As if the global shortage of Ampere desktop GPUs wasn’t bad enough, users on Chinese social media have begun sharing photos of cryptomining rigs that comprise stacks upon stacks of laptops equipped with NVIDIA’s new GeForce RTX 30 Series mobile GPUs for mining lucrative tokens such as Ether, which has enjoyed a meteoric rise of around 700 percent over the last year.
One such gallery submitted by Weibo user BTCer shows four different setups consisting of traditional shelving and tower racks, as well as rows of laptops stood vertically in an awkward but space-saving configuration. The implication here is that neither desktop nor mobile GeForce gamers will be spared from the frustration that comes with wanting to upgrade to NVIDIA’s modern Ampere products.
Chinese miners are crazy 🤣🤣 https://t.co/yOA1wC5U3a pic.twitter.com/EvQccY6DHG
— I_Leak_VN (@I_Leak_VN) February 6, 2021
On a somewhat related note, French state-owned television network France 24 recently uncovered that the heavily publicized power outages that Tehran and other major Iran cities have been suffering from since January were being caused by Chinese cryptominers who set up huge bitcoin farms throughout the country. Iran has been a popular destination for this activity thanks to its relatively low cost of electricity.
“[…] bitcoin farms can make the most money in countries where electricity is produced in abundance and at a low cost, which is the case in Iran,” France 24 explained. “For comparison, a kilowatt of electricity produced in Germany costs 0.15 euro, while it only costs 0.018 euros in Iran.”
“While Iranian officials claim they sell electricity 10 times more expensive than this price to the bitcoin farms, according to statements made by the Chinese companies operating in Iran, Iranian authorities sell them the electricity at a great rate: 0.022 euros (equivalent to 0.027 dollars) per kilowatt per hour.”