HiTechEdge

Tag: crypto

  • NVIDIA Posts Record Quarter on Gaming and Data Centers

    NVIDIA Posts Record Quarter on Gaming and Data Centers

    NVIDIA has posted its quarterly report, beating estimates on record revenue, thanks to its Gaming and Data Center business.

    Unlike many companies that have been hurt by the pandemic, NVIDIA has experienced significant growth. Multiple factors have helped the company, including people turning to gaming more during lockdowns and quarantine.

    NVIDIA’s GPU chips are also popular with cryptocurrency miners, leading the company to cripple them when mining is detecting, in an effort to preserve its GPU supply for gamers. The company has even announced a processor designed specifically for miners to help address the issues.

    All of the above has helped propel the company to a record quarter, bringing in $5.66 billion, an increase of 84 percent from a year earlier. Gaming revenue accounted for $2.76 billion, an increase of 106%. Data Center revenue accounted for $2.05 billion, an increase of 79%.

    “We had a fantastic quarter, with strong demand for our products driving record revenue,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA.

    “Our Data Center business continues to expand, as the world’s industries take up NVIDIA AI to process computer vision, conversational AI, natural language understanding and recommender systems. NVIDIA RTX has reinvented computer graphics and is driving upgrades across the gaming and design markets. Our partners are launching the largest-ever wave of NVIDIA-powered laptops. Across industries, the adoption of NVIDIA computing platforms is accelerating.

    “Mellanox, one year in, has exceeded our expectations and transformed NVIDIA into a data-center-scale computing company. We continue to make headway with our planned acquisition of Arm, which will accelerate innovation and growth for the Arm ecosystem. From gaming, cloud computing, AI, robotics, self-driving cars, to genomics and computational biology, NVIDIA continues to do impactful work to invent a better future.”

  • Apple Hiring ‘Business Development Manager’ With Crypto Experience

    Apple Hiring ‘Business Development Manager’ With Crypto Experience

    A new job posting on Apple’s website indicates the company is looking to expand its Apple Pay services to include cryptocurrencies.

    Apple has developed a strong portfolio of payment and finance services, with its Apple Card, Wallet and Apple Pay options. According to a new job posting, for a “Business Development Manager,” Apple may be looking expand those services to include cryptocurrency.

    We are looking for a candidate who is comfortable with ambiguity, enjoys thinking about edge cases and asking “what is an alternative way of doing this”, and is a strong verbal and written communicator with a high level of integrity, energy, and sense of urgency to “make things happen”. 

    Most telling was one of the listed Key Qualifications:

    5+ years experience working in or with alternative payment providers, such as digital wallets, BNPL, Fast Payments, cryptocurrency and etc..

    As companies like PayPal and Visa increasingly support crypto, it’s not surprising Apple would be looking for a way to incorporate it in its financial apps.

  • China May Soon Ban Cryptocurrency Mining

    China May Soon Ban Cryptocurrency Mining

    China may be on the verge of completely banning cryptocurrency mining, a move that would be a serious blow to crypto.

    It’s estimated that China accounts for 70% of the world’s crypto supply, and as much as 75% of Bitcoin mining. In spite of the country’s role in crypto’s rise, the Chinese government is increasingly cracking down on operations.

    Last week, China began signaling it was cracking down on cryptocurrency, saying its volatility “seriously violate people’s asset safety.” The government now appears poised to crack down, not just on trading crypto, but on mining it as well, marking an escalation of Beijing’s anti-crypto rhetoric.

    According to the South China Morning Post, the State Council’s Financial Stability and Development Committee issued a statement saying the government plans to “crack down on bitcoin mining and trading behaviour, and resolutely prevent the transfer of individual risks to the society.”

    The statement is a shot across the bow at the entire Chinese crypto mining industry, and could have profound repercussions.

    “The wording of the statement did not leave much leeway for cryptocurrency mining,” said Li Yi, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences chief research fellow, according to South China Morning Post.

    Needless to say, Bitcoin’s price was down on the news.

    Author holds a very, very (almost infinitesimally) small amount of Bitcoin that in no way influenced this article.

  • Bitcoin Plummets on China and Elon Musk Concerns

    Bitcoin Plummets on China and Elon Musk Concerns

    Bitcoin plummeted to almost $30,000 amid another crackdown by China and Elon Musk saying Tesla would no longer accept it as payment.

    Bitcoin hit its high in April, coming in at more than $63,000. Tesla announced it would allow individuals to use the crypto to purchase cars, and multiple companies started embracing it. Last week, however, Musk announced Tesla would no longer accept the currency for purchase, due in large part to the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining.

    China has now signaled another major crackdown on the cryptocurrency, according to International Business Times. 

    Three state-backed industry associations said “cryptocurrency prices have skyrocketed and plummeted, and cryptocurrency trading speculation activities have rebounded.”

    The crypto’s volatility “seriously violate people’s asset safety and disrupt normal economic and financial order”, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement posted to social media.

    The end result has been been a major drop in Bitcoin’s price, although it appears to be rebounding at the time of writing.

    Author holds a very, very (almost infinitesimally) small amount of Bitcoin that in no way influenced this article.

  • Coinbase Will Support Dogecoin Trading

    Coinbase Will Support Dogecoin Trading

    Coinbase has reversed course, announcing it will finally start supporting Dogecoin trading.

    What started as a meme has taken the crypto world by storm, with Dogecoin catapulting into the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market value. Despite Dogecoin’s growth, one of the leading crypto trading platforms has been noticeably absent from the action.

    Coinbase is changing its tune, with CEO Brian Armstrong telling investors the platform will support Dogecoin within six to eight weeks, according to Gizmodo. Armstrong also highlighted his vision of where he sees things going.

    I think it’s going to be something, kind of, like apps in the App Store or on the iPhone where there’s eventually millions of these assets created over time and so we’re putting a lot of work and thought into how do we accelerate our pace of asset addition, and one of those is Doge, as you mentioned, which has been getting a lot of attention recently.

    Coinbase’s change of plans is likely to boost Dogecoin even more, making it easier than ever for people to trade the crypto.

    *Author holds a very small amount of Dogecoin that in no way influenced this article.

  • Bitcoin’s Tesla Misfortune May Be Dogecoin’s Gain

    Bitcoin’s Tesla Misfortune May Be Dogecoin’s Gain

    On the heels of Tesla no longer accepting Bitcoin as payment, Elon Musk has said he is working with Dogecoin’s developers.

    Elon Musk surprised the crypto market Wednesday when he announced Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin as payment, just weeks after the company had announced it would. Musk cited Bitcoin mining’s carbon footprint as the reason, something the cryptocurrency is increasingly being criticized for.

    Despite Musk’s announcement, he clarified he is still a strong supporter of cryptocurrencies in general.

    In addition, Musk says he is working with Dogecoin’s developers to help it be more efficient, possibly avoiding the environmental impact Bitcoin has become known for.

    Needless to say, Dogecoin rebounded on Musk’s tweet, and continues its transition from meme to legitimate crypto.

    *Author holds a very small amount of Dogecoin that in no way influenced this article.

  • MoneyGram and Coinme Partner to Improve Bitcoin Access

    MoneyGram and Coinme Partner to Improve Bitcoin Access

    MoneyGram, one of the leading money transfer services, is partnering with Coinme to improve people’s access to Bitcoin.

    While cryptocurrencies are rising in popularity, being able to access holdings and make use of them continues to pose a challenge for some. MoneyGram hopes to change that, in partnership with Coinme, making it easier for people to access their Bitcoin.

    “This innovative partnership opens our business to an entirely new customer segment as we are the first to pioneer a crypto-to-cash model by building a bridge with Coinme to connect bitcoin to local fiat currency,” said Alex Holmes, MoneyGram Chairman and CEO. “Our unique, global network is an incredibly valuable asset, and we’re excited to open our platform to Coinme as we increasingly look to capture new growth by monetizing our network to new use-cases.”

    The companies especially see an opportunity to help people who are just dipping their feet in the crypto market, making it easy to buy Bitcoin with cash and get cash for their Bitcoin holdings.

    “MoneyGram has spent more than 80 years building one of the world’s largest P2P payment networks,” said Neil Bergquist, Coinme CEO. “By integrating its global infrastructure with our licensed crypto exchange technology, we can enable the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies across its system using cash. This is a major milestone for the bitcoin and cryptocurrency communities, and for the millions of people who will benefit from a trusted, easy and affordable onramp to digital currency.”

  • Tesla’s Bitcoin Reversal Wiped $365 Billion From Crypto Market

    Tesla’s Bitcoin Reversal Wiped $365 Billion From Crypto Market

    Tesla’s decision to stop accepting Bitcoin for payment led to some $365 billion of value being wiped from the crypto market.

    Tesla made the decision in March to accept Bitcoin as payment for vehicle purchases. The move was not surprising, given CEO Elon Musk’s love of crypto. Yesterday, however, the company reversed its plans, with Musk citing the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining.

    The decision already appears to have had a major impact on the crypto market, according to CNBC, with some $365.85 billion wiped from the market after Tesla’s announcement.

    In particular, Bitcoin, ether and XRP were all significantly lower than their pre-announcement levels.

  • Facebook’s Diem Abandons Swiss Plans, Will Move to US

    Facebook’s Diem Abandons Swiss Plans, Will Move to US

    Diem, the Facebook-backed cryptocurrency formerly known as Libra, is abandoning its efforts to get licensed in Switzerland and will move to the US.

    Diem is a widely anticipated crypto that has gained and lost support from major corporations during its planning and development stage. Some of the biggest names in tech and finance originally backed it before reversing course as a result of regulatory scrutiny.

    Many jurisdictions were concerned about the prospect of Facebook — a company with a troubled reputation in the realm of data and privacy — being the primary backer of a cryptocurrency. To help address the issues, Facebook pivoted to making Diem a stable crypto, backed by a national currency.

    The Diem Association had originally been trying to gain licensing approval with Switzerland’s FINMA watchdog. According to CNBC, however, the association has changed direction and will move to the US. The association has partnered with Silvergate, a California bank, to back Diem with the US dollar.

    “While our plans take the project fully within the US regulatory perimeter and no longer require a license from FINMA, the project has benefited greatly from the intensive licensing process in Switzerland and the constructive feedback from FINMA and more than two dozen other regulatory authorities from around the world convened by FINMA to consider the project,” Stuart Levy, Diem’s CEO, said in a statement.