It was announced this week by GMO Internet, a Japanese technology company which owns cryptocurrency exchange GMO Coin, that they would be utilizing an ICO to help launch its bitcoin mining business, first announced back in September.
The company said they would establish a token sale (ICO) during 2018 through which they will use a mechanism to sell their “next generation mining board.” The policy to issue a token will be a means to purchase the mining board.
GMO will mine bitcoin utilizing next-generation 7-nanometer technology semiconductor chips. 7nm chips are designed to be much smaller and more power efficient. The mining operations are scheduled to start with 500PH/s in 1H of FY2018.
GMO has already in the process of setting up mining centers in Scandinavian countries with plentiful renewable energy. After the facilities are ready, the company will start mining using ready-made mining computers ahead of full-scale entry by the end of December 2017.
Under consideration developments of GMO’s bitcoin mining business include:
(1) Cloud Mining Business – a service that allows individuals and businesses to easily enter into mining by selling the mining resources from GMO’s data center for small fees.
(2) Selling next-generation mining board – after manufacturing, GMO is considering to its “next generation mining board” to the outside, where the token sale comes into play, although much of the announcement left a lot of questions.
(3) Supply to GMO Coin – the mining business will supply bitcoins and other mined currency to GMO Coin Co., which is a group company of GMO Internet.