Items tagged with cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency mining is not going to fall by the wayside anytime soon, not when Bitcoin is setting new highs in value, and Ethereum holding the line at around $4,000. As it applies to the latter, and other forms of cryptocurrency that are still mined with GPUs, NVIDIA's CMP (Crypto Mining Processor) HX series of headless cards swing a mighty big pickax to potentially turn a profit. And so it goes with the CMP 170HX, which is not listed for sale. We wrote about this card last month—it caught our eye because its high hash rate performance. We still can find neither hide nor hair of this SKU on NVIDIA's website, which lists just four CMP models: 30HX with a 26 MH/s hash rate, 40HX at 36 MH/s,...
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Remember when Bitcoin was worth a fraction of a cent? Those days are long gone, and barring a cryptocurrency crash of epic proportions, they may never come back. Instead, Bitcoin this week went on a rally, skyrocketing to its highest value ever. This raises the question, is it finally time for casual observers to invest in Bitcoin? We don't give that kind of advice here (investing), but if that is what you are pondering, let's look at the situation. After beginning the month valued at around $48,000, Bitcoin has been steadily climbing the past couple of weeks, and reached as high as $66,947.77 yesterday. That bests its previous high of $64,889, which it reached last April—the same month...
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Step aside China, there’s a new bitcoin sheriff in town! A study recently revealed that the United States currently leads the world in bitcoin mining. It has finally surpassed China, which was the undisputed leader for several years. However, cryptocurrency mining and exchanges are no longer welcome in China after its Central Bank declared that all cryptocurrency-related transactions would be illegal effective September 24, including "overseas virtual currency exchanges." The study was conducted by the University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. Its Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) "provides an up-to-date estimate of the Bitcoin network’s daily electricity...
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Details about Intel's upcoming Arc Alchemist GPUs continue to emerge as we inch closer to the release. In a recent interview, Intel’s Raja Koduri, SVP and GM of Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics, and Roger Chandler, VP and GM of Client Graphics Products and Solutions, weigh in on some of the pressing questions people have.Like cryptocurrency mining. One question that many might be wondering about is if the cards will be gimped for crypto-currency and mining performance, similar to NVIDIA imposes a hashrate limiter on its cards. That will not the be case. Chandler indicated that all the optimizations and features Intel's engineers focused on were to ensure the hardware could solve...
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If you woke up one morning to millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency in your account, would your first thoughts be about returning the money from whence it came? It's something to ponder, but regardless hundreds if not thousands of users on the Compound Finance platform found themselves in this moral predicament after a bug deposited random amounts of COMP into their accounts. Compound, or COMP, is an ERC-20 asset "that empowers community governance of the Compound protocol; COMP token-holders and their delegates debate, propose, and vote on all changes to the protocol." This community-driven protocol then provides a "free and open financial infrastructure running on the Ethereum blockchain,"...
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Some kids do extra household chores, open up lemonade or baked goods stands, or recycle bottles to earn a bit of cash. Others get involved in cryptocurrency mining. Two siblings in Frisco, Texas have started their own cryptocurrency mining company and are making more than $30,000 a month. Fourteen year old Ishaan Thakur and nine year old Aanya Thakur began mining for cryptocurrency this past March. They originally were interested in investing in cryptocurrency, but could not afford to do so. They therefore set up an old gaming computer in their garage with the help of their father and YouTube tutorials to begin mining. They originally were going to mine for Bitcoin, but were worried that...
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Yesterday, criminal hackers stole approximately $600 million in varying cryptocurrencies from the PolyNetwork, a blockchain interoperability company. Now, in an interesting turn of events, the hackers have begun returning the stolen funds in what was to be one of the biggest cryptocurrency thefts ever. As it stands, cryptocurrencies all have their standalone networks, which means that going between them would be difficult at best. However, PolyNetwork aims to interconnect Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others through smart contracts and interconnections between other crypto chains. Interestingly, malicious hackers were reportedly able to exploit a vulnerability in the EthCrossChainManager contract and...
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As the user base for cryptocurrency grows, so too do politicians and regulators looking to stymie the situation due to taxation and illicit activity concerns. Now, President Biden has backed a plan to tax proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum via an amendment to a major bill advancing in the U.S. Senate. The amendment that would change taxing for decentralized finance (DeFi) owners was brought up by Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Mark Warner (D-VA) in a cross-aisle move. The change would provide tax reporting exemptions to validators and developers attached to proof-of-work (PoW) networks like Bitcoin, leaving proof-of-stake (PoS) and other types of networks in the cold. Senators...
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Just last week, Bitcoin crashed below $30,000, descending to its lowest point in a month, and dropping to less than half of its peak value from April of this year. And today? It is not only back above $30,000, it is fast approaching $40,000 on speculation that Amazon will soon begin accepting the volatile cryptocurrency for online purchases. At the time of this writing, Bitcoin is up nearly 13 percent in the past 24 hours, to $38,449. That's still well below its all-time high of $64,829, but for proponents of Bitcoin (and cryptocurrency in general), it is again trending in the right direction. It also highlights the wild swings that the world's most popular digital currency is prone to. It seems...
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What goes up must come down, but when it comes to cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin in particular, wild up and down swings feel like normal occurrences (it was just a short while ago when Bitcoin and Ethereum fueled a cryptocurrency explosion to a $2 trillion valuation). And that is what Bitcoin investors are hoping is occurring right now—just a normal downward swing, as the digital currency comes crashing below the $30,000 mark for the first time in a month. At the time of this writing, Bitcoin is trading at $29,694.34. That's down from around $31,000 yesterday, and less than half of where Bitcoin peaked at in April of this year, when it topped $60,000. Will it go back up? Probably, but for...
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Is cryptocurrency a capitalistic scam, only benefitting the wealthy? That is what Jackson Palmer, co-founder of Dogecoin, seems to think after reemerging on Twitter to explain his take on the current state of crypto. On July 14th, Palmer addressed the frequent question of whether he will return to cryptocurrency after leaving Dogecoin behind. While his simple answer is “no,” there is much more behind this than meets the eye. First of all, Palmer believes that cryptocurrency is “an inherently right-wing, hyper-capitalistic technology built primarily to amplify the wealth of its proponents through a combination of tax avoidance, diminished regulatory oversight and artificially...
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As Bitcoin prices skyrocketed earlier this year, all cryptocurrencies were under the microscope by people around the globe. Specifically, energy-consumption concerns arose as miners built out massive mining operations to execute the “proof-of-work” system that makes cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin tick. However, none of that matters if you are stealing electricity, as the Ukrainian Security Service discovered earlier this month. Now, Malaysian police have found this problem for themselves, but they are sending a message with it. For serious cryptocurrency miners, custom-built computers for mining are called an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). These are significantly better...
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Though cryptocurrency has drawn some ire worldwide, there is some serious market potential, and it would be foolish for tech companies to ignore potential financial gains. Take, for example, a cryptocurrency called Chia, which utilizes unused storage as part of a proof of space and time blockchain. The faster, the better, so SSDs were selling out incredibly quickly overseas. Now, it seems PNY is playing to the crowd and is launching a Chia-optimized SSD. As mentioned, Chia is a proof of space and time cryptocurrency, which relies on unused storage on drives to be used for “plotting.” Plotting is a write-intensive process that records hashes which are then compared to a challenge broadcast...
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It appears that illegal electricity theft and cryptocurrency mining go hand in hand, as the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) reported that it has shut down a massive crypto-farm stealing electricity. Comprised of thousands of consoles and hundreds of graphics cards, the farm was seized from an old warehouse professionally rigged for the illicit activities. In the city of Vinnytsia, a group of crypto miners has been accused of “theft of water, electricity or thermal energy through its unauthorized use,” by the SBU. According to the report, “electricity meters that did not show a real energy consumption” were used to steal upwards of $259,000 in electricity monthly for the...
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Back in June, China made the decision to crack down on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, leading to tumbling prices and a mass exodus of miners. This is now beginning to have rippling effects beyond cryptocurrency as Chinese miners are beginning to dump GPUs on the secondhand or used marketplace. On Twitter, a video recently posted by user Wolfie Zhao shows popular Chinese secondhand market Xianyu inundated with GPUs that were used for mining. However, since China has effectively put a stop to mining, these graphics cards, which have been in short supply, are now generally useless. Not just ASICs, Chinese miners been dumping stacks of GPUs too on Xianyu, one of the largest marketplace apps for...
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The founder of McAfee Antivirus, John McAfee, was found dead this afternoon in a Barcelona prison. McAfee had been held in the Spanish jail since early October 2020 following an indictment filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to file tax returns and tax evasion. McAfee, who was 75, had just learned that a Spanish court had approved his extradition to the United States to face the charges. In March 2021, the SEC charged McAfee and his partner, Jimmy Watson, Jr., with seven additional charges involving a cryptocurrency "pump and dump" scheme. The pair was accused of "promoting investments in initial coin offerings (ICOs) to his Twitter followers without disclosing...
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In May, China began a cryptocurrency crackdown that kicked off a mass exodus of digital miners from the country. Since then, this crackdown has continued and even been reaffirmed as of late with several major mines' shutdown. This has put cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum into a tailspin, and it is hard to tell where this will end. In the past two months, Bitcoin has lost over 40% of its value, and some investors are rightfully concerned. With this loss, analysts report that Bitcoin has formed a "death cross," which means the average price over the last 50 days fell below its 200-day moving average. According to Investopedia, this is sometimes viewed as a signal that a massive sell-off...
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While a push toward privacy is great for the average person, it is also simultaneously great for criminal gangs. Using secure messaging systems, these gangs can secretly communicate plans for drug shipments or killings worldwide. However, if law enforcement is inside these messaging apps, then the criminals can be caught easily. It appears the FBI did exactly that by running a “secure” messaging system leading to the seizure of hundreds of millions in drugs, weapons, cars, cash, and cryptocurrency. This sting operation saga started in 2018, when law enforcement agencies took down Phantom Secure, which made custom encrypted devices for criminals. In this operation, AP News reports...
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Though cryptocurrency mining is becoming less profitable by the day, those who still have the hardware may as well use it. However, it sucks up a lot of energy and dumps a lot of heat, which suspiciously looks like a marijuana grow house, as it turns out. Earlier this month, police in London were tipped off to a building within the Great Bridge Industrial Estate, Sandwell. Using drone surveillance, police saw a characteristic heat signature and people regularly going in and out. Therefore, when the police raided the location on May 18th, they were expecting a cannabis farm, but that is not what they found. Upon entry, they saw shelves full of up to 100 application-specific integrated circuit...
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China is one of the largest cryptocurrency mining countries in the world, in part due to its sheer population, cheap electricity, and easy access to electronics. This year, Bitcoin and other large cryptocurrencies took off alongside new coins like Chia, which saw immense popularity in China. Now, the Chinese government has cracked down on cryptos overall, and miners are pulling out of the country, leading to a sharp price slump across the board. Will this trend continue, or will cryptocurrencies recover in traditional fashion? Last Friday, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He announced a crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading to “fend off financial risks.” This announcement came just...
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It has been a tumultuous week for cryptocurrencies as many of the major coins have taken a nosedive off a cliff, such as Bitcoin sitting at $34,000 at the time of writing. As this is happening, many crypto exchanges, like Binance and Coinbase, are feeling the pressure and may be struggling for it. Citing issues like network congestion and partial outages, these companies temporarily paused transactions, either by choice or involuntarily but have now restored some service. Earlier this morning, Coinbase faced “intermittent downtime” on its platforms, tweeting that some customers were “experiencing some issues with logging in, seeing their balances, and trading.” The initial...
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Hey, good news everyone—the GPU shortage is over! Just kidding, you still can't find a graphics card in stock (not from a first-party seller at a fair price, that is). I know, I know, what an insensitive intro, my apologies. However, there is actually some good news, related to GPUs. Ethereum is aiming to become much more power efficient, and a key change to its operations could dramatically reduce the demand for graphics cards. That is the big upside in theory, anyway. Ethereum is embarking on a transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model. What exactly does that mean? Well, the main benefit outlined in a blog post announcing the change is a massive 99.95 percent...
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