Posted on 10/22/2017 9:32:58 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Caracas (AFP) - Inside a locked room in an office building in Caracas, 20 humming computers use their data-crunching power to mine bitcoins, an increasingly popular tool in the fight against Venezuela's hyperinflation.
In warehouses, offices and homes, miners are using modified computers to perform complex computations, essentially book-keeping for digital transactions worldwide, for which they earn a commission in bitcoins.
While practiced worldwide, Bitcoin mining is part of a growing, underground effort in Venezuela to escape the worst effects of a crippling economic and political crisis and runaway inflation that the IMF says could reach 720 percent this year.
Having no confidence in the bolivar and struggling to find dollars, many Venezuelans, who are neither computer geeks nor financial wizards, are relying on the bitcoin -- currently valued around $6,050, or other virtual currencies.
Caracas office worker Veronica says her boss installed the 20 machines in early 2015.
"These are machines that bring in $800 a month (more than 26 million bolivars)," says Veronica, who refused to give her full name because of fears of arrest....
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Subsidized electricity.
“...Venezuela’s economic crisis intensified as a result of the collapse in the price of oil...”
Evil America’s pursuit of energy independence has driven the price of oil down...and destroyed Venezuela’s economy.
Or maybe socialism...? Nah. Won’t go there.
so, somehow every starving peasant in Venezuela will be able to set up their own bit-mining data center to feed their families? apparently socialism DOES propel advances in technology after all ...
I thought the number of bitcoins was fixed and that you could no longer mine them.
You still can?
Just run some free software that you download, and you will receive some free bitcoins.
Sure you will.
I could never understand this concept of “bitcoin mining”
You waste a ton of electricity doing nothing, and then you get a bitcoin?
You’ve produced nothing of any value. You could run in-place for an hour and collect something for that?
China and North Korea sure are.
A Brief Glimpse Into the Lives of Chinese Bitcoin Miners
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3570466/posts
You misunderstand the meaning of “value”.
If someone is willing to buy X for $$, X has value $$.
X doesn’t have to physically exist a priori to the sale.
You can go to a car dealership and order a very specific car. The car might not exist. When you place the order you give “value’ to something that doesn’t physically exist yet.
Another “value” example, the “Pet Rock” it was given a proposed “value” by the seller, the buyer by buying it confirmed the seller’s valuation. At that moment it had “value”, before that it was a rock of little to no value.
The Civil War financiers and later Wall Street crooks Gould & Fisk were reported to have said something to the effect, “People will buy anything all you have to do is find the right person to ask!”
I am not “misunderstanding” anything
I am just amazed people found value in this.
If your hard drive crashes, your screwed.
Yep
I’ll quote another 19th century financier - P.T. Barnum.
“There is a sucker born every minute!”
Well it’s analogous to pre-computer days:
1. House burns down takes all your paper money and stock certificates - wealth gone!,
2. Bank fails or is robbed (pre-depositor insurance days) - wealth gone!
You are keeping decentralized books on BitCoins in the form of blockchain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain
BiotCoin main not last, but blockchain is a technology that is going to revolutionize accounting and contracts.
EMP flash - wealth gone!
Nothing is certain!
Oh, so you are a PhD physicist?
is that a good thing or a bad thing?
I want to live,
I want to give
I’ve been a miner
for a heart of gold
It’s these expressions
I never give
That keep me searching
for a heart of gold
The problem is that the reward is seldom more than the cost, and tends to go to the resources which are most computation-capable, hence most expensive, and that always increases as technology improves. If the resources are subsidized by the state, it's really the state transferring money to the operator indirectly. If you have to pay for your own cycles, you'll go broke, but if you can get somebody else to, you're in business.
A perfect example. A common rock, selected for its size and appearance, was packaged in a cardboard box with a cleverly worded, amusing instruction sheet.
It sold because it offered a quick, no-thought solution for the age-old dilemma of "what shall I give Uncle Bob for Christmas" that doesn't cost much, and eliminates the potential embarrassment of a one-sided gift exchange. The "value" that the Pet Rock had was imposed by a social imperative, not by anything inherent in the product itself. The illusory "value" of the rock was enhanced by a fad situation, in other words, the unthinking herd behavior that humans are prone to.
Once Christmas was over, and the social imperative evaporated, the rock was again worthless.
Yes, one Christmas long ago, a Pet Rock was given to my mom by my dad. Everyone had a few moments of laughter, but before long, it was just another piece of clutter.
We all agreed that the value was in the instructions, and the momentary amusement that came from it. I don't think any of us read it more than once. The rock was eventually exiled to the garden, and its packaging went to the landfill.
This should serve as a warning to any herd members who think bitcoins come with any guarantee of lasting "value".
Those are great analogies.
I would wager hard drives fail more often than houses burning down.
I don’t know- I am a computer geek for a living, and I am not quite convinced that I trust it yet.
Same here!
Sometimes I think we should all be Ron Swanson (from Parks & Recreation TV Show!) and bury gold somewhere!
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