Category: Mining

The total hash rate of the Bitcoin network has fallen by 31 percent since November, representing around 1.3 million Bitmain S9 miners that have been turned off as they struggled to stay profitable in the bear market, BitMex revealed in a report on December 10, 2018. Bitcoin Miners Suffer the Most from Declining Prices The unprecedented drops in value almost…

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Bitmain, the world’s leading bitcoin ASIC miner maker, is set to close its developmental center located in Ra’anana, Israel and lay off 23 employees, following the recent crash in the price of bitcoin and other cryptoassets, reported local news source, Globes on December 10, 2018.   End of the Road? The latest development is coming on the backdrop of the…

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According to MIT Technology Review’s on December 4, 2018, security researchers have discovered a machine learning algorithm that can spot cryptocurrency pump-and-dump schemes in advance, which can help prevent and stop any pump-and-dump projects from developing further. The Anatomy Of a Pump-And-Dump Scheme While pump-and-dump schemes are common in conventional commodity trading markets, they have become trendy in the cryptocurrency market….

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One of the critical characteristics that trump P2P networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum over traditional mechanisms of finance is their degree of decentralization. Having the authority to make decisions distributed equally among all the participating entities ensures an efficient and transparent mode of transactions, unlike centralized mechanisms where the power can be abused to wrong people en masse. This property…

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The recent rout in Bitcoin has caused more than 100,000 mining operations to close as they become unprofitable, leading to a consolidation going on among miners as the threat of hacks and fight over network control rise, Bloomberg reported on December 3, 2018. Falling Crypto Prices Have a Profound Effect on Mining Operations The falling crypto prices, which have been…

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On November 27, 2018, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office accepted a patent submitted in 2016 by the tech giant Intel Corporation for a new energy efficient, high-performance bitcoin mining system capable of outpacing the current model. Energy Efficient Mining The patent submission was filed June 29, 2016, and was entitled “Optimized SHA-256 datapath for energy-efficient high-performance Bitcoin mining.” In…

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VAKT, a blockchain-based consortium formed by leading oil and energy sector companies announced the launch of its commodity post-trade management platform through a press release dated November 29, 2018. The launch entails the birth of the world’s first enterprise-grade DLT platform in the oil and energy industry. Improved Security and Efficiency in Crude Oil Business BTCManager reported on November 14,…

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Canada-based cryptocurrency mining company Fortress Blockchain Inc. announced its Q3 2018 financial results through a press release, published November 28, 2018. One of the key takeaways from the report is the dip in gross mining margin from $740,872 in Q2 2018, to $384,274 for the quarter ending September 30, 2018. Falling Profitability in Crypto Mining Business The report states the…

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One of the chinks in the armor of blockchain technology is its intensive energy consumption. However, a report by Harvard Business Review, published November 27, 2018, sheds light on some of the lesser, and even nil, energy-consuming alternatives that can pave the way for DLT to be the global disruptor as it is often deemed to be. Aim to Make…

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On November 14, 2018, quantitative trading firm Susquehanna published a report on the state of the digital currency mining sector. More specifically, the report focused on the Ethereum network and its steep decline in profitability. No Profitable GPU Mining on the Ethereum Network According to the report, Susquehanna found that profits from participating as a miner on the Ethereum network…

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