Chip manufacturing giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) reported a sizeable drop in its crypto mining-related revenue in 2018. The news was revealed in the company’s Q4 2018 financial results, published Jan. 17, together with an earnings call transcript. TSMC has not disclosed specific data for its crypto mining business — including it instead within its high-performance computing (HPC) segment. In the earnings call transcript, TSMC CEO & Vice Chairman C.C. Wei revealed that whereas HPC, excluding crypto, had grown slightly: “[C]ryptocurrency is a big drop from 2018 to 2019. So if we put the cryptocurrency together in the HPC, it's …

China-based leading mining and mining ASIC hardware producer Bitmain has reportedly suspended its mining operations in Rockdale, public radio station Texas Public Radio reports on Jan. 10. Rockdale is located in Milam County, east of Austin, in the United States state of Texas. Steve Young, a Milam County Judge, issued a statement reporting that all Bitmain employees but two engineers and the director of human relations had been laid off, and all operations had been suspended. According to the article, Young said later that the company told him Bitmain will scale down the operation rather than shut it down, now …

2018 has been a difficult year for Bitcoin and crypto miners. Some of the largest multi-billion dollar businesses in Asia recorded losses in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars. As Japanese internet conglomerate GMO and the industry’s largest mining equipment manufacturer, Bitmain, reportedly struggled throughout the year, the entire sector is said to have ended the year with significant losses, following the trend of the two companies. $320 million loss for GMO GMO, one of the most influential internet companies in Japan, recorded a loss of over $320 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. Following what the …

An Ethereum (ETH) code contributor has suggested that Ethereum developers ‘embrace’ specialized mining hardware (ASICs) in a reply on Ethereum developer forum Ethereum Magicians, Jan. 7. As Cointelegraph reported last week, Ethereum core developers have tentatively decided to implement a new proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm, dubbed ProgPoW, which would decrease the efficiency divide between ASICs and GPUs, while rendering current Ethereum ASICs obsolete. According to another developer on Ethereum Magicians, David Vorick, ProgPoW would favor larger ASIC producers because the more complex hardware needed would exacerbate the economies of scale involved. Following Vorick’s comment, a developer named Alexey Akhunov stated in …

Ethereum (ETH) core developers have reached a tentative consensus to implement a new proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm that would decrease the divide in efficiency between ASIC and GPU mining on the network. The development was discussed in a meeting today, Jan. 4. During the meeting, developer Hudson Jameson noted he had heard “very little dissent” to implementing “ProgPoW,” which has so far been trialed via client implementations running on the “Gangnam” testnet. As previously reported, a testnet is essentially a simulated version of the primary network that allows developers to try out upgrades or run smart contracts without having to pay …

Jihan Wu and the Jenke Group will be reportedly soon retire as CEOs of leading mining ASIC producer Bitmain. Rumors about their departure were reported by Chinese local media Odaily on Dec. 28. Odaily quotes an unnamed source familiar with the situation that Bitmain is currently in a transition period. Furthermore, the article also reports that employees allegedly weren't optimistic about the outcomes of the double-CEO system. The Chinese local outlet also notes that their successor is supposedly surnamed Wang, without providing further information. In mid-November, Chinese local media reported that Wu would no longer be able to influence corporate …

Ebang, a crypto mining ASIC hardware producer, has suffered “significant decreases” in revenue in the third quarter of 2018. This development was reported in a new IPO filing submitted by the company to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on Dec. 20. This is not the first time Ebang has tried to launch an Initial Public Offering (IPO), as the company’s first application from June has reportedly lapsed. HKEX only requires the financial period reported by IPO applicants not to end more than six months from the day of the listing document. Following this requirement, Ebang included its financial information …

U.S. technology giant Intel has filed a new patent for “energy-efficient high-performance Bitcoin mining,” according to a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) filing published Nov. 27. The Intel patent is dedicated to a “hardware accelerator implementing SHA-256 hash using optimized data paths” and aims to reduce energy for Bitcoin (BTC) mining up to 15 percent, according to the publication. The documents states that “clusters of SHA engines may consume a lot of powers (e.g., at a rate of greater than 200 W),” adding: “Embodiments of the present disclosure include energy-efficient ASIC-based SHA engines that consume less power for Bitcoin …

A year long bear crypto market appears to have had a negative impact on the profitability of cryptocurrency mining. In spite of this, Bitcoin miners still managed to generate $4.7 billion in profit in the first six months of 2018. Constantly growing competition between big mining pools and the increasing difficulty of Bitcoin’s algorithm make getting the first cryptocurrency less profitable and weight the scales against small players. Miners shut off their machines, and card manufacturers suffer losses. In particular, AMD representatives, whose last quarter fiscal report, published on Oct. 24, demonstrated that revenues from the sale of mining Graphics …

Bitcoin (BTC) mining giant Bitmain has officially released two new 7nm (nanometer) “Antminer” crypto mining machines, according to an official tweet posted Nov. 5. Bitmain indicated in September that it would be equipping its new Antminer models with next-generation Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chips. ASIC chips are geared to compute optimally for a specific hashing algorithm and, as Bitmain’s tweet confirms, these latest “acceleration” chips use an SHA256 algorithm, which is based on 7nm Finfet semiconductor manufacturing technology. Today’s tweet from the company reads: “We are officially announcing the release of our new 7nm miners which possess industry-leading hash rates …

Bitcoin (BTC) mining behemoth Bitmain has unveiled its next-generation ASIC chip soon to be used in the firm’s new “Antminer” crypto mining machines, Reuters reports September 21. An Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chip is a piece of tailored mining hardware geared to mine cryptocurrency based on a specific hashing algorithm. Bitmain CEO and co-founder Jihan Wu reportedly announced the new crypto-mining-specific ASIC chip BM1391 during his keynote lecture at the World Digital Mining Summit in Georgia. According to Wu, Bitmain has now started to mass produce the chip and plans to integrate it into its next-generation Antminer machines. The new …

Bitcoin (BTC) mining software manufacturer Bitfury Group has launched a new generation of its BTC mining hardware. The new device is based on Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chip Bitfury Clarke, according to an announcement September 19. An ASIC chip is a piece of mining hardware geared to mine digital currency based on a specific hashing algorithm. An ASIC is tailored for a particular use, rather than for general-purpose use. The Bitfury Clarke ASIC will be sold individually in addition to being integrated into Bitfury’s other BTC mining hardware, including its mining servers and BlockBoxes. Bitfury is planning to implement the …