Like many guys here, I get busy from time to time, and just don't have much time to post. Also, once you've posted for a while you've experienced just about everything (at least it seems) and so you feel like you'd be repeating yourself.
I was thinking about Bitcoin price today, pondering the Bitcoin economy (including "how much money is entering the system each day?"), price vs. difficulty, etc. but I haven't reached any conclusions or inspirations to post anything.
Except for this:
The recent release of merged mining is going to have the effect of inflating the # of Bitcoins beyond the usual expansion rate. (Like any alternate blockchain, that is.) You're basically creating more stores of value, chasing the same amount of $$$ coming into the system each day. That's why I wasn't surprised to see a large drop. Basically the "bonus NMC" -- which we were all so happy to treat as a bonus, and for a while they are -- are being baked into the price right now. That is to say, in a few days you won't be able to make a small profit (or break even) WITHOUT the extra NMC income.
The constant erosion of profit continues. I think if selling video cards were easier, there'd be a much larger drop in hashrate these days
And then there's human psychology. One you've set it all up, there's not as much incentive to quit -- after all, you've invested all that time, right?
It's getting harder and harder to make a buck though...
