I think we can rule out god on this topic kluge and mike please carry on the discussion it very interesting.

MAny people received this kind of payments. MAy be a marketing trick

What are the 6 different crypto currencies you would pick if you were told you have to invest equally in each one, choose 6 different and let them sit in wallets for at least 7 months before you can touch them?

The rules are, if you dont like a coin, dont use it. If no one uses it, it dies. Vote with your hashrate.

Mathematician: Is Our Universe a Simulation?

"Mathematician Edward Frenkel writes in the NYT that one fanciful possibility that explains why mathematics seems to permeate our universe is that we live in a computer simulation based on the laws of mathematics — not in what we commonly take to be the real world. According to this theory, some highly advanced computer programmer of the future has devised this simulation, and we are unknowingly part of it. Thus when we discover a mathematical truth, we are simply discovering aspects of the code that the programmer used. This may strike you as very unlikely writes Frenkel but physicists have been creating their own computer simulations of the forces of nature for years — on a tiny scale, the size of an atomic nucleus. They use a three-dimensional grid to model a little chunk of the universe; then they run the program to see what happens. 'Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom has argued that we are more likely to be in such a simulation than not,' writes Frenkel. 'If such simulations are possible in theory, he reasons, then eventually humans will create them — presumably many of them. If this is so, in time there will be many more simulated worlds than nonsimulated ones. Statistically speaking, therefore, we are more likely to be living in a simulated world than the real one.' The question now becomes is there any way to empirically test this hypothesis and the answer surprisingly is yes. In a recent paper, 'Constraints on the Universe as a Numerical Simulation,' the physicists Silas R. Beane, Zohreh Davoudi and Martin J. Savage outline a possible method for detecting that our world is actually a computer simulation (PDF). Savage and his colleagues assume that any future simulators would use some of the same techniques current scientists use to run simulations, with the same constraints. The future simulators, Savage indicated, would map their universe on a mathematical lattice or grid, consisting of points and lines. But computer simulations generate slight but distinctive anomalies — certain kinds of asymmetries and they suggest that a closer look at cosmic rays may reveal similar asymmetries. If so, this would indicate that we might — just might — ourselves be in someone else's computer simulation."

Jed McCaleb’s Secret Bitcoin Project: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

1. The Project Is Very Hush-Hush

TechCrunch notes that McCaleb's project announcement was very brief. The landing page at secretbitcoinproject.com says very little, except for the statement below.

"When I sold Mt. Gox a few years ago, Bitcoin was trading at less than a dollar. Today Bitcoin exists in a new environment. Mt. Gox is struggling to keep up. Now, I am building something that will be better for Bitcoin and better for you. I’m looking for alpha testers. -Jed"

TechCrunch adds that McCaleb is something of a Bitcoin legend, having "transformed Mt. Gox (short for Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange) from a card-trading platform into what became the world’s one-time leading Bitcoin exchange."

2. McCaleb Created Mt.Gox

Mt. Gox has been in the news quite a lot recently. The Bitcoin exchange infamously suspended withdrawals earlier this month, which sent Bitcoin's value plummeting. Despite founding the Bitcoin exchange, McCaleb is no longer involved with Mt.Gox.

3. McCaleb Also Created Ripple

Last year, Wired wrote an article about McCaleb about his new project, Ripple. Wired explains Ripple thusly:

"Like Bitcoin, Ripple comes with its own digital currency — called the XRP — and its own peer-to-peer money-moving network. But there’s a twist: Ripple makes it easy to move any type of money — you can trade dollars for Yen or Euros or even Bitcoins — and instead of exchanges, Ripple uses a set of independent operators, called gateways, who handle the business of taking and delivering the fiat cash. The company’s ambitious plan is to build a network of open-source servers that can move money around the world at a tiny fraction of the cost of a bank or a company such as Western Union."

4. McCaleb Was an Early P2P Icon

McCaleb has a long history of working on technology projects that skirt the edge of the law. He created the file-sharing program eDonkey 2000, which was shut down in 2005.

5. The Secret Project Has Unusual Funding

In their reporting on McCaleb's secret Bitcoin project, TechCrunch noted that the project has already scored some funding from supporters. The funds came through thanks to "instant messages and Skype."

Margins on mining are low (possibly negative), you have absolutely no pricing power, brands are worthless (a hash is a hash regardless of who makes it), and your profitability is largely determined by what other people (not you) do.   Does that sound like a business model that Google would be interested in?

I would find it much more likely that a Google would attempt to buy a company like BitPay then get involved in mining.