Hive Blockchain Shares Are Up 100% YTD, Deploys Intel’s Blockscale Chip For Bitcoin Mining Machines

Sead Fadilpašić
Last updated: | 3 min read
Source: AdobeStock / Photocreo Bednarek

The shares of Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Hive Blockchain (HIVE) are up more than 100% since the year began, while it just recently deployed its first machines based on Intel‘s (INTC) Blockscale chips.

Between Tuesday, January 3 and Friday, January 13, 2023, HIVE shares jumped 104.6%. 

On January 3, a share stood at $1.53, while just 10 days later, it went up to $3.13. The highest point reached since the year began was $3.18 seen on January 12. 

Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. Common Shares (HIVE), year-to-date:

Source: nasdaq.com

Meanwhile, on Friday, the miner announced its commercial deployment of the HIVE BuzzMiner powered by the Intel Blockscale ASIC, “after months of planning, engineering development, implementing factory QA processes, field testing and global collaboration.”

Per Executive Chairman Frank Holmes, HIVE is the first public crypto miner to deploy its own ASIC mining rig. He added that,

“The HIVE BuzzMiner is our testament to Proof-of-Work being the most secure and robust consensus mechanism for digital assets, of which Bitcoin is the most secure.”

Aydin Kilic, President & COO of HIVE, stated that the company was able to optimize the function of the HIVE BuzzMiner to satisfy demand response programs, so that it can participate in grid balancing initiatives. 

When it comes to the machines’ performance, the expected targets have been met, said the press release. More than 1,500 HIVE BuzzMiner have been deployed in the data centers in Canada and Sweden, and HIVE said it retains the option to produce more HIVE BuzzMiners.

A unique point of the HIVE BuzzMiner is the dynamic range of operation, Kilic said, with the company being able to operate the machines from 110 TH/s to 130 TH/s, enabling it to optimize the profitability of its fleet, by varying the power consumption and machine efficiency. The initial build of 5,800 HIVE BuzzMiners can produce between 638 PH/s to 754 PH/s, he added.

Kilic stated that,

“We use advanced multi-variate mathematical models to study ever changing hashrate economics, and carefully monitor the production cost of each Bitcoin at our various data centers, along with ROI of our investments, which vary with ASIC miner performance. This is key to navigating crypto bear markets successfully, and maximizing profits in bull markets. We can now modulate the ASIC miner performance with our HIVE BuzzMiners for optimal returns.”

Jose Rios, General Manager of Blockchain and Business Solutions in the Accelerated Computing and Graphics Group at the American multinational corporation Intel, added that Intel is “excited by the potential” of HIVE’s BuzzMiner system developed in collaboration with HIVE’s engineering team, but also that it is “looking forward to continued deployment of these systems in the years ahead.”

Per William Gray, CTO of HIVE, the company has the ability to develop its own application programming interface (API) calls, as well as to gather test data at the microchip level and fine-tune the device to optimize its performance – and this “sets the stage for future ASIC systems development,” argued Gray.

Meanwhile, in February last year, Intel said it intended to contribute to the development of blockchain technologies with a roadmap of energy-efficient accelerators with some of the first customers being Argo Blockchain, BLOCK (formerly known as Square), and GRIID Infrastructure. Intel also formed the new Custom Compute Group, responsible for building “custom silicon platforms optimized for customers’ workloads, including blockchain and other custom accelerated supercomputing opportunities at the edge.”

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