In cooperation with the Taiwanese manufacturer TSMS, Samsung launched a new project for the production of ASIC chips used for the mining of cryptocurrencies. According to The Bell, a South Korean news portal, a mass production of the Samsung’s ASIC chips has started back at the beginning of January.
The ASIC chip is a specialized piece of hardware for the mining of cryptocurrencies based on a specific hashing algorithm, such as SHA256 or Scrypt.
TSMC is delivering the ASIC chips for the cryptocurrency mining to Bitmain, a Chinese cryptocurrency mining company. Bitmain is also manufacturing its own hardware used for their mining operations. In September last year, Bitmain introduced two new ASIC products and a new SiaCoin mining rig.
When it comes to the profitability of this project, Hwang Min-seong, an analyst from Samsung Securities said to The Bell: “Samsung Electronics could increase its income by manufacturing ASIC chips, but it is hard to predict whether this mining project will influence the company’s income significantly, since it occupies a small part of the manufacturing capacity of the company.”
The contract between Samsung and TSMC comes after a turbulent month on the cryptocurrency markets around Asia. With the ban of the cryptocurrency exchanges in China and accusations for insider trading and the general confusion related to the cryptocurrency regulations in South Korea, the cryptocurrency markets are facing big losses.
