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Topic: New Newbie started to mine (Read 633 times)

legendary
Activity: 4542
Merit: 3393
Vile Vixen and Miss Bitcointalk 2021-2023
August 28, 2012, 02:08:35 AM
#5
Dedeicated asics will destroy the bitcoin. Im sure about that. If it's true the value will drop like a brick from my appartment. There will be too much coins in a short period of time. They raise the dificulty and all the "normal gpu minders" (about 98% of the minders) will quit. The network of mining will than become in hands of only a few big players. I think this is not the meaning of the bitcoin? They will change something to make the asic miners become less good.
That's what they said about GPU mining, and nothing of the sort ever happened. A bunch of people still mining with CPUs complained, but nobody cared, and now nobody uses CPUs for mining anymore, and still nobody cares. It's not clear what you mean by mining being "in the hands of only a few big players". Are you suggesting that only a few people will actually buy ASICs, despite being orders of magnitude cheaper than equivalent GPU or FPGA rigs? Or do you mean that with only one company producing ASICs, that company might put some kind of backdoor in their products to pull off a 51% attack (or some other kind of attack)? The latter is impossible for two reasons: First, miners are in total control of their own hardware, and since all mining operations are completely verifiable it would be impossible for the hardware to alter the blocks being mined in any way without being immediately detected. Second, BFL isn't at all likely to remain the only ASIC manufacturer in existence: as soon as other IC manufacturers see how much money BFL is making, they'll start designing their own bitcoin mining ASICs right away.

Also, the purpose of mining (which is often misunderstood) is to protect the network. Back when CPU mining was the only thing around, anyone with a botnet had a decent chance of pulling off a 51% attack, since many of the zombie computers would be more than capable of substantial mining. Now that more specialised equipment is required, it is becoming less and less likely that a successful attack can be made using conventional hardware. ASICs only adds to this security, and this is good.

In any case, ASIC mining cannot be prevented. For any concievable algorithm that can be executed by a CPU, it is possible to construct an ASIC that can execute the same algorithm more efficiently, since a CPU, unlike an ASIC, must necessarily have the resources and capacity to do other things than what it is doing at the moment. ASICs will be developed for any cryptocurrency that becomes valuable enough to be worth the R&D costs. Nothing other than worthlessness can prevent it.

TL;DR: ASIC mining is not likely to produce mining "monopolies", it increases the security of the network, it is a Good Thing, and even if it weren't, it cannot be prevented.
member
Activity: 116
Merit: 10
August 27, 2012, 07:52:34 PM
#4
Hello and welcome to the wild world of mining!! Smiley Not quite as dramatic as the lending forums, but to our benefit, I would say.

My question is. Why is not everybody mining with fpga's? They will pay off in a month?

Many many FPGAs are being used to mine. Some reasons everyone isn't using them is that depending on the company you use, you could be waiting months for your hardware. Secondly a relatively limited supply (compared to GPUs) as big coin/fiat holders buy large farms of them. Thirdly, some people want to game on GPUs and some want to be able to sell them on the secondary market, where FPGAs hold little value (as far as the general public is concerned.) Lastly, cost. If you want them fast, you pay a premium(modminer quad), if you want them cheap you wait (BFL).
newbie
Activity: 12
Merit: 0
August 27, 2012, 07:40:58 PM
#3
Dedeicated asics will destroy the bitcoin. Im sure about that. If it's true the value will drop like a brick from my appartment. There will be too much coins in a short period of time. They raise the dificulty and all the "normal gpu minders" (about 98% of the minders) will quit. The network of mining will than become in hands of only a few big players. I think this is not the meaning of the bitcoin? They will change something to make the asic miners become less good.
hero member
Activity: 658
Merit: 500
August 27, 2012, 07:34:11 PM
#2
I believe people are saving for asic since it will render fpga useless. Plus, personnally, I find fpga (beside bfl ones that taje 3 months to ship), not cost effective vs building a rig of xx50s or xx70s
newbie
Activity: 12
Merit: 0
August 27, 2012, 07:21:56 PM
#1
Hi,

I'm new to mining bitcoins and just started a few days ago.

My setup is:

Supermicro Mainboard with 4Gb ram and Q9400 @2.66Ghz
2x 5870 running at GPU 999Mhz and MEM 333 @ 439Mhash/s /430Mhash/s

My electric costst are 0.23 eur per Kw. My pc uses 2.223A @ 230V so that's 510W

I already both the 5870's after i read about the fpga's and asic miners. I personally think that the asic miners will come but not within a year. I think BFL is taking a scam on the preorders. The needed the funds for research.

Anyway, i'm from The Netherlands and trying to make some coins. It's hard with the high electricscostst but i'll give it a shot. Bought the 2x5870 secondhand on the internet for 80$ each. The other hardware was free for me.

My question is. Why is not everybody mining with fpga's? They will pay off in a month?
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