Nvidia has announced the release of a new series of semiconductors precisely for mining the cryptocurrency, Ether. This new sort of chip will be named Cryptocurrency Mining Processor or in short CMP. This comes after Ether hit an all-time high of 160%.
Computer systems design services company, Nvidia revealed its plans of releasing a new series of semiconductors for mining Ether. Ether follows right after Bitcoin, making the former the second-largest digital cryptocurrency.
Crypto Mining Processor or CMP is what this new type of chip will be called. An Nvidia spokesperson told that the company plans to sale the first card next month, i.e. March.
Ether mining is a process that involves computers and/or miners from around the world that solve cryptographically complicated programs. This helps the Ethereum cryptocurrency network run. If successful, miners get ether in exchange, which is the crypto coin running on the Ethereum network.
Ether hit an all-time high of over $1,914 this week, which shows over 160% year-to-date.
Nvidia is best known for graphics cards and this is primarily what Ethereum’s mining algorithms run best on. In order to maximize their return, miners frequently buy many graphic cards and place them in a single machine.
In September, last year, new series of graphic cards were released by Nvidia, marketed at PC gamers and have constantly been sold out. The semiconductor industry is also facing a short supply because of the big demand for electronics.
Nvidia’sannouncement implies that the demand for Nvidia’s chips comes not just from gamers, but from cryptocurrency miners as well.
Vice President of GeForce marketing at Nvidia, Matt Wuebbling wrote about CMP products in a blog post. He stated that CMP products were sold through legitimate partners and perfected for the best mining performance and productivity.
Nvidia said that it was nerfing RTX 3060, which is the latest chip in its gaming graphics cards series. This means that these graphic cards would be less efficient to mine Ether. However, the Nvidia representative clarified that already sold cards, like the RTX 3070 or RTX 3080, would not have the same limitations.
In a blog post, Nvidia went on to elaborate on RTX 3060. The post elaborated that such software drivers were designed to detect specific characteristics of the Ether crypto mining algorithm. It also added that the software would limit by 50% the hash rate.
Graphics cards were initially developed to facilitate high-definition computer games but are now increasingly essential for the latest technologies. In 2017 Nvidia made millions of dollars selling chips to crypto miners, therefore, the practicality of the chips in mining ether isn’t new.
In a statement the Chief Executive Officer of Nvidia, Jensen Huang said that cryptocurrency and blockchain were here to stay. He added that the demand for it in the market will increase and gradually become quite large.
