Antminer Custom Firmware Comparison: Stock, Braiins OS+, VNish, LuxOS and DCENT_OS

Choosing Antminer custom firmware starts with three facts: your exact miner model, its control-board family, and the recovery risk you can accept. Compare Stock, Braiins OS+, VNish, LuxOS and experimental DCENT_OS using dated evidence, then verify compatibility before you download or update anything.

Last verified by D-Central: October 4, 2026

Risk: Third-party or experimental firmware can brick hardware, cause mining downtime, and may affect warranty coverage. Confirm the exact model, control board, file, and recovery path before any update.

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This model list comes from the historical July registry. For current packages and controller-specific limitations, use the current Experimental release cards.

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Historical July model evidence links

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Quick answer

Five firmware paths, five different evidence boundaries. As reviewed 2026-08-31, Braiins publishes a 2–2.5% model-dependent fee, native Stratum V2, GPG verification and an exact device list; VNish publishes model-specific builds and fees (current S19/S21: 2.8%; L7/L9: 2%); Luxor publishes a 2.8% LuxOS fee, SOC 2 Type 2 status and an under-five-second curtailment result. DCENT_OS: AVAILABILITY: RELEASED. MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL. It publishes GPL-3.0 source and has no mandatory fee; October default donation is disabled at 0%; retained settings may differ. Optional Stratum V1 mining-time contributions can be disabled; saved changes require a daemon restart. Historical July file evidence: all 3 outer files have SHA-256 receipts. 2 sysupgrade archives contain a verified embedded Ed25519 payload manifest. DCENTOS_XIL1_S9_SD_beta20260709.img has a SHA-256 receipt only: no embedded or detached signature. No detached signature for the outer files or SHA256SUMS.txt is claimed.

Feature Comparison Matrix

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Firmware fees and deployment boundaries — reviewed 4 October 2026

These are vendor-stated terms and source/deployment boundaries, not independently measured performance or complete license clearance. Firmware development fees, optional contributions, pool fees and hardware purchase costs are different categories. Their percentages use different bases; they are not interchangeable net-earnings deductions.

Six projects: current terms and exact-board limits
Project	Fee or voluntary contribution	Installation, source and qualification limits	Primary evidence
Braiins OS	Vendor-stated 2–2.5% hardware-dependent development fee, collected by redirecting hashing power. Braiins Pool's advertised 0% effective pool fee is a separate daily rebate based on the hashrate supplied by Braiins OS miners; the vendor states a full pool-fee refund when the entire fleet uses Braiins OS.	Confirm the exact model/controller and agreed fee. The commercial license does not supply source code; separately licensed open components or a legacy Community edition do not establish a GPL license for every current firmware component. Version 23.04 and later has license-server verification and related connectivity requirements.	Fee and pool-rebate FAQ; Commercial license, sections 3–5
VNish	Vnish.com states a 2–2.8% development commission using redirected hashrate. Vnish.io advertises 1.8–2.8%, negotiated large-miner discounts and partner-configured fees. These are site/offer-specific statements, not one verified standard rate for every S19 build; confirm the selected build and agreement.	Select the exact model, controller/type, installation method and version. The linked public service offer allows additional agreements; the reviewed pages do not establish a complete firmware source-code license. Check the actual firmware agreement and selected pool's terms.	Vnish.com fee FAQ and User Agreement link; Vnish.io fee and partner offers
LuxOS	Advertised 2.8% firmware fee and separate 0% Luxor Bitcoin Pool fee; large-customer volume terms require confirmation. The current terms define the development fee as a percentage of computing power, with the applicable rate published or communicated by Luxor.	Confirm the exact supported hardware/build and any written fee offer. Luxor's terms, effective 1 May 2026, grant a monthly license for compatible devices, do not supply source code and require an active, stable Internet connection for fee-related functions.	Advertised firmware and pool fees; Current terms, sections 2 and 12
ePIC UMC OS	Firmware-only 1.5% development fee, reduced from 2.5% in January 2026. Dedicated UMC hardware bundles have no recurring development fee; hardware purchase is a separate cost.	Stock Amlogic, BeagleBone and Xilinx routes use RigRunner; dedicated UMC images require UMC boards. Open-source RigRunner does not make the proprietary firmware source public.	Primary source
Mujina	Verify the current project fee policy; no fee amount was established from the cited primary pages.	GPL-3.0-or-later. The July compatibility matrix puts S19j Pro/S19k Pro in a prototype fork with an unsettled loader/install route. This does not establish a stock-firmware migration route or universal absence of images.	Primary source
DCENT_OS 0.9.0 beta20261002	No mandatory firmware fee. October default donation OFF/0%; retained settings may differ. Optional 0–5% scheduled V1 mining-time contribution, not a payout/share guarantee; saved changes require a daemon restart.	20 exact-board Experimental artifact sets and six clean scoped source bundles, including the BB3 S19j Pro source supplement. That supplement does not establish complete firmware source coverage or physical qualification. Physical qualification and reused kernel/U-Boot/FPGA correspondence and redistribution permission remain unverified. The published BB3 S19j Pro developer payload has no supported consumer installation path; external boot prerequisites and preparation remain unverified. No other model suffix or controller inherits its route, and filenames do not establish S17 Pro compatibility.	Primary source

Which fees and source terms apply to my S19?

Record the exact miner model, controller, firmware build and installation method before comparing offers. Read the firmware agreement and any written discount alongside your pool's fee and rebate rules. A firmware fee allocated from hashing power, a pool fee refunded under conditions, and DCENT_OS's optional scheduled V1 mining-time contribution use different bases; none of these advertised percentages establishes your actual revenue deduction or a performance result.

For an offline or restricted-network installation, check the vendor's license and fee connectivity requirements. For source access, distinguish the commercial firmware license from licenses for individual open components and the scope of supplied source bundles. DCENT_OS's October fresh defaults are donation OFF/0%; retained settings may differ, an optional 0–5% contribution requires a saved configuration and daemon restart, and scheduled mining time does not guarantee a share or payout fraction.

Additional primary scope: ePIC stock-controller and UMC download sections; Mujina licensing and project explanation. Vendor terms can change. Use the exact board's supported route and recovery preparation. Compare the same hardware using a measurement protocol; this publication provides no performance-superiority result.

Feature	Stock (Bitmain) Bitmain	BraiinsOS+ Braiins	VNish VNish	LuxOS Luxor Technology	DCENT_OS D-Central
Dev Fee Percentage of hashrate directed to the firmware developer as payment.	0%	2–2.5%	1.8–2.8% by model/terms; current S19/S21: 2.8%, L7/L9: 2%	2.8%	No mandatory firmware fee. October default donation OFF/0%; retained settings may differ. Optional V1 scheduled mining time 0–5%; saved changes require a daemon restart.
Open Source Whether the firmware source code is publicly available for audit and modification.		PartialPartial: public components and BCB100 hardware do not make the complete mining firmware open source.			Own Rust daemon, dashboard and Buildroot integration: GPL-3.0. Five clean scoped source bundles are public. Reused kernel/U-Boot/FPGA exact source correspondence and finished-image redistribution permission remain unverified.
Stratum V2 Support for the next-generation Stratum V2 mining protocol with encryption and job declaration.	Not verifiedNot documented in the reviewed Bitmain firmware-download and security records.		Not verifiedNo equivalent native Stratum V2 feature located in the reviewed vendor pages.	Not verifiedNo equivalent native Stratum V2 feature located in the reviewed vendor pages.	Implemented / gated
Auto-Tuning Per-chip frequency and per-domain voltage optimization for maximum efficiency or hashrate.	Not verified				Implemented / gated
120V Path Evidence for an exact miner, control-board, PSU, circuit and power-limit path at household voltage.	Not verifiedDepends on the exact miner, PSU and circuit; not established by the reviewed firmware records.	Not verifiedNo general household-voltage firmware route located in the reviewed vendor pages.	Not verifiedNo general household-voltage firmware route located in the reviewed vendor pages.	Not verifiedNot located in the reviewed official LuxOS documentation; no general 120V claim made here.	Implemented / gatedPSU bypass in three modes (Bypass / Auto-Detect / PMBus Monitor) with no PSU whitelist and no Loki board on supported lanes; Amlogic and BeagleBone bypass remain live-soak gated.
Immersion Mode Published support for liquid-immersion operation; exact controls and hardware limits vary.	Not verified				Planned
SOC 2 Claim Vendor-published SOC 2 Type 2 status, without extending a company-level statement beyond its stated scope.	Not verifiedNot verified for the firmware in the reviewed Bitmain records.	Not verifiedBraiins company-level compliance statements are not treated here as firmware certification.	Not verifiedNot verified for the firmware in the reviewed vendor pages.	Yes (SOC 2 Type 2, vendor statement)	No independent certification
Curtailment Speed Published time to reduce power consumption for demand response or grid curtailment events.	N/A	Not quantified in the reviewed vendor docs	Not quantified in the reviewed vendor docs	<5s	Not independently benchmarked
Mining Software The underlying mining engine used to communicate with ASIC chips.	Varies by model and release	BOSminer (Rust)	Proprietary	Proprietary	dcentrald (Rust)
Supported Models Published hardware scope; verify the exact model, control board, hashboard and build at source.	Use Bitmain’s exact model download and support record	S9, S17, S19 and S21 families; exact model/control-board list at source	S9, S17, S19, S21, T19/T21 and L7/L9 families; exact build at source	Selected Antminer S19/S21 and WhatsMiner M50/M60 lanes; exact board/hashboard list at source	20 exact-board Experimental sets: 17 native SD trials and S9/S19j Pro archives with separate route prerequisites. Physical qualification pending; no AML/BB/S17 Pro inheritance.

Primary sources reviewed 2026-08-31. Feature and fee availability varies by exact model, control board, hashboard and firmware build; verify the linked vendor record before deployment.

Evidence, dates and claim boundaries

Primary vendor sources reviewed 2026-08-31. Vendor fleet, certification and performance statements are labeled as vendor claims unless D-Central publishes a separate reproduction. Missing evidence is shown as not verified, not converted into a negative claim.

Bitmain stock: Bitmain — how to download official firmware · Bitmain — security firmware signature boundary
Braiins OS: Braiins OS — downloads, exact devices, fee and GPG verification · Braiins OS — features and vendor-reported field history
VNish: VNish — current fee terms and feature overview · VNish — model-specific firmware catalogue
LuxOS: LuxOS — fee, SOC 2 and curtailment claims · LuxOS — exact model, board and hashboard compatibility · LuxOS — dated changelog
DCENT_OS: DCENT_OS — canonical firmware support registry · DCENT_OS — releases, checksums and changelog · DCENT_OS — public source
ePIC UMC OS: ePIC UMC OS — current fee and exact compatibility · ePIC UMC OS v1.12.2 — dated January 2026 fee change
Hiveon ASIC: Hiveon ASIC — current product-page fee statement · Hiveon ASIC — model-dependent fee FAQ · Hiveon — billing-page fee range
Mujina: 256 Foundation Mujina — source, licence and current hardware status

Known evidence limits: No independent cross-firmware curtailment benchmark, universal tuning-gain benchmark or independently audited VNish fleet count is published here. LuxOS under-five-second and SOC 2 statements, and Braiins field-fleet statements, are attributed to those vendors.

Firmware Details

Evidence-bounded detail for each firmware option: published capabilities, intended operator and exact-hardware limits.

The manufacturer firmware and recovery source of record. Features, security policy and install package vary by exact model and release; use Bitmain's model-matched download and instructions rather than a family-level assumption.

Developer Bitmain
Mining Software Varies by model and release
Base OS Varies by model and release
Supported Models Use Bitmain’s exact model download and support record
Curtailment N/A

Visit Stock (Bitmain)

Braiins publishes native Stratum V2, per-chip autotuning, immersion support, exact model/control-board downloads and GPG verification. Its site reports operation since 2018 and hundreds of thousands of miners; those fleet figures remain vendor-reported.

Developer Braiins
Mining Software BOSminer (Rust)
Base OS OpenWrt
Supported Models S9, S17, S19 and S21 families; exact model/control-board list at source
Curtailment Not quantified in the reviewed vendor docs

Visit BraiinsOS+

VNish publishes model-specific builds, per-chip tuning, power profiles, rollback guidance and current model-dependent fee terms. No independently reproduced fleet-size or universal percentage-gain claim is used in this comparison.

Developer VNish
Mining Software Proprietary
Base OS Linux
Supported Models S9, S17, S19, S21, T19/T21 and L7/L9 families; exact build at source
Curtailment Not quantified in the reviewed vendor docs

Visit VNish

Luxor states that LuxOS is SOC 2 Type 2 certified, can drop a miner to about 25 W in under five seconds, and uses a 2.8% firmware fee; Luxor Pool usage is advertised at 0% pool fee. Exact model, board and feature coverage is published separately.

Developer Luxor Technology
Mining Software Proprietary
Base OS Linux
Supported Models Selected Antminer S19/S21 and WhatsMiner M50/M60 lanes; exact board/hashboard list at source
Curtailment <5s

Visit LuxOS

No mandatory fee. October default donation configuration is disabled at 0%; retained settings may differ. Optional contribution redirects scheduled Stratum V1 mining time, configurable from 0 to 5%. Saved changes require a daemon restart; accepted-share and payout percentages are not guaranteed.

beta20261002 provides 20 exact-board development-signed Experimental sets: 17 external native SD images, two route-restricted archives and one BeagleBone AM335x SD-payload archive with distinct S9 first-install and S19j Pro Xilinx existing-runtime update boundaries. Physical qualification is pending. Verify the exact controller, original filenames, development key, installation and recovery route; no other controller inherits eligibility. No mandatory fee. October default donation configuration is disabled at 0%; retained settings may differ. Optional contribution redirects scheduled Stratum V1 mining time, configurable from 0 to 5%. Saved changes require a daemon restart; accepted-share and payout percentages are not guaranteed. Source correspondence and third-party redistribution permission remain unverified.

Developer D-Central
Mining Software dcentrald (Rust)
Base OS Buildroot
Supported Models beta20261002 provides 20 exact-board development-signed Experimental sets: 17 external native SD images, two route-restricted archives and one BeagleBone AM335x SD-payload archive with distinct S9 first-install and S19j Pro Xilinx existing-runtime update boundaries. Physical qualification is pending. Verify the exact controller, original filenames, development key, installation and recovery route; no other controller inherits eligibility.
Curtailment Not independently benchmarked

Visit DCENT_OS

Key Takeaways

No Mandatory Fee: Stock & DCENT_OS

Stock firmware has no third-party dev fee. DCENT_OS has no mandatory fee; October default donation is disabled at 0%; retained settings may differ. Optional Stratum V1 mining-time contributions can be disabled; saved changes require a daemon restart. Braiins publishes 2–2.5% by hardware model, VNish publishes model- and program-dependent terms, and LuxOS publishes 2.8%. No universal claim that tuning gains exceed fees is made: unit condition, power price, pool terms and exact build decide the result.

Published Curtailment Claim: LuxOS (<5s)

Luxor documents LuxOS reducing a miner to approximately 25 W in under five seconds. The reviewed Braiins and VNish vendor pages do not publish a directly comparable timing, and D-Central has not run a controlled cross-firmware benchmark, so no unsupported 15- or 30-second comparison is shown.

Native Stratum V2: BraiinsOS+ production; DCENT_OS source is gated

Braiins publishes native Stratum V2 for its production firmware. DCENT_OS implements a native Stratum V2 stack, but it is default-off behind a readiness gate while submit/accept and live failover soak remain pending. The reviewed VNish and LuxOS vendor pages did not document an equivalent native V2 feature, which is recorded as not verified rather than as an absolute absence.

120V Home Mining: Exact Hardware Path Required

A household-voltage path is a miner, control-board, PSU, circuit and power-limit decision—not a family-level firmware checkbox. DCENT_OS contains a readiness-gated PSU-bypass path; the reviewed LuxOS documentation did not substantiate the prior general 120V claim. Use an exact published hardware route and preserve breaker margin.

Open-source alternatives for Antminer operators

Is DCENT_OS an open-source alternative to Braiins OS+?

DCENT_OS publishes its Rust daemon, dashboard and Buildroot integration under GPL-3.0. Complete Antminer images still require documented vendor boot inputs that are not redistributed, so byte-for-byte image reproducibility is not claimed. Braiins publishes meaningful open components and BCB100 hardware while its complete mining firmware remains proprietary. Braiins is ahead on dated production history, exact download coverage and native Stratum V2; DCENT_OS offers a broader auditable source boundary.

Is DCENT_OS an open-source alternative to VNish?

They use different evidence models. VNish publishes a broad model-specific catalogue, tuning controls and commercial support but not its mining source. DCENT_OS publishes source and exact artifact receipts, while its install/recovery evidence remains experimental and lane-specific. No independently audited VNish fleet count or DCENT_OS network-egress audit is asserted here.

Which firmware is appropriate for a production Antminer fleet?

For a fleet that cannot tolerate downtime, use mature firmware with documented support for the exact miner, control board, hashboard and recovery route. DCENT_OS: AVAILABILITY: RELEASED. MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL. It is intended for informed, non-critical use. Historical July file evidence: all 3 outer files have SHA-256 receipts. 2 sysupgrade archives contain a verified embedded Ed25519 payload manifest. DCENTOS_XIL1_S9_SD_beta20260709.img has a SHA-256 receipt only: no embedded or detached signature. No detached signature for the outer files or SHA256SUMS.txt is claimed. Mining, first-install and recovery proof remain separate lane-specific questions.

Which firmware can be independently audited and built?

DCENT_OS publishes the Rust daemon, dashboard and Buildroot integration under GPL-3.0. A complete Antminer image still requires documented boot-critical vendor inputs that are not redistributed in the source repository. See the source and vendor-artifact boundary.

What changed in the 2026 firmware landscape

The matrix above compares the established field. Three 2026 developments are worth tracking alongside it.

ePIC UMC OS: ePIC’s 2026-01-26 release record and current product page publish a 1.5% firmware-only dev fee; the separate UMC control-board product is described as having no recurring dev fee. Verify the exact model and commercial route at source.
Hiveon ASIC firmware: Official pages reviewed 2026-08-31 do not state one consistent universal number: the current product page says 3%, the billing page says 2–2.8%, and the model FAQ lists S19/T19 at up to 3%. Confirm the effective fee for the exact build before installation.
Mujina (256 Foundation): Mujina publishes GPL-3.0-or-later source. No fee amount was established from the reviewed primary pages. Its July compatibility matrix places S19j Pro/S19k Pro in a prototype fork with an unsettled loader/install route. Read our Mujina overview.

Model-specific firmware decisions now have dedicated hubs: Antminer S19 XP, Antminer T21, Lucky Miner and Hammer Miner. Before downloading, use the mining-firmware security guide to verify official channels and images. Open the security guide.

Whichever firmware you pick, compare the same watt target and measured accepted hashrate before committing. Review per-model tuning envelopes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which mining firmware has the lowest dev fee?

Stock Bitmain firmware has a 0% third-party dev fee. DCENT_OS takes no mandatory fee; October default donation is disabled at 0%; retained settings may differ. Optional contributions redirect scheduled Stratum V1 mining time; saved changes require a daemon restart. Its performance has not been independently benchmarked against the incumbents. Among production options shown here, verify current vendor fee ranges and model terms at source; do not assume tuning gains exceed fees for every unit or power price.

Which firmware supports Stratum V2?

Braiins publishes native Stratum V2 for its production firmware. DCENT_OS implements a native Stratum V2 stack, but it is default-off and readiness-gated while submit/accept soak remains pending. The reviewed VNish, LuxOS and Bitmain records did not document an equivalent native V2 feature, so their matrix state is not verified rather than a claim of absolute absence. Confirm protocol support in the exact build before deployment.

Can I run my Antminer on 120V household power?

Only through an exact, documented miner/control-board/PSU/circuit path. DCENT_OS contains a residential power budget and PSU-bypass code, but affected lanes remain readiness-gated and are not a blanket installation claim. The reviewed official LuxOS documentation did not substantiate the prior site-wide 120V statement, so this comparison no longer awards that checkbox. Follow the miner and PSU manufacturer ratings, preserve continuous-load breaker margin, and never infer 120V suitability from a firmware family name.

What is the best firmware for demand response and curtailment?

Luxor publishes a LuxOS result of approximately 25 W in under five seconds. The reviewed Braiins and VNish vendor documentation did not provide a directly comparable timing, and D-Central has not published a controlled cross-firmware benchmark. Verify the grid program response definition, measurement point, safe ramp settings and exact firmware build before relying on any vendor result.

Which firmware is appropriate for enterprise mining operations?

Luxor states that LuxOS is the first ASIC firmware to achieve SOC 2 Type 2 certification and documents fleet APIs and curtailment controls. Braiins states that its company is SOC 1 and SOC 2 compliant. Certification scope, report period, service organization and customer control requirements matter; request the current reports rather than treating a comparison checkbox as procurement evidence.

Do all third-party firmwares support auto-tuning?

BraiinsOS+, VNish and LuxOS each publish tuning features, but algorithm, control granularity and eligible models differ. LuxOS explicitly limits power targeting and some telemetry to listed boards; the same exact-build check applies elsewhere. DCENT_OS contains tuning code behind model/build readiness gates. No universal gain or every-hashboard claim is made.

Which Antminer models are supported by each firmware?

Use each vendor’s current exact-device list. Braiins publishes S9, S17, S19 and S21-family builds with control-board qualifiers. VNish publishes a broad catalogue across S9/S17/S19/S21/T19/T21 and L7/L9 families. LuxOS publishes selected Antminer S19/S21 lanes plus selected WhatsMiner M50/M60 lanes, with board and hashboard identifiers. DCENT_OS beta20261002 publishes 20 exact-board Experimental sets, with separate installation/recovery boundaries and physical qualification pending.

What changed in mining firmware dev fees in 2026?

ePIC published a 1.5% UMC OS dev fee on 2026-01-26. Other firmware fees vary by model and some vendor pages conflict, so verify the current fee and supported hardware at source before deployment. A fee range is not a flat fleet-wide number, and tuning gains must not be assumed to exceed fees for every unit or electricity price.

Is any mining firmware open source?

DCENT_OS publishes its GPL-3.0 Rust daemon, dashboard and Buildroot integration, while complete Antminer images still require documented vendor boot inputs that are not redistributed. Mujina publishes GPL-3.0-or-later source; its July S19j Pro/S19k Pro prototype fork has an unsettled loader/install route. No fee amount was established from the reviewed primary pages. Braiins publishes open components and BCB100 hardware, but not the complete mining firmware. The reviewed VNish, LuxOS and Bitmain product records did not publish complete mining-firmware source; this is a dated publication boundary, not proof that no private or separately licensed source exists.

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Antminer Custom Firmware Comparison: Stock, Braiins OS+, VNish, LuxOS and DCENT_OS

Feature Comparison Matrix

Firmware fees and deployment boundaries — reviewed 4 October 2026