Demand for graphics cards has slumped back to pre-cryptocurrency boom prices as the price of Bitcoin and other digital currencies continues to fall, even as new card designs threaten to shake-up the market. Graphics card makers, such as Nvidia, had hoped the cryptocurrency boom would boost sales throughout the year, estimating returns of hundreds of millions of dollars. But the price of many graphics cards, normally used for video gaming but coopted for mining cryptocurrencies, has halved in recent months. The price of a top level Nvidia GTX 1080 card fell from around £800 in January to around £400 this month. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, a digital currency that exists only online, are generated... Register or log in to view this and other Technology Intelligence articles. It's free and easy to do. Access brilliant stories, features and analysis Sign up to our exclusive Technology Intelligence daily newsletter Become part of our ambitious new Tech networking … [Read more...] about End of cryptocurrency gold rush hits demand for graphics card miners
Bitcoin gold rush
Gondo’s new gold rush: cryptocurrency boom breathes life into Swiss village
Alpine Mining co-founder and CEO Ludovic Thomas works at company's main cryptocurrency mining site in Gondo. Photo: AFP Up until a century ago, the southern Swiss village of Gondo was famous for gold mining, but the industry closed and Gondo fell on harder times. Now the miners are back and helping revitalise the tiny village on the Italian border, only they are no longer looking for gold. Tucked away in a windowless bunker in Gondo, 900 graphic cards bombinate incessantly as they "mine" virtual currencies. "It is very interesting from a historical perspective," Gondo's deputy president, Paul Fux, told news agency AFP "We had gold mines that were famous all over the world... Now we have a new breed of miners," he laughed. He was referring to a group of young men who have descended on the village which today counts only around 50 inhabitants with a business few locals understand: mining cryptocurrencies. Gondo in the Swiss canton of Valais. Photo: AFP … [Read more...] about Gondo’s new gold rush: cryptocurrency boom breathes life into Swiss village
Bitcoin is going to crash and burn thanks to speculators
During the late ’90s, Silicon Valley venture capitalists and New York City investment bankers used phrases such as “monetizing eyeballs,” “stickiness,” and “B2C” to justify the ridiculous valuations of Internet companies. They claimed conventional methods were inapplicable in valuing the dot-com companies — which had no revenue — because we were entering an entirely new economy. Believing these people, and afraid to miss out on the gold rush, small-time investors, grandma and grandpa, and barbers and taxi drivers invested their life savings in companies such as Pets.com, Webvan, and eToys. The bubble burst, and they lost everything. Through a transfer of wealth in the billions of dollars from Main Street to Wall Street, VCs, unscrupulous CEOs, and bankers had effectively enriched themselves at the expense of hundreds of thousands of ordinary investors, leaving them to despair about their futures. History is repeating itself now with … [Read more...] about Bitcoin is going to crash and burn thanks to speculators
Bitcoin, Blockchain, and How You’re Getting Swindled
Ever since my friends and I set up a Digicash server to sell music and artwork with a digital currency called eCash representing real gold, back in the ’90s, I’ve been waiting for the day when cryptocurrencies—digital currencies that operate independently of central banks by using encryption to generate units and verify transfers of funds—would transform the world. Cryptocurrencies are finally here, but not exactly in the way that I envisioned. And so since last year, I’ve found myself issuing warnings instead of accolades about the latest trend in the frothy world of cryptocurrencies: ICOs, or initial coin offerings. The initial idea was a pretty good one—blockchain technology could be used to issue new cryptographically secure “tokens” or “coins” that are easy to transmit peer-to-peer. The coins could be sold to fund open-source software projects and other services that people find useful but are hard to finance with … [Read more...] about Bitcoin, Blockchain, and How You’re Getting Swindled
European bankers scoff at bitcoin for its risk, huge energy inefficiency
told a conference in Frankfurt that replacing cash with bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies is too risky and inefficient to be an effective medium of exchange. "For a stable monetary and financial system, we need no crypto-tokens, but rather central banks obligated to price stability and effective banking regulation, and we have both in the eurozone," Jens Weidmann, the head of the Bundesbank, said. His remarks (German) come as other top European bankers are making aligned public statements expressing skepticism about bitcoin and related digital currencies. On Tuesday, the ECB put out a graphic dubbing bitcoin not a currency but a "speculative asset." Carl-Ludwig Thiele, a member of the executive board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, recently slammed bitcoin for being too "energy intensive." "The website Digiconomist estimates that the entire bitcoin network currently consumes just over 46 terawatt hours of energy every year," he wrote in an op-ed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine … [Read more...] about European bankers scoff at bitcoin for its risk, huge energy inefficiency