Why 0.05 TH/s Still Matters as a Review Threshold in 2026
A practical explanation of the 0.05 TH/s floor Filesycamoreway uses when deciding which ASIC units warrant bench assessment in South Korea.
Operators occasionally ask why we decline bench time for very old SHA-256 units while still reviewing second-generation machines that are themselves several years old. The answer comes down to hosting economics in South Korea, not nostalgia for any particular model.
The Math Behind the Floor
At 0.05 TH/s (50 GH/s), a unit must still justify electricity, rack space, and technician travel. Industrial tariffs in the Seoul area averaged higher in 2025 than when many S9-era machines were deployed. Units below our threshold often consume rack space and cooling capacity without contributing meaningful hash output — making a ₩180,000 evaluation economically irrational for the operator.
Second-generation units like the Whatsminer M30S at 88 TH/s or the Antminer S19 at 95 TH/s sit far above this floor. Even degraded units typically remain above 80 TH/s measured, which keeps them in scope for meaningful assessment.
What Happens Below the Threshold
We can still answer general questions by email. We do not produce our standard PDF report template for sub-threshold hardware because the recommendations would be nearly identical: retire or repurpose for non-mining heat recovery.
Exceptions
Operators consolidating mixed fleets sometimes include a few legacy units in a larger batch. We address those in a summary paragraph rather than full per-unit bench runs, and we say so upfront in the quote.