In a letter to investors, Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, said that high demand for powerful computers used for the mining of ether, Bitcoin, as well as other digital currencies, has greatly contributed to a “boom of computing.” Last weekend, Sergey Brin said that a lot of factors have contributed to an upsurge in computing power that has seen the processors of Google (a search giant) speed up by a factor of 200,000 in a space of twenty years.
The Contributing Factors
The first contributing factor is the “steady hum of the Law of Moore,” talking about the observation that a chip’s computing power per square inch tends to increase by 100% each year. The second factor involved is the high demand for processing heft, partially from game lovers and their hunger for high-quality graphics but also “shockingly,” from the Proof of Work algorithms (which is GPU-friendly) that is found in some of the top digital currencies, including Ethereum.
What GPUs Are Used for in the Crypto Industry
Graphics processing units (GPUs) are used to mine cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum: to update the blockchain of the digital currency via a process known as Proof of Work (PoW). The process usually involves crunching through functions of cryptography rapidly.
However, miners of ether may not use graphics processing units for much longer because Bitmain has developed a specialized piece of hardware. Nevertheless, Mr. Brin did not think that those two factors were the major contributing factors to the “boom of computing.”
Brin said that the biggest factor is machine learning, a technique (which require intense data) used to create systems of artificial intelligence that can recognize faces, drive cars, and translate information without human intervention. The uses for blockchain technology has been explored by Google, but the company has not mentioned anything regarding digital currencies themselves.
Princess Ogono is a writer, lawyer and fitness enthusiast. She believes cryptocurrencies are the future. When she's not writing, she spends time with her adorable cat, Ginger and works out often.
