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What’s Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger Saying While Promoting The Bitcoin Mining Chip?

What is Intel ’s Pat Gelsinger doing? Who is he talking to while promoting Intel’s new bitcoin mining chips? In a recent Bloomberg interview, Gelsinger uses every ESG buzzword in the book to promote their “energy-efficient ASIC chip.” Is this the right strategy? Who will be Intel’s clients? And why is this man lying about bitcoin’s energy consumption when the real numbers would do just fine?

The host, Emily Chang, starts by asking him about 2019, when the Intel CEO said that Bitcoin was badly designed, “extreme, and climate intolerant.” Does Gelsinger still hold that opinion? Of course, he does. And that’s just the beginning. 

Intel CEO regurgitates ESG FUD talking points while shilling for his new #Bitcoin mining chip. Feb 14 2022 pic.twitter.com/x7r31FCwp9

— 🐝🇸🇻⚡BITC0IN 🐦🐦🐦 (@BITCOINALLCAPS) February 17, 2022

The Intel CEO Is Here To Fix Bitcoin

Gelsinger starts by saying that when he misdiagnosed bitcoin that one time, “most of the uses where illicit.” In 2019? Nothing could be further from the truth, Sir. Bitcoin’s first use case, the unbanked, were discovering the solution to their problem little by little. And the seeds for everything that has happened in the last few years were already planted.

Was bitcoin also used for illicit purposes? Of course. Bitcoin is money for your enemies. Everyone can use it. 

Another thing the Intel CEO believed about bitcoin is that “it couldn’t be regulated, so it couldn’t become a currency for nations and for people to use broadly.” Well, considering it’s already currency in one nation, El Salvador, we could say that Gelsinger’s predictions are pretty much off the mark.

The idea of an American ASIC mining chip, though, that’s a great one. And if it consumes less energy, so be it. Even though people will probably just push the pedal to the metal and mine more. In any case, the Intel CEO informs us that one of the company’s mantras is that they’re “shaping technology as a force for good.” It sounds like Google’s “Don’t be evil,” and we all know how that turned out.

In any case, Gelsinger thinks the easily debunkable attack points he exposed make bitcoin a controversial character. However, “that doesn’t mean it’s not a good technology, but we’re not using it good yet.” So, Intel is here to fix it.

BTC price chart for 02/19/2022 on Fx | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
What’s Gelsinger Promising, Exactly?

One thing’s for sure, Intel is very confident about their product. The CEO said:

“Intel is about to bring forward a blockchain chip that’s dramatically better. That is orders of magnitude better in terms of power performance. So, we’re helping solve the climate issue.” 

Are they, though? In any case, a “dramatically better” chip is always welcome. When the company announced their first clients, we quoted their press release:

“Today, we at Intel are declaring our intent to contribute to the development of blockchain technologies, with a roadmap of energy-efficient accelerators. Intel will engage and promote an open and secure blockchain ecosystem and will help advance this technology in a responsible and sustainable way.”

And we, jokingly and earnestly, applauded their efforts:

“That’s right, they’re tackling the problem “in a responsible and sustainable way.” And they’re calling the mining chips “accelerators” for some reason.”

However, the Intel CEO raises doubts. “We want to work with the industry to find ways that technologies like blockchain can be properly regulated, managed, as well. So they truly can be fully realized,” he said. Forgetting that Intel just arrived to the space and was here to make chips.

“This is one of those areas that, yeah, we’re going to work on fixing this one. Because this is a powerful technology. An immutable leveraged digitized entry system can transform currency, transactions, supply chain, so, yeah, this one is exciting.”

This man doesn’t have the faintest clue about bitcoin’s real power. And, what’s an “immutable leveraged digitized entry system” anyway? There’s a popular saying in the bitcoin community: “You don’t change bitcoin. Bitcoin changes you.” It seems like Intel is going to find that to be true the hard way.

Featured Image: Gelsinger on Bloomberg, screenshot from this video| Charts by TradingView

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Intel Announces Mining Chips’ First Clients: BLOCK, Argo Blockchain, and GRIID

Intel ’s play to get into the bitcoin mining market might end up being the story of the year. In a post titled “Blockchain and the New Custom Compute Group,” Raja Koduri reveals a little of the company’s playbook. At Intel, he’s the senior vice president and general manager of the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group. 

Related Reading | Jack Dorsey’s Block To Democratize Bitcoin Mining With Open Source Mining System

In the article, Koduri says, “we are focusing our efforts on realizing the full potential of blockchain by developing the most energy-efficient computing technologies at scale.” Intel’s play is deeper and harder than previously thought. They’re going all-in in the blockchain business. With a twist that every corporation is claiming for.  

“Today, we at Intel are declaring our intent to contribute to the development of blockchain technologies, with a roadmap of energy-efficient accelerators. Intel will engage and promote an open and secure blockchain ecosystem and will help advance this technology in a responsible and sustainable way.”

That’s right, they’re tackling the problem “in a responsible and sustainable way.” And they’re calling the mining chips “accelerators” for some reason. Will the name catch on?

“Intel Labs has dedicated decades of research into reliable cryptography, hashing techniques and ultra-low voltage circuits. 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.”

This new line of Intel products responds directly to the ESG crowd. The bitcoin-consumes-too-much-energy FUD people. Soon enough, they’ll have to face Intel ’s PR machine.  How can bitcoin consume too much energy if Intel’s product “has over 1000x better performance per watt than mainstream GPUs for SHA-256 based mining”?

BTC price chart for 02/14/2022 on Kraken | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Who Are Intel ’s First Clients?

We can’t prove it, but, all of these companies probably knew years ago about Intel’s plans to release a bitcoin mining chip. Again, Raja Koduri:

“Our blockchain accelerator will ship later this year. We are engaged directly with customers that share our sustainability goals. Argo Blockchain, BLOCK (formerly known as Square) and GRIID Infrastructure are among our first customers for this upcoming product. This architecture is implemented on a tiny piece of silicon so that it has minimal impact to the supply of current products.” 

When NewsBTC analyzed Intel’s chip announcement, we summarized the situation as:

“This could be huge. Intel plans to enter the Bitcoin mining space with a cleverly marketed “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient” ASIC chip. Considering that the chip shortage severely delayed the next generation of ASIC miners, this is tremendous. And, more importantly, it opens up the door for Bitcoin miners manufacturing in the USA. And in the rest of the Western world, even. ”

After that, we analyzed the situation’s implications:

“Now, the open-source Bitcoin miner that Jack Dorsey’s Block is working on makes a lot more sense. Theoretically, the silicon chip is the only part of an ASIC machine that can’t be bought in a hardware store. With that problem solved, by no less than an industry leader with immense manufacturing power, the sky’s the limit. If this whole thing materializes, expect a huge leap forward in the further decentralization of Bitcoin mining.”

Notice how Block is one of the first clients. And how Intel had the energy-efficient ASIC chip marketing ready from the get-go. And how Koduri even addressed the chip shortage in the last line there.

Intel’s Bonanza Chip’s Future

Reading between the lines, it’s clear that this is not a secondary project for Intel. They have high hopes for this low-energy chips play. Here, Koduri discusses the Custom Compute Group:

“The objective of this team is to build custom silicon platforms optimized for customers’ workloads, including blockchain and other custom accelerated supercomputing opportunities at the edge.

Onward, we aspire to leverage technologies from our zetta-scale computing initiative to deliver energy-efficient solutions.”

Related Reading | Green Energy: In NY, Bitcoin Mining Saved The Oldest Working Hydroelectric Plant

You read it here first, Intel ’s play to get into the bitcoin mining market might end up being the story of the year.

This is not financial advice, though.

Featured Image by geralt on Pixabay | Charts by TradingView

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Intel To Present Low Voltage, Energy Efficient Bitcoin Mining Chip At Conference

This could be huge. Intel plans to enter the Bitcoin mining space with a cleverly marketed “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient” ASIC chip. Considering that the chip shortage severely delayed the next generation of ASIC miners, this is tremendous. And, more importantly, it opens up the door for Bitcoin miners manufacturing in the USA. And in the rest of the Western world, even. 

Related Reading | Why Did China Ban Bitcoin Mining? Here Are The Seven Leading Theories

In December, Raja Koduri hinted at Intel’s intention to get into the Bitcoin mining space. Even though he’s the chief architect and senior vice president of Intel’s architecture, graphics and software division, no one expected Intel to deliver so soon. 

Intel jumping into the #Bitcoin mining ASIC manufacturing is a huge. We need way more chip fab in the USA. It will result in:

– Improved National Security– Supply Chain robustness

And it will also result in less reliance on Taiwan, who is being threatened by China aggression.

— Dennis Porter (@Dennis_Porter_) January 18, 2022

Details are scarce. There’s nothing on Intel’s official site. A quick search reveals that “Access to additional search results for “bonanza” is restricted”. However, we have the 411 on the project that goes by the code name “Bonanza Mine.”

What Do We Know About Intel ’s “Bonanza Mine”?

The product will be an “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC.” According to Tom’s Hardware, the page that broke the news, Intel will reveal their new chip at:

“The ISSCC conference is a yearly gathering of the best and brightest minds in the chip industry. This year, Intel has a presentation scheduled in the ‘Highlighted Chip Releases’ category to outline a new “Bonanza Mine” processor, a new chip described as an “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC.”

Apparently, Intel has been developing the product since at least 2018, when they registered “a patent for a specialized processing system that uses an optimized SHA-256 datapath.”According to Tom’s Hardware, “Intel has a wealth of experience in hardware-assisted SHA-256 algorithms due to the use of these instructions in its CPU products.” 

This is huge news!

More competition in the hardware mining sector is welcome 🔥 pic.twitter.com/C7I1FQJxH6

— Dan Held (@danheld) January 18, 2022

A more recent indication of the company’s intentions came when the already mentioned Intel executive Raja Koduri “appeared on popular streamer Dr. Lupo’s show.” He told him point-blank:

“Being able to do much more efficient blockchain validation at a much lower cost, much lower power, is a pretty solvable problem. And you know, we are working on that, and at some point in time, hopefully not too far into the future, we will kinda share some interesting hardware for that.”

BTC price chart for 01/18/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Why Is This Development Important?

Until now, ASIC Bitcoin miners manufacturing is controlled by Bitmain and Microbt, with Canaan, Strongu, and Ebang handling a minority of the market. All of those companies are Chinese. The chips are all made in Taiwan and South Korea. This poses a centralization problem for the Bitcoin network that seemed unsolvable until Intel’s soft announcement.

Now, the open-source Bitcoin miner that Jack Dorsey’s Block is working on makes a lot more sense. Theoretically, the silicon chip is the only part of an ASIC machine that can’t be bought in a hardware store. With that problem solved, by no less than an industry leader with immense manufacturing power, the sky’s the limit. If this whole thing materializes, expect a huge leap forward in the further decentralization of Bitcoin mining. 

Intel, a $220 billion industry leader, is preparing to launch ASIC hardware for bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin is a computer network. Every technology company will eventually plug themselves into it. https://t.co/pbTFiRqx0B

— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) January 18, 2022

Also, Intel’s announcement certainly legitimizes Bitcoin mining as a business to watch for the next 100 years. As podcaster Anthony Pompliano said, “Bitcoin is a computer network. Every technology company will eventually plug themselves into it.” With this announcement, Bitcoin not only gets Intel’s seal of approval. The giant company now has skin in the game. 

Related Reading | Intel, Microsoft Took 10+ Years to See Gains, Crypto Investors in Good Position

To close this off, let’s quote Tom’s Hardware one more time:

“For now, it isn’t clear if Intel will release the Bonanza Mine chip as a product for the public or if it remains confined to a research project. However, given that the chip is in the “highlighted Chip Releases: Digital/ML” track and Koduri’s comments, it’s logical to expect that these chips will be offered to customers in the near future.”

So, everything we said is not a done deal just yet. It smells good, though.

Featured Image by Badar ul islam Majid on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView