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Biden Loves Intel’s Plan To Produce Semiconductors. What About Bitcoin Mining?

Intel played a big role in President Biden ’s State of the Union address. He highlighted the company’s plan to manufacture semiconductor chips in Ohio, and said, “Make more cars and semiconductors in America. More infrastructure and innovation in America.” Was he secretly approving Intel’s plan to produce ASIC bitcoin miners? Or did he not know that those semiconductors are an integral part of those machines?

Make no mistake, semiconductor chips or integrated circuits are an integral part of almost every technological device around you. And Intel is a huge company with many products and many clients. Those semiconductors Intel is planning to produce will go everywhere. However, there’s no denying that ASICs are a big part of the company’s future plans.

Recently, NewsBTC quoted Intel’s CEO Pat Gelsinger saying:

“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.” 

Exaggerations aside, Pat Gelsinger was a big part of President Biden ‘s State of the Union address the other day.

What Did President Biden Say About Intel?

One of Biden ‘s big success stories was Intel’s $20B investment in Ohio. The plant they plan to build will manufacture semiconductor chips. There’s a global shortage for those, and more than 170 industries depend on them. Nowadays, China, South Korea, and Taiwan are the main producers of integrated circuits. And those factories are working full time to fulfill an ever-increasing demand.

Enter Ohio. As The Columbus Dispatch put it:

“Intel plans to employ 3,000 workers at an average salary of $135,000. The project is also expected to create 7,000 construction jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs.”

They also quote President Biden channeling his inner poet:

“If you travel 20 miles east of Columbus, Ohio, you’ll find 1,000 empty acres of land. It won’t look like much, but if you stop and look closely, you’ll see a ‘field of dreams,’ the ground on which America’s future will be built.”

And then and there, he mentioned Pat Gelsinger by name, as the man to make it happen. President Biden didn’t mention bitcoin mining, though.

BTC price chart for 03/03/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
The U.S.’s Plan To Manufacture Semiconductors

The global chip shortage presents an obvious opportunity, and the U.S. wants to take advantage of it. Intel´s play is part of a bigger move. In the article “Bitcoin Mining And The Global Semiconductor Shortage Are On A Collision Course,” security expert Shinobi informed us:

“The United States Senate has recently passed the “U.S. Innovation and Competition Act,” which will spend $52 billion dollars on increasing domestic semiconductor fabrication capacity, and the “CHIPs for America Act” being introduced in the Senate to create income tax credit for semiconductor companies.”

So, Intel is going to benefit from all of that. Plus, they´re going to use those semiconductor chips to aggressively step into the bitcoin mining business. A business traditionally controlled by Chinese companies Bitmain and MicroBT. Can Intel compete with them? According to a recent SEC filing NewsBTC reported on, they can:

“When the world first heard about Intel’s ASIC ambitions, the company cleverly described the machines as “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient.” How efficient will they actually be? Tom’s hardware answers:

“According to the listing, BMZ2’s performance weighs in at 135 TH/s with 26 J/THs of efficiency. Additionally, the miner is roughly half the cost of a competing Bitmain S19 Pro while being 15% more efficient, rivaling the best hardware on the market from competing companies.”

To better understand the plan, let’s quote Shinobi once again:

“The dynamics of who can and can’t produce semiconductors in general is already coming to the forefront of politics as nations realize the importance of minimizing reliance on foreign actors to maintain such capacity. It is only a matter of time before how these issues relate to Bitcoin mining starts to come to their attention as well.”

President Biden And Intel Are Not Playing Around

As you can see, both President Biden and Intel have an ambitious game plan. Is bitcoin mining a part of the plan? In Intel’s case, the answer is an obvious yes. On the other hand, Joe Biden didn´t even mention the topic in his speech. It was always there in the background, though. At least according to us.

Let’s close with another quote from Biden ‘s State of the Union address:

“I have a better plan to fight inflation. Lower your costs, not your wages. Make more cars and semiconductors in America. More infrastructure and innovation in America.”

That’s great, but… about that “plan to fight inflation”… what about stopping the rampant money printing?

Featured Image: President Biden’s State of the Union address, screenshot from this video | Charts by TradingView

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Intel ‘s ASIC Bitcoin Miner Will Cost Half, Be 15% More Effective Than Most S19s

Will the Intel ASIC disrupt the Bitcoin mining game? If Tom’s Hardware numbers are correct, the answer is an unequivocally yes. “The company’s mining hardware could have the best price-to-performance ratio on the market,” says Tom. However, there’s no guarantee that the prices that Intel gave to mining company GRIID will be the same as a general consumer will get.

In fact, there’s no guarantee that GRIID is talking about the Intel Bonanza Mine in the SEC documents that this report follows. “A recent SEC filing by one of Intel’s premier partners has revealed both the pricing and performance of Intel’s second-gen Bonanza Mine (BMZ2) Bitcoin miners.” A couple of weeks ago, NewsBTC reported on Intel’s first batch of 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.”

And in the SEC filing, GRIID talks about a “Distinguishing Supply Agreement With Leading U.S. Based Chip Designer.” Who else could they be talking about, considering that both Bitmain and MicroBT are China-based? It has to be Intel, right?

What Does The SEC Filling Reveal About The Intel Bonanza Mine?

When the world first heard about Intel’s ASIC ambitions, the company cleverly described the machines as “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient.” How efficient will they actually be? Tom’s hardware answers:

“According to the listing, BMZ2’s performance weighs in at 135 TH/s with 26 J/THs of efficiency. Additionally, the miner is roughly half the cost of a competing Bitmain S19 Pro while being 15% more efficient, rivaling the best hardware on the market from competing companies.”

That puts it at the top of the food chain in terms of power; “second only to Bitmain’s S19j XP system,” and that’s “by a small margin.” However, Intel’s ASIC is also 15% more efficient. “Peak performance for the BMZ2 system weighs in at a competitive 135 TH/s. A bit of basic math reveals the system runs at approximately 3510W.”

BTC price chart for 01/03/2022 on BinanceUS | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Perfect, But, How Expensive Will It Be?

When it comes to pricing, that’s where Intel’s new machines shine. Since they will presumably be manufactured in the U.S.A., Intel won’t have to deal with “the 25% tariffs for products that originate in China and are exposed to the volatility associated with a longer supply chain.” So, the company’s positioned to win in the west. 

Ok, but, how much will the ASICs actually cost? Tom’s Hardware again:

“GRIID says the new Intel mining systems cost $5,625 per miner. Given that GRIID has guaranteed access to 25% of Intel’s production capacity, we expect the company to benefit from volume pricing. In either case, that’s roughly half the price of the $10,455 Bitmain S19j Pro, but it’s noteworthy that pricing for the S19j Pro can fluctuate wildly.”

Will the general consumer get the same price as GRIID? Probably not. But the number seems promising. And their clients won’t have to wait for their ASICs to arrive from China.

Conclusions And Questions

Last week, NewsBTC quoted Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger trying to promote the company’s new product:

“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 these specs enough to solve climate change? Is a 15% efficiency going to stop global warming? Probably not. It’s a massive improvement, but, maybe Gelsinger shouldn’t have made such a big promise. 

In the quoted SEC filing, GRIID lists the company’s competitive advantages. One of those is, “Chip supply agreement with U.S. Fortune 50 company ensures unrivaled mining hardware access.” Chances are that the deal GRIID made with Intel is going to increase in importance as time goes by. If the machines are as good as the specs suggest, that is.

Featured Image by InstagramFOTOGRAFIN on Pixabay| Charts by TradingView

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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