Note 9. Long-Term Assets

Intangible rights acquired

As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, intangible rights acquired totaled zero. The Company made the decision, effective as of December 31, 2019 not to pursue its RiotX / Logical Brokerage business development plan. See Note 4.

Deposits on equipment

During the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company purchased 33,646 model S19, S19-Pro, and S19j-Pro Antminers from Bitmain for a total purchase price of approximately new miners totals $76.1 million, including $6.6 million paid for the 3,043 miners delivered during the year ended December 31, 2020, $31.9 million paid as deposits in deposits during the same period, and the remaining $37.6 million due to be paid during the year ending December 31, 2021. As of December 31, 2020, the Company had received 3,043 of the new miners, including all 1,040 model S19 miners and 2,003 model S19-Pro miners, but had not yet received 30,603 of the new miners, including 18,603 model S19-Pro miners and all 12,000 model S19j-Pro miners. Accordingly, the Company recorded the $31.9 million paid during the year ended December 31, 2020 for these outstanding miners as a deposit, which includes these miners on the accompanying consolidated balance sheet. (See Note 7 for additional details.)

During December 2019, the Company purchased 4,000 next generation Bitmain model S17-Pro Antminers from Bitmain for approximately $6.3 million. The Company had received 3,000 of these model S17-Pro miners by December 31, 2019, and, accordingly, they were recorded as assets on the Company’s consolidated balance sheet for the year ended December 31, 2019. However, 1,000 of these S17-Pro miners were not received until February 2020. Therefore, as of December 31, 2019, the Company recorded the $1.4 million paid in advance for these 1,000 model S17-Pro miners as a deposit on the accompanying consolidated balance sheet.

Riot Blockchain, Inc. and Subsidiaries

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

(in thousands, except for share and per share amounts)

Patents

The Company’s intangible assets with finite lives consist of its patents pertaining to its legacy animal health business, which have been out-licensed. For all periods presented, all of the Company’s identifiable intangible assets were subject to amortization. The carrying amounts related to acquired intangible assets as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 were as follows:

During the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company wrote-off approximately $0.05 million of remaining net patent costs related to its now expired license agreement with Washington University in St. Louis. See Note 13.

The following table represents the total estimated amortization of intangible assets for the five succeeding years and thereafter:

The Company capitalizes legal costs and filing fees associated with obtaining patents on its new discoveries. Once the patents have been issued, the Company amortizes these costs over the shorter of the legal life of the patent or its estimated economic life using the straight-line method. Amortization expense totaled $167,000 and $86,000 for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The Company tests intangible assets with finite lives upon significant changes in the Company’s business environment. The testing resulted in no patent impairment charges during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.