Nvidia is both a beneficiary and a victim of cryptocurrency boom and bust cycles. When the value of cryptocurrencies soared, so did Nvidia’s stock. When cryptocurrencies crashed, Nvidia’s stock often fell. The company has long been integral to the operation of most of the world’s largest cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin, and it has been both a blessing and a curse.
Nvidia and crypto have a love-hate relationship. When things were good, Nvidia was happy to create an entire line of products for the sole purpose of running algorithms to “mine” cryptocurrencies, known as the CMP or Cryptocurrency Mining Processor. (opens in new tab)However, as cryptocurrencies tend to crash, Nvidia has often been lumped in with overstock. (opens in new tab) Find new ways to sell graphics cards.
According to recent comments, apparently Nvidia is currently in the hate phase of its relationship. Guardian (opens in new tab) Nvidia’s CTO on the value of cryptocurrencies to society.
“All this cryptocurrency required parallel processing. [Nvidia] is the best, so I just programmed it to be used for this purpose. They bought a lot of things, but they eventually collapsed because they were of no use to society. AI does,” said Michael Kagan, his CTO at Nvidia.
It’s no surprise that Nvidia is keen to establish itself as a preeminent AI company, but we didn’t expect the company to outright denounce cryptocurrencies in the process. However, Cagan’s comments touch on a debate that has raged for some time: whether cryptocurrencies are a worthy alternative to fiat currency or a tool for generating profits. I’ve seen many examples of the latter, but not many that prove the former.
“I never believed it [crypto] It does something good for humanity,” Cagan continued. But it doesn’t redirect the company to support whatever it is. ”
Nvidia has tended to downplay the role cryptocurrency has played in the increased demand for graphics cards seen over the past few years, which, combined with supply chain issues, has led to a worldwide shortage of graphics cards. I was. Nvidia even tried to block cryptocurrency mining on GeForce GPUs, but this was not a very effective anti-mining measure. (opens in new tab).
However, cryptocurrency mining is no longer one of the major drivers of GPU sales and may continue to do so.
Ethereum has been the dominant cryptocurrency driving demand for graphics cards over the past few years, with the previous crypto boom occurring around 2017/18. In both booms, Ethereum relied on a proof-of-work concept that required massive computing power driven by graphics cards to mine Ether, the platform’s currency. Since September 2022, Ethereum is using the concept of Proof of Stake (opens in new tab)no longer need to operate the graphics card.
So far, no other cryptocurrency has grown enough to drive demand for graphics cards back. It could happen, but we haven’t seen it yet. For the environment, let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
Meanwhile, people are eager to get their hands on Nvidia GPUs for use in AI applications. Nvidia is behind many of today’s most popular AI applications, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion, with many more on board. At the company’s developer conference, GTC, Oracle, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft recently announced investments in Nvidia’s H100 GPU to “address the rapidly growing demand for generative AI training and inference.” rice field.
All of this sounds like Nvidia is about to take a big step forward from cryptocurrencies.
