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I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned it here, but this crypto boom has sent demand for mining hardware through the roof, which has contributed in no small part

I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned it here, but this crypto boom has sent demand for mining hardware through the roof, which has contributed in no small part to the chip shortage. Miners are buying up ASICs, GPUs and FPGAs at a premium. In the short term, crashing the crypto market can ease demand for semiconductors, but in the long term, getting cryptos to move to Proof of Steak will hopefully ease it up for good (But don't quote me on that!) It's no secret that one of their biggest supply chain constraints is chips right now (aside from batteries.) So it's not all that ridiculous to imagine them pulling this kind of publicity stunt off so that they can actually produce and sell more cars. And if they can profit off of it at the end of the day, even better!

chrismorgan 5y ago
> Proof of Steak There’s so much scope for word play humour here that I’m paralysed by choice. Vegetarianism, steak and chips…
- treeman79 5y ago
  Such humor is rare, usually put out to pasture. But this joke is well done. Hopefully it ages well.
  - danielheath 5y ago
    Yes, it’s a rare medium for conveying information.
- kamyarg 5y ago
  > Decentralized networks are a rare medium well-done. https://steak.network/ https://steak.network/
- angry_octet 5y ago
  It's obvious that steak needs chips, hence proof of steak will inevitably lead to a chip shortage.
- locallost 5y ago
  and we all thought the proof was in the pudding
plebianRube 5y ago
Proof of work keeps the network fair. Non mining nodes have the final say. Proof of stake lets players with the most money have the most say.
- Barrin92 5y ago
  >Proof of stake lets players with the most money have the most say. Okay, and what do you think the mining equipment is acquired with exactly?
  - izolate 5y ago
    It's the non-mining nodes that verify transactions and have the final say, and those can be run on home devices by regular people. That's the difference.
    - ses1984 5y ago
      Non mining nodes do diddly squat.
      - inter_netuser 5y ago
        Nonsense. If miners's new block isnt accepted by the network - they've just lost millions. Rules are enforced by block verification of the nodes that accept - or refuse to accept mined blocks. It's amazing that in 2021 people still do not understand the basics of it.
        zapdrive 5y ago
        Non mining nodes are programmed to follow the longest chain. That's so they are: readers. They are not writers. They act like slave nodes in a database. They have insignificant power in the grand scheme of things.
        nlitened 5y ago
the__alchemist 5y ago
Do you think this relates to low-power MCUs like ARM Cortex-M? These are getting hit hard as well.
- reportingsjr 5y ago
  No, high performance gpus/fpgas/asics are made at bleeding edge fabs, whereas stm32 and the like are made at slightly older fabs. Currently for the highest end cortex-m micros you're looking at 28 or 32nm ICs (10 year old nodes) up to 180nm for the older, cheaper micros (20 year old nodes). There has been a you shortage for a quite while in large part due to crypto. The microcontroller shortage only started happening after car companies shot themselves in the foot and decided to screw everyone else over.
vmception 5y ago
That’s cute. You would have to crash the crypto market by 95% for years to have any affect on miners and ongoing investment into chips, which is a small small portion of chip demand. Good luck imagining this is related.

chrismorgan 5y ago

> Proof of Steak There’s so much scope for word play humour here that I’m paralysed by choice. Vegetarianism, steak and chips…

treeman79 5y ago
Such humor is rare, usually put out to pasture. But this joke is well done. Hopefully it ages well.
- danielheath 5y ago
  Yes, it’s a rare medium for conveying information.
kamyarg 5y ago
> Decentralized networks are a rare medium well-done. https://steak.network/ https://steak.network/
angry_octet 5y ago
It's obvious that steak needs chips, hence proof of steak will inevitably lead to a chip shortage.
locallost 5y ago
and we all thought the proof was in the pudding

plebianRube 5y ago

Proof of work keeps the network fair. Non mining nodes have the final say. Proof of stake lets players with the most money have the most say.

Barrin92 5y ago
>Proof of stake lets players with the most money have the most say. Okay, and what do you think the mining equipment is acquired with exactly?
- izolate 5y ago
  It's the non-mining nodes that verify transactions and have the final say, and those can be run on home devices by regular people. That's the difference.
  - ses1984 5y ago
    Non mining nodes do diddly squat.
    - inter_netuser 5y ago
      Nonsense. If miners's new block isnt accepted by the network - they've just lost millions. Rules are enforced by block verification of the nodes that accept - or refuse to accept mined blocks. It's amazing that in 2021 people still do not understand the basics of it.
      - zapdrive 5y ago
        Non mining nodes are programmed to follow the longest chain. That's so they are: readers. They are not writers. They act like slave nodes in a database. They have insignificant power in the grand scheme of things.
        nlitened 5y ago

the__alchemist 5y ago

Do you think this relates to low-power MCUs like ARM Cortex-M? These are getting hit hard as well.

reportingsjr 5y ago
No, high performance gpus/fpgas/asics are made at bleeding edge fabs, whereas stm32 and the like are made at slightly older fabs. Currently for the highest end cortex-m micros you're looking at 28 or 32nm ICs (10 year old nodes) up to 180nm for the older, cheaper micros (20 year old nodes). There has been a you shortage for a quite while in large part due to crypto. The microcontroller shortage only started happening after car companies shot themselves in the foot and decided to screw everyone else over.

vmception 5y ago

That’s cute. You would have to crash the crypto market by 95% for years to have any affect on miners and ongoing investment into chips, which is a small small portion of chip demand. Good luck imagining this is related.