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Samsung Secures $6.4 Billion in US Government Grants for Chip Manufacturing Expansion in Texas

Global leader in semiconductor technology Samsung Electronics recently revealed that it has obtained US government funds totaling $6.4 billion to expand its chip manufacturing facilities in Texas. The United States’ ability to produce chips domestically will be greatly enhanced by this huge investment, especially in sectors like aerospace, defence, and automotive.

The 2022 Chips and Science Act, a piece of legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden, provides the financing for this expansion. The act’s goal is to improve and revive the country’s output of cutting-edge computer chips. It is anticipated that the government assistance and private investments would total more than $40 billion, which will significantly strengthen the semiconductor sector.

By establishing a cutting-edge semiconductor ecosystem in Texas, the planned initiative would lead the state to the forefront of chip production.

Two production facilities that can produce two- and four-nanometer chips, which are essential for cutting-edge technological applications, are part of the expansion plans.

A specific research and development facility will also be built in order to promote creativity and technical breakthroughs in the semiconductor industry.

A packaging factory that assembles and packages chip components is another component of the project.

It is anticipated that the first manufacturing plant will open in 2026, and the second facility will open in 2027.

Additionally, the funding will help Samsung expand its current semiconductor production plant in Austin, Texas, strengthening the company’s position in the area.

The project is expected to significantly strengthen the local economy by generating over 4,500 manufacturing employment and around 17,000 construction jobs.

By increasing its capacity for chip production, Samsung will help achieve the target of having 20% of the world’s cutting-edge chips made in the US by the end of the decade.

Critical sectors including automotive, aerospace, and defence are seeing a surge in demand for sophisticated chips, which will be met in part by the expanded manufacturing capacity.

Additionally, by allowing Samsung to produce semiconductors directly for the Defence Department and lowering dependency on outside suppliers, the expansion will strengthen national security in the United States.

Image source: Shutterstock

Cryptocurrencies Added to the List of Top Threats to Investors by Texas Security Board

According to the latest Texas Investors Guide, Texas regulators have added cryptocurrencies to the list of top threats to investors. In an edition of the states Securities Board’s “Texas Investor Guide: Strategies for Investing Wisely and Avoiding Financial Fraud,” the regulatory body included cryptocurrencies to the list of investments with potential red flags. The report described cryptocurrencies as extraordinarily volatile and challenging to grasp for people who are not professional traders.

The report stated the investment opportunities in cryptocurrency mining pools and ICO’s director at senior and retirees, who obviously place security over speculation. They further went ahead to warn, “In the riskiest cryptocurrency-related offerings, promoters do not provide audited records or other financial information to back up their claims of extraordinarily high profits. […] Promoters’ claims of ‘secure’ cryptocurrency-related investments and ‘guaranteed’ profits should be approached with caution: Cryptocurrencies tend to be extremely volatile, and investors may be unable to quickly liquidate products tied to them.”

In the document, the regulators advised that potential investors should not take part in cryptocurrency offerings unless the basic facts of the company and its physical location can be determined. The guide further explained that investors could send funds to third parties, and they further outlined the need to deal only with entities that are registered, keeping in mind that people who fall prey to any deceptive body will be left helpless. The report also listed unregistered individuals, oil and gas offerings, and promissory notes along with cryptocurrencies.

Late last month, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) — an international investor protection organization mentioned cryptocurrencies as being amongst the top five threats to investors for the year 2020. This report included the top five schemes with high chances of getting investors trapped this year, and all these were based on complaints, ongoing investigations, and the current enforcement trends.

Image via Shutterstock

Students at Texas-based University Accorded with Blockchain-Powered GreenLight Credentials

The University of North Texas (UNT) in Dallas has unveiled GreenLight Credentials, a blockchain-enabled academic records verification platform, for its students, giving them more control of their transcripts.

Student empowerment via blockchain

Through this strategic collaboration, UNT Dallas students will be able to easily share their academic credentials quickly and securely across the globe. Additionally, transparency is granted because the transcripts and other verified records are kept in a decentralized system.

Bob Mong, UNT Dallas President, noted, “GreenLight puts the power directly in the hands of our students. […] Students are now just a click away from instantly accessing their transcripts around the clock. We are proud to be the first four-year university in the nation to partner with GreenLight, and we’re excited to bring the simplicity and convenience of this resource to our UNT Dallas students.”

Fraudulent academic credentials have been rising at an alarming rate to the extent that employers hire third-party verification companies to authenticate documents. This is a time-consuming and expensive process because it involves requesting confirmation from the respective college or university about the enrollment of the particular student.

By leveraging on blockchain technology, UNT Dallas seeks to eliminate this hassle by giving more power to its students over their academic records.

Blockchain-enabled recruitment

The blockchain-based GreenLight platform will also be instrumental in enabling enrollment officers at UNT Dallas to find and recruit learners from community colleges and high schools efficiently.

Blockchain solutions are being embraced across different spectrums. The education sector is not an exemption, as evidenced by the urge to eliminate fraudulent academic documents by institutions of higher learning like UNT Dallas.

Recently, the Harvard Blockchain Lab applauded Fight to Fame Model for presenting a notable decentralized ecosystem in the entertainment industry. HashCash Consultants has also shown its intention of streamlining the complex process of drug research and clinical trials with blockchain.

Image via Shutterstock

Texas Man Charged for Using COVID-19 Small Business Relief Funds to Buy Crypto

A Texas resident named Joshua Thomas Argires has been charged by US authorities for using funds from a COVID-19 relief program to trade cryptocurrencies.

The criminal charge was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. Argires was taken into custody for fraudulently securing more than $1.1 million in a Payment Protection Program (PPP) which he invested in a cryptocurrency account.

Violation of the CARES Act is a Crime

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act is a Federal law enacted on March 29. It was enacted to help Small Business Administrators (SBA) to access emergency financial assistance to combat the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. One major source of relief the CARES Act provides is the authorization of up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses through the PPP. In April 2020, Congress authorized over $300 billion in additional PPP funding. These funds were approved to be digitally distributed to qualifying small businesses back in April.

Joshua Argires is one of many US citizens that has been charged in recent times based on violations of the CARES Act. He claimed the funds through the companies Texas Barbecue and Houston Landscaping. According to the statement issued:

“Neither Texas Barbecue nor Houston Landscaping has employees or pays wages consistent with the amounts claimed in the PPP loan applications. The complaint further asserts that both of these loans were funded, but that none of the funds were used for payroll or other expenses authorized under the PPP. Rather, the funds received on behalf of Texas Barbecue were invested in a cryptocurrency account, while the funds obtained for Houston Landscaping were held in a bank account and slowly depleted via ATM withdrawals, according to the charges.”

Following these questionable allegations, Argires made his first appearance before the US Magistrate Judge Peter Bray on Monday.

Blockchain Firms Also Benefited From COVID-19 Relief Funds

Besides the role that blockchain technology is playing to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic, blockchain inventions were also considered as a potential channel for the disbursement of the funds. In addition to these, blockchain firms (particularly Tron) also benefited from the US government COVID-19 relief funds as it was awarded $2 million.

Green Lights to Texas State Chartered Banks to Provide Virtual Currency Custody Services

Texas state-chartered banks get the green light Thursday from the regulator in Texas of the United States for providing customer custody virtual currencies services.

According to the Texas Department of Banking official documents, Texas state-chartered banks can now provide virtual currency custody services. The bank needs to have sufficient agreements to manage risks and compliances with existing applicable laws effectively.

Official documents state that the guidelines do not represent new laws but are based on Texas’s currently growing cryptocurrency industry decisions.

Marcus Adams, Assistant General Counsel for the Banking Industry of Texas, commented:

“Both at the state and federal regulatory agencies, we’re seeing a rise in the virtual currency industry as it continues to evolve, We expect our banks to start seeing demand from their customers and we want them to be prepared for that.”

Banks can choose which type of virtual currency custody service to provide based on their professional knowledge, risk appetite, and business model.

The bank may choose not to directly control the customer’s virtual currency and only store the customer’s virtual currency copy and the private key associated with the virtual currency.

In another way, the bank allows customers to transfer their virtual currency to the bank directly, and the bank holds its direct control and creates a new private key, which the bank holds on behalf of the customer.

For the provision of virtual currency services, the bank monitors related risks, guarantees the security of access, and ensures that insurance institutions have sufficient coverage.

Last year, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) already accepted all nationally chartered banks in the U.S. to provide custody services for cryptocurrencies since July 22 2020.

Texas City Fort Worth Becomes First Government to Mine Bitcoin in the US

The adoption of Bitcoin has become more significant at the city level in the United States. Fort Worth, a city in Texas State, announced Tuesday that it has become the first city to mine Bitcoin in the US.

The city, which is ranked the 12th largest and home to over 800,000 residents, said this initiative is a partnership with Texas Blockchain Council – a non-profit association made up of companies and individuals that work in Bitcoin, Bitcoin mining, crypto and blockchain industries.

In its statement, the city government said initially it will utilise three S9 Bitcoin mining machines, placing them in its city hall for the mining operations, which are donated by Texas Blockchain Council. The government added that these facilities will be protected by a private network to “minimise security risk,” Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker hold the launching ceremony and said:

“With blockchain technology and cryptocurrency revolutionizing the financial landscape, we want to transform Fort Worth into a tech-friendly city.”

Parker believes the city would be positioning itself to be the “capital of Bitcoin mining of Texas”. The administration aims at becoming a leading hub for technology and innovation, according to the statement.

Yet, the process of Bitcoin mining is regarded as not environmental-friendly enough, as mining methods are usually based on Proof-of-Work (PoW), instead of Proof-of-Stake (PoS), and PoW is considered more energy-intensive, requiring more energy input which could be harmful to the environment. The government said, “the city estimates each will consume the same amount of energy as a household vacuum cleaner,” based on the number and type of machines being used, adding that the energy it uses for mining would be less: “the nominal amount of energy needed for the program is expected to be offset by the value of Bitcoin mined.” The programme would be evaluated after six months, according to the official information.

More enterprises are trying to put efforts into mining Bitcoin, for instance, U.S.-based energy operator ExxonMobil recently launched a pilot programme to conduct Bitcoin mining by converting excess energy through the production of natural gas.

Texas itself is also becoming a Bitcoin-friendly State. More crypto services have been applied domestically. Last June, Texas state-chartered banks got permission from the state regulator to provide customer custody virtual currencies services.

Image source: Mattie Parker

Mining company Argo Blockchain to Launch Flagship Mining Facility in Texas

The London-listed Bitcoin mining company Argo Blockchain will officially launch its flagship mining facility Helios in Texas next week.

According to the company’s filings with the London Stock Exchange, The first phase of development of Helios will utilize 200 MW of power generation capacity, and Argo’s hash rate will increase by 243% and is expected to reach 5.5 EH/s by the end of 2022.

Per the filing, Helios also has up to 600 MW of additional generating capacity, enabling Argo’s operations to grow significantly to more than 20 EH/s.

Argo Blockchain has been making an emphatic move into the North American market in the past few years, citing the cheap and renewable energy sources available in various areas in the region.

Argo Blockchain has signed a partnership agreement with Core Scientific, and the two parties will exchange their respective bitcoin mining machines in the coming months.

The installation of the Bitmain S19J Pro mining rig has already started and will continue until July.

Argo Blockchain had been building out the data centre in Texas, drawing on support through a short-term loan of $20 million it secured from Galaxy Digital back in June last year.

Texas Bitcoin Miners Agree to Reduce Power Usage

The Texas Blockchain Council, a trade association representing the Bitcoin mining industry in Texas, announced on Saturday that crypto miners have responded to the conservation notice issued by ERCOT on Friday.

The Texas Blockchain Council said that Bitcoin miners within the state have agreed not only to shut down some crypto mining facilities but also to reduce mining productions during afternoon hours when power is in high demand. The miners will turn on their mining rigs during overnight hours when power demand decreases, the council stated.

The blockchain council revealed that the practice will be beneficial during times when energy needs to be shifted back to the grid to meet high demand.

The council said that miners who are already registered in ancillary services within ERCOT are ready to power down according to ERCOT’s directives.

According to the blockchain council, as the Bitcoin mining industry matures, more and more load will have the technical capability to take advantage of controllable load resources and demand response, therefore creating more dispatchable load that could be used by all Texas consumers at times of peak demand.

Lee Bratcher, the President of the Texas Blockchain Council, talked about the development and said: “In addition to bringing jobs and tax revenue to rural areas of Texas, many of which are in need of economic revitalization, the bitcoin mining industry also provides greater grid resilience by acting as a controllable load. Bitcoin miners can turn off within just a few seconds which makes them a perfect resource for the grid regarding frequency balancing and demand response.”

Samantha Robertson, Business Development lead at Bitdeer cryptocurrency cloud mining service platform, also commented: “Due to unseasonably hot temperatures and unexpected drop in generation within the ERCOT system, Bitdeer powered down the entirety of our data centre in Rockdale on Friday, except for capacity enrolled in responsive reserves. We expect that capacity to be called back and will immediately respond when prompted by ERCOT.”

Bracing for Power Impacts

In the past, crypto miners in Texas have cooperated with authorities to help ease the burden on the state’s already struggling power grid.

ERCOT (the Electric Reliability Council of Texas) is the organization tasked with operating the power grid within the state.

Many crypto miners in Texas have voluntarily collaborated to manage their power consumption as needed to ensure there is no extreme stress on the ERCOT grid.

ERCOT requires a perfect balance between demand and supply to ensure the power grid runs smoothly.

ERCOT has struggled with irregular power services and fluctuating energy prices for years. That is the reason why it continues to strike deals with flexible energy buyers such as crypto miners. Texas miners have been coordinating with ERCOT to get ahead of any potential problems with the grid.

Argo Blockchain Announces 1st Quarter Financial Results

Argo Blockchain has released its financial report for the first quarter of 2022. It showed total quarterly revenue of $19.52 million, up from $17.84 million in the same period last year, attributed to an increase in hash rate over the past year.

The London-listed Bitcoin mining company said factors such as changes in the fair value of digital currencies for the three months ended March 31, 2022. The company’s net income for the first quarter of 2022 was $2.1 million, compared to $25.3 million a year ago.

Gross profit was $1.92 million compared to $27.13 million in the first quarter of 2021.

Argo Blockchain is a global data centre for business that provides a powerful and efficient platform for cryptocurrency mining operations.

As the London-listed Bitcoin mining company Argo Blockchain officially launched its flagship mining facility Helios in Texas this month, the Bitcoin mining hash rate is expected to jump from late last year’s 1.6 EH/s to 5.5 EH/s by the end of 2022.

Argo Blockchain said 470 bitcoins were produced in the quarter, an increase of about 21% from the 387 in the same quarter of 2021, with a mining profit margin of 76% and an average cost of $9,779 per bitcoin.

As of April 30, Argo owned about 2,700 bitcoins and bitcoin equivalents, all of which were mined by the company itself, the company said.

Argo has borrowed $70.6 million in recent weeks from a New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) subsidiary to expand its 200-megawatt Helios, Texas, infrastructure project, which is expected to rise to 800 megawatts.

CEO Peter Wall added: “To be a successful miner you need three components – power, miners, and capital. We already have a strong foundation for growth at Helios with our access to 800 MW of power capacity.”

Argo Blockchain had been building out the data centre in Texas, drawing on support through a short-term loan of $20 million it secured from Galaxy Digital back in June last year.

According to the company’s official website, they champion the use of renewable sources of power to support the growth and development of blockchain technologies.

Crypto Miners in Texas Halted Due to Extreme Heat

Many crypto miners have shut down operations due to a heatwave in Texas.

With temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit already in most areas, the Electric Reliability Commission of Texas (ERCOT) on Sunday urged Texas residents and businesses to save electricity.

Crypto miners have stopped mining operations, fearing that the state’s electrical energy may not be able to meet electricity needs, such as turning on air conditioners for long periods of time.

Crypto miner Core Scientific tweeted a notice that to help people in Texas, all Core Scientific ASIC servers located in the state have been shut down and will remain closed until further notice.

ERCOT (Electrical Reliability Commission of Texas) is the organization responsible for operating the state’s electrical grid.

Many crypto miners in Texas have voluntarily cooperated to manage their power consumption as needed to ensure that the ERCOT grid is not under extreme stress. ERCOT requires a perfect balance between demand and supply to ensure the smooth operation of the grid.

Demands could hit a record 79,615 megawatts (MW), the group said. And ERCOT reported on Sunday that wind energy is “producing significantly less electricity than it has historically produced during the period” — less than 8% of capacity is expected to peak at demand.

Miners registered with ERCOT’s ancillary services are ready to shut down power at ERCOT’s direction due to the unusually high temperatures and the drop in wind power generation from the ERCOT system, available to all Texas consumers during periods of peak demand.

Many famous mining companies settle down in Texas so far. The London-listed Bitcoin mining company Argo Blockchain is one of the mining firms that officially launched its flagship mining facility Helios in Texas in May. In June, Riot Blockchain said it planned to ship the “remaining fleet of S19 miners” from New York to Texas,