Cryptocurrency miners are renting Boeing 747s to ship graphics cards

Re:Cryptocurrency miners are renting Boeing 747s to ship gra... by brndnmtthws on Sunday July 30, 2017 @07:25PM (#14888433)

Mining with GPUs hasn't been profitable since around 2014. GPUs have largely been replaced by ASICs (although certain coins are still mineable with GPUs, like Ethereum[1], as discussed in the article). Bitmain[2] is (AFAIK) the manufacturer of ASICs for mining.

[1]: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59zdjq/an-idiots-...

[2]: https://www.bitmain.com/

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Re:Cryptocurrency miners are renting Boeing 747s to ship gra... by strictnein on Sunday July 30, 2017 @08:07PM (#14888613)

Mining for Ethereum is entirely GPU based. Mining for Bitcoin/Litecoin is entirely ASIC based now.

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Re:Cryptocurrency miners are renting Boeing 747s to ship gra... by patpending on Sunday July 30, 2017 @07:55PM (#14888563)

If mining is profitable at all, why wouldn't a manufacturer of ASICs or GPUs run its own mining operation?

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Re:Cryptocurrency miners are renting Boeing 747s to ship gra... by Strom on Sunday July 30, 2017 @08:29PM (#14888699)

For the same reason why shovel manufacturers don't dig their own gold. Why take the risk of uncertainty that comes with the whole mining operation?

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Re:Cryptocurrency miners are renting Boeing 747s to ship gra... by literallycancer on Sunday July 30, 2017 @08:05PM (#14888605)

Pain in the ass to run. Competition will torch your facility if you don't spend enough money and effort on security. You're going to need your own power plant, etc.

If you are the manufacturer, why not let the customer take the risk? You are planning and spending years ahead, why gamble more than you need on cryptocurrency price?

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Re:Cryptocurrency miners are renting Boeing 747s to ship gra... by abiox on Sunday July 30, 2017 @08:06PM (#14888611)

i wouldn't be surprised if they do.

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