Intel, the leading global chipmaker, officially announced on Friday its entry into the crypto mining space. The US company disclosed that it is producing new chips designed for blockchain applications like Bitcoin mining and minting NFTs to profit out of the growing use of cryptocurrencies.
Intel said that its brand-new chips will be available later this year. GRID Infrastructure US electric power company, Argo Blockchain crypto mining firm, and Jack Dorsey-led Block Inc are among the first clients who will receive chipmaker's first mining chips later this year.
Intel mentioned that its chips are energy-efficient “accelerators” designed to speed up blockchain tasks that require large amounts of computing power and therefore consume a lot of energy.
Raja M. Koduri, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group, talked about the announcement and stated that Intel will contribute to the value addition of blockchain technology with its "roadmap of energy-efficient accelerators." Koduri said that the firm is aware that blockchain consumes a lot of energy, and that is they are focusing on "energy-efficient computing technologies at scale."
Growing Interests in Crypto
Intel’s intention to get into the Bitcoin mining space dated back to 2018. Last month, the company signaled that the next generation of Bitcoin mining rigs may be coming in the future with its “Intel Inside” stickers. As reported by Finance Magnates last month, Intel announced plans to discuss a “Bonanza Mine” chip for mining Bitcoin at an upcoming conference, the International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Intel employees booked for a session to talk about a new “Bonanza Mine chip”, an energy-efficient Bitcoin ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) designed for crypto mining.
The company has been working on its entry into the cryptocurrency market for quite a while. In 2018, the US Patent and Trademark Office awarded Intel a patent for efficiently mining cryptocurrencies that use the SHA-256 algorithm. Meanwhile, in August last year, Intel acquired a small stake in the US-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
