Intel ships crypto-mining ASIC at the worst possible time
- Reference: 1656610756
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/06/30/intel_ships_cryptomining_asic_at/
- Source link:
Raja Koduri, the head of Intel's Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics group, tweeted Wednesday the company has started initial shipments of the Blockscale ASIC to crypto-mining firms Argo Blockchain, Hive Blockchain and Griid:
Intel AXG Custom Compute team is now shipping the Blockscale ASIC! First product will always be unforgettable, congratulations team👍 Excited to see how [1]@ArgoBlockchain [2]@griid and [3]@HiveBlockchain improvise around Blockscale and our open design. [4]pic.twitter.com/0rxtNTLMfw — Raja Koduri (Bali Makaradhwaja) (@RajaXg) [5]June 29, 2022
Blockscale is shipping a couple days ahead of Intel's previously stated [6]release window for the third quarter, which begins Friday. Even if it's a tiny head start, it is nonetheless an achievement for a corporation that is becoming notoriously under-schedule across multiple products, including the [7]Sapphire Rapids server chips and the [8]discrete Arc GPUs.
In this case, however, Intel is the victim of much larger forces beyond its control. The Blockscale ASIC – that's Application-Specific Integrated Circuit, typically a chip designed to be good at a very particular task, such as facilitating blockchain transactions – is arriving at a time when many cryptocurrencies have been on the decline for the past few months.
[9]
Bitcoin, for instance, has dropped 60 percent in value from the beginning of the year and, for a second time this month, [10]dipped below $20,000 in value today, a grim marker for a digital currency that went as high as $64,000 over the past couple years.
[11]Crypto inferno: Intel's Bitcoin-mining Blockscale ASIC to arrive in Q3
[12]Intel targets cryptocurrency mining, networks, and more with Agilex M-Series FPGAs
[13]Intel blasts Bitcoin mining, unveils own mining kit
[14]Don't hate on cryptomining, hate the power stations, say Bitcoin super-fans
Experts and company officials are warning that the world of blockchain-fueled digital currencies is entering a [15]crypto winter , a period where the value of virtual coins plunge and remain low. This last happened between early 2018 and mid-2020.
The cryptocurrency sell-off has happened in the face of [16]continuing inflation and increased interest rates, showing that digital currencies are aligned with the stock market's downswing.
[17]
[18]
The specter of a crypto winter settling in has prompted some [19]to sell their crypto-mining equipment, which, luckily for gamers, means that [20]supply and pricing for GPUs is better than it has been for a while. But the graphics accelerator glut is only good news for consumers who haven't tightened their budgets.
Crypto-mining companies have also felt the squeeze from plummeting digital currency prices, which, combined with rising energy costs, have prompted them to liquidate a chunk of their crypto stashes.
[21]
"The plummeting profitability of mining forced these miners to increase their selling rate to more than 100 percent of their output in May. The conditions have worsened in June, meaning they are likely selling even more," said Jaran Mellerud of Arcane Research, [22]according to Reuters.
This is all to say that Intel has started to sell its crypto-mining Blockscale ASIC, which accelerates SHA-256 hashing, at a time when the macroeconomic situation is rough.
While critics continue to question whether cryptocurrencies have any intrinsic value at all, Intel has painted itself as [23]somewhat of an environmental savior for the crypto-mining market. This is because the company claims its [24]Blockscale ASIC is much more energy efficient than GPUs for proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining.
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The question now is whether Blockscale itself can weather this crypto winter and keep Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger happy as he [26]faces pressure on multiple fronts to enact his ambitious comeback plan. ®
Get our [27]Tech Resources
[1] https://twitter.com/ArgoBlockchain?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[2] https://twitter.com/griid?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[3] https://twitter.com/HiveBlockchain?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[4] https://t.co/0rxtNTLMfw
[5] https://twitter.com/RajaXg/status/1542214091426521089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/05/intels_bitcoin_mining_blockscale_asic/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/08/intel_sapphire_rapids_delay/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/15/intel_arc_gpu_china_debut/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yr4dALr2bGNH5kpJT4I19wAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/30/bitcoin-falls-below-19000-again-as-pressure-mounts-on-crypto-firms.html
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/05/intels_bitcoin_mining_blockscale_asic/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/07/intel_agilex_fpga/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/26/intel_bitcoin_chip/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/03/crypto_mining_environment/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/14/coinbase_cuts_jobs/
[16] https://time.com/nextadvisor/investing/cryptocurrency/bitcoin-ethereum-prices-drop-crypto-winter-inflation/
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yr4dALr2bGNH5kpJT4I19wAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yr4dALr2bGNH5kpJT4I19wAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[19] https://www.tomshardware.com/news/crypt-miners-start-dumping-gpus
[20] https://decrypt.co/103400/the-crypto-market-crash-is-bringing-down-the-cost-of-gpus
[21] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yr4dALr2bGNH5kpJT4I19wAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[22] https://www.reuters.com/technology/bitcoin-miners-sell-their-holdings-amid-crypto-winters-chill-2022-06-27/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/26/intel_bitcoin_chip/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/11/intel_bitcoin_mining/
[25] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yr4dALr2bGNH5kpJT4I19wAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[26] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/29/intel_ceo_chips_act/?td=rt-3a
[27] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
[Intel has painted itself as somewhat of an environmental savior for the crypto-mining market. This is because the company claims its Blockscale ASIC is much more energy efficient than GPUs for proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining.]
Apart from the fact that a GPU can still be used for other things other than crypto mining, where as these ASICs are going to become e-waste rather quickly if the crypto market carries on dropping as they serve no other purpose than to create made up fun bucks.
The sooner, the better
The sooner the cryptocurrency pyramid collapses, the better.
It's doing nothing but wasting energy and transferring yet more money to the top 1%.
Re: The sooner, the better
I don't consider myself to be much on an environmentalist, but they need to be hung out to dry for selling a chip that's only purpose is to waste vast amounts of energy and ultimately facilitate criminal activity.
Re: The sooner, the better
If Swiss Banks facilitate criminal activity can we close them also?
Re: The sooner, the better
How about Londongrad estate agents now you are at it?
Re: The sooner, the better
Wasting energy, sure, but "transferring yet more money to the top 1%."??
Globally top 1% is the richest 70 million people. Pretty much everyone in the top 10% of a 'western' country is a global 1percenter. And given that (based on my years reading comments here) the majority of Register readers have been working in the rather lucrative IT area in a western nation for many years, I'd hazard a guess that a pretty good %age of Register readers fall in the global 1%.
Surely crypto mining has more likely gotten people from outside the 1% to within it.
If you're thinking the ultra-rich (many-multi-millionaires) , that's more like top 0.01%, that's still 700,000 people. And what's been making them ever richer has been unfettered and globalised crony capitalism as introduced by Reagan /Thatcher and accelerated by Clinton/Blair and kept going by everyone in between and since. Crypto is a drop in a bucket to them (total crypto market cap is less than net worth of the world's richest 8 people)
Aw Shucks It's Crashed!
Can you pay Intel for them in Shitcoins?
The more funny money these chips churn out, the less it'll be worth, so they'll also reduce their value the more they're used. It's a self-obsoleting technology.
Crypto is toast?
"showing that digital currencies are aligned with the stock market's downswing. "
More accurately, showing that cryptocurrency "value" is negatively aligned with interest rates and thus is aligned to the availability of oodles of pretty much free money to speculators. In simpler terms, if folks have to pay meaningful interest to borrow money, crypto is toast ..
BTW, crypto is not the same thing as "digital currency". Government backed digital currencies may well become a real thing if the security issues can be tamed.
I have to admit that I can't really come up with much of a use case for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). What benefit does society gain from government issued debit cards which is what CBDCs would seem to amount to? It's not like folks can't buy prepaid debit cards from variety of sources. At least they can in developed countries.
On the other hand, I sure could be wrong about CBCDs. Maybe they're the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Are they at least usable (and economical) for password cracking?
Almost California Gold Rush redux
It is said that the only people that made any money were those selling jeans and shovels. This time not even the jeans and shovels sellers
You'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.