Bitcoin Mining - Game Changer?

[Alpha-9]

https://www.butterflylabs.com/products/
https://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator
Even the smallest can make per Day ฿0.69 which works out to $14.65

But so many people will have them that bitcoins will lose a lot of value
Anyone into the mining scene?

I casually leave my PC on guiminer and have made like 0.03 coins so far

We've preordered the jalapeno but my bro wants us to upgrade to the bigger one but I wasn't sure as it seems a bit like a snake oil money printer and could see it not working or the market being so fucked up that the coins will be worth a lot less, but then again if you get in at the beginning there could be some serious money to make

All very interesting to me

Slush's pool is a massive network of people mining which makes 2516.092 Ghash/s. the biggest butterfly labs can do 1500 ghash on it's own!

The first wave of stock will mostly be going to them and others so they are hard to get hold of, think the next wave isn't in til april

Nice to see investors taking bitcoin seriously though
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Fzr-600 1999

[Im-a-Ridah]

I've heard about it, but it does seem like a massive waste of computing power that could be used for other purposes.

[Suntan Sid]

I haven't got a fcukin' clue what you're talking about.
Try it again, preferably in English this time!
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"Everybody needs money, that's why they call it money!"

[pa_broon74]

[Minty]

I recently went through the rigmorol of buying a bitcoin so as to pay for 12 months membership to a NZB site. After 2 hours, I had one whole bitcoin. Went to send it to my NZB site only to find my bitcoin gets shaved as commission and I now had 0.86 of a Bitcoin.

I had to do the whole process again. Made my purchase and now have about 0.75 of a Bitcoin left out of the 2 I bought.

If these things are the future, you can keep them. I'd rather go without.
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My fingers smell of your mum.

[Im-a-Ridah]

The UK is probably quite a bad place to do this kind of thing anyway, considering the high cost of energy here.

[Minty]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

[Alpha-9]

[Suntan Sid]

Nah!
Still as clear as mud!
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"Everybody needs money, that's why they call it money!"

[GhostRider]

There was a big thread on Shroomery about this a while back.

The end conclusion was that unless you are stealing electric and/or GPUs, it isn't a profitable excercise.

There were pics of mining labs, 5 warehouse shelves stacked with GPUs side by side, it was pretty impressive, but again, they were stealing power.

[The Artist]

ASIC rigs have started to be shipped. I have been following this closely, out of interest, not because I want in. If I had a few £k then I might have pre ordered one but it would have been a big gamble. It still is IMO. Butterfly are yet to ship anything.

Butterfly have been hit by delays and in a business where days and weeks are crucial to success, then it is bad news.

Avalon have shipped their first batch already and the first users are making a lot of money. Pretty sure one person ordered 43 of the first 50 or so meaning they are raking it in. It takes ~8 days to make back your money from buying one of these rigs from Avalon at the moment at 60gh/s, but the thing about bitcoin is that it gets harder and harder to mine. Inflation controlling at its very best. Currently ~11 million bitcoins in circulation. Only 21 million can ever exist. No more printing money, it is a deflative currency unlike any other which encourages hoarding unfortunately.

ASIC chips are designed purely for bitcoin mining and nothing else which is why the big rush for who can be first to make a successful rig.

GPU mining is not profitable any more unless you get cheaper than average electricity.

tl;dr The longer you wait for your ASIC rig, the harder it becomes to mine and the less money you get per kw/h spent on leccy. This does not affect the value of BTC, only the value of mining. Obviously at the moment with BTC price so high, the value of mining does increase but the difficulty level of mining will soon catch up. As less people can mine profitably, the amount of bitcoins available for trading decreases and the price rises which in turn makes it worthwhile for miners to mine.

[Suntan Sid]

So, what I have gleaned so far:-

Nerds have invented their own currency, for exclusive use on the interwebz.
Somewhere down the line a “bitcoin” can be exchanged for or bought with real money!
Nerd “A” buys a doobree from Nerd ”B”, someone takes a commission from the transaction.

What is "mining"?
What are you "mining" for?
Do "bitcoins" fall out of, virtual, pockets and line the gutters of the information superhighway?
Why does it need so much computing power?

Explain yourselves, pseudo nerds!
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"Everybody needs money, that's why they call it money!"

[pa_broon74]

Normally when a concept is explained it becomes more clear.

In this instance, the oppposite is true.



PS: Don't worry, in some cases I believe ignorance is bliss and this is one of them.
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Didn't catch anything.

[The Artist]

So, what I have gleaned so far:-

Nerds have invented their own currency, for exclusive use on the interwebz.

Yes

Somewhere down the line a “bitcoin” can be exchanged for or bought with real money!

Yes, on exchanges such as mt.gox or bitbargain

Nerd “A” buys a doobree from Nerd ”B”, someone takes a commission from the transaction.

The miner takes the commission, that is how they earn. It is a small commission.

What is "mining"?

Mining in simple terms is decoding but it is limited in such a way that the technology does not exist to decode it all at once.

What are you "mining" for?

It isn't actual mining, that is just a term for putting "work" in and getting something out of it.

Do "bitcoins" fall out of, virtual, pockets and line the gutters of the information superhighway?

No, there is a limit to how many there ever can be but the value of them rises.

Why does it need so much computing power?

To control inflation.

Explain yourselves, pseudo nerds!

[daemonoid]

[Suntan Sid]

Nerds have invented their own currency, for exclusive use on the interwebz.
“Bitcoins” can be exchanged for or bought with real money, on exchanges such as mt.gox or bitbargain.
"The miner" takes a small commission, on a transaction.
"Mining" in simple terms is decoding but it is limited in such a way that the technology does not exist to decode it all at once
There is a limit to how many “Bitcoins” there ever can be but the value of them rises.

Mining, is a term for putting "work" in and getting something out of it. Eh.

How does computing power, control inflation

So why doesn't everyone buy their own "bitcoins" and cut out the, money sapping, "miners"?.
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"Everybody needs money, that's why they call it money!"

[daemonoid]

[LordShaftesbu...]

[UrbanRacer]

Once the ASIC hardware starts mining after the first 2000 coins or so the data that you need to mine will be harder and coins will be fewer.

ASIC's = fucking it up for everyone else.

[Tracey Suntan-King]

Mr Suntan........

Everybody needs Bitcoins, that's why they're called Bitcoins
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Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're probably right

[Tracey Suntan-King]

PS I found a couple down the back of the sofa, I'm going to check the armchairs now..........
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Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're probably right

[fatjames]

Can I make money while I'm on my pc or laptop? Can I run something on a freenas server to make money?

Is it difficult?

[Benson_JV]

[daemonoid]