U.S.-based mining firm, Riot Blockchain, has more than doubled the number of next-generation Bitcoin (BTC) miners it has purchased, buying 1,040 Antminer S19s from Bitmain on May 6. The additional miners cost the firm $1.9 million, following Riot’s purchase of 1,000 S19s Pros, revealed on April 30. Anticipating that the units will have been shipped and deployed during the third quarter of this year, Riot expects the coming 2,040 S19s will increase its operational hashrate by 80% by 2021. In total, the Riot predicts that it will command an operating hashrate of 457 petahashes per second while utilizing approximately ... (full story)