Samsung is best known for the production of chips for their smartphones, but according to reports the firm has entered fully into the design and production of ASIC chips, integrated circuits for specific applications, intended for bitcoin mining.
Samsung Electronics finalized the development of an ASIC chip, says the South Korean web site The Bell, and began this month the mass production phase of this type of chips, in association with chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which is supplier of the Chinese manufacturer of Bitmain mining equipment.
The use of graphic cards in cryptocurrency mining equipment has given way to the design of specialized chips, such as the so-called FPGA, of matrix design, which are capable of performing computational calculations in parallel. More recently, the ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) models, designed for exclusive use in mining, have been developed.
Samsung had already shown its interest in diversifying its products towards the mining field, first with an experimental design of a mining rig controlled by a Galaxy Tab tablet and integrated with 40 Galaxy S5, shown last October, which ran an operating system special. The company then announced when it intended to launch a 7-nanometer chip for mining, in close competition with Intel, TSMC, Global Foundries and GMO.
Although graphics cards show lower performance in mining, they continue to be used intensively. Samsung Electronics already produces memories of 16 Gb GDDR6, twice as fast as the GDDR5 memory and with less power consumption, allowing to increase the performance of graphics cards by 35%.
It is still premature to specify if this association of Samsung to enter the mining sector, will increase its profits in the semiconductor sector. However, the position of TSMC as a supplier of the Bitmain giant can give Samsung a competitive strength in this extension of its business.
Regarding other announcements related to mining in the beginning of 2018, Kodak lent its name to a mining team that offers rent with a contract for two years, plus half of the profits obtained. With the current price of bitcoin, the Kodak Kashminer would be throwing losses.
NEM PROTOCOL TRACKS REAL ESTATE $ 500 MILLION STOLEN TO COINCHECK
The Nem.io Foundation, organization after the operation of the blockchain NEM, announced that it will be dedicated to tracking the more than $ 500 million in XEM that were stolen from the Japanese exchange house Coincheck last week.
The statement, issued from Singapore and published today, found that the blockchain platform of NEM is able to track and identify portfolios with malicious activities. In this way, the foundation states that all XEM tokens stolen by hackers are unusable, since they can not be deposited without being marked by the system.
The platform has an automatic tagging system, which allows to track any transaction in real time without major difficulties. It is due to this set of tools that the organization ensures that "the flexibility" of the blockchain of NEM allows to ensure the entire system and each of the portfolios of its users.
Jeffrey Mcdonald, vice president of the NEM Foundation, said that it is even possible to verify if the stolen coins were distributed on regulated platforms, in order to act against those criminals who incurred the theft.
" PARTNERSHIP OF COINBASE AND TRADING TECHNOLOGIES TAKES CRYPTONS TO THE FORMAL STOCK WORLD"
Coinbase, owner of Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX), and Trading Technologies International (TT), provider of stock market software for professionals in the area, announced on Thursday a strategic alliance to facilitate access to the commercialization of cryptocurrencies, both in the market spot as in the future markets. The joint operations will begin on March 28 of this year.
The announcement highlights that TT customers will have access to transactions with cryptocurrencies in GDAX, the largest home exchange of digital assets in the US. UU., Through its platform. In addition, they will be able to carry out, for the first time in parallel, future contracts with cryptocurrencies.
TT has as distributing partners 19 of the 20 organizations that handle futures, including the CME Group, Deutsche Boerse, Intercontinental Exchange and Nasdaq. GDAX, on the other hand, offers bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH)