Analysts at RBC Capital Markets think that Nvidia Corp. NVDA, -1.70% will continue to benefit from the mining of cryptocurrencies in 2018, even if the Ethereum blockchain moves past the use of graphics-processing units as Bitcoin BTCUSD, -4.91% has. The analysts pointed out that there are plenty of newer cryptocurrencies for which miners could use GPUs, including monero, bitcoin gold and ethereum classic. "The near-term dynamics remain positive and without a material change to the algorithm we find it highly unlikely the opportunity goes to zero next year," they wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. "Importantly, even if the algorithms change to proof of stake long term, we believe that the need to build out a decentralized world computer will command material compute power benefiting companies such as Nvidia," they added. Susquehanna analyst Chris Rolland made a similar point about Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, +2.78% in a Tuesday note, pointing out that Ethereum joining Bitcoin as an ASIC-driven mining task would be a "modest negative" for those two companies. Nvidia shares have gained 75% so far this year, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index SOX, -0.82% is up 36% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.23% is up 19% https://www.marketwatch.com/story/nvidia-crypto-mining-opportunities-likely-to-persist-in-2018-analyst-2017-12-13