Yesterday we flipped the biggest switch in D-Central’s history as a software builder: the DCENT_OS public beta is live, with the first signed, downloadable firmware images for the Antminer S9 and Antminer S19j Pro. And today the rest of the family followed it into the open — four DCENT repositories are now public on GitHub, including two projects we have never shown before.
What Went Public
- DCENT_OS — our open-source mining firmware, written from scratch in Rust, for industrial Antminers and Bitaxe-class miners alike. 0% mandatory dev fee, no telemetry, no cloud account, no license server. GPL-3.0. Public beta images for the S9 (XIL) and S19j Pro (XIL) are downloadable now.
- DCENT_Toolbox — the operator bench tool: scan, diagnose, audit, flash, and verify mining hardware across seven control-board generations and six firmware ecosystems, entirely local. It is also the recommended installer for the DCENT_OS beta. GPL-3.0.
- DCENT_Raven — new. A LoRa mesh accessory that plugs into any Bitaxe’s accessory port and puts your miner on a Meshtastic mesh: off-grid telemetry and block-found alerts with no internet at the machine. In design — source public, no boards built yet. Meet it properly on the DCENT_Raven page.
- DCENT_ExpansionPack — new. A small open Wi-Fi bridge board for DCENT_OS miners: scan a QR code and the miner is on your network, without ever holding your Wi-Fi password. The v0.1 design is frozen and fab-ready; no boards manufactured yet. Details on the ExpansionPack page.
They join DCENT_axe, our open-hardware miner already public and in design — whose firmware quietly crossed a milestone of its own: DCENT_axe 0.3.0 factory images for six Bitaxe-class boards (Gamma, Max, Ultra, Supra, Hex Ultra, Hex Supra) now flash straight from the browser in our web flasher. DCENT_axe boards themselves are releasing soon.
The First Flashable Beta: S9 and S19j Pro
The beta20260709 release ships three files: an A/B sysupgrade package for the S9 (Zynq/XIL control board, BM1387), an A/B sysupgrade for the S19j Pro (Zynq/XIL, BM1362), and a bootable SD-card image for the S9. Every package is Ed25519-signed with published SHA-256 checksums, and the A/B installer writes only the inactive NAND slot — your running system is never touched mid-flash.
Honesty, as always, before hype: the install path is proven in offline simulation with verified readback, but a witnessed live-hardware boot-and-mine capstone is still in progress. This is beta firmware. It can brick a control board. Flash a spare unit, keep an SD or serial recovery path ready, and read the readiness checklist first. Do not flash a production miner you cannot afford to troubleshoot.
Why Two Unbuilt Boards Are Worth Announcing
Raven and the ExpansionPack have zero units in existence, and we are telling you anyway — because designing in the open is the point. The feasibility studies, pin-mux decisions, KiCad files, and firmware are all public before the first PCB is ordered. You can read why the SX1262 radio needs an MCU bridge to reach the Bitaxe accessory port, or check the ExpansionPack’s ERC report, and tell us what we got wrong while it is still cheap to fix. That is what open hardware buys the community that a launch-day product reveal never can.
Both projects follow the same pattern as everything else in the DCENT suite: firmware under GPL-3.0, hardware under CERN-OHL-S-2.0, and status labels that say “not built yet” in plain language when that is the truth. We stand on the shoulders of the Bitaxe and OSMU community, the Meshtastic project, and every open firmware that came before us — and we say so on every page.
Where to Start
- Have a spare S9 or S19j Pro? Grab a signed beta image from the DCENT_OS download area and install it with the Toolbox.
- Own a Bitaxe? Flash DCENT_axe 0.3.0 from the web flasher — no toolchain needed.
- Curious about the mesh and networking boards? Read the Raven and ExpansionPack pages, then dig into the repos.
- Want to support the work? Beta reports in the Discord are worth more than money — though the Fund the Sovereign Stack page exists if you insist.
Eight projects, one mission: one more layer decentralized. Beta means beta — and the beta is now yours to break.
