American graphics processor manufacturer Nvidia does not see a global benefit from cryptocurrencies, despite the fact that until recently the company received large profits from the sale of video cards for mining. Michael Kagan, the company’s CTO, said in an interview with The Guardian.
“All these crypto products needed parallel processing, and [Nvidia graphics cards] are the best on the market, so people just programmed them to be used for that purpose. They bought a bunch of stuff, and then in the end it all collapsed because it doesn’t benefit society at all,” Mr. Kagan said.
Nvidia used to make a lot of profit from the high demand for video cards from miners, the prices were high and graphics processors themselves became a scarce commodity. But once the Ethereum blockchain platform protocol was updated last fall and stopped requiring serious processing power from users, demand for graphics cards collapsed and prices dropped significantly. This, as well as falling sales of personal computers and laptops affected Nvidia’s financial performance: while in fiscal 2021 and 2022 (ending January 31), revenue grew by 53% and 61% respectively, in fiscal 2023, its growth was zero.