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GPU and Motherboard OEMs Readying Components Optimized For Cryptocurrency Mining (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: With the popularity of upstart cryptocurrencies like Ethereum on the rise and the value of well-established currencies like Bitcoin steadily increasing, there is new-found interest in cryptocurrency mining. As such, there is another run on AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, which is driving up prices. In an effort to prevent the same kind of GPU shortages that happened in the past, reports have surfaced claiming that AMD and NVIDIA are both readying stripped-down graphics cards, specifically targeting cryptocurrency miners. At Computex, ASRock also announced a new motherboard targeted at cryptocurrency miners, the ASRock H110 Pro BTC+. The ASRock H110 Pro BTC+ is packing 13 PCI Express slots -- twelve x1 slots and one x16 slot -- to accommodate as many graphics cards. ASRock didn't specify pricing or when the H110 Pro BTC+ will be available, however. And the reports that AMD and NVIDIA graphics card for mining will be made available sometime at the end of the June are as yet unconfirmed.
Don't bother with disingenuous statements about dollars being used for criminal activity.
Oh please, I would much rather a world ruled by cryptocurrencies than the current banking system, talk about organized crime!
I played with bitcoin mining a couple of years ago back when BTC prices were around $7. At that point it was just about at the point where it was not economical (power costs) to compete in mining with GPU based hardware - the shift to FPGA and ASIC was just beginning. Today is it even economically feasible to generate enough hash power with GPU based hardware? If so, what has changed? Sure the BTC price is 300-400 times higher, but GPU speed hasn't increased by two orders of magnitude, and there is lot more mining competition for a relatively fixed amount of mining rewards / transaction fees.
Of course back when I was playing with it I purchased a couple of hundred dollars worth of graphics cards, mined about the same amount value in bitcoins, sold them and came out about $50 ahead - I was pretty proud of my self back then. Probably should have saved those 50 BTC...
Or is this something like scrypt (before that goes to asic too)
Scrypt *has gone* ASIC too.
(Except, due to it being a key derivation function, not hash, even with its very conservative parameters, isn't as easy as sha256 to accelerate.
ASIC Scrypt isn't many order of magnitude faster than GPU Scrypt - unlike sha256. But its much more power efficient)
Ethereum is the *current hot stuff* for GPU. And is even more tuned against ASIC than Litecoin's Scrypt.
Primecoin is another exemple which is currently mainly mined on GPU (which actual scientific use in the results).
But above all, these motherboards and "light" GPU are also extremely useful for scientific computing, (specially for task which are more GPU than memory-bound, where the PCIe x1 isn't limiting).
(Which I think was the primary target market before the marketing department decided to run for it with buzzwords).
And the machines can also be used for much more nefarious purpose : that is also a very good hardware platform for comp
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Hey!!! They're only pointless if people don't believe in them...
You know, like all other currencies...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Cryptocurrencies are a solution to government imposed currency controls.
For example: Without Bitcoin chinese citizens would be limited to about $50,000/year in money they can get out of China. Chinese citizens diversifying their holdings will make the eventual crash of the Chinese economy less severe. Sure they are overpaying for west coast USA real estate, but not nearly as much as they would have to overpay for Chinese real estate (the Chinese people, culturally and historically, love to invest in land.)
Another example: Hardworking undocumented pharmacists were having trouble getting their money out of the USA, Bitcoin solves that too.
FWIW, you don't buy "land" in china the same way you buy land in the US (or other countries), in china the govt owns the land.
You can of course buy the condo or house on land, but not the land itself (which is governed by a 20-70 year land-use contract). Presumably that contract will be renewed when the land-use contract has expired (or maybe not) and some property-tax like fee will become due (which is unclear since the laws that allowed for this were only passed in 2007). There are also restrictions in many cities to limit speculation such as a limit on the maximum number of residential units a household could buy (which unintentionally sparked a mini "divorce" boomlet).
For the Chinese investor, buying real-estate in the US is in comparison much more deterministic (albeit somewhat more expensive in terms of recurring property tax payments).