If you are looking to earn from cryptocurrencies, there are two ways on how you can do it. One, you can participate by buying and selling cryptocurrencies of your choice. And two, you can mine cryptocurrencies instead and earn from solving math problems thrown by the network.
Blockchain technology is able to get rid of third parties that confirm transactions mainly because of miners. In the past, you can even do a bit of mining using your own home computer. However, these days, things are different.
The mining industry has grown over the years. You will need to spend a good amount of money on equipment and repairs if you wish to earn from mining cryptos. In fact, there is an increase in the demand for GPUs mainly because it is the one being used by miners in order to have enough computing power that can solve algorithms.
Nvidia is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of GPUs. For the first quarter, the company was able to make $3.21 billion. The company only estimated $2.89 billion. And by how much is the cryptocurrency market contributing to this? According to a report, the company made $289 million from miners. That constitutes 9{4ede17fdd9b4ce8121d01fc4b54913fe84f8215aace504cc657695cefb5329ff} of the total income of the company.
The company only expected $200 million from crypto miners but was able to earn more than 50{4ede17fdd9b4ce8121d01fc4b54913fe84f8215aace504cc657695cefb5329ff}. However, despite the fact that their sales are currently up, they don’t expect this trend to follow in the coming months. And why? Ethereum is currently the most popular cryptocurrency being mined on GPUs. And now, Bitmain is expected to take a significant share of their sales by releasing the Antminer E3 later this year.
Bitmain Dominates Nvidia
In another report, Bitmain was able to make more profits than Nvidia. Included in the products of Bitmain are cloud computing and AI. Nvidia may have generated around $3 billion in profits last year while Bitmain made $4 billion from ASIC miners.
However, though Nvidia is losing sales numbers with Bitmain, it is currently earning significantly more than AMD. AMD report during the first quarter of 2018 mentioned that of the $1.65 billion profits, only 10{4ede17fdd9b4ce8121d01fc4b54913fe84f8215aace504cc657695cefb5329ff} was coming from the crypto market or around $165 million.
According to Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, “The reason why they bought GPU cards is for gaming, but while they are not gaming; while they are at school, at work, or in bed—they will turn it on and do a little mining. There’s nothing wrong with that”
Last month, Huang mentioned that they have no plans of being involved in Bitcoin. That is despite the fact that the company is making a good amount of money via miners.
What Makes Mining Tricky?
Mining isn’t exactly a simple business. These days, miners need to try different methods in order to maximize their profits. They will even have to find the right place where they can mine and optimize their income. They have to consider the cost of electricity, not to mention the rules of the country where they are based. And for this reason, there are miners who opt to choose Iceland over other countries.
