A Chinese tea retailer is looking to make its inception into the bitcoin mining business. Publicly-listed Urban Tea announced the expansion of its operations by appointing two executives to pursue its crypto plans.
Urban Tea Praises Cryptocurrencies’ Widespread Popularity
Per the announcement, Urban Tea Inc. hired Fengdan Zhou as the company’s new chief operating officer and Dr. Yunfei Song as an independent director. The tea retailer expects the new roles to lead the “company’s critical strategic expansion in blockchain and cryptocurrency mining.”
Zhou will look forward to implementing the bitcoin (BTC) business plan of the firm. Her experience includes having worked in blockchain data centers across Southeast Asia and managing crypto mining farms. Moreover, she has expertise in crypto hardware wallet development, the announcement details.
Also, Dr. Song comes from an academic background, specifically being a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In fact, his expertise fields cover blockchain technology, crypto mining, artificial intelligence, among others.
Yi Long, CEO of Urban Tea, praised the widespread popularity that cryptos have gained recently. Also, he pointed out that the “world’s financial experts” have been building confidence in the future of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
Long further commented on Zhou and Dr. Song’s hirings:
We expect that their industry expertise, combined with our growth strategy, will lead our expansion plan into the cryptocurrency mining industry. Going forward, we expect Urban Tea will start expanding into blockchain ecology, such as cryptocurrency mining, blockchain mine construction and maintenance, and cryptocurrency exchange operations.
Urban Tea, based in Hunan, China, was founded in 2011, and it’s currently listed in Nasdaq as MYT. As of press time, the company’s shares trade at $6.05, with a $45 million market capitalization. This maneuver is their first crypto-related business made over the company’s history.
Latest Tea Retailer’s Crypto Mining Venture Ended in a Disaster
There are some precedents of tea retailers joining the crypto industry. Long Island Iced Tea Corp, another publicly listed company, purchased 1,000 units of Antminer S9 manufactured by Bitmain in 2018 to join the crypto mining business. Afterward, they rebranded the business to “Long Blockchain Corp.”
However, the venture ended in a disaster. When Long Blockchain Corp acquired the crypto hardware, its stocks jumped by 500%. But mining’s plans went to the trash when crypto’s bears appeared in February 2018.
When Long Blockchain Corp’s shares were delisted by Nasdaq, the company also had to sell its tea business.
The story didn’t end there, as the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission then launched an investigation over allegations of insider trading and securities fraud.
What are your thoughts on Urban Tea’s announcement? Let us know in the comments section below.
Nvidia announced that it will start limiting the efficiency of mining ethereum or any other crypto using its new range of upcoming graphics processing units (GPUs).
In a blog post published Feb. 19, the U.S. hardware maker said this limitation will feature first on its new Geforce RTX 3060 card, which is scheduled for release on Feb. 25.
Nvidia revealed that the new GPU software drivers are designed to detect specific attributes of the ether (ETH) mining algorithm, and limit the hash rate, or cryptocurrency mining efficiency, by around 50%.
However, the software won’t limit the efficiency of all crypto mining activities, Itpro reported, “with the limiter only activating when processes use Dagger Hashimoto or Ethash-like algorithms.”
The Nasdaq-listed firm is hoping that the restriction will discourage the purchase of gaming-oriented graphics cards for large ethereum mining operations. ETH is one of a few coins that can still be mined using graphics cards.
GPUs, which are mainly used in video game consoles, have reportedly been in short supply due to hoarding by ETH miners, manufacturing limitations and supply chain issues resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Prices have soared, as a result.
“We are gamers, through and through,” Nvidia declared. “We obsess about new gaming features, new architectures, new games and tech. We designed Geforce GPUs for gamers, and gamers are clamoring for more,” it added.
However, Nvidia revealed that it is planning to produce GPUs specifically targeting ethereum miners called Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP). It said the new mining processor, due for release in March, will not “do graphics” and will not “meet the specifications required of a Geforce GPU and, thus, don’t impact the availability of Geforce GPUs to gamers.”
The firm stated that the CMP “lacks display outputs, enabling improved airflow while mining so they can be more densely packed.” CMPs also have a lower peak core voltage and frequency, which improves mining power efficiency, it explained.
What do you think about Nvidia’s ethereum mining limit? Let us know in the comments section below.