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by LAMike 3836 days ago
Once the 16nm chips become a commodity, it will make sense that the hashing power would get more distributed.

I hope figures out how to get a solar powered, interchangeable bitcoin miner in a box at a positive ROI. It may seem impossible now, but solar prices are falling faster than expected.
2 comments
maaku 3836 days ago
Why would you expect hashing power to become more distributed? Mining is a race to the bottom/thin margins, and the differentials in power rates far exceed normal miner profit margins. It would still only be profitable to mine at scale in a few select locations in the world.
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ZenoArrow 3836 days ago
> "Why would you expect hashing power to become more distributed?"

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151216005453/en/BitF...

"Valery Vavilov, CEO of BitFury, said: “We are very excited to launch mass production of our super 16nm ASIC Chip. The final results of our hard work have fully met our expectations. We understand that it will be nearly impossible for any older technology to compete with the performance of our new 16nm technology. As a responsible player in the Bitcoin community, we will be working with integration partners and resellers to make our unique technology widely available ensuring that the network remains decentralized and we move into the exahash era together. BitFury warmly welcomes all companies interested in joining our integration and reseller program.”"

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maaku 3836 days ago
That doesn't address any of the concerns I raised.
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ZenoArrow 3836 days ago
Yes it does. If the article is correct, the 16nm BitFury chips will be sold to interested parties, so new mining capacity won't be dominated by a single company, thereby ensuring newly mined BitCoins can be distributed throughout the network.

If your concerns were about something other than distribution, please clarify.

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maaku 3836 days ago
They will be sold to interested parties.. and hosted in the same data center. Back to square one.

It takes a price per kW-hr differential of about $0.03 before it makes sense to put miners on a plane. That's far less than the power differentials one would expect, so those miners will stay put. Just paper ownership will change hands.

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ZenoArrow 3836 days ago
> "and hosted in the same data center."

This is why we're disagreeing, I can't see any indication that the chips will not be used in other data centres. Where are you getting this information from?

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mattmanser 3836 days ago
Isn't that logically impossible until renewable is cheaper than fossil fuels?

I'd have thought that because fossil fuels are cheaper, it will literally never be possible to have have a positive ROI bitcoin miner on a renewable energy source, assuming that people are willing to mine using $0.99 of energy to make $0.01 profit.

EDIT: Downvotes and no comments for a simple question? WTF is going on with HN these days, can we not ask questions?

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