Topic: [ANN][DASH] Dash (dash.org) | First Self-Funding Self-Governing Crypto Currency - page 3901. (Read 9723748 times)

I will confirm that our group has been successful in creating an X11 FPGA miner.  We are currently discussing selling these miners or keeping them private.  If we decide to sell we will make a post in the mining thread.  

x11fpgamininggroup

I don't like the term subsidize because to me it includes being forced, but it is true that sometimes people can lose money. I haven't mined much, but when I have it was not profitable because where I live the electricity is quite expensive and I can compete with other areas of the world. I've also run masternodes for months when there were no payments. But both things I've done because I wanted.

It is possible that at some point in the future (maybe even now!) mining won't be for everyone for whatever reason (cost of electricity, equipment or whatever). Same goes for running a masternode. I think that if any of us is doing something at a loss when someone else is being able to do it profitably, it maybe the time to refocus efforts. I encourage to those who can't mine to set up masternodes instead. And those who can't set up a masternode but can mine profitably, to do it as much as possible. Both things are needed and both things can be profitable under the appropriate circumstances.

For a while running a masternode wasn't all that it was supposed to be.  It was possible (indeed likely) that you could run at a loss.  Now that RC5 has seemingly fixed the voting issues and we are getting closer to enforcement things are looking much cheerier for the masternode owners.  

On the basis that power costs in huge swathes of the world prevent viable mining I'd love to see some focus turned towards the miners who are subsidising the services that the masternodes provide.

Absolutely. There will always be people in both extremes, but Darkcoin needs miners and masternodes. All changes will be done with Darkcoin's best interest in mind, not to favour any particular group. If we do this right, the pie to distribute will be much bigger and all parties will be happy.

I wouldn't worry about idle speculation.  If anything I get the feeling that the popular consensus is that the masternodes and the miners need each other just as much.

I wouldn't worry about idle speculation.  If anything I get the feeling that the popular consensus is that the masternodes and the miners need each other just as much.

I totally understand where you're coming from on your points, but my problem is (and I am not keeping up with the thread, hence this being an older post) that I don't know what you suggest we do?  I mean, I think you are saying we should fund someone to make our miner more efficient, yes that would be nice.  But on the other hand, you are a person who did this work, but you do not want to sell your work.  Hence we're stuck with waiting for someone who wants to do it.  I suppose we should put together a bounty, again, and see if someone claims it, but then we have to say something like "you have to make it xxx% more effective".  Just so you know, we have paid bounties on the GPU miner in the past.  To make one, and then to improve it.  It's not like we haven't gone down that road.  Now most of us are way beyond being able to participate effectively as miners as it takes more than a few regular machines with gaming cards, it takes dedicated equipment to make it worth the electricity.  So the "crowd" here is no longer very interested in such things.  Miners, of course, should be interested, but they probably already also have updated software???  I have no idea.

Anyway, I have given up mining for DRK, and kind of feel bad about that.  I'm on xpool for my antminer, as if that'll get me to a dark, LOL.  But that computer runs our family server anyway, so why not.  Anyway, the main point is, I think you were saying a developer or early adopters ought to pay for upgraded miners, and we actually did that.  How are we to know how well the job was done?  Or how skilled the person who stepped up to he plate is?  In the end, at this point, anyone that can make improvements will now need to sell their miner or use it, IMO.  I just don't see us being successful for the 3/4+ time with another crowd sourcing for miner improvements when so many other projects are also competing for funds.  I might be wrong though??  But it might be easier to get dedicated miners to crowd fund this, ones from all the combined algo cryptos? 

I don't know.  I do understand that we want as many people to mine our coin as possible, but we may have to solve the problem of centralization another way.  Soon there will be ASICs.  The real trick there is how to get them fairly and timely distributed and most of all get the manufacturers not to rape the coin, which creates conditions where the people who purchased the units can't make any money off of them anymore.  The #1 problem with crypto currency in general is all the scammers and unscrupulous people here.  They're so short sighted, or not.  They can't possibly care about the future of cryptos with what they do.  However, on the other hand, they are what will make cryptos stronger.  We must find a way to protect ourselves from such behavior and protect the newbs from such behavior without seeming like zealots, such as the "anti alt coin brigade".

People are attracted to crypto currency #1 because they think they can make a quick buck.  Heck, we were too (hubby and I) But even with us, we were also intrigued with what the whole thing means to the world.  I didn't invest any actual money until April, I believe.  I just mined up until then.  And that was just so I could get my second masternode.  Well, actually, at first it was because it was obvious I couldn't mine much anymore, and I wanted to hit that next 100 coins spot (had like 1475 coins, and wanted to get to 1500, LOL, then I wanted to get my second masternode, LOL)  Anyway, yah, the possibility that a small investment might pay off, seemed like a good idea, but I'm certainly more interested in shaping the future of the world than making money now.... now  Yah, but to be honest, making money got me to actually start messing around with this, and learning.

Ah well, point is, what do you suggest, in plain, direct words, at this point in the maturity of the coin?

As a miner I agree, However I read here somewhere of some idea or concept of getting rid of the need for DRK miners as the master nodes could be allocated the job in some way !!

I'm going to rudely butt in here and say that I think this discussion is very important for Darkcoin right now.

I am a masternode owner.  I therefore pay to have servers that perform a service at a cost to me.   To pay for that cost, I occasionally get 20% of a mined block. Now that we have RC5, my masternodes cover costs and make a small profit. Right now, electricity prices are so high in most places in the world that mining is becoming a decreasingly viable venture.  We need miners to mine (the more the better!), the network needs masternode (the more the better!).  If we can make mining more profitable by refining the algo for the miners then it is a win win situation.