It's vaporware at this point. People were saying the same things about the original mini rig and single but they ended up with actual specs much lower than the original rumored values.
this is completely wrong... Lets say the network hash rate went up by a actor of 1000. Difficulty goes up by a factor of 1000. Your 6990 miner now is making 1000 times less bitcoins per day. BUT the real question is this: did the value of bitcoin scale with the difficulty and now each bitcoin costs $8,000? If answer is yes, then all is well.
In fact, what I am describing has already happened in history:
Tulipomania
Pet peeve - something cannot be 1,000 times less than something else, assuming it can't go negative. Hell, 1.000000001 times less is negative.this is completely wrong... Lets say the network hash rate went up by a actor of 1000. Difficulty goes up by a factor of 1000. Your 6990 miner now is making 1000 times less bitcoins per day. BUT the real question is this: did the value of bitcoin scale with the difficulty and now each bitcoin costs $8,000? If answer is yes, then all is well.
Pet peeve - something cannot be 1,000 times less than something else, assuming it can't go negative. Hell, 1.000000001 times less is negative.
Final comment - the largest naysayers are probably the biggest miners.
The word "times" deals with multiplication. When one says, "1,000 times more", that means to multiply by 1,000. When one says, "1,000 times less", that means to divide by 1,000. Division by a positive number will not change whether a number is positive or negative. 1,000 times less than 1 is .001.
The word "times" means multiplication. I'm sure when somebody says "1,000 times less than" it's universally understood that they mean divide, or just less, but that doesn't make it correct wording. If "times" is synonymous with "divide," how the hell would anybody ever have a conversation about math without confusion?
1x1 = 1
-1,000 x 1 = -1,000
"One times less than Y" is zero for any positive value of Y.
The phase "X times less than Y" is always less than zero if X is greater than one.
I strongly disagree. Maybe you run around using words from Jersey Shore, or you use words like "ginormous," or "Brangelina," but I don't. Accepted doesn't make it correct, and it doesn't make you sound intelligent.Language is always evolving. Therefore, "universally understood" means correct.
I don't really agree with your translation of the unintelligible phrase, but I agree its nonsensical. Oh, wait, that was my point!If times must be synonymous with multiplies, then "one times less than Y" would mean "1 times (< Y)", which would mean 1 multiplied by some value less than Y and wouldn't really have a result. If Y is equal to 1, then .5 is less than Y; therefore, 1 times .5 (which is less than Y) equals .5.
Agreed.All the above is really silly. In true mathematical terms "1,000 times less than Y" is not a valid statement, unless you take some loose interpretation of it.
I strongly disagree. Maybe you run around using words from Jersey Shore, or you use words like "ginormous," or "Brangelina," but I don't. Accepted doesn't make it correct, and it doesn't make you sound intelligent.
Bitcoin prices keep rising - from a somewhat stable $6.50 a week ago...now over $9.00. Nice. I figure my variable cost to mine about 1 bitcoin per week is about $1.50, so that's a healthy (but small) profit.
I have a 7950 on the way. I don't suppose there's some way to run a 6950 and a 7950 at full speed in the same system....
It goes against basic economics and how currencies work. In the short term the bitcoin value may rise to compensate for difficulty, but if there are no transactions long-term, the value will plummet. You need transactions by small guys like us to make up the market. Also, do you actually believe the BTC value will increase proportionally to difficulty? Looking at historical 12-15 months chart, it obviously doesn't. It's all over the place from $33 to $3 to $8, etc. There is no accurate way to predict the value of bitcoin in relation to difficulty, unless you are aware of some formula?
BTW, hoarding currency is one of the quickest ways to destroy its value. If difficulty skyrockets 1000x, what you have long-term is 0.0001% of top guys holding 99.9999% of BTC. That's the end of bitcoin as you know it. Without circulation, there are no market participants (i.e., no offers to exchange other assets for your currency). It's similar to holding 1 Trillion litres of oil when the world no longer uses oil for anything. The value of oil would be $0. For any asset to be worth > $0, it has to be used as something (as a hedge against inflation, land to grow food on/rent out, a plant that manufactures something, etc.). The value of any currency in the world will approach $nil the minute no one wants to do any exchange transactions with it.
Also, let's assume hypothetically that bitcoin value rises 100% proportionally with difficulty increase. Imagine the top 50 accounts holding 95% of BTC where the value of BTC has reached $10k, or something. OK, let's say the top 10 accounts have 1 million BTC each. Some of those people will probably want to cash out and lock in their gains (because there is no way at all to hedge against the loss of value of this "Bitcoin" currency since no derivatives / futures exist!). Once the value reaches obscene levels, the smart bitcoin investors will dump all their holdings leaving the few remaining with even larger concentration of bitcoins. But now you have even less market participants. Suddenly, it'll come down to 5-10 guys to determing among themselves what the "true" market value of 1 BTC is. Outside market participants at this point are unlikely to purchase virtual BTC currency with real world currencies (who would pay $10k for 1 virtual BTC coin online?) No matter how you slice it, the only way BTC can survive is if its value remains relatively affordable and also if there are a lot of market participants willing to exchange BTC for assets/goods/services/other currencies. Otherwise, the last 3-5 guys standing will have to convince the world their currency is worth what it is......good luck to them!! The last wave to cash out will be the richest and the ones holding all the coins will become broke.
In fact, what I am describing has already happened in history:
An increase of 1000x in hash rate does not mean that there's 1000x more BTC generated.
Eventually if these pan out the GPU miners will be pushed out, but there's no reason to believe that there would be a huge increase in value.
Difficulty previously tracked value pretty well because GPU miners would shut off their rigs when the price dropped enough to be unprofitable, which drops the hash rate. We may see that way in the future with ASICs, but not for years.
Your other point about concentration of wealth is silly. First, the Jalapeno is only $150, and while the MH/$ is lower than the Minirig, it's not a huge difference. If someone wants to hash they still can.
Third, even when ASIC miners push out GPU miners, it's not like they'll likely just sit on their coins. New miners will continue to come in until mining is marginally profitable, and existing miners will have to expand to keep up.
Are you willing to drop $1300 on one of those just to try it out?
That's the point. For people who were very heavy into mining and have $ to get these $1300 ASICs, they'll continue to do well but for the average guy, it may be the end of the road.
Right now the Single is $599 and can do 832 Megahash/sec which is very close to an overclocked HD7970 that costs $400-450.
The current MiniRig costs $15k and can do 25 GH/sec (or 30x faster than the Single).
In the future:
- Jalapeno = 3.5 GH/sec - $149
- Single = 40 GH/sec (11x faster) - $1299
- MiniRig = 1000 GH/sec (285x faster) - $30k (<Everyone who owns the MiniRig can trade to this one and get $15k rebate).
There is a difference, admittedly, but given that we are just looking at preliminary specs it might be too early to start complaining, and even with no change at all I think it's silly to say such a slight difference will kill casual mining.
I mine on 2x6950s and I make about 1BTC every 2 days. They are mining pretty much 24/7.