What does MG think of . . . .

Bitcoin mining ?
Just looking for opinions .

 

Sounds shady to me but I know nothing about it more than this. Wiki

 

I've looked into it, seems to be some currency backed by nothing , earned by your GPU cranking out hash codes or something like that. I'm just suspicious of it .
There are some die hard devotees that have spent big money on banks of GPU's solely dedicated to bitcoin "mining". Hard to tell if they are just wingnuts or if there's really something to it.

 

Bitcoins are a virtual currency based on encryption and hash algorithms derived from complex computations, mostly done by GPUs (though I think CPUs can be used as well). It's somewhat like folding, in that you do devote extra processing power to the "cause".

They are exchanged for real money, or traded for goods. You'd have to Google for the exchange rate.

Apparently, from what I read (augie's link), there will only ever be a set amount of Bitcoins in "circulation", as the program is coded to eventually stop "giving them out".

I personally think there's too much involved to bother with it, myself.

 

Digital currency is more likely than you think. It is harder to counterfeit and more stable than what is currently out there. While it is a bit ahead of it's time, I believe it will be what we eventually use.

 

This is true. However, I don't see Bitcoins as being the digital currency that we turn to in the future.

While the idea is sound, the design is flawed. Simply run computers to earn money? The sheer electrical bill FAR outweighs any profit you gain. Even if it didn't, would that work? Millions of people sitting around letting their computers make money for them? Nothing in the world would get done, and society as a whole would collapse.

Most of our "currency" is digital nowadays, anyway. I think much less than 50% of the money spent in America is using physical cash now. While I don't see a completely cash-less world coming in my lifetime, it will likely eventually happen. Either that, or real value currency (like gold and silver in the past) will become a popular exchange for goods and services. Or perhaps a combination.

Meanwhile, Bitcoins are going to stay within the small group of people that are "into" them.

 

I hear of people actually making purchases with these. I don't see how these bitcoins have any value whatsoever, and suspect the "mining" clients are actually serving some purpose for the devs as well as/instead of "mining" bitcoins . Maybe i'm too cynical . Maybe my cynicism works in my favor in this case, as I will not take part in this fad.