Intel Discontinues BTC Mining Chips A Year After Introducing Them

According to a report from Tuesday, April 18th, the semiconductor corporation Intel has decided to discontinue the production of its Blockscale chips designed primarily for Bitcoin mining. The company will however continue supporting customers that already purchased or ordered the hardware, and will only end production late in 2023.

Intel Will No Longer Produce Blockscale Chips, Has no Plans for Replacement

The hardware manufacturer Intel, best known for its semiconductor chips, first introduced its Bitcoin mining-focused Blockscale series in the spring of 2022. The timing was, arguably, very unfortunate as it the price of Bitcoin, and most other digital assets went into a steep decline throughout the rest of the year—and the market only started recovering in early 2023.

Finally, on Tuesday, April 18th, the company revealed it will discontinue the Blockscale series of chips and stated it doesn’t have the next generation of similarly-orientated chips in the works. The company, however, stated it will continue supporting the already-existent Blockscales and their users. Furthermore, production will not end immediately. 

According to Intel, anyone interested in the chip still has until October of this year to order, and the final deliveries will be completed before the end of April 2024. Commenting on its future with the digital assets industry, the company only stated it would continue observing future developments. The only miner to officially adopt Intel’s chips is Hive which announced the move in January 2023.

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Cryptocurrency Miners Slowly Recovering After Disasters of 2022

The previous year has been difficult for the cryptocurrency sector as a whole. The price of Bitcoin fell from more than $40,000 in early January to just above $16,000 on New Year’s Eve. Additionally, 2022 saw a number of high-profile bankruptcies and scandals with the largest being the LUNA crash in May—an event that wiped out an estimated $60 billion worth of investments and led to an international manhunt—and the Bankruptcy of FTX.

Due to the adverse conditions, it was reported in late 2022 that Bitcoin miners were forced to sell more than 99% of their cryptocurrency just to stay afloat. Furthermore, some well-known names like Core Scientific were forced into bankruptcy. This year, however, is already proving better for the industry as a whole with miners receiving a major respite with Bitcoin finally breaching $30,000 earlier this month.

Along with the recovery of the market, Bitcoin miners have also been getting legal protections in several states in the US. So far, Missouri, Montana, and Arkansas have all passed laws preventing the discriminatory treatment of cryptocurrency miners and clearly defining other rights and protections. Despite the positive developments, the legislative battle is not yet won with, for example, Texas taking the opposite approach and removing some protections.

Do you think Intel will return to producing mining chips in the future? Let us know in the comments below.