Intel designing energy-efficient crypto chip, Jack Dorsey 1st buyer

Chip-maker Intel is working on a crypto chip that will be energy-efficient and Jack Dorsey-owned fintech company Block (formerly known as Square) will be one of the first buyers of the chip.

Raja M Koduri, SVP and GM, Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group at Intel, said that Intel will contribute to the development of blockchain technologies, "with a roadmap of energy-efficient accelerators".

"Intel will engage and promote an open and secure blockchain ecosystem and will help advance this technology in a responsible and sustainable way," he said in a blog post.

Intel Labs has dedicated decades of research into reliable cryptography, hashing techniques and ultra-low voltage circuits.

"We expect that our circuit innovations will deliver a blockchain accelerator that has over 1000x better performance per watt than mainstream GPUs for SHA-256 based mining," said Koduri.

Blockchain is a technology that has the potential to enable everyone to own much of the digital content and services they create, as we usher in the era of metaverse and Web 3.0.

Koduri said that some Blockchains require an enormous amount of computing power, which unfortunately translates to an immense amount of energy.

"Our customers are asking for scalable and sustainable solutions, which is why we are focusing our efforts on realising the full potential of blockchain by developing the most energy-efficient computing technologies at scale," he explained.

The Intel Blockchain accelerator will ship later this year, and the company is engaged directly with customers like Argo Blockchain, Block (formerly known as Square) and GRIID Infrastructure, among others.

"This architecture is implemented on a tiny piece of silicon so that it has minimal impact on the supply of current products," said Koduri.

Intel has formed the new 'Custom Compute Group' within its Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics business unit.

The objective is to build custom silicon platforms optimised for customers' workloads, including Blockchain and other custom accelerated supercomputing opportunities at the edge.