Intel Soon to Reveal 'Energy-Efficient' Bitcoin Mining Chip
Nameet Potnis
Connecting Music Superfans with Their Tribe and Empowering Artists | Payments & E-commerce Expert
According to a report from Tom's, technology giant Intel is planning to enter the Bitcoin mining market, unveiling a new Bitcoin mining "Bonanza Mine" chip at this year's International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISCC) in February Hardware.
Intel is said to have prepared a presentation for the conference that would detail the new Bonanza Mine chip, which is touted as an "ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC."
Though it is unclear whether Intel will introduce the new processor to the general public or remain under a research project for the time being.
"I think blockchain is a transaction thing that is run much more efficiently than the burning of hardware cycles," adding that this was "something we are working on," said GM Raja Koduri last December, when discussing the company's gaming GPUs.
According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Bitcoin mining consumes around 137 terawatt-hours of energy per year, equivalent to over 9 million houses' typical annual electricity consumption, implying that Bitcoin consumes more power than most countries.
The impact of Intel's new "Bonanza Mine" on Bitcoin's energy consumption is still unknown. According to an Intel spokesperson, the business will "provide additional details in the future."
This isn't the first time Intel has dabbled in the area of crypto.Intel revealed in October that its forthcoming graphics cards would not have cryptocurrency mining restrictions in response to rival NVIDIA's plans to make its own devices "less appealing" for Ethereum miners. Intel also reported in an SEC filing last summer that it owned roughly $800,000 in Coinbase stock.
On the other hand, this move marks a substantial shift for the tech giant into the Bitcoin mining market.
Microsoft shook up the video game business by revealing that it will pay $68.7 billion, making it the most extensive tech acquisition to acquire Activision Blizzard, the firm behind Call of Duty and Warcraft. Microsoft claims that the move was undertaken in preparation for the metaverse.
Microsoft stated in a statement that the agreement will give "building blocks for the metaverse." "Gaming is the most dynamic and interesting area in entertainment across all platforms today," said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft. "Gaming will play a significant role in the development of metaverse platforms."
Early instances of the metaverse include Ethereum-based games like Decentraland and The Sandbox, which allow players to buy, edit, and even monetise digital land plots offered as NFT assets.
Activision Blizzard is yet to make a move in the NFT or metaverse space. In November, Microsoft revealed that it is adding 3D avatar functionality to its Teams virtual conference platform and creating immersive environments for users to interact in.
领英推荐
For years, Microsoft has been involved in the crypto market, announcing a partnership with Ethereum software technology startup ConsenSys.
Activision Blizzard strengthens the coalition with many popular video gaming franchises. Aside from Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, the publisher is known for Overwatch, Candy Crush, Diablo, and Crash Bandicoot. The Overwatch League and the Call of Duty League, two of the publisher's licenced leagues, have a prominent presence in the esports sector.
Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription programme now has over 25 million subscribers, and the premium option will include Activision Blizzard games.
Major video game companies have recently begun to make inroads in developing the metaverse and NFT-powered games industry. Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto, paid?$12.7 billion for mobile game creator Zynga last week. Zynga has lately begun developing games that use NFT technology.
New York-based online Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, announced Tuesday that it has acquired Dharma Labs, an emerging company in the global DeFi ecosystem. The amount of the deal is not disclosed.
The news first reported on January 4, almost two weeks after OpenSea raised $300 million in its Series C funding round, valuing the company at $13.3 billion. According to the firm, the latest acquisition will help accomplish its mission to scale product development, grow its team, expand its safety and reliability efforts and invest in the Non-fungible token (NFT) and Web3 ecosystem.
According to the statement, Dharma Labs would effectively close down. Its co-founders, Nadav Hollander and Brendan Forster, will join OpenSea as chief technology officer and head of the strategy, respectively. Co-founder Alex Atallah, formerly the CTO, will take on a new role overseeing "NFT ecosystem development efforts."
"The team at Dharma is among the most talented and respected consumer crypto teams in the world, having built beloved experiences for seamlessly onboarding fiat currency to blockchains. Our teams share a vision that NFTs will be the cultural focal point of crypto's adoption for years to come, and that vision can only be realized if using NFTs becomes easy & delightful for the average person," Devin Finzer, the Co-Founder and CEO of OpenSea, said in a blog.
Thanks for reading! If you liked it,?please forward this dispatch to your friends.
You can also read what else is?making the news this week.