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TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage

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271–280 of 620 posts

Re: TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage

#271
post #255
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not commit the fallacy of comparing unrelated big numbers. How does the energy and time per usd transferred compare between btc and the traditional banking system?

It's much, much less efficient if you measure the utility of the banking system vs. the utility of cryptocurrency.

Okay, so if we're using energy consumption per unit 'utility' as a metric, how much energy should bitcoin consume to be in line with its utility?

Re: TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage

#272

I'm in charge of sourcing components for multiple companies right now. I believe they could double (100%) prices and companies would pay it. There's chips that I'm sourcing from obscure places in China just to get the part and paying whatever price they ask. Designers are getting overwhelmed because they're having to redesign boards for components that are available, only to realize by the time they finish the change…

Concur. We are currently paying a chip broker $6.30 for an Infineon chip we typically buy by the 100,000s for $0.47. Cuz without them, our customers cannot sell their $10,000,000 product.

Out of curiosity, what's the $10,000,000 product?

Re: TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage

#273
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the environmental practices of banking? What about the cost of building all those buildings? What about the cost of AC? What about the cost of mining all those precious materials?

the whataboutism is strong with this one...

The Bitcoin gang doesn't like it when people point out that the entire thing is fucking useless.

Re: TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage

#274
post #271
post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much, much less efficient if you measure the utility of the banking system vs. the utility of cryptocurrency.

Okay, so if we're using energy consumption per unit 'utility' as a metric, how much energy should bitcoin consume to be in line with its utility?

Off the top of my head, I could see it as reasonable to pay a 5-10% cost in energy efficiency comparing with traditional transaction systems to enable a truly decentralized model. Bitcoin is nowhere near that in terms of cost/transaction.

Re: TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage

#275
post #55

Supply shortage is another way of saying demand excess. I don’t see much evidence that TSMC ever really slowed production, at least for their most advanced processes that are in high demand. This is yet another way we’re all forced to pay the price for cryptocurrency. As long as GPUs are profitable for mining, they will be purchased and put to work. The saddest part is that each additional GPU added to the mining net…

I agree with this but it's even worse than that. Estimates on Bitcoin energy usage put it at over 1TW now. I believe it was comparable to the energy consumption of Argentina. Advocates will defend this by saying most energy usage is renewable. This conjures the image of someone with a bunch of solar panels but the reality is that it's primarily hydro power because that's the cheapest. Thing is, in regions with cheap…

> I really wonder what happens to Bitcoin (or any PoW coin) when it no longer becomes economical to mine new coins. Does all the computing power just move on to the next coin?

We will find out exactly this relatively soon when Ethereum moves to Eth2 and Proof of Stake.

Re: TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage

#277
post #63

Supply shortage is another way of saying demand excess. I don’t see much evidence that TSMC ever really slowed production, at least for their most advanced processes that are in high demand. This is yet another way we’re all forced to pay the price for cryptocurrency. As long as GPUs are profitable for mining, they will be purchased and put to work. The saddest part is that each additional GPU added to the mining net…

> I don’t see much evidence that TSMC ever really slowed production, at least for their most advanced processes that are in high demand. One thing I heard is that the drought (worst one in 50 years in Taiwan) has really affected them, and various sources seem to confirm it, here's one : https://fortune.com/2021/06/12/chip-shortage-taiwan-drought-... And while I wholeheartedly agree with the crypto/GPU issue, all in a…

https://archive.ph/7bGOO article link

Re: TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage

#278
post #253
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a point in favor of this particular policy idea, though, isn't it?

How so?

If one of the biggest upsides to crypto is that it can be used as an end-run around authoritarian regimes, then a policy proposal that doesn't hurt this while curtailing some of the bigger downsides gets some points in its favor.

Re: TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage

#279

Supply shortage is another way of saying demand excess. I don’t see much evidence that TSMC ever really slowed production, at least for their most advanced processes that are in high demand. This is yet another way we’re all forced to pay the price for cryptocurrency. As long as GPUs are profitable for mining, they will be purchased and put to work. The saddest part is that each additional GPU added to the mining net…

Is it tragedy of the commons, then? Once things settle, won’t people learn that adding 1 additional GPU only increases my cost by 1 and doesn't increase my reward? Can’t we design a system where the number of transactions processed scales with the compute power of the system rather than striving to always keeping block time constant?

Re: TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage

#280
post #55

Supply shortage is another way of saying demand excess. I don’t see much evidence that TSMC ever really slowed production, at least for their most advanced processes that are in high demand. This is yet another way we’re all forced to pay the price for cryptocurrency. As long as GPUs are profitable for mining, they will be purchased and put to work. The saddest part is that each additional GPU added to the mining net…

I agree with this but it's even worse than that. Estimates on Bitcoin energy usage put it at over 1TW now. I believe it was comparable to the energy consumption of Argentina. Advocates will defend this by saying most energy usage is renewable. This conjures the image of someone with a bunch of solar panels but the reality is that it's primarily hydro power because that's the cheapest. Thing is, in regions with cheap…

I agree that the externalities are still overwhelmingly negative, but one part you're missing is that cryptocurrencies act as a global reserve asset. Crypto is still tiny compared to other financial markets, but the existence of cryptocurrencies has probably reduced the volatility of other assets somewhat.

In the future, this effect will likely be more pronounced. It's an asset class that has some degree of independence from other asset classes, so it decreases the overall risk of the financial system.

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