Less important, but it’s also super annoying because it’s making it expensive to build gaming PCs, which was already pretty pricey before
Lol and apparently SSDs are next to jump in price due to crypto bullshit: https://www.techspot.com/news/89489-chia-crypto-mining-spurs-500-jump-adata-ssd.html
I’m not sure the evidence actually supports the notion that miners are the primary reason for graphics card prices. Linus McTechTits argues that while they’ve had some effect on prices, the main reason is that the industry mispredicted the effect of the pandemic on demand and spun down supply chains just as demand for consumer electronics in general skyrocketed. He also notes Trump’s tariffs on Chinese electronics.
computer hardware shortages this year are all due to companies transitioning to WFH, which has lead to an unprecedented massive demand spike across every chip industry because instead of just, you know, sending workers their work computers, rational big brain companies just buy new computers and send them those
cryptohounds play a only a small part (which is no reason to stop ragging on them)
The price inflation of video cards is scary to me. Not because video cards got expensive, but because if it can happen to video cards, it can happen to anything. Any resource could be turned into something that’s worth more as some weird financialized store of value than as a usable thing, and then libertarian nut jobs will drive up the price.
Similar things have happened, but crypto is different. Biofuel turns perfectly good plant material into ethanol in an extremely wasteful fashion, but at least the end result is still somewhat useful. Crypto is like if sacrificing animals to appease the gods came back into fashion, so huge parts of the food supply chain pivoted towards throwing livestock into volcanos.
in related news, they started letting investors trade water futures back in december
:agony-consuming:
