[ewoodrich]

I'm not a substantial bitcoin investor, but I follow bitcointalk.org fairly actively, and there has been a fairly noticeable increase in posts about ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) solutions being a profitible means to mine Bitcoins. I don't know whether this is a driving factor, but it certainly relates to the expanding market in general.

The wide perception of Butterfly Lab's ASIC solution as being a scam has resulted in wide interest in alternatives, which are legitimized by seemingly functional and deliverable ASIC solutions by companies like Avalon. At over 6,000 Mh/S per module, they exceed the best GPU/FPGA solutions for mining almost by a almost a hundred fold (after factoring power consumption), which has produced a tangible market of bitcoin hardware.

Regardless of whether specialized Bitcoin ASIC hardware is cost effective, the production serves to legitimize the currency/producing market as a whole (as well as reinforcing the hype/gold rush mentality for miners and speculators).

I'm still not sure how/whether the currency will eventually settle, but it is very interesting to follow.

[chii]

having specialized hardware that is a commodity to mine, and later, when mining is no longer profitable, to verify transactions, is a good thing! I m quite glad that it is being looked into.