TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage
Supply shortage is another way of saying demand excess. I don’t see much evidence that TSMC ever really slowed production, at least for their most advanced processes that are in high demand.<p>This is yet another way we’re all forced to pay the price for cryptocurrency. As long as GPUs are profitable for mining, they will be purchased and put to work. The saddest part is that each additional GPU added to the mining networks only makes the overall system less efficient. Mining difficulty is automatically adjusted upward to cancel out the additional computing power. The networks processed just as many transactions last year as they do now, but countless new GPUs have been added to the mining network due to the incentive structure of mining. It’s a race to the bottom, consuming ever more GPUs and energy until equilibrium is reached.<p>It’s frustrating to watch so much of the output of our most advanced chip manufacturing be diverted straight into making arbitrary proof-of-work systems less efficient so someone can capture incrementally more coins. And now we must all pay higher prices for everything.