Is Samsung Working On Crypto Mining Chips With Bitcoin ASICs Designer MicroBT?

Samsung Could Be Working On Chips For Bitcoin Mining

Samsung has revealed that it is working on chips specifically designed for Bitcoin (BTC) mining activities. Charles Song, the general manager for Samsung Foundries China, explained at the MicroBT M20conference in Chengdu, that the company has been designing and manufacturing 3nm and 5nm chips for Bitcoin miners.

Samsung Gets Involved In Bitcoin Mining

As reported by CryptoSlate, Samsung has been working on these chips since the first quarter of 2018. At the same time, the firm announced it was working with MicroBT, who designs Bitcoin ASICs for Bitmain and Canaan. The firm is known for having a very good mining performance and for being power efficient.

Indeed, the market for semiconductors has been growing over the last years and Samsung is the second company in this industry behind Intel. At the same time, proof-of-work virtual currencies such as Bitcoin or Litecoin (LTC) have also expanded in the market.

Samsung has already produced the chips that were used by the M20S WhatsMiner with 68 TH/s and a power efficiency of 48 watts per Terahash. The Antminer S9 released by Bitmain has 13 TH/s and a power efficiency of 98 W/Th. That means that the M20S is five times more powerful and it has half the power consumption of the Antminer S9.

Samsung has also announced in February its Galaxy S10 smartphone that will include support for storing the private keys of virtual currencies. The smartphone would have support for Ethereum (ETH), ERC20 tokens and other ETH collectibles.

Moreover, the firm announced that it is also working on its own blockchain that could include a digital currency called Samsung Coin. This virtual currency could eventually be used on the Samsung Pay application and make it easier for users to send and receive money.