It’s a strange but true sign that the cryptocurrency craze is bleeding into the real world — with speculators taxing electrical grids and silicon supplies in their quest to make digital money.

“We need as many as we can find,” said Donnie Williams, 36, a Novato resident, as he and his business partner David Miller, 47, of Pleasanton, paid $1,000 for the only graphics card in stock one day last week at Central Computers near the Moscone Center. The two needed the card to add to five they had already installed in their computing rig inside Miller’s home.

People who help mine, or create, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are snapping up the processors as the currencies have soared in value. Whenever people buy and sell these digital coins, the transaction is verified through a series of complex mathematical computations. Whoever does that math earns some currency themselves. The high-end chips in graphics cards process those computations faster, accelerating miners’ earnings.

SF Chronicle

By Benny Evangelista
January 29, 2018 Updated: January 30, 2018 6:00am