Bitcoin Mining Goes Supercharged

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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A 23 year old Brooklyn man has released chips that mine Bitcoins at an accelerated rate. That’s accelerated with a capital ‘A’ seeing how his creation jumped the rate 50 times faster than ever before. His invention is called the Avalon V1 and the asking price is not for the faint of heart.

Given the current Bitcoin market, where prices change everyday, the Bitcoin Foundation estimates that one of Guo's new chips will initially net buyers anywhere between $200 to $300 in Bitcoins per day
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Blah, blah, blah -- indignant rant about the Fiat 500 and how bitcoins are the way of the future that will be the bringer of light for all the corruption of the world.

And that article must have been written by an old person, ("Thanks to a 23-year-old kid from Brooklyn..") who thinks anyone under 50 is "some young whipper snapper" or something. :rolleyes:
 
Skripka said:
The guys selling the damn thing will reap 99% more money that the suckers that buy them net in mining.
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Yep. If only a few buy them, maybe not. But this guy will probably sell a ton and drive the value down.
 
Can't wait to see buttcoin value get piledriven through the floor. Maybe then this fad will die.
 
I though noone know how bitcoin algorithm worksand that was the whole idea of the bitcoin but this guy found the way to optimize it? Really? :)

Still, the whole bitcoin idea looks ridiculous. But with so many victims who fall for it it is not ridiculous for the guy who invented it :)
 
bitcoins are nice causes you can get things you just can't normally get with normal money cough silkroad cough
 
Did he use FPGA arrays or something? Can't see 23 year old manufacturing actual chips.
 
ASICs were used in the Avalon. Might be a "fad" as you so put it, but countries are looking into doing more or less this same idea for themselves, so it may not be a passing fad as you may see it.

And hey, the whole point of it was initially to use cpu to "crunch" then GPU/FPGA and now ASIC, its definately not slowing down anytime soon, the "reward" at least is real and tangbile, I know, cause I still mine :)
 
dgz said:
Did he use FPGA arrays or something? Can't see 23 year old manufacturing actual chips.
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^Too lazy to even read. Typical slug.


"....released the first batch of ASICs, which are chips custom-built to do one thing: mine Bitcoins...."
 
dgz said:
Did he use FPGA arrays or something? Can't see 23 year old manufacturing actual chips.
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A lot of people younger than 25 have done amazing things that will probably far outstrip anything you will ever do. I personally know someone who created a billion dollar business by 25. Stop discriminating based on age, and judge people based on their merits.
 
Interesting but butterfly labs unit puts out the same G/hash as this thing for $200 less and only uses only a fraction of the power. These will only be relevant until BFL gets their act together.
 
Being a DC enthusiast I tried mining briefly. Had to check it out cause I had a 7950 at the time and it was nearly useless for folding. The gains were nonexistent, it's too far into the game, you'd have to have a massive gpu array to even have reasonable odds of solving a block, and if you join up with a team (or whatever they were called) you got like fractions of % of the value of the coins. Maybe I'm just a nub and I was doing it wrong, but it seems foolish. I prefer the jet engines on my desk to be making a fuss for a reason lol.
 
almalino said:
I though noone know how bitcoin algorithm worksand that was the whole idea of the bitcoin but this guy found the way to optimize it? Really? :)

Still, the whole bitcoin idea looks ridiculous. But with so many victims who fall for it it is not ridiculous for the guy who invented it :)
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You don't have to know the exact algorithm to make a more efficient machine.

For instance if you find a particular task seems to use 100% 32-bit integer calculations and nothing else, you could make an ASIC that does nothing but 32-bit integer calculations and completely ignore floating point units (among a lot of other things).
 
Lol Butterfly Labs and their pre-order customers got freaking screwed, which is pretty much par for course for Bitcoin "business" dealings.
 
Red Machine D said:
Can't wait to see buttcoin value get piledriven through the floor. Maybe then this fad will die.
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What this will do is elevate the difficulty of the production, thus people with GFX rigs will no longer be able to make a significant profit - they'll have to buy these special rigs to keep up. Once that happens,these rigs production amount will realign itself with what a GFX farming rig used to be able to do because of the new difficulty ratio. Rinse and repeat for version 2.

Early adopters will win for a month or so.
 
Neurofreeze said:
You don't have to know the exact algorithm to make a more efficient machine.

For instance if you find a particular task seems to use 100% 32-bit integer calculations and nothing else, you could make an ASIC that does nothing but 32-bit integer calculations and completely ignore floating point units (among a lot of other things).
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I'm curious. How could you tell that from a program?
 
I never liked bit coins. I can invent the fastest bit coin generator better than this guy.

Put a monkey in front of a keyboard and make it keep typing 0 after the first digit. You will see your $B turn into gilliziilllionexalion.
 
BombermanX said:
A lot of people younger than 25 have done amazing things that will probably far outstrip anything you will ever do. I personally know someone who created a billion dollar business by 25. Stop discriminating based on age, and judge people based on their merits.
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Yes, the greatest things are done before age 25. Though skillful mental and physical performance peaks at 27

Oh, for the glory of youth!
 
ninjaturtle said:
So, um, how many of you use BCs?
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I'm typing this on a rig paid in full with profits (after energy costs) from bitcoin mining.
Triple 24" Dell U2410 1920x1200 Eyefinity with dual 7970s
My brother's PC has another 7970 and another Dell U2410 paid with bitcoin profits as well.

Got in before the epic jump to $32 per coin early on and made a killing. Then I churned some 100 or so leftover coins in the market and made steady cash for a few months. I cashed out when I saw them jump to $15 (from $8). Wish I had kept them though because they are nearly $20 today and have been incredibly stable and gaining value since cashing out.

http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/


Mega2 said:
I never liked bit coins.
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Hmm let's see, could this be unfounded bias borne out of ignorance?

I can invent the fastest bit coin generator better than this guy.
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Hmm bold claim, this guy might be some kind of awesome programmer that understands cryptography and can apply his expertise to monetary systems. Let's hear him out.

Put a monkey in front of a keyboard and make it keep typing 0 after the first digit. You will see your $B turn into gilliziilllionexalion.
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Oh no, never mind. Bias based on ignorance it is.
 
A lot of really stupid comments on here show an obvious lack of understanding as to how this works. You know there are a limited number of bitcoins to (ever) be mined right? The rate they are mined is constant. Using something like this just increases the likelyhood that you will mine the next coin instead of the guy down the street. The 'secret algorithm' is not so secret. You are number grinding and the method to do it is a google search away, hence why something like this card can be designed and built. I won't get into why or why not someone would use/trust bitcoin, but it is good to at least know how something works before dumping on it. This card is kind of a neat device, even if it does end up making more cash for the guy selling them than the people who buy them. I seem to recall a lot of people on here liking physX cards back in the day (or folding), and this device is not that different from a card dedicated to something like that.
 
dragonstongue said:
Might be a "fad" as you so put it, but countries are looking into doing more or less this same idea for themselves, so it may not be a passing fad as you may see
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The general principle of Bitcoin has huge implications from a government point of view. It would allow them to outlaw cash and move to a system that tracks not only your purchases but your income. Tax assessment would be much more accurate and they could "ban" you from making purchases. Meanwhile it would still give them a back door to inject money as needed.
 
SkribbelKat said:
Blah, blah, blah -- indignant rant about the Fiat 500 and how bitcoins are the way of the future that will be the bringer of light for all the corruption of the world.

And that article must have been written by an old person, ("Thanks to a 23-year-old kid from Brooklyn..") who thinks anyone under 50 is "some young whipper snapper" or something. :rolleyes:
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Sorry but the author is Evan Rodgers he looks like he is 30 himself form his page here. http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/1/3941768/new-chips-mine-bitcoins-50-times-faster
 
Those that don't keep an eye on bitcoin probably don't know this... but 3-4 companies have been working on ASIC processors for btc mining. These ships can are literally 10x faster then GPUs for about 2x the price (roughly).

Some one mentioned that BFL pre-orders are screwed... well Avalon's shipping numbers are very low so not yet. The ones screwed were customers of Basic, who essentially collapsed to the point of telling customers to charge back via CC to get their money back.

BTC isn't a get rich quick scheme cause they really don't exist. Some people are speculating that you can make more from BTC just inventing like any other currency on the market. Yes the early adopters will do better, but the mining system (As someone mentioned), is self leveling... more miners=more difficult to mine. Essentially the system adjusts each week to so 25 BTC are "discovered" every 10 min on average. The early adopters will have a month or 2 of escalated earnings which will just mean their break-even time frame will be faster then others. The mining system will equalize so break-even will be close to a year similar to now.

The ASIC chips are just another evolution of btc mining just like GPUs, when GPUs started mining it make CPU mining obsolete and a money loser. The same thing will happen to GPU mining after a month or 2 of serious ASIC shippings in March.
 
The problem here is that early adopters will get screwed in 6 months when people mass produce a more efficient product for *much* cheaper -- I'm sure an intel engineer could change things massively on his lunch break
 
lots of good points from those that know what they are talking about.

Governments are looking into "similar" not bitcoin, but same concept, an alternative currency, that by itself has a specific "worth" and takes a specific "work" to make, decentralized is the whole concept behind this, will they ever do so, probably not, the whole thing behind bitcoin is, the "wallet" is the owner in essence, but who knows.

SHA256 is the crunching these units do to get the "work" which leads to the profit, which overall is the reason why GPU-FPGA-ASIC do so well, in GPU wise, Radeons demolish Geforce, just the specific arhitecture they have is easier to get the work performance from, and ASIC make Radeons look silly, they crunch the required numebrs faster, far more efficently but are "tuned" to only really do this function directly. Part of the reason most ASIC will not be able to do much else, they are built for the task at hand, and are not to my knowledge able to be reprogrammed as one sees fit, unlike FPGA which are but have nowhere near the same efficency/performance
 
jhambi said:
A lot of really stupid comments on here show an obvious lack of understanding as to how this works. You know there are a limited number of bitcoins to (ever) be mined right? The rate they are mined is constant. Using something like this just increases the likelyhood that you will mine the next coin instead of the guy down the street. The 'secret algorithm' is not so secret. You are number grinding and the method to do it is a google search away, hence why something like this card can be designed and built. I won't get into why or why not someone would use/trust bitcoin, but it is good to at least know how something works before dumping on it. This card is kind of a neat device, even if it does end up making more cash for the guy selling them than the people who buy them. I seem to recall a lot of people on here liking physX cards back in the day (or folding), and this device is not that different from a card dedicated to something like that.
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Ok comparing Folding@Home to Bitcoin mining is like comparing Oil drilling to a large charitable organization.

Folding actually benefits mankind in the sense that it helps us understand the nature of evolving diseases thus allowing us to create drugs targeted at mechanisms that allow them to thrive.

Bitcoin's are a questionable form of currency that got very popular until the value of them fell through the floor after being hacked. They are purely a "for" profit type of earning.

Its fine if you wish to Bitcoin mine , hell I even did some .. but don't compare it to something like Folding which is actually a meaningful pursuit at benefiting mankind.
 
hmm, who makes the "profit" from folding then, sure it helps mankind, but I bet you it helps the drug companies and such even more. Why spend all the $ on electiricty when someone can do the major crunching for you?

:p There is many reasons to do either, up to the individual, at least if you leave your computer on, you could in "theory" do both, fold and mine and help while still making some profit.

Folding I am sure is very beneficial, but am also sure that cure for cancer and the like, is held behind closed doors the same as the fuel companies do not want anything better then thier offering on the open market, don`t kid yourself sir.
 
dragonstongue said:
hmm, who makes the "profit" from folding then, sure it helps mankind, but I bet you it helps the drug companies and such even more. Why spend all the $ on electiricty when someone can do the major crunching for you?

:p There is many reasons to do either, up to the individual, at least if you leave your computer on, you could in "theory" do both, fold and mine and help while still making some profit.

Folding I am sure is very beneficial, but am also sure that cure for cancer and the like, is held behind closed doors the same as the fuel companies do not want anything better then thier offering on the open market, don`t kid yourself sir.
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Try writing a grant to get funding to build a supercomputer, they not only want your creds but also to know exactly down to make and part number what you're buying.

...by the time you have the proposal drafted and ready to send off to someone who has enough money to beg for money who has it by the asked for deadline, the computers you budgeted for are already nearing obsolescence. By the time you finally get money for building the damn computer, the hardware asked for originally is solidly 1 and on its way to 2 generations obsolete....By the time you have on OS written, a building to house it, and the damn thing plugged together and booted you're solidly 2 generations obsolete.

F@H data is used for researchers in academia and they also make the data available to others I believe. Getting millions upon millions to build supercomputers is damn hard, which is why it makes news when someone does it...which is why Stanford crowdsourced F@H in the firstplace, because it saves Stanford a crapload of money in addition to not having to burn endowment/grant money to build and maintain a supercomputer that is the latest/greatest hardware.
 
"However, that reward will quickly diminsh as the number of ASICs in use grows, since the crytographic "difficulty" of mining increases proportionally in order to prevent inflation."

It's good to know they have a system to keep things from devaluing too bad, but with all the new tech and developments going on it might get too high up there for people without warehouse of specialized machines.
 
I made a little over a hundred bucks but got started late, its pointless to mine now with videocards.
 
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