Intel to reveal a Bitcoin miner

World’s biggest chipmaker will produce Bitcoin miners.

Steadily losing its market share to AMD and Nvidia (who design chips) and TSMC (who manufactures them), Intel has been stagnating these recent years.

Some argue that its struggles come from its closed development model: while open systems like Arm (later acquired by NVIDIA) are now used in most smartphones, Intel has completely missed that market. Other point at lack of innovation.

A new CEO appointed last year was determined to shake things up at Intel, but the firm was not succeeding in making any headlines. It has now.

Next month Intel is set to unveil its “ultra-low voltage, energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ACIS”, integrating Intel’s new “Bonanza Mine” chips.

The first recipient of the new miners will be an Ohio-based company GRIID, specialized in carbon-free mining – a good choice for Intel to dodge the ecological-themed attacks (which are still the easiest choice for crypto critics who don’t like to get to the bottom of things).

This week also saw a traditional Bitcoin miner manufacturer Antminer announcing an improved machine using liquid cooling technology, while Jack Dorsey’s Block is set to creating an entirely different “custom silicon” miner.

Mining is at the heart of Bitcoin and other PoW blockchains. Manufacturers (especially as renowned as Intel) working on finding more energy-efficient ways to mine is a good sign for the cryptocurrencies.