On 18th Feb, Intel launched a new chip that supports blockchain functions like bitcoin mining and minting NFTs to dive in on the rising usage of cryptocurrencies. The company claimed that its chip would be 1000 times faster than other mainstream chips available in the market. Senior Vice President and General Manager, Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group at Intel Corporation, stated in a blog release, "We expect that our circuit innovations will deliver a blockchain accelerator that has over 1000x better performance per watt than mainstream GPUs for SHA-256 based mining. You will be able to learn more about our circuit innovations at the International Solid-State Circuit Conference (ISSCC) this month" Intel is poised to break into the core of the crypto industry—Cryptocurrency mining—with a bang.
The blog post also featured the rising concerns about the ongoing mining operations – "We are mindful that some blockchains require an enormous amount of computing power, which unfortunately translates to an immense amount of energy. Our customers are asking for scalable and sustainable solutions, which is why we are focusing our efforts on realizing the full potential of blockchain by developing the most energy-efficient computing technologies at scale."
Aiding the uninitiated, cryptocurrency mining is the process of using complex algorithms using high power consumption hardware like GPUs and ASICs to solve hashes, which allows the specific miner to be able to add a 'block' in the blockchain ledger.
Intel speaks of using a blockchain accelerator in its newly launched chip specifically designed to use less energy than the existing technologies. This chip is supposed to be supplied first to the Jack Dorsey-owned Block and GRIID Infrastructure. With TSMC's ASIC chips and NVIDIA's GPU chips being in direct competition with Intel's newly launched chip, the latter has formed a new segment—Custom Computer Group within its Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics business unit—to hasten its course of action in the crypto space.