China-based Bitcoin mining leader Bitmain is apparently looking to aggressively increase its R&D hiring, including a push to significantly grow its high-tech offices in Israel, where the company currently has about 15 employees.
Israel business news source Globes is reporting that Bitmain representatives have informed that the company is actively looking to add 40 employees to its Raanana offices, including researchers, programmers, engineers and marketing personnel. Globally, Bitmain currently has about 250 employees.
Gadi Glikberg, Bitmain
Bitmain’s Israel office is headed by former Intel hardware designer and Evolven Software executive Gadi Glikberg. He also has the title of VP International Sales & Marketing at Bitmain,
While the cryptocurrency market has cooled somewhat with Bitcoin prices down about 66% from 2017 year-end highs, and as volatility in cryptos has tempered, some of the establishment companies in the sector such as Bitmain are taking advantage to increase their own operations ahead of the (seemingly inevitable) next wave of interest.
Based in Beijing, Bitmain was established to develop and sell the world’s leading bitcoin miners using the company’s ASIC chip technology. In 2016 Bitmain released the Antminer S9, the world’s first consumer-grade bitcoin miner based on a 16nm process ASIC chip. This is (according to the company) the world’s most power-efficient bitcoin miner, taking that title away from its predecessor, the Antminer S7. Bitmain mining brands include Antminer, Antpool, and Hashnest.