Bitcoin Mining Goes Supercharged

[SkribbelKat]

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?

Stanford University is profiting greatly from publishing F@H results?

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.

Even the tinfoil hat types that argue there's a huge conspiracy to keep whatever cure there is off the market don't realize that as long as the solutions aren't widely known, there will be efforts to find it. Eventually someone who isn't rubbing their hands gleefully and saying, "We have this cure, but we will hide it from the world! Mwa ha ha!" will bumble across it and put it out there. That works the same way for this whole huge fuel conspiracy that obviously has all the companies involved in any way with the creation or consumption of fuel wrapped up in it with not a single whistleblower having uttered a peep about it since that 70's gas crisis thing when the conspiracy obviously started.

 

[dandirk]

"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.

It may happen, CPU mining gave way to GPU mining... GPU "farms" popped up, while they don't make btc mining obsolete for the lone hobbyist, they did reduce income. Similar thing will probably happen with ASICs, where it really will only be "worthwhile" to people that just want a hobby or those willing to invest a few thousand. (some on btc forums say they know people that have already invested in 100k+ in asic). A account for this there are mining pools you can join, which pools hashing power so BTC found is more consistent and levels the ebb/flow of luck when mining on your own.

Also know that BTC mining will end in about 4 years (estimate). Not only is BTC mining self-leveling in "output of new btc" but also # of BTC is finite. Once 21 million (think that's the number) is mined, no more BTC will be found. We are about 1/2 way there already.

To those that say BTC is a sham or not real currency, currently you are sort of right. Everyday BTC is accepted as payment on more and more services (legit services too like Word Press). Silk Road the ebay of drugs is thought to do more then 1 million sales each month purely in BTC.

BTC is becoming more and more viable everyday, but I suspect it will always be a second tier currency.

 

[mike938]

It may happen, CPU mining gave way to GPU mining... GPU "farms" popped up, while they don't make btc mining obsolete for the lone hobbyist, they did reduce income. Similar thing will probably happen with ASICs, where it really will only be "worthwhile" to people that just want a hobby or those willing to invest a few thousand. (some on btc forums say they know people that have already invested in 100k+ in asic). A account for this there are mining pools you can join, which pools hashing power so BTC found is more consistent and levels the ebb/flow of luck when mining on your own.

Also know that BTC mining will end in about 4 years (estimate). Not only is BTC mining self-leveling in "output of new btc" but also # of BTC is finite. Once 21 million (think that's the number) is mined, no more BTC will be found. We are about 1/2 way there already.

To those that say BTC is a sham or not real currency, currently you are sort of right. Everyday BTC is accepted as payment on more and more services (legit services too like Word Press). Silk Road the ebay of drugs is thought to do more then 1 million sales each month purely in BTC.

BTC is becoming more and more viable everyday, but I suspect it will always be a second tier currency.

Mining will never end. If it does, there will no longer be any way to confirm transactions and bitcoin would be dead. While bitcoin generation through mining will end (in a very, very long time--much longer than 4 years) it will continue in order to secure the bitcoin network as well as profit via transaction fees, which will likely become more substantial when the block generation reward is smaller.

 

[Mega2]

I'm sorry to break the deillusion, but bitcoins have been hacked already, and it will be again. It doesn't matter if you invest real dollars into the system it does not validate its value. Also digital currency is a worst idea than fiat currency. There is no better scammers in the world than those that convince the populace that a system is unhackable or uncorruptable.

 

[calikool]

I'm not really following all the fuss for Bitcoin. It would seem the power used to mine far exceeds the value of the bitcoin reward.

 

[mike938]

I'm sorry to break the deillusion, but bitcoins have been hacked already, and it will be again. It doesn't matter if you invest real dollars into the system it does not validate its value. Also digital currency is a worst idea than fiat currency. There is no better scammers in the world than those that convince the populace that a system is unhackable or uncorruptable.

Can you cite when/where/how the bitcoin network was hacked?
Or are you just referring to bitcoin-related websites that were hacked? (Exchanges etc)

If it is just the related websites, as I expect, that's like saying the USD was hacked if Chase bank got hacked.

I'm not really following all the fuss for Bitcoin. It would seem the power used to mine far exceeds the value of the bitcoin reward.

For many people this is true-so they don't mine. For others, the price of electricity is low enough that it can be very profitable.
At some points (lower mining difficulty) it was worth mining with CPU or GPUs and the power consumption would easily be paid for through that. As more people started to mine, difficulty increased and profits decreased. With the advent of FPGA (and now ASIC) mining power efficiency increased making it more profitable using those devices. (60GH vs 1.2GH or so for ASIC vs GPUs with the same power consumption I believe)

 

[buzzbomb]

I'm sorry to break the deillusion, but bitcoins have been hacked already, and it will be again.

More FUD from those who don't even understand the concept. The block chain might have been rerouted/hijacked, but the network is self-healing; any ill-gotten BTC were also invalidated.

 

[buzzbomb]

I'm not really following all the fuss for Bitcoin. It would seem the power used to mine far exceeds the value of the bitcoin reward.

If you mine solo, it is a losing proposition due to the relatively high difficulty. If you mine in a pool and get paid proportionally to the work you completed, you can make more than break-even taking into account hardware efficiency, electricity costs, amortization of hardware, etc.

 

[TCM]

The second batch of Avalon V1s is available to order now for $1,499, and the company has also made a $499 upgrade module available that adds around 25 percent more mining power to existing units.

LOL. If you cater to the math-challenged, at least make it less obvious.

 

[mike938]

LOL. If you cater to the math-challenged, at least make it less obvious.

That's actually a mistake. It's a 33% increase in performance. The addon, once installed, would be 25% of the total hashing power.

The avalon website says the base is 66GH/s+ and the addon adds 22GH/s more. The base model has 3 chips, the addon is a 4th. (To the best of my knowledge)

 

[TCM]

I see. Today's "journalism"

 

[Rylan]

There are so many uninformed comments in this thread. If you're going to trash on bitcoin, at least make a semi-intelligent, reason-based argument so there's a starting point for a rebuttal.

 

[trasixes]

Bitcoin mining isn't for the faint of heart these days, but before folks went nuts and filled their basements with PCs mining 24-7, it was very profitable. I made a couple grand, then bailed out completely because the cost to keep up with other miners went beyond the level of risk I was willing to take. At that time, there were people shelling out several grand in rigs and energy costs in hopes of making their money back, and turning a profit before the next big jump in difficulty came.

Instead, I've found a better source of "free" income that needs only one rig, and has little risk. No, I won't share it with you

 

[dgz]

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.

Good thing you caught me on my hate against young people lol. FFS, dude, I assumed he has no access to fabs and was wrong. Burn me at the stake now.

 

[Yakk]

I stopped mining a while back, but still very interested in how bitcoins & the bitcoin economy are developing. The auto-leveling of difficulty will adjust, the best you can aim for is a short term gain while our does.

As for hacking bitcoins... Good luck there I guess, I'm sure there are plenty already trying their best.

 

[TCM]

As for hacking bitcoins... Good luck there I guess, I'm sure there are plenty already trying their best.

Why hack the algorithm if you can hack the implementation.

So far I've heard of at least a handful of regular breakins where bitcoin wallets were stolen because they weren't properly secured.

 

[Yakk]

Why hack the algorithm if you can hack the implementation.

So far I've heard of at least a handful of regular breakins where bitcoin wallets were stolen because they weren't properly secured.

So what you are saying is :

Why figure out a way to print your own money when you can steal it?

What makes that special in bitcoins over paper money?