Posted on 12/03/2013 7:51:24 AM PST by Star Traveler
A single bitcoin is now worth over $1,000, but the process of mining for the digital currency in which people devote computing power to facilitate global Bitcoin transactions and secure the currency's network is growing increasingly expensive. Serious miners have started to build dedicated facilities for the sole purpose of Bitcoin mining. Journalist Xiaogang Cao visited one such center in Hong Kong, the "secret mining facility" of ASICMINER, reportedly located in a Kwai Chung industrial building.
The mine is the size of a shipping container, and filled with 1-meter-high glass tanks in which banks of blades are immersed in roiling liquid. Each tank can hold 92 blades; the blades themselves are kept at a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius or below by "open bath immersion" technology. Open bath immersion cools computer components by submersing them in liquid with a particularly low boiling point. The heat the components generate mining for coins boils the liquid, causing it to turn gaseous, rise up to a condenser at the top of the tank, and fall once again, removing heat from the components in the process. The ASICMINER open bath immersion system was reportedly built by Hong Kong-based company Allied Control, and operates at a Power Usage Effectiveness of 1.02, which "would make it one of the most efficient designs in the world."
The cooling system is state of the art, but Cao reports that the mine uses common equipment including racks and valves found "in local markets easily." This enabled ASICMINER to build its facility quickly and comparatively cheaply before setting it to its mining task. The tanks, when filled with 92 circuit boards, cooling liquid, and an array of racks and rails, each weigh about 200 kilograms. They're pushed into place by a forklift truck.
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
"Mining" Bitcoins (by computer computation) is a process that limits how many Bitcoins can be added to the worldwide pool of Botcoins over a certain length of time. It would be analogous to how much gold one can mine in a fixed period of time because of all the "work" and resources that go into doing so.
Silicon Valley catches Bitcoin fever
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3097361/posts
A Prediction: Bitcoin Is Doomed to Fail
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3097365/posts
Bits and Bob [analysis of Bitcoin]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3097370/posts
Bitcoin Under Pressure
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3097394/posts
Huge bitcoin heist: Black market drug shop Sheep Marketplace poofs with $40 million
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3097504/posts
Meet ‘Bitcoin Jesus,’ A Virtual Currency Millionaire
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3097691/posts?page=1
The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/mf_bitcoin/all/
Kind of like high-speed tradking on the stock market. Cool.
For the average Joe, the money to be made in Bitcoins (besides simply using it as a transaction method) - is to simply buy low and sell high — kind of like stocks.
I don’t think the average Joe can make out on the “mining process” (i.e., the “computational process”) for creating new Bitcoins. We’re past that point now. It was true in the beginning, but is no longer true now.
It is possible to buy physical representations of bitcoins; each of these coins can be broken open to reveal a piece of paper with the private key to a bitcoin wallet. Source: Wikipedia...........
Part of me regrets not buying in when I heard about it at $2 a coin. But I had no clue the illogical exuberance these things would generate. I hate to see a reset because I know a lot of people will get wiped out.
Silver is dropping again, today. Think I’ll go down and buy some eagles. I like the weight of them.
They spelled “Virus” wrong. ;^)
That’s exactly the process people should use with Bitcoins. Don’t buy them at the current “high mark”, but at a relatively low spot. And then - sell them at another high point, in the future.
But, of course - it is sort of problematic — for any “traded item” — to know where those two points are ... :-) ...
Cute ... But for those who don’t know — that is said to mean “Strength in Numbers” (Vires in Numeris).
One day these will be worth more................
I think this blog post that introduces a very good video about bitcoin can get anyone up to speed quickly.
http://www.globalwealthprotection.com/true-value-bitcoin-really-need-know/
No man, give use the code to hack the program so we can make a fortune in illegal bit coins.
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