Intel Discontinues Bitcoin Mining Chip Series

[w749161356]

The main problem is the very high power consumption ratio.

[mvdheuvel1983]

Chipmaking heavyweight Intel (INTC) is ending production of its bitcoin mining chip series, the company said in a statement to CoinDesk on Tuesday.
"As we prioritize our investments in IDM 2.0, we have end-of-lifed the Intel Blockscale 1000 Series ASIC [application specific integrated circuit] while we continue to support our Blockscale customers," an Intel spokesperson said.

I'm not exactly sure, but I believe Intel entered the market for bitcoin mining chips because they believed they would earn a lot of money, and when they realized the costs and profits simply weren't worth it, they left. The reality is that huge players enter the market, major players exit the market, and still more players take up the chips and continue to play.

Additionally, I believe that there should be a greater variety of Asics producers. Other businesses will enter the market and begin producing these chips because it's become a fairly open game for anyone to become engaged with manufacturing, similar to how bitcoin mining migrated from being mostly in China but over the previous two years and then to the U.S. and to Canada.

[paid2]

Additionally, I believe that there should be a greater variety of Asics producers. Other businesses will enter the market and begin producing these chips because it's become a fairly open game for anyone to become engaged with manufacturing, similar to how bitcoin mining migrated from being mostly in China but over the previous two years and then to the U.S. and to Canada.

Yes, in an ideal world there would be greater competition between more chips manufacturers. But it's far from being that simple, as it involves heavy investment and research and development over long periods of time.

I don't think we're likely to see a large number of new entrants in this market just yet. Those who are already established have a considerable head start, and it seems to me complex to catch up without possessing colossal resources.

For example, I believe that current manufacturers would already be able to produce more efficient chips than those currently on the market, but that the production costs would be too high, making these ASICs unmarketable for the time being. I believe that the cost war is too great at the moment to leave room for newcomers who are not already established in sectors that weigh heavily on the market.

[DaveF]

So Intel is still cutting back other things too, looks like they are just concentrating on CPU development and manufacturing and chip manufacturing for others along with a few other core areas.

They have now cancelled / are shutting down their PC (NUC) business: https://www.servethehome.com/intel-exiting-the-pc-business-as-it-stops-investment-in-the-intel-nuc/

So it looks like getting rid the their mining chips was just part of the larger plan to get back to what makes them the most money.

We might not like that there is one less thing in the market to keep competition up and prices down, but it's just business to them at the end of the day.

-DAve