Mining

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin were meant to be used as digital cash. Instead, they've become popular as speculative investments.As well as being resource-intensive and inherently wasteful, cryptocurrencies are also incredibly volatile. Prices for the largest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, have both dropped by over 55 percent in six months, leading some to suggest that regulation is needed to contain the turmoil.  Some are blaming sliding prices on one specific contagion, a collapsing "stablecoin" called TerraUSD…

Like Earth, planetary bodies such as the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and comets contain substantial deposits of valuable resources. This has caught the attention of both researchers and industry, with hopes of one day mining them to support a space economy. But setting up any kind of off-Earth mining industry will be no small feat. Let’s look at what we’re up against. In-situ resource utilization When you think of off-Earth mining, you might imagine extracting materials from various bodies in space…

Russian gold and diamonds could still be sold in the U.S. despite being sanctioned, lawmakers and industry participants say, unless companies and governments tighten their controls.In theory, U.S. and European sanctions have outlawed the sale of gold and diamonds from Russia. In practice, Russian gems and precious metals are likely still entering Western markets, these people say, often via a hard-to-police global web of middlemen. Tougher controls are needed to “make sure Russia can’t use its gold reserves to fund the…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk shut down the idea of Tesla buying another automaker, but the CEO seems very open about the automaker possibly buying a mining company. Ever since Tesla’s valuation surged to over $500 billion, there have been rumors about the company absorbing smaller but more established automakers. At the FT Future of CarsConference yesterday, Musk was asked directly about that possibility, but the CEO made it clear that it’s not in the plans. Musk has previously commented on Tesla preferring to build a…

CORINTH, Miss.—Construction equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. CAT -1.04% wants to sell engines—again and again.Every day, old, beat-up and broken-down engines from mining trucks and compactors return to a factory here to be inspected, taken apart and rebuilt again as new. The effort, which in 2021 took in an estimated 127 million pounds of equipment to be reprocessed, is part of a push by the construction equipment giant to meet environmental goals and boost revenue from…

The Lite Hash Rate (LHR) algorithm that limits the crypto mining performance of certain Nvidia RTX 30 graphics cards has been completely cracked. NiceHash confirmed they’ve developed a workaround that allows you to mine the Ethereum coin on GPUs without any of the limitations imposed by Nvidia. Getty Images As reported by Tom’s Hardware, NiceHash is the company behind the QuickMiner software and Excavator miner. Other individuals and groups have naturally tried to evade the LHR cap on Nvidia GPUs with their own…

The state of New York wants to ban new bitcoin mining operations, a move that some industry insiders fear could have a domino effect across the U.S.The bill, which is swiftly making its way through the state capitol in Albany, calls for a two-year moratorium on certain cryptocurrency mining operations that use proof-of-work authentication methods to validate blockchain transactions. Proof-of-work mining, which requires sophisticated gear and a whole lot of electricity, is used to create bitcoin, though ethereum — at least…

Nvidia will pay $5.5 million to settle charges that it unlawfully obscured how many of its graphics cards were sold to cryptocurrency miners. The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced the charges and a settlement with the company today. Its order claims Nvidia misled investors by reporting a huge boost in revenue related to “gaming,” hiding how much its success relied on the far more volatile crypto market. Nvidia isn’t admitting to wrongdoing as part of the settlement, but it agrees to stop any unlawful…

Of all the corporate climate hype floating around this spring, ExxonMobil’s secret project to cut down its pollution by mining Bitcoin has to rank up there as one of the strangest. Exxon launched a pilot project in 2021 to mine Bitcoin in North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields, according to reporting by CNBC in March. The US’s biggest oil and gas company is also thinking about doing the same in Alaska and parts of Nigeria, Argentina, Guyana, and Germany, Bloomberg reported. And it’s not alone. Other oil companies, including…

Some of the biggest names in bitcoin — including Jack Dorsey, Tom Lee, and Michael Saylor — have banded together to refute claims made by House Democrats calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the environmental effects of crypto mining.Bitcoin operates on a proof-of-work (PoW) mining model, meaning that miners around the world run high-powered computers to simultaneously create new bitcoin and validate transactions. Proof-of-work mining, which requires sophisticated gear and a whole lot of…