Wednesday, June 7th 2017
Ethereum Mining Wipes Out Radeon Inventory, AMD Stock Rallies
AMD Radeon graphics cards have always been too good at GPGPU for their own good. The new Ethereum block-chain compute network, with the Ethereum crypto-currency, works really really good with AMD Radeon Graphics CoreNext architecture-based GPUs (that's every AMD GPU since Radeon HD 7000 series). As a result, not only have Ethereum prospectors bought out nearly all inventory of AMD Radeon graphics cards from the market, but also forced an inflation of used AMD Radeon graphics cards on online tech-forums, and used-goods stores on eBay and Amazon. Some of these used cards are priced higher than even launch-prices.
Every $1,000 spent on AMD Radeon hardware towards Ethereum mining is recovered within 2 months, and then as long as your hardware lasts and you're paying your power bills, you're swimming in crypto-currency that can be converted to Bitcoin and even US Dollars. One Ethereum (ETH) exchanges to USD $265 at the time of this writing. There's already $330 million worth Ethereum being traded, and that number is only going to grow as people sell USD or BTC to buy ETH and pay for entry into the Ethereum network, and use ETH as a crypto-currency.
AMD is at the receiving end of this mad rush to grab up Radeon graphics cards. The company's stock surged nearly 9 percent on Tuesday (6th June). Those shorting (betting against) the AMD stock have been inflicted with heavy losses. "As of Monday, AMD short-sellers had been up about $15 million for 2017. But Tuesday's share surge left them at a loss of $125 million on paper for the year," writes Reuters, citing S3 Partners, a financial analytics firm. The AMD stock was also bolstered by Apple's announcement of new iMac, iMac Pro, and Macbooks that use AMD Radeon graphics chips.ETH-USD chart by Coingecko, Source: Reuters
Every $1,000 spent on AMD Radeon hardware towards Ethereum mining is recovered within 2 months, and then as long as your hardware lasts and you're paying your power bills, you're swimming in crypto-currency that can be converted to Bitcoin and even US Dollars. One Ethereum (ETH) exchanges to USD $265 at the time of this writing. There's already $330 million worth Ethereum being traded, and that number is only going to grow as people sell USD or BTC to buy ETH and pay for entry into the Ethereum network, and use ETH as a crypto-currency.
106 Comments on Ethereum Mining Wipes Out Radeon Inventory, AMD Stock Rallies
This powers a payment network.
I hate what's happening too, but crypto is overall a good thing for humanity and a ban is NOT the answer. One of the goals of the Ethereum network is to eventually be able to submit useful jobs to the network you are aware, right?
And as I stated in my admittedly ninja-edit, Ethereum power is not wasted as they are essentially setting up a global supercomputer for hire.
First line, second sentence.
Mind you, there's nothing wrong in wanting to earn some money with mining (I'd try myself one day).
But fundamentally this is just a waste of resources. :)And what is this "global supercomputer for hire" doing? :)
I agree with @RejZoR - it would be a lot better if we had a "paid" computation project for HIV cure or something like that.
Cryptocurrencies didn't give us anything useful, but they did provide issues (apart from the wasted energy, obviously). They can drive gear prices. Potentially they could even impact the value of normal currencies.
The anonymity gave a boost to illegal activities - both online (Silk Road, ransomware) and physical (even kidnappers demand bitcoin these days - no "put the bag in the trash" anymore).
How to spot a butthurt miner. Just say mining is crap and they'll lash at you like hardcore vegans. Stop being cultists mkay?
E.g. in countries like China, India, Russia (which already qualifies as "most of the world" in terms of population), cryptocurrency cannot be used by banks for obvious tax evasion/money laundering reasons. However, general population is allowed to use crypto without regulations.
Most of the South and Central americas are completely unregulated (except Bolivia and Equador).
Entire North America, most of EU etc. etc. etc.
Some African countries depend on cryptocurrencies(largely BTC) as the most available and reliable method of payment.That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
1) It is not useless, it is quite useful. Just like Paypal started a revolution in digital currency and immediate transfers, BTC allows people to do the same without limits, where Paypal is not available.
I know that from personal experience, because my government f#cked up negotiations with PayPal reps at least on 3 occasions (2008-2013) and services are still not provided to Ukraine. Formerly popular Webmoney is also restricted to the point of being useless.
2) For the reasons above, your second argument on waste of resources also does not make much sense.
3) It does not f%$k up graphics card market. It only affects the used GPU market. Just like PS3 and XBox 360 deficit back in a day, it will come to balance eventually.
For mining they are perfect though.
I wonder, what would happened if nVidia would release a dedicated Bios & Driver for crypto mining.... ;)
Central banks have/are adopting cryptocurrency. Super, ultra, mega, faiiiiil posts. Good work, bub.
Almost sounds as if someone sold tons of BTC for nothing, then it blew up, and they're on the verge of suicide for basically losing hundreds of thousands LOL
Sersiously dude. What do you think they strapped me down and made me mine until I loved it?Ironically, minus the suicide, yeah that's me. I defend it because I see its benefits and I'm not actually defending BTC as much as what I see as it's natural evolution, Ethereum.
Crypto is here to stay, because rational people can see its benefit. The world has needed a currency free of banks since we lost the gold standard.
Anyways, I'm out of this thread. Way too much animosity here.
At least quarter billion people working directly or supporting the banking system all around the world?
Now that's a waste of resources and those people could be far more useful to humanity.
Let the machines crunch the numbers and use the human creativity for Cancer or HIV research.
PS: i never mined, and I don't own any digital currency.