Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

Back in 2013, during the height of the GPU bitcoin mining craze and before ASICs had taken over the market, prices forvideo cards reached absurd levels. This primarily impacted AMD, since GCN-based cards were vastly better at Bitcoin and Litecoin mining than their Nvidia counterparts, but the end result was awful for enthusiast gamers. GPUs that normally wouldve sold for $200 to $300 were, in some cases, commanding $600 to $800 price tags. Eventually the market cooled down as more customers shifted to ASICs, which both outperformed GPUs and offered a performance-per-watt metric no graphics card could match.

Now were seeing the same thing happen again only this time, its hitting both AMD and Nvidia cards. The GTX 1070 should be selling for around $330, and I can confirm Ive seen it around this price in the not-so-distant past. Today, Newegg shows the cheapest GTX 1070 at $459, as shown below:

But this isnt just an Nvidia problem; AMD is taking a beating as well. UpgradeYourTech keeps track of product SKUs over time, and maps how they change over weeks and months. Check out whats happened to the RX 580 since that card launched just a few months ago.

On June 6 of this year, the Asus ROG Strix RX 580 topped out at a whopping $849.99. Today, its a steal at just $658.90. At first glance, this might seem like a great thing for both AMD and Nvidia, since after all, higher GPU prices means more money, right?

Wrong.

Back in 2013 when Hawaii launched, cryptocurrency miners sent the price of AMDs entire GCN family into the stratosphere. AMD, however, hadnt changed its prices, which means AMD wasnt making a cent of the additional revenue that OEMs like Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and Zotac were raking in. Now, if you were a serious cryptocurrency miner at the time, buying an expensive AMD GPU instead of an NV card might have made sense, given the enormous performance disparity between the two. One difference between then and now is that people are mining Etherium, not Bitcoin. My admittedly rough understanding is that NV cards are far more competitive now than they were at BTC mining back in 2013.

It may have made sense for miners to pay huge cost. But it made no sense at all for gamers. At the time, I theorized this could cause AMD trouble down the road. While it took several years to get concrete data on what happened to AMDs GPU sales, I was absolutely right.

AMDs graphics sales have begun to rebound, but the company has fallen hard the past five years. Figures like these made a deal with Intel easier to imagine.

If you go back and compare the peaks in AMDs saleswith the companys product launches, youll find theres a relationship between the two. (Higher sales figures sometimes lag product launch dates, depending on when a GPU debuted within the quarter.) But look at what happened in Q3 2013. The launch of Hawaii and the excellent R9 290 and R9 290X barely budged AMDs sales. In fact, sales went into a steep decline thereafter.

True, Nvidia responded with the GTX 780 Ti to counter the R9 290X, and yes, the reference R9 200 cards had loud default blowers. But third-party fan designs later solved that problem. It didnt matter. The cryptocurrency market had blown out AMDs addressable market, and by the time BTC mining had moved to ASICs, Nvidia had launched its GTX 900 series (Maxwell).

If you want to strike it rich mining Etherium, new GPUs may be a great investment but neither Nvidia nor AMD is likely to be happy about the long-term impact on their own businesses.

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Cryptocurrency Craze Sends GPU Prices ... - extremetech.com

It is rather interesting to see this trend extend to Russia. The country has always had an uneasy relationship with cryptocurrency.

There is still a large shortage of graphics cards in various parts of the world. Things are getting out of hand in Russia, that much is evident. A new article shows how cryptocurrency mining in the country is picking up. As a result, the shortage of video cards becomes a lot more apparent. It is unclear if this situation will grow worse over time. For the manufacturers, this is good news, though.

About two weeks ago, it became apparent cryptocurrency mining is intensifying all over the world. Given the recent price surges of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, that is to be expected. Not everyone wants to buy specific hard to mine cryptocurrency. Instead, a lot of people are reverting to using graphics cards. This has become somewhat of a problem for the global supply of these products, though. Russia seems to be affected the most by this development right now.

As we have seen over the past few weeks, prices for graphics cards are skyrocketing. That is only normal, as demand is intensifying as well. In Russia, GPUs are up by as much as 80% in price. This affects both retail and second-hand prices. Some people are buying hundreds of graphics cards at once, which puts a lot of strain on the available supply. Manufacturers such as AMD and NVIDIA will not be too bothered about this sudden demand, though.

A lot of media outlets still think people buy graphics cards to mine Bitcoin. That is not the case, as GPUs have been incredibly inefficient for some time now. Instead, users will mine Ethereum, Litecoin, ZCash, or even Monero. All of these currencies can be mined easily with graphics cards. Users will still need a proper motherboard which supports as many graphics cards as possible, though. Setting up a GPU mining farm is not as easy as most people would think.

It is rather interesting to see this trend extend to Russia. The country has always had an uneasy relationship with cryptocurrency. Now that the country is keeping an open mind toward Bitcoin and consorts, mining is growing in popularity. It is good to see graphics cards getting more love, as they were rendered nearly obsolete not too long ago. Thanks to popular alternative currencies, this hardware gets a second lease on life.

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Shortage of Graphics Cards Intensifies in Russia as Cryptocurrency ... - newsBTC

Peter Denious, head of global venture capital at Aberdeen Asset Management Plc, said were in the midst of a virtual currency bubble, and like all bubbles, it will eventually burst.

That doesnt mean investors should necessarily steer clear. Aberdeens venture capital arm, which has about $1.8 billion entrusted in early stage funds, is considering investing in funds that hold blockchain-based companies and digital coins, Denious said. Still, he said the cryptocurrency boom thats attracting millions into startups and spurring triple-digit gains in their digital tokens isnt sustainable.

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A lot of lessons will be learned and a lot money will be lost, before a lot of money can be made, Denious, who is based in New York, said in an interview. Prices right now arent being driven by network usage, theyre being driven by speculation that tokens are going to appreciate. Its a gold-rush mentality. The winners will be those who are really creating highly disruptive, network-based businesses.

Technology companies have raised $646 million this year in so-called initial coin offerings, more than six times the total raised last year, according to Coinschedule.com. The rapid surge in token prices, doubling on average since they start trading, has convinced investors to hand over millions to early stage developments in fundraising rounds that often close in minutes. The hype has driven coins for ethereum, the network on which many of the projects are built, to surge to about $300 from $8 at the start of the year.

All that hype is making Denious, and many others, a little skeptical. Digital currencies potential to disrupt venture capital is also raising flags.

Read more on how network congestion is hindering trading in digital coins

ICOs are allowing early stage companies to bypass venture capital. Denious said this funding mechanism will persist even after the market cools, but it will co-exist with VCs as token sales only make sense for companies that benefit from a blockchain-based decentralized network. Venture capital firms can also be more helpful in building companies, through expertise and connections.

So whats an institutional investor to do with a world-disrupting asset, thats also over-heated? Denious said hes focused on finding funds with expertise in the field and a good track record. He has talked to four or five funds focusing on blockchain-based companies so far, declining to name them.

Aberdeens interest is a sign that blockchain companies and their digital tokens have the potential to reach a wider investor base in the future. Denious said he doesnt doubt that will be the case.

The ingredients are all there for a new asset class, he said. Were in need of restoring what the internet initially offered, which is the power of decentralization. The power has re-centralized in the hands of a few market participants and this technology can disrupt that. The potential is exciting.

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Aberdeen Says Cryptocurrency Bubble Will Burst Even If Coins Change Finance - Bloomberg

Entrepreneur's have officially gotten their hands in the cookie jar of the cryptocurrency world. And believe me that's a good thing.

TenX, who is launching their highly anticipated ICO this coming Saturday has figured out how to solve one of the biggest problems for people that are involved in cryptocurrency -- actually spending the currency.

The worlds of entrepreneurship, cryptocurrency and Initial Coin Offerings are officially merged and entrepreneurs are raising 10s of millions of dollars to fund their companies. Bancor, Status and Basic Attention Token were prime examples of tokens/startups who collectively raised millions of dollars through ICOs.

The problem TenX is solving and why their ICO will likely also do very well is that nobody can actually spend cryptocurrencies at 99% of businesses without having to wait days to exchange it through a centralized exchange bankinto Fiat (government issued currency), or jump through other major hoops.

TenX has built an iOS and Android app that serves as both a wallet and a decentralized fee free exchange, then adds a debit/credit card functionality on top of that to let you spend your cyrptocurrency anywhere you could use VISA or Mastercard. (They send you a physical card.) It also converts it to local currency, meaning it pretty much works in any country.

As of right now TenX's platform officially supports Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Dash, amongst others.

Vitalik Buterin the founder of Ethereum is also an official advisor to the company. Historically, any ICO that he has backed has done phenomenally well. Another big factor for ICOs that typically do well is when they already have their tech built. TenX has a fully functioning and tested iOS and Android version and is ready to get it out in the everyones hands.

The ICO is scheduled for June 24, 2017 at 9am New York Time. 1 Ether will be worth 350 PAY tokens. Here is a link to their full whitepaper.

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TenX Figured out How to Make Cryptocurrency Spendable Immediately In Real Life - Inc.com

Mashable

This Ethereum flash crash shows how cryptocurrency markets are super risky Mashable The price of ether, the cryptocurrency of the suddenly hot Ethereum platform, has since rebounded and is trading back at about $318. The crash, however, remains as a big reminder that this is a volatile, new market. Plenty of people have made small ... Ethereum Plunge Highlights Crypto-Currency Fears - DailyFXDailyFX Here's How Traders Lost Millions in the First Ethereum Flash CrashMotherboard Ethereum cryptocurrency hit by 'flash crash' after plummeting from US$319 to just 10 centsProactive Investors UK EconoTimes -CNBC -Futurism -The GDAX Blog all 33 news articles »

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This Ethereum flash crash shows how cryptocurrency markets are super risky - Mashable

Chipmaker Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), which has had a good run in the stock market this year, just added another Wall Street bull to its corner thanks to the rise of cryptocurrency and the need for high-end graphic cards to mine the digital currency.

Pacific Crest Securities, which downgraded Nvidias shares a couple of months ago, reversed itself Tuesday, raising its rating to sector weight from underweight all because of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. "Meetings with desktop graphics card manufacturers indicated a sharp reversal in sales trends expected for the seasonally weaker 2Q, with surging demand from cryptocurrency miners in China and Eastern Europe," analyst Michael McConnell wrote in a research note to clients Tuesday that was covered by CNBC. "The sharp increase in demand from cryptocurrency miners has rapidly depleted excess channel inventory carried into the quarter."

The analyst also pulled his $99 price target on shares which closed at $157.09. NVDA stock is up more than 55% since the start of the year and, as CNBC pointed out, is about 45% higher since Pacific Crest Securities downgrade it in early April. (See also: Why AMD and Nvidia Are Poised For Their Biggest Drops.)

Pacific Crest isnt the only Wall Street firm that is bullish on Nvidias prospects. People mining for the coins use high-end graphic cards, with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) seeing the most demand. The computer-created coins can either be held or sold for a profit. (See also: What is Bitcoin Mining?)

Earlier this month, RBC Capital analyst Mitch Steves was prompted to reiterate his outperform rating on shares of the chipmaker after running a "thought test" to see how its graphic processor compared with AMD's. Using the GTX 1070, a graphic processor Nvidia introduced last year, and putting it up against AMDs Radeon 580 semiconductor, the analyst set out to see how the chips would perform while mining for Bitcoin and Ethereum, two popular cryptocurrencies. Based on his experiment, Steves found there isnt much difference between the two while mining for Ethereum, but while building a data center environment for Bitcoin, where the cost of electricity becomes more important, the older Nvidia chip performed better than the AMD processor over the course of a year.

With the price of the two currencies skyrocketing in recent weeks, it is not surprising analysts are getting more bullish. Pacific Crest warned in the research note the euphoria could be short lived. "In terms of demand sustainability from the cryptocurrency market, desktop graphics card manufacturers are skeptical, referring to the one-quarter demand surge in 2013, which was followed by an inventory correction," McConnell wrote. "Most desktop graphics card manufacturers surveyed expect strong demand to last until late-July or August, but visibility is extremely low given the volatility in cryptocurrency prices."

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Nvidia Bear Now Bullish on Cryptocurrency Mining | Investopedia - Investopedia

A lot of cryptocurrency users are looking for ways to make their coins generate more revenue. One could argue trading other currencies and assets is the right way to go. Then again, not everyone wants to take this route. Lending Bitcoin on exchanges is another way to generate a small profit over time. Below are three of the main platforms where cryptocurrency lending is quite popular these days.

Surprisingly enough, Japanese exchanges do not shy away from lending services. To many people, this will come as a big surprise. Then again, the open regulation in the country allows for more leniency when it comes to these types of services. Coincheckintroduced cryptocurrency lending quite some time ago, and they recently improved the service even further. As of right now, lenders will earn a maximum interest rate of 5%, which is quite generous.

It is evident the main focus of Coincheck lies on Bitcoin lending. However, the platform also supports additional currencies, including Monero, Factom, Augur, Ether, and XRP. All loans will be refunded together with the usage fee when the loan period ends. It is not possible to exchange currencies by lending them, which is only normal. No lending platform supports that functionality at this time.

Storing funds long-term in an exchange wallet is never a good idea, and the Bitfinex users found that out the hard way about a year ago. That being said, the platform still provides lending services, referred to as Margin Funding. This feature effectively allows users to provide funding in the form of multiple currencies to Bitfinex traders. Users can determine their own return rate, duration, and amount, as is the case with any of these three platforms.

It is rather interesting to note Bitfinex users can lend money in fiat currency as well. Most platforms only support cryptocurrency, yet this exchange is quite different. It is possible to borrow USD as well, which is quite interesting. It is unclear how popular lending is on Bitfinex right now ever since the platform got hacked last year, though. Then again, it is an option well worth considering for everyone who wants to explore lending options in the world of cryptocurrency.

No one will be surprised to learn most of the cryptocurrency-oriented lending is taking place on Poloniex right now. The company has been a great source of lending services over the past few years. Poloniex also supports a wide range of currencies, which certainly helps to move things along. Right now, the platform supports currencies including Bitcoin, Ether, Doge, Dash, Litecoin, and others. There is no fiat currency lending on Poloniex, though, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

There appears to be quite the market for lending on Poloniex, which is good to see. Then again, more competition also means a lot of people will earn a lot less money as a result. Competition in cryptocurrency lending is both a blessing and a curse, depending on how you want to look at it. Right now, the loan offers for Bitcoin are at around 0.15%, which is quite decent. Do keep in mind the loan offers often outweigh the loan demands, though.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Top 3 Cryptocurrency Lending Platforms - The Merkle

One one level, Ripple is another cryptocurrency in an ever-growing list of fledgling products, hoping to earn a place in the wider world of business and finance. While the value of Ripple's currency, XRP, is well below $1 per unit, making it a mere fraction of the value of Ethereum or Bitcoin, Ripple nonetheless sports the third-largest portion of market capitalization as compared with the rest of the cryptocurrency industry. But aside from its growing position as a currency, Ripple is drawing more and more attention from banks and financial institutions around the world for another crucial reason, too: the blockchain technology behind the currency itself.

A recent profile on Ripple by American Banker reveals that the San Francisco-based startup has its sights set on creating an "internet of value," a worldwide network system for financial transactions. Ripple's goal is nothing less than the ultimate freeing of monetary value, allowing assets to flow instantly and seamlessly between mobile systems, public blockchains, and bank ledgers. The goal is a massive one, and yet Stefan Thomas, Ripple's chief technology officer, stands behind his company's ability to enhance banking around the world. "We're not the disruptors, we're not the guys who come in and tear everything down," he stresses.

For the time being, though, Ripple seems to occupy at least two different spaces. First comes the cryptocurrency side, and success in that area has not come as quickly as some would have liked. John Light, a consultant working with multiple startups that have integrated Ripple's technology into their systems, indicated that Ripple has "had something of an identity crisis about who their customer is, and what problem they are trying to solve."

First, the company aimed to build a new currency that would improve upon Bitcoin. This was a key component of the instantaneous transactions goal, as Bitcoin has been racked with problems relating to the system's processing capacity which has left some users waiting for days for their transactions to clear. Beyond that, though, Ripple differed from Bitcoin and other digital currencies further, even at its earliest stages. Ripple's leaders disagreed with other cryptocurrency enthusiasts who suggested that the new currencies could replace banks or even government currencies. Rather, Ripple aimed from the beginning to work with banks to make global assets even more liquid.

With roughly 60 financial institutions around the world sporting Ripple technology, the company is seeing its vision begin to take shape. However, the fact that the currency itself has not gone away makes the list of offerings that Ripple presents somewhat confusing. If banks and investors around the world are to continue to gain interest in Ripple, it seems that the company will be best served by streamlining its offerings further into the future.

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Ripple Cryptocurrency Aims to Make Global Assets Liquid - Investopedia

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By Brad Chacos

Senior Editor, PCWorld | Jun 20, 2017 11:19 AM PT

Its a bad time to be building a mainstream gaming PC or an Xbox One X-rivalling rig. Cryptocurrencys current price bubble ravaged Radeon pricing and availability weeks ago, and now that its nigh impossible to find a Radeon RX 570 or RX 580 at reasonable costs, Nvidias graphics cards are drying up, too.

Searching Newegg for the GeForce GTX 1060 shows only two 3GB versions available, and theyre going for $20 to $30 over the cards $200 MSRP. You can find many more 6GB GTX 1060 cards, but theyre all selling at wildly inflated prices as well. The 6GB cards dipped down to $240 or less around the time the Radeon RX 580 launched, but now every model except one sells for $270 to $310and that lone exception still sells for $260. A similar situation exists on Amazon, with only a single backordered EVGA 3GB GTX 1060 going for anything near MSRP.

The GeForce GTX 1070 finds itself in even more dire circumstances. Ostensibly a $380 graphics card, the cheapest one you can find on Newegg right now is $472, and most are going for more than $600. The cheapest GTX 1070 I can find on Amazon costs $450. Do not buy a GTX 1070 at those prices. Many models of the more potent GeForce GTX 1080 still sell for $500, or slightly more for customized versions. Picking that up over a $600 GTX 1070 is a no-brainer for gamers.

PCWorlds guides to every Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon graphics card can help you figure out what every modern GPU is capable of, while our guide to the best graphics cards for PC gaming provides a more holistic view of todays hardware market.

Pricing history for Zotac's GTX 1060 AMP! graphics card.

The story behind the story: Mainstream graphics card prices are skyrocketing due to pricing bubbles for cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Zcash, which rely on GPU horsepower to operate. Check out PCWorlds coverage of why its impossible to buy Radeon cards if you want to know more.

Miners may be making money hand over fist, but the craze is making it damned near impossible to build a gaming PC without breaking the bank. Nvidias rumored to be creating a specialized GPU mining graphics card to compensate, but until these bleak times subside, your best bet for finding a reasonably priced GPU is probably to find used hardware in your local area. Its no surefire bet, though, as even second-hand and older graphics cards are increasing in price in response to the overwhelming demand.

Senior editor Brad Chacos covers gaming and graphics for PCWorld, and runs the morning news desk for PCWorld, Macworld, Greenbot, and TechHive. He tweets too.

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Nvidia GeForce prices skyrocket as cryptocurrency miners snap up supply - PCWorld

More cryptomoney, more problems.

Technical glitches, competition, and Wall Street skepticism have walloped the value of bitcoins lately, a rare setback in the digital currencys otherwise steady rise.

The question now is whether the selloff will ultimately prove to be a temporary bout of growing pains or a more significant turning point in bitcoins evolution.

Bitcoin prices have approximately tripled this year, touching a monthly closing high above $3,000 on June 11. But theyve since fallen near $2,600, down more than 13 percent from the high, according to the cryptocurrency site CoinDesk.

Bitcoins woes started last week with a massive headache for traders as the popular bitcoin exchange Coinbase experienced an outage due to heavy volume. The incident highlighted how popular cryptocurrencies have become, with the global market now topping $100 billion. But it also renewed concerns about whether the ecosystem around bitcoin and its peers is mature and stable enough to truly challenge more traditional means of exchange issued by governments.

Coincidentally, the grandaddy of government-issued fiat currencies, the U.S. dollar, got a shot in the arm Wednesday when the Federal Reserves policy committee raised its key interest-rate target by a quarter percentage-point, to a range of 1 percent to 1.25 percent.

The Feds move was aimed at fighting inflation, but it will also effectively limit the supply of dollars moving through the global economy in the months ahead. That tends to support the greenbacks value against rivals, including digital upstarts like bitcoin.

The cryptocurrency market is also seeing an influx of new competitors, notably the Ethereum platform. Its currency, the ether, is already the second-most-popular cryptocurrency after bitcoin and is generally regarded as more flexible as a tool for building applications.

The ether also has taken a hit lately, off about 12 percent after hitting a monthly high over $400 last Monday. But that pullback has been slightly less than bitcoins, and the ethers rally for the year has been much steeper, up more than 40 times its 2016 year-end value.

In a note to clients last Monday, Goldman Sachs head of technical strategy Sheba Jafari warned that a number of signals in the bitcoin market are looking broadly heavy.

A few days later, Morgan Stanley analysts floated an idea thats perhaps even more unthinkable in the freewheeling cryptocurrency market that more regulation might be needed to help bitcoin and its peers realize their potential as actual transaction tools to conduct commerce.

For now, they still function more as playthings for speculative investors. And theyhave been selling.

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Bitcoin hits a bump - VICE News