Cryptocurrency mining is hampering the search for alien life
It turns out that high-end graphics cards are fantastic for mining non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies, which has led to a global shortage of GPUs. Gamers are livid at the lack of supply, especially as prices skyrocket on secondary markets. But they're not the only ones with ruined dreams: The shortage has stalled plans to expand the search for alien life. Search For Extraterrestrial Life (SETI) researchers want to build out their operations at two facilities, BBC reported , but they can't find GPUs to buy. "We'd like to use the latest GPUs [graphics processing units]... and we can't get 'em," SETI chief scientist Dan Werthimer told the BBC. "This is a new problem, it's only happened on orders we've been trying to make in the last couple of months." Crudely speaking, cryptocurrency miners harness the great processing power of GPUs to work out complex math problems that, when solved, grant coin portions as a payday. SETI researchers need ...