According to Moore's Law, PC power doubles every 18 months. Some would argue that the speed at which this increases could be heavily attributed to gaming.

And now NVIDIA, the leader in high-end graphics cards, has come out against retailers who are selling their cards to cryptominers.

Here's their official statement from NVIDIA spokesman Boris Böhles:

"For NVIDIA, gamers come first. All activities related to our GeForce product line are targeted at our main audience. To ensure that GeForce gamers continue to have good GeForce graphics card availability in the current situation, we recommend that our trading partners make the appropriate arrangements to meet gamers' needs as usual".

Cryptocurrency can be mined through CPU power (from your processor) or GPU power (through your graphics card). Mining through CPU uses less resources from your computer, but is significantly less powerful. GPU power is several thousand times stronger, which gives users a greater return on their usage.

(There are some coins, like Monero, which only have a minimal benefit from GPU mining.)

Graphics cards have nearly doubled in price in the past six months. The GeForce GTX 1080 sells for nearly $1600, while some higher end Radeon cards sell for nearly $2000.

As if that wasn't enough, the increase in demand has lead to shortages in supply. Understandably, NVIDIA is worried that their core market is unable to buy their products.

But is this really bad for the graphics card manufacturer? Their products are flying off the shelves and in extremely high demand.

Case in point, their stock price has more than doubled since May 2017 - up from $103 to hovering around $230 right now. Investors are happy - so what does it matter if gamers aren't?

Of course, retailers can do whatever they want. But with mining effort being such incredibly profitable ventures, it seems like the shortage in high end graphics cards isn't going anywhere any time soon.

So why is NVIDIA so worried?

If we take a look at history, there was a massive flooding of high end graphics cards in the market after the cryptocurrency market crashed in 2014. Radeon, the maker of the most powerful cards at the time, was unable to sell their inventory due to the massive surplus.

Nobody knows what's going to happen in the cryptocurrency market. It's new territory for all parties involved. But one thing is for sure: crypto is a goldmine right now. You could literally take a shit and write "crypto" on it and people would trample each other to buy some.

What do you think about NVIDIA's stance on selling GPUs to miners? Should they let capitalism run its course or should they try to enact some kind of regulation on retailers? Let me know in a comment below!

Check out some of my other posts here:

• Japan's Largest Bank Set To Open Cryptocurrency Exchange In April 2018
• There Is Now A Japanese Cryptocurrency-Themed Pop Group
• WaltonChain (WTC) Voted #1 At SE Asia Blockchain Summit... but who cares?
• Basic Attention Token (BAT) - another token that unsuccessfully answers the question, "Why not just use an ad blocker?"
• Request Network (REQ) setting up a $30 million dollar fund for startups
• If Warren Buffett Invested In Crypto, He Would Stock Up Now While The Market Is Collapsing
• Dispelling The Myths Behind Tron (TRX), The Most Misunderstood Coin In Crypto
• VeChain (VEN) Being Shilled HARD In r/Cryptocurrency - 50 Posts In The Last Week

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