Ability to compute a lot of hashes very fast with dedicated hardware is a problem for password hashes, but not a new problem. Before the advent of ASIC specialized in SHA-256, we were already taking FPGA into account (see for instance this research machine, from already five years ago). An ASIC can roughly be clocked at two to three times the frequency of the…
After reading many, many different articles all over the internet, I still didn t have a good idea of what bitcoins were, how they could be made, and if it was possible for the average person to use them. The first few things I read, they were made out to sound like you had to have a computer science degree to get them. However, after reading on about them, I…
There are ways to profit with bitcoin mining. Ways to earn from bitcoin mining typically involve upfront investment of mining hardware. Raw mining earnings are calculated by mining power of your bitcoin mining hardware, measured in hashes per second, and the current difficulty and block reward of the bitcoin network. Most modern hardware measures its power in…
“The failure of the Klondike project was one. Chase, our bank, shut down our accounts. Also the delay in the shipment of the chips has resulted in a lot of customers asking for [a] refund, ” said someone using the TerraHash account in the official TerraHash forum. “We already owe a lot of money to PayPal, and with all the refund requests, it is impossible for…
Setting up a mining pool will require some programming, so based on your self-identification as a business man, I would suggest to start with asking yourself how much this will be worth to you. Many would say that running a bitcoin pool is likely a bit of an altruistic endeavour: If you want to attract people to join your pool, you are competing with others…
When you build a mining rig you need to take into consideration are you going to ever want to use the GPU s for something else? If so buy with them brand new and make sure you get it the GPU registered since they will be cranking at 100% at about 75C. If not get them used, I prefer this method as you can buy a 6850 for about 75 bucks if you do it right. Also…
MGT Capital Investments Inc first announced its debut into the Bitcoin mining business in late June and has reported its mining rewards for Phase One. The Bitcoin operation started when John McAfee, creator of McAfee Antivirus, took over the MGT earlier this year and has steered the company into Bitcoin and Blockchain technology. “We appreciate the efforts of…
Fundamentals Hello Miners! Some of you may have already voted, but others might be wondering what for is the voting feature on Slush Pool. It is actually quite simple! In mind with the philosophy of decentralization, Slush Pool has decided to give our miners a say in the blocksize debate. If you do not know what is the debate over the blocksize, please check…
They pay for, house and maintain the machines, and you lease (a part of) the machine for a year. The cost is around $2 per GH/s (Gigahash per second) for beginning plans and towards $1.7 per GH/s for larger plans. The payouts are done automatically per day to your desired Bitcoin address. I was offered to test their 150Gh/s plan. It costs $279 a year, and it…
Biostar announces its latest B250 motherboard to join its product line this generation with the introduction of the BIOSTAR TB250-BTC mining motherboard designed for dense bitcoin mining operations. Press-release: The new BIOSTAR TB250-BTC motherboard features enhancements provided by the new Intel 200 series as well as improved efficiency by the latest 7th-generation…
A few months ago, we ran out of X11 contracts and every day, we received more and more emails from customers asking when they would be able to buy X11 contracts again. Well, the day has finally come! X11 is back and better than ever! Our new X11 mining will feature brand new ASIC technology that no other mining company is using. What does this mean for you? BETTER…
The long wait for my Avalon ASIC 3 bitcoin miner was finally over. Almost my entire stash of bitcoin went into this purchase (just over 100btc). Based on the bitcoin mining calculators at the time, this thing was going to pay off my mortgage and then some. Unfortunately, it showed up several months beyond the promised delivery date which, given the increase in…
What do the 1950s military avionics technology and bitcoin mining servers have in common? In a word – heat, or, more precisely, cooling requirements. Blowing cold air over the innards of military aircraft and satellite electronics 60 years ago was as inefficient as blowing cold air through power-hungry bitcoin mining servers today. It was in the 50s that 3M introduced…
Can data centers tap unused server capacity to mine for Bitcoins? The question occurred to the team at the online backup service iDrive , which performs most of its customer backup jobs overnight, leaving its 3, quad-core servers idle for much of the day. So the company ran a test with 600 servers to see whether Bitcoin mining could become a secondary revenue…
Screenshot A multi-player server on the wildly popular video game Minecraft has introduced bitcoin to its world as a way of teaching children about digital currency. While in-game currencies exist in several different minecraft worlds, using bitcoin means that players can take their money out of the game and use it in the real world too. The server, PlayMC, features…
The people who got rich during the California and Alaskan gold rushes were not the gold miners, but the business who sold the shovels (and other supplies). Or at least that s how common wisdom goes. And it makes sense. Anyone can buy a shovel or a bitcoin mining rig, there s not much barrier to entry. Profitability should approach break-even or worse as new entrants…
Bitcoin is a virtual monetary system, a peer-to-peer currency with no central bank. It is based on digital tokens with no intrinsic value. An outstanding innovation in the 21st century payment system, bitcoin gained popularity in its initial phase in the FinTech industry, but gradually the virtual currency is losing its charm. Seeing the fluctuations and multiple…
When you think of trading or investing, you probably think of stocks and bonds. You might also think of commodities, currencies and whatnot. But strolling into a mutual fund manager s office and mentioning Bitcoins would probably get you an odd look, assuming he or she is not an avid reader of TechCrunch. Introduced in 2009, the electronic currency Bitcoin is…
To achieve this with an all-digital currency, the money supply is controlled by an algorithm that was configured to release a “block” of Bitcoin (sort of analogous to a nugget of gold) once every 10 minutes. But, according to the Genesis Block, the rate is speeding up. The Bitcoin algorithm essentially regulates the money supply like this: Blocks of Bitcoin are…
Lee Hutchinson Clearly, the BFL 5GH/s miner s mining days were done—and at an odd number of BTC mined, too. A new challenger appears I contacted Butterfly Labs and let them know that the fan had broken, and they immediately offered to send a replacement miner. At first I demurred, but on reflection I decided to take them up on their offer. The power numbers mentioned…
Please check this question first : How much Bitcoin will I mine right now with hardware X? Before you go through all this work, it is important to know what to expect from your hardware. There are two options: solo mining or pool mining. Unless you have a lot of computing power (several ASICs), you should probably mine at a pool. So the first thing to do is to…
Mining software companies try to reduce costs of Bitcoin mining meeting the challenge brought about by the cutting in half of the block rewards. Energy supply has been a topical issue of late for mining operations particularly around the halving period as it is a great determinant to ensure a lower operational cost and to maximize profit. A report says some of…
Bitcoin Mining profitability is something that is always in flux. Bitcoin having such a high difficulty and large total hashrate at times profitability comes down to several things. The first set of data you use for discovering if mining can be profitable for you or not is the following but not limited to: Cost of Bitcoin ASIC Miner or Miners Cost of electricity…
It s a common misunderstanding that score based reward systems like Slush s underpay infrequent miners. While it s true that shares in a given round devalue if you mine towards the beginning of a round and then leave long before it finishes, you have to also take into account the fact that the length of a round is random. So you have equal chances of arriving…
SHA-256 and Scrypt are the two most common algorithm systems used by cryptocurrency miners in order to authenticate blocks of transaction data. The system used, unfortunately, is not up to the miners; it s set by the developers of a given type of currency. When you go to cryptocurrency discussion boards and forums, you ll find there s a vigorous debate between…
How do you create a 500kW data center that can run inside a high-rise office building? That’s what Allied Control recently did in Hong Kong, where it created a data center that housed custom Bitcoin mining rigs in a rack-mounted immersion cooling system. We’ve as a novel implementation of high-density cooling for ASIC-based systems for validating Bitcoin transactions…
This is the first feature in our three-part series on Bitcoin mining infrastructure. The Bitcoin mining craze is driving the creation of a new breed of computing facilities featuring high-density hardware, low-reliability electrical infrastructure and off-the-shelf enclosures. These “hashing centers” often are built in old warehouses and house servers on shelving…
