[HH] Bitcoin mining hardware

[markw at mohawksoft.com]

It's funny, we were joking a while ago about what constitutes "money."

Bitcoins are not money any more than wampum is. This does not mean that
they do not have a value, but the value is quite subjective.

Money, on the other hand, is historically a token for something of fixed
value, like gold or silver. Granted this distinction has been somewhat
blurred.

The main thing about "money," is that it is typically managed by a state
with a standing army. Obviously not part of the official definition, to be
sure, but certainly a "value add" component that bitcoins lack.


> I am not sure either way.  It could be that Bitcoin takes its place as a
> real currency (in some ways, it already is for the Internet black market).
>  It may fizzle as a fad.  It may be deemed illegal and driven underground.
>   it will crash again (it is a currency, so it will - trivially true
> statement) - will it always recover, like a real world currency?.  Who
> knows - I had no time to think about this.
>
> The BitCoin paper is here, that should explain how the scheme works:
>
> http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
>
> Best -F
>
> PS: Satoshi Nakamoto is somebody's secret identity.  Most likely a team of
> Quants in London or NYC, but even that is uncertain.
>
>
>
> On Apr 17, 2013, at 1:36 PM, Kurt Keville <kkeville at MIT.EDU> wrote:
>
>> Well, if it walks and talks like a pump & dump scheme ...
>>
>> There are no math answers to give (as there are in, say, the GIMPS
>> project)... this is just gratuitous CPU burdening for it's own sake. I
>> have been to a couple of the Bitcoin Club meetings at MIT and I still
>> don't get it... seems to me to be a currency musical chairs; you don't
>> want to be holding this currency when the bottom drops out again...
>> there is another one this Friday if you are interested... I still go
>> even though I still haven't figured out what the hubbub is all about.
>>
>> At 10:33 AM 4/17/2013, Greg London wrote:
>>
>>> >> Bitcoin has been all over the news this past week.
>>>
>>> I don't understand. It sounds like someone set up a
>>> company to trade in virtual money, and all I have to
>>> do to mint my own money is do some math?
>>>
>>> I do some math, show them the answer, and they... do what?
>>> They give me money? They act as a trader and take a
>>> commission off on anyone trading money?
>>>
>>> Can someone explain how this works at the transaction level?
>>
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