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Bitcoin speculation part 2
I cruise Youtube getting a chuckle at what the algorithms throw at me.
Skeptic videos? Good. Computer/tech videos? Good. Dumpster dive computer tech? Totally good.
Build your own cryptocoin mining videos? Okay...
It's amusing to see people with far more money and far more experience struggle to get their mining rigs working. The prices for the needed graphics cards (GPUs) used in mining the coins have gone insane.
Short version? After investing thousands into mining rigs you could *lose* money due to electricity costs. Although one miner showed his set up that uses cheap solar panels so he might make his money back fairly quickly - if the solar cells don't blow off his roof in the next storm. Besides electrical cost, the crazy cost for buying the over priced GPUs and the upper level geekery needed to tweak everything to make it rig work, you have to monitor it all the time. Not to mention the fan noise and all the heat it throws off.
In addition, with the GPU shortage people are flooding the market with re-branded older GPUs that *look* like the newer cards - even register on your computer system as newer cards - but aren't. They do a bit of computer Mad Science and reflash the chips so the older, slower cards register as newer faster cards. Putting the new card drivers on old cards results in unhappy computers with lots of crashes. Let the buyer beware.
Then there were the heart breaking videos with people confessing how much money they had invested (20-100k? More? Seriously?) and how much they *lost* when the coin went bust. Some invested their life savings - and lost it all.
Folks, when the local barber starts talking about investing in a scheme - it's time to bail.
Since your crypto coin wallet is online the wallets are perfect for hackers to attack.
I have also noticed that the number of crypto currencies have only *increased*. The currency may disappear short after the initial buy offer leaving no trace but an expired web site. The price of GPUs is still really, really high too. I thought this would have blown over by now. I was wrong. I had underestimated the strength of that feeling that you're getting something for nothing. I know... I get that feeling every time I find something really cool at a dumpster dive or thrift store. I don't empty my bank account though. 20 dollars for a 24 inch Dell monitor at Goodwill? Sold! It's got a quarter inch scratch on the corner of the screen... who cares?
2k to 6k for a mining rig? Are you nuts?
-m
Skeptic videos? Good. Computer/tech videos? Good. Dumpster dive computer tech? Totally good.
Build your own cryptocoin mining videos? Okay...
It's amusing to see people with far more money and far more experience struggle to get their mining rigs working. The prices for the needed graphics cards (GPUs) used in mining the coins have gone insane.
Short version? After investing thousands into mining rigs you could *lose* money due to electricity costs. Although one miner showed his set up that uses cheap solar panels so he might make his money back fairly quickly - if the solar cells don't blow off his roof in the next storm. Besides electrical cost, the crazy cost for buying the over priced GPUs and the upper level geekery needed to tweak everything to make it rig work, you have to monitor it all the time. Not to mention the fan noise and all the heat it throws off.
In addition, with the GPU shortage people are flooding the market with re-branded older GPUs that *look* like the newer cards - even register on your computer system as newer cards - but aren't. They do a bit of computer Mad Science and reflash the chips so the older, slower cards register as newer faster cards. Putting the new card drivers on old cards results in unhappy computers with lots of crashes. Let the buyer beware.
Then there were the heart breaking videos with people confessing how much money they had invested (20-100k? More? Seriously?) and how much they *lost* when the coin went bust. Some invested their life savings - and lost it all.
Folks, when the local barber starts talking about investing in a scheme - it's time to bail.
Since your crypto coin wallet is online the wallets are perfect for hackers to attack.
I have also noticed that the number of crypto currencies have only *increased*. The currency may disappear short after the initial buy offer leaving no trace but an expired web site. The price of GPUs is still really, really high too. I thought this would have blown over by now. I was wrong. I had underestimated the strength of that feeling that you're getting something for nothing. I know... I get that feeling every time I find something really cool at a dumpster dive or thrift store. I don't empty my bank account though. 20 dollars for a 24 inch Dell monitor at Goodwill? Sold! It's got a quarter inch scratch on the corner of the screen... who cares?
2k to 6k for a mining rig? Are you nuts?
-m
no subject
Give it six montsh to year, and the second-hand market is going to be flooded with really cheap, formerly-cutting-edge high-end GPU's.
Shopping for new GPU next year is gonna be fun!