Visited the LuckyMiner factory in China đ¨đł
They donât mess around.
And they also donât care about open source.
Highlights and full Q&A đ
đ PROFESSIONAL FACTORY
LuckyMiner R&D and assembly is co-located in a big electronics factory.
This factory has a full SMT line and professional-grade assembly shared with other major clients.
SMT = Surface Mount Technology, an automated process where machines place components directly onto a printed circuit board (PCB).
In short, this is how real electronics are made at scale.
And this SMT line is brand new and worth millions of dollars.
Itâs a line for the big boys.
And many big mining brands we all know manufacture here.
LuckyMiner has their offices, R&D, assembly and testing upstairs.
Just a floor above the SMT line in the photo.
Daily production capacity âź600 LuckyMiners.
But for larger orders they can access the huge assembly line downstairs.
This is as high tech as it gets.
Do you want to see more photos? đ¸
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đ Then I sat down with the CMO and CTO.
This Q&A could be titled:
FROM BITAXE CLONES TO PROPRIETARY DESIGNS
or also known as
WE CARE ABOUT MONEY, NOT FOSS
Here we go:
Q: Why is the firmware closed source despite using Bitaxe?
A: Our focus is speed and delivery. Open source creates upgrade confusion and more support issues for non-technical users. They prefer a locked-down, âstupid-proofâ experience to avoid bad reviews, returns, and additional customer service workload.
Q: Will you open-source the firmware in the future?
A: They said âgradually,â but without any specific plan. They claimed LV05 firmware is already open and provided a GitHub link. For LV07 and LV08, they shared a third-party community-maintained link but said itâs not officially supported or maintained by them.
Q: Can users install AxeOS?
A: No, LV07 and LV08 hardware isnât compatible.
Q: Whatâs the difference between LV07 and LV08?
A: LV07 has 2 chips and LV08 has 9. Both are proprietary hardware, no longer Bitaxe clones.
Q: Will you collaborate with OSMU?
A: We are open in principle, but language and cultural barriers make it hard. Weâre not actively doing it.
Responses became vague or hesitant when pressed further.
Q: How does LV07/08 performance compare to Bitaxe?
A: They said itâs hard to compare because LV07 and LV08 are different designs. There's no universal benchmark. But they emphasized that their production quality is higher and pointed to their professional factory setup, which also produces hardware for mainstream mining brands.
Q: What sets you apart from typical Chinese hardware?
A: They emphasized better quality, professional assembly or injection-molded casings (unlike Bitaxe which is 3D printed). They said they care about building a good brand reputation in Asia to minimize support problems or negative reviews.
Q: Whatâs your quality control process?
A: Didnât share specifics, just said itâs a priority. Their facilities back this up with a dedicated 300 units testing bench, professional factory resources, and in-house assembly.
Q: What caused the LV08 shipping pause?
A: They said the reliability wasnât ideal and they decided to redesign the board before continuing full production.
Q: Why canât firmware be updated via GUI?
A: Most users arenât technical. Allowing GUI updates increases returns and bad reviews. They prefer a locked-down or âstupid-proofâ experience.
Q: Will you support other algos like Kaspa?
A: No plans now but weâre watching trends. Recently we had some talks with ETC miner companies. But we will continue to release more consumer oriented products this year.
Q: Any plans for a budget Ember One-style miner?
A: We donât know what that is.
Q: Whatâs an ideal miner form factor and specs?
A: Depends on market segment. There is no one model which would fit all mining use cases.
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The goal here is not to defend them.
After all, they greeted me with a Braiins Mini Miner clone.
But itâs interesting to see their ops and try to understand their mentality.
However, we wonât get more than this.
I pressed, followed up when answers were vague, tried from different angles.
Nothing helped.
They know what Iâm asking and they want to keep their face.
On the other hand the tour was fascinating and they seem like nice guys to talk over lunch.
đ TLDR:
Open source is a liability to them.
Making quick money is everything.
Sharing makes competitors move faster.
âŚ
There is nothing else to add to this story.
