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:
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.
Open the full firmware comparison and evidence
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; its optional donation is on at 2% by default and can be set to zero. 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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| 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 dev fee — optional donation, on at 2% by default, one click to 0% |
| 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. | GPL-3.0 Rust daemon, dashboard and Buildroot integration. Full flashable images additionally need documented vendor boot inputs (kernel, FPGA bitstream, U-Boot) that are not redistributed, so complete-image reproducibility is not claimed. | |||
| 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 | Antminer S9 — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; verified prebuilt listed; install authorization: guarded public beta, Antminer S9 SE — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer T17 — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer S17 — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer T17+ — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer S17+ — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer S19 — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: no exact-model route, Antminer S19 Pro — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: lab only, Antminer S19j Pro — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; verified prebuilt listed; install authorization: guarded self-update, Antminer S19k Pro — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: lab only, Antminer S21 — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: lab only, Antminer S21 XP — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer S21 Pro — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: lab only |
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.
Stock (Bitmain)
0% dev feeThe 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
BraiinsOS+
2–2.5% dev feeBraiins 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
VNish
1.8–2.8% by model/terms; current S19/S21: 2.8%, L7/L9: 2% dev feeVNish 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
LuxOS
2.8% dev feeLuxor 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
DCENT_OS
No dev feeNo dev fee — optional donation, on at 2% by default, one click to 0%
DCENT_OS is D-Central Technologies' GPL-3.0 open-source Bitcoin mining firmware for Bitmain Antminer ASIC miners. AVAILABILITY: RELEASED. MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL. All 13 registry models are public on the Experimental channel. 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. Binary, mining, installation and recovery evidence remains model-specific. Experimental is not Stable or GA and is not recommended for irreplaceable production fleets.
- Developer D-Central
- Mining Software dcentrald (Rust)
- Base OS Buildroot
- Supported Models Antminer S9 — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; verified prebuilt listed; install authorization: guarded public beta, Antminer S9 SE — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer T17 — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer S17 — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer T17+ — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer S17+ — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer S19 — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: no exact-model route, Antminer S19 Pro — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: lab only, Antminer S19j Pro — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; verified prebuilt listed; install authorization: guarded self-update, Antminer S19k Pro — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: lab only, Antminer S21 — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: lab only, Antminer S21 XP — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: denied, Antminer S21 Pro — AVAILABILITY: RELEASED · MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; no verified prebuilt in current ledger; install authorization: lab only
- Curtailment Not independently benchmarked
Key Takeaways
No Mandatory Fee: Stock & DCENT_OS
Stock firmware has no third-party dev fee. DCENT_OS has no mandatory fee; its optional donation is on at 2% by default and can be set to zero. 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. 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): The GPL-3.0 Rust project publishes no dev fee, but its current record says Bitaxe Gamma and a CPU backend work now while installable Antminer S19 images are a near-term target. 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
Stock Bitmain firmware has a 0% third-party dev fee. DCENT_OS takes no mandatory fee; it ships a 2% optional donation that is on by default and can be set to zero. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 lists 13 Antminer models under AVAILABILITY: RELEASED. MATURITY: EXPERIMENTAL; verified prebuilts remain limited to exact registry lanes.
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.
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 Rust source and currently identifies Antminer S19 images as a near-term target. 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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