Bitcoin [BTC] mining: Samsung Electronics becomes the foundry partner of a major mining player

On 25th September, Squire Mining, a Canadian company that sells data mining infrastructure and system technology to support blockchain applications in the mining space, announced Goanchips and Samsung Electronics as the two partners in its future operations.

Goanchips will operate as the design house whereas Samsung Electronics is the foundry partner to fabricate ASIC chips for the company, as stated by Squire in its press release.

The mining company is believed to use wafer process technology to develop Bitcoin ASIC chip miner. Furthermore, the company stated that its front-end programmers and engineers, along with Goanchips will be making joint efforts. This will lay the foundation for a test run by Samsung Electronics in its initial phase of mass production.

In the press release, Squire also mentioned the FPGA [field-programmable gate array] prototype post-development plan. It stated that the prototype is expected to be developed by the end of this month. The full statement read:

“In addition, once a working FPGA prototype of our initial ASIC chip is developed, we will be able to aggressively accelerate the design and development of our initial mining rig for Bitcoin and associated cryptocurrencies. We anticipate completing a FPGA prototype of our initial ASIC chip by September 30, 2018.”

An FPGA is an integrated circuit that has a benefit over PROM [programmable read-only memory] chips due to their wider potential application. An FPGA chip works on similar principles as PROM but can be programmed after manufacture.

Earlier this year, Samsung, which is a multinational conglomerate also joined hands with the cryptocurrency mining firm, Halong Mining to assist it in building ASIC chip. The miner was known as Dragonmint T1 and was believed to be one of the most efficient chip in the industry with a thickness of 10nm. Halong Mining is also a competitor to the Chinese mining giant Bitmain, who has claimed a monopoly in the Bitcoin mining scene.

A Twitter user also gave her stance on the partnership, saying:

“More competition between ASIC’s manufacturers is always good.”

Another cryptocurrency enthusiast and a techie in the blockchain space wrote:

“I wonder what will happen to hobby nodes when competition intensifies on ASIC development”

Calvin Ayre, a strong proponent of the 4th largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash also shared the news on his Twitter feed. Here, he showed enthusiasm regarding Samsung joining the Bitcoin mining business. However, a BCH and blockchain space follower on the post commented:

“Yes but none of that will be used for mining BCH which will vaporize soon. So Samsung miner is none of your business.”