Sapphire Technology, one of the largest suppliers of AMD-based video cards in the world, has announced that it’s officially entering the cryptocurrency hardware business. The Hong Kong-headquartered company is launching a flagship mining rig.
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A New Player Enters the Field
Sapphire’s new rig, the INCA CS-14 Block-Chain Compute System, features 14 RX 470 GPUs and comes preloaded with the Linux operating system and mining software. It is expected to deliver a hash power of 410 MH/s, plus or minus 5 percent, with power consumption set at roughly 1,950 watts. The company claims it has put “over 15 years of know-how manufacturing state-of-the-art graphics cards” into the development of the new cryptocurrency mining rig.
The system appears to be designed with professorial mining farms in mind, as it employs a range of data-center optimization technologies. It is compatible with standard racks made by most vendors, the airflow is optimized for large configurations, all the cables are installed in one direction, and it enables power management and monitoring down to the individual mining rig outlet.
Mining Is Still a Growing Sector?
Sapphire’s decision to enter the cryptocurrency mining hardware business is a surprising show of confidence in the future growth of the sector. Much of the recent news about mining has been less than positive, to say the least, with bear market prices pushing many operations below profitability. For example, earlier this month it was revealed that weak demand from GPU miners has been one of the leading contributing factors to the slump in sales for graphic cards manufacturers such as , which are struggling with unsold inventory.
“The blockchain market is a very exciting space to be in and as this nascent industry continues to grow, it represents a significant opportunity for Sapphire,” commented Adrian Thompson, global vice president of marketing at Sapphire Technology. “Sapphire graphics cards are renowned in the industry for pushing the boundaries of performance, innovation and engineering quality and we are looking to leverage this experience and expertise to create industry leading Blockchain systems for commercial mining operations.”
Is this a good sign that GPU manufacturers believe a recovery is coming soon? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Sapphire Technologies.
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The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has outlined the key changes in cryptocurrency markets he needs to see before he is comfortable with a bitcoin ETF. While some solutions to the problems he mentioned have already been implemented, the chairman insists on seeing more improvements.
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Key Upgrades Needed
Jay Clayton
At the Consensus Invest conference on Tuesday, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton explained what he needs to see before the SEC can consider approving its first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
According to Cnbc, Clayton said he “needs to see key upgrades in cryptocurrency markets before approving a bitcoin ETF.” Specifically, the SEC chair “wants to see better market surveillance and custody for cryptocurrencies before being ‘comfortable’ with a bitcoin ETF,” the news outlet added.
Better Market Surveillance
The first issue Clayton noted was the lack of market surveillance at crypto exchanges. Market surveillance involves the use of systems that “monitor, prevent and investigate abusive and manipulative activity on the exchanges,” the publication described.
The chairman explained that stock exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq already have these monitoring tools in place. However, “Those kinds of safeguards do not exist currently in all of the exchange venues where digital currencies trade,” he affirmed, asserting:
What investors expect is that trading in the commodity that underlies that ETF makes sense and is free from the risk of manipulation … It’s an issue that needs to be addressed before I would be comfortable.
Not all crypto exchanges lack market surveillance, however. In April, Nasdaq announced that crypto exchange Gemini “will be leveraging Nasdaq’s Smarts Market Surveillance technology to monitor its marketplace.” Nasdaq claims that its technology “is considered the most widely deployed surveillance system in the world.”
This agreement followed the SEC’s rejection of the rule change by Bats BZX to list and trade Coin ETF. The commission cited Bats BZX’s lack of “surveillance-sharing agreements with significant markets for trading” bitcoin or its derivatives as one of the reasons.
On Tuesday, Europe’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, Bitstamp, that it is implementing a monitoring platform provided by market surveillance provider Irisium.
Inadequate Custody
Clayton is also concerned with how safely crypto assets are stored, emphasizing that investors could be exposed to a risk of theft in ETFs’ underlying assets. A number of custody solutions have been explored by companies such as , , , , , Japanese bank Nomura, , and South Korea’s bank.
Nonetheless, the publication quoted Clayton as saying that custody solutions still “need to be improved and hardened.” The chairman elaborated:
We’ve seen some thefts around digital assets that make you scratch your head … We care that the assets underlying that ETF have good custody and that they’re not going to disappear.
What do you think of the SEC chairman’s stance toward bitcoin ETFs? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the SEC.
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Continuing the nationwide investment fever in cryptocurrency, top-ranked Korean enterprises from various industries intend to accelerate the Blockchain market in Korea. No.1 social network platform Kakaotalk invested in Upbit and established the Kakao Blockchain Lab; Game industry giant Nexon took ever a digital exchange Korbit; Samsung launched a Blockchain platform, Nexledger.
Korea’s giant economic & financial media Group MTN (Money Today Network Inc.) also turns to Blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, planning to co-organize an international Blockchain summit “CHAIN PLUS+” during 23-24 January in 2019.
Korea MTN Group (Money Today Network Inc.) founded in May 2001, owns an authentic economy cable channel “Money Today”, mainly targets in finance, stock market, market analysis, real estate and other news related to financial area. It is one of the most trusted financial media in Korea, and is recognized as a pioneer media in Korean.
Chainers Inc, co-established by Vision Creator, a top-tier traditional financial advisor and VC in Korea, and The Blockchainer, No.1 Chinese Blockchain ecosystem builder, incubating and accelerating global & domestic Blockchain projects worldwide. So far, Chainers has provided successful business solutions for prominent Blockchain projects such as AE, Terra, ONT, Bumo.
As 2-days summit during the 2nd Annual CHAINERS Blockchain week, CHAIN PLUS+ focuses on topics Blockchain empowering substantial economy, which aims to build a bridge between Blockchain projects and local enterprises and a creative win-win platform for participants in this ecosystem.
Relying on its long term reputation with a great social influence, MTN will invite officials from layers of government, congress, and giant firms in Korea. Meanwhile, with the great support from Korean Blockchain Association and top-tier developer communities like KBIP Lab, Decipher, and POSTECH, Chainers will have over 25% of leading developers in Korea attending the conference.
On top of that, top 10 Blockchain Youtubers and 30 KOLs (Naver bloggers) will be the feast in the Chain Plus+ Summit. All in one, one for all.
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