Intel To Foray Into Crypto Mining Market With Energy-Efficient Chips

Intel is all set to foray into the blockchain business with its new 'energy-efficient' chip designed for mining cryptocurrency. The chip will roll out later this year.

Intel on Friday made an announcement concerning its first crypto chip named 'blockchain accelerator.' This chip is an initiative cby Intel to make the most of cryptocurrencies' rising popularity and usage.

The chip's first customers will include Block Inc, led by Jack Dorsey, which recently changed its name from Square Inc, and GRIID Infrastructures.

In a company's blog post, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group Raja M. Koduri said, "The mining ASIC will offer 1000x better performance per watt and mainstream GPU for SHA-256 based mining. The chips are built on a tiny piece of silicon, and it is not going to impact intel's supply of the existing inventory".

He further added that the company is "mindful" that blockchains require a hefty amount of power and consumes a lot of energy, which is why they are focusing on developing "energy-efficient computing technologies at scale."

Intel plans to reveal more information about the chip during the International Solid State Circuits Conference on Feb. 23.

As mining has gained attention from the past two years, the prices of gaming GPUs in the secondary markets have been inflated because people want to use them to mine Ethereum.

In such a scenario, Intel is launching a dedicated chip for mining that will shift the demand back to the gamers waiting for their GPU for the past two years.

Interestingly, people have not mined Bitcoin with GPU in the last decade because they have been using specific sockets called applications specific integrated (ASIC).

Intel is going after a whole different market of mining Bitcoin with GPU. They seem to be catering to a home mining angle where users can run a Bitcoin node and support the network, and in return, they get rewarded.

Nvidia's graphic cards have been used widely for mining activities. They also have a separate chip specially meant for Ethereum mining. Intel first revealed in January that it was working on the mining ASIC named Bonanza mine.

Intel has partnered with Block Inc, Argoblockchain, and GRIID infrastructure to support its upcoming line. The part of the agreement states that Intel has guaranteed that it is going to sell at least 25% of the mining ASICs production to GRIID until 2025.