it twice over the block header (SHA256d); an ASIC is silicon hard-wired to do just this, billions of times a second.

An easier proof-of-work the pool assigns to measure and pay your contribution. Accepted/Rejected/Stale.

A record binding each slot coordinate (row/rack/position) to serial + IP + worker so an alert leads a tech straight to the unit.

A share for an outdated job. Propagation/submission timing can contribute; latency is one hypothesis. Pools may count stales among rejects.

An IP set by hand on the miner. At scale, farms prefer DHCP reservations (a fixed IP pinned to the MAC) over configuring each unit.

The protocol miners use to talk to pools. V2 adds encryption and lets miners help build blocks.

A binary mining protocol with authenticated encrypted transport. Native support and translation options depend on firmware and pool. Miner transaction selection requires the optional Job Declaration workflow; V2 transport alone does not provide it.

The number a block header hash must come in under to count as a solve. Lower target = harder; it's stored in the header in compact form as nBits.

Terahash per second - one trillion hashes/sec. The core hashrate unit for modern miners.

Dust -> hotter chips -> auto-tune quietly lowers frequency -> silent hashrate loss with no error alert.

The interface material between chip and heatsink. It dries out over years; re-pasting an old unit can drop temps 10-15 °C.

What a sender pays to get their transaction mined. Fees go to the miner on top of the subsidy - and matter more each time the subsidy halves.

Steps utility kV down to 208/240/415 V for the facility. Delta-Wye types provide the neutral; K-factor rated handles miner harmonics.

Fluid boils on the chips and condenses above - thermally superior but costly and rare in mining vs single-phase.

A replacement control board (ePIC / Altair) you swap in when a stock Antminer controller is dead or firmware-locked; it runs UMC OS instead of the factory board.

Dropping chip voltage to improve efficiency (better J/TH), usually giving up a little hashrate. The main lever for running cool and cheap.

Variable difficulty - the pool auto-tunes each miner's share difficulty for a steady share rate. Normal, not a fault.

Rolling spare bits of the header's version field (BIP320) for extra search space - and the efficiency trick called overt AsicBoost. Negotiated over Stratum and supported by every modern ASIC.

A logically isolated network segment - farms put miners on a management VLAN, away from the internet.

Custom Antminer firmware with the broadest model support and aggressive overclocking.

MicroBT's batch tool - also where you enable the Whatsminer API and change the admin password.

The device label reported to a pool, often account.workername. A wrong suffix can mislabel monitoring while keeping account credit; wrong account or authorization can prevent intended credit. Pool behavior varies.

Auradine's headline feature where a factory-reset unit fetches its whole config from a network server automatically - no hand setup per machine.