News We're Pretty Sure This Crypto Mining Farm Is Where All the RTX 3070s Went

May 28, 2021
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This shows that there is monkey business going on with graphics cards manufacturers. The only way to force them to lower price to ban cryptocurrency outright (Normally I don’t support the government intervening but in this case it is necessary). Look at China ever since they banned it the price of getting a graphics cards became cheaper (that is if you are directly buying it in China).
 
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I never advocate vigilantism, violence, or mob mentality.

But I wouldn't weep if their warehouses burnt down and left him in TREMENDOUS debt because insurance won't cover the loss.

I seriously doubt these miners would be insured properly for such a loss. That much power and hardware cost requires a tremendous amount of under writing (sign off by investigators/engineers) to verify the power delivery and fire suppression systems are deemed as adequate. Heck, your home owners policy can be void for using the wrong kind of ethernet/electrical cabling (plenum rated) in your walls even if it wasn't the source of the fire.

People looking for free money are always looking for shortcuts which will cost them more money in the end. (Not paying for proper insurance and installations)
 
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This shows that there is monkey business going on with graphics cards manufacturers. The only way to force them to lower price to ban cryptocurrency outright (Normally I don’t support the government intervening but in this case it is necessary). Look at China ever since they banned it the price of getting a graphics cards became cheaper (that is if you are directly buying it in China).

While this is true, and LOATHE crypto miners for a variety of reasons, high GPU demand will lead to companies investing in more mfg plants to increase production. But cost will sadly always be elevated to the point to keep supply = demand - 1% (Harley Davidson's formula for making sure price on cycles stays high). Free market rules sadly. And as GPUs aren't a necessity in life it is what it is.

Now if you can prove vital production capacity is damaging national security (by economic means: IE Car mfg's can't get supply capacity because of excess GPU production. Another case could be environmental damage. Another case might be undermining the tax base, or being used by money laundering operations, or terrorist nations) then you might have a case for outlawing crypto.
 

Makaveli

Splendid
Would not hurt my feelings at all if it was raided or broken into...

lol I think many share that sentiment

This shows that there is monkey business going on with graphics cards manufacturers. The only way to force them to lower price to ban cryptocurrency outright (Normally I don’t support the government intervening but in this case it is necessary). Look at China ever since they banned it the price of getting a graphics cards became cheaper (that is if you are directly buying it in China).

At the end of the day it always comes down to money. If a guy walks in off the street and says I want to buy 1 million dollars worth of GPU. They will cater to them over retail buyers. One situation you get the money up front over waiting for retails supplies to go down and your money slowly coming. These are companies after all with shareholders and profits margins. Alot of gamers are getting a reality check and seeing they are actually at the bottom of the totem pole.
 
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Zerk2012

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I think the title is very misleading.

I don't think any company has released the number they have actually manufactured.

Fairly simple open a account with each manufacturer, order 5000 from each and tell them to fill the order as availability allows, when you get all the cards you need cancel the rest of the order.

Edit or you could scalp the rest of the cards you receive to make more money.
 
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Brian28

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Why would "police steamrolling $1.6 million in mining equipment" be a salve when they could have distributed those GPUs to thousands of gamers instead of crushing them to bits. Of course doing that without feeding the scalpers and miners (again) might be tricky.
 

bigdragon

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Lol, I tried so hard to get a 3070 or 3080 late last year and much of the first half of this year. Seeing so many 3070s lined up like this explains why it was impossible to source them. I'm sure there are many more installations just like this or even bigger. That's ok! The FOMO is gone and the habit to upgrade on a cycle is broken.

I am curious as to when the GPU shortages will start impacting AAA publishers and all those companies chasing the metaverse. Gamers can get by with a 10-series right now, but they won't be able to forever. Virtual worlds can be very demanding on hardware. What happens when the big content production and hosting companies start getting impacted by the GPU shortage? It's totally fine to screw over the gamers, but I wonder what's going to happen when the businesses with lobbyists start feeling the pinch.
 
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GenericUser

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Why would "police steamrolling $1.6 million in mining equipment" be a salve when they could have distributed those GPUs to thousands of gamers instead of crushing them to bits. Of course doing that without feeding the scalpers and miners (again) might be tricky.

Those were ASICs, they could only be used for mining Bitcoin. Gamers wouldn't have been able to do anything with them, except for mining more Bitcoin.
 

vern72

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I worry that these farms are going to compete with EVs in the near future. I think the government are eventually going to have to ban these farms because of the strain they put on the electrical grid.
 
I never advocate vigilantism, violence, or mob mentality.

But I wouldn't weep if their warehouses burnt down and left him in TREMENDOUS debt because insurance won't cover the loss.
I was LITERALLY coming to post exactly "My feelings would not be hurt if ALL these mining operations burned to the ground and their operators all went bankrupt." Literally. So glad to see I'm not the only one with this opinion. I have no time or concern for anybody using the hardware I can't get, or can't get at anything resembling a realistic price BECAUSE of them, especially the ones that come here asking us to help them make money using hardware intended to be in the hands of gamers, not businesses.

C'mon lightning. JK.
 
I worry that these farms are going to compete with EVs in the near future. I think the government are eventually going to have to ban these farms because of the strain they put on the electrical grid.
This is a very real possibility, but you know that the ones who are major operations will simply move to other forms of power such as large solar arrays or high efficiency diesel generators. Or something.
 

russell_john

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DataMeister

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Who sold all these cards to this one guy?

Looks like society as a whole might need a law (at least temporarily in the first months of a new product release) saying you can't have more than 10 of the latest "gaming" GPUs from one series (like the RTX 3000 series) under one roof without special approval from nVidia, AMD, and soon to be Intel. Special permission would be to allow for things like gaming conventions, cloud gaming, resellers, etc.

I figure 10 is probably enough to have a couple of each new model in a series for test labs and reviewers.

Otherwise if you need more than 10 GPUs for a project then you need to buy their workstation cards or get special permission.
 
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Who sold all these cards to this one guy?

Looks like society as a whole might need a law (at least temporarily in the first months of a new product release) saying you can't have more than 10 of the latest "gaming" GPUs from one series (like the RTX 3000 series) under one roof without special approval from nVidia, AMD, and soon to be Intel. Special permission would be to allow for things like gaming conventions, cloud gaming, resellers, etc.

I figure 10 is probably enough to have a couple of each new model in a series for test labs and reviewers.

Otherwise if you need more than 10 GPUs for a project then you need to buy their workstation cards or get special permission.
And who do you suppose is going to police the buying of mass numbers of cards from illegal operations like the tractor trailors, train cars, containers and loading dock thefts that happen where hundreds or thousands of cards disappear at one time and are then resold, presumably to the very people you suggest that manufacturers (Who rarely sell directly to the public anyhow, so would really have no stake in monitoring the suggested rationing allotment) ought to be limiting, so that it doesn't happen?

What IS realistically viable, is the idea that the monitoring of unusual electrical consumption, no different than what government agencies have done for years to find grow and drug operations, that will lead them to presumed mining operations, could actually create some change IF a law were passed saying that, say, unlicensed operations cannot have more than say 20-50 cards in use for mining and make the licensing process a limited opportunity much like what has been done for most legal grow operations. Further, even those operations could be capped at a much more reasonable number than what we've seen at many of these ridiculously expansive sites. Allow a maximum of say 200 cards for licensed operations and allow a limited number of licenses per capita or per region or whatever. And enforce it.

Or, HIGHLY tax the heck out of it and create prohibitive fines and penalties including jail time for violators. There are solutions that can effect change if anybody actually wanted to pursue them. As it stands right now, retailers are the biggest culprits in allowing cards to end up where they don't belong, IMO, as the majority of cards go through the hands of retailers from board partners. Very few cards, by comparison, are ever sold directly to the public by AMD or Nvidia and Intel is a non-player in this situation for the most part, for now anyhow. Some come through those channels, but nowhere near what is sold through board partners and retailers.