The sudden escalation in value of computer-generated cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin has sparked a frenzy in South Africa, leading to shortages of the computer equipment that underpins this new industry. Bitcoins can be bought on the open market — the value has fluctuated between $4,000 and $5,000 (about R50,000 and R65,000) per bitcoin in recent weeks — or "mined" by running complex operations on a computer to validate transactions. Initially, miners used spare computing power for this process, but mining has become a massive industry in its own right. The more bitcoins are available on the market, the fewer become available for mining, and the greater the processing power required. As a result, there has been a gold rush — not for bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, but for the computer components needed for mining, including motherboards, computer processors and graphics cards. Demand for graphics cards, or graphics processing units, which are intended for enhanced display and ...
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