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Cryptocurrency Miners, Gamers Brawl Over Chips Amid Shortage

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Bitcoin Miners Mining
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  • Gamers and miners aggravate needs for chips
  • Nvidia will release special chips tailormade for mining
  • COVID-19 also affected the fabrication of chips

There is a worldwide shortage of chips, and it is strangulating the production of machines used to mine Bitcoin (BTC). It is a segment that China dominates, and the latest glitch in chips has sent the prices skyrocketing.

The Economic Times reveals that at the heart of this problem are the GPU and computer processors. They have become so dear that the two communities –Gamers and crypto miners are at each other’s throats. The gamers feel that the miners are siphoning off the GPU and processors and leaving them high and dry.

When Bitcoin was launched, its mining was open to most individuals. However, Russia, China, the United States, and smaller nations like Iceland became the significant hubs for crypto mining. Cryptocurrency mining surged, and farms have transitioned from CPUs to GPUs to ASICs.

The coming up of farms that are essentially enormous facilities housing specialized hardware has severely strained the semiconductor industry. A single farm could be employing thousands of semiconductors, and it also requires massive amounts of energy.

An energy-gobbling process

 The gargantuan amount of energy required to power these farms has forced most miners to shift operations to rural China, where energy and labor are cheap. The Economic Times has revealed that one of the largest mines in the nation has a capacity of 360,000 tetrahashes (TH)—or 360,000 trillion calculations. Just to power, this platform requires $1,170,000 per month.

The Role of Mega Fabs

As already mentioned, GPUs, CPUs, and ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) have become an integral part of crypto mining. With the COVID-19 raging across the planet, the fabrication of Chips has diminished, putting a severe strain on the supply versus demand ratio. At the same time, crypto mining has expanded, putting even more pressure on the availability of chips.

CPU is not suitable for mining, so miners prefer GPU or, even better high-powered ASICs explicitly designed for crypto hashing. However, miners and gamers are not the only clamoring persons for chips. Big houses like Apple, Intel, AMD, etc., are vying for the new 5nm process semiconductors. The future of crypto mining depends a lot on future foundry output and allocation.

Economic Times reports that Nividia is looking at the present predicament as an opportunity and wants to accommodate the needs of the miners. It feels that the latest four new chips will be used primarily by miners instead of commandeering popular gaming chips.

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