German start-up wants to build chip that halves bitcoin mining energy costs

A German start-up has plans to build a chip that will make mining bitcoins cheaper. The chip in question is set to a lower voltage than usual and should therefore halve the energy consumption compared to conventional chips.

The Wall Street Journal reports this based on information from Asicrising, a German start-up that claims to have found a method to conduct bitcoin mining with lower energy requirements. Asicrising’s chip, called Wolfblood Extreme Efficiency, only consumes 0.19 joules per gigahash, according to the initiators, while conventional chips consume about 0.37 joules per gigahash. The Wolfblood is, as the name of the start-up suggests, an asic chip that is specially intended to calculate bitcoins.

According to Asicrising CEO Sebastian Krause, the lower energy requirement is achieved by running the Wolfblood chip at a lower voltage than usual. Although asic chips become more unreliable when the voltage is lowered, the company claims to have found something on this. Software is used to determine the lowest possible voltage at which the individual chips can run to carry out the bitcoin mining process.

Lowering energy costs can make it more financially attractive to mine bitcoins. As more bitcoins are found, the mining process becomes more difficult. As a result, the profits for bitcoin mining have decreased in recent times and are sometimes even turned at a loss. It is not yet clear when the Wolfblood chip can hit the market: Asicrising says it needs funding, with it hopes to raise between 10 and 15 million dollars. Asicrising is working with Globalfoundries to produce the chip.