We need to work on open source clean energy systems to feed our farms. Let's just save the whole damn planet with Bitcoin while we're at it.

Myself and about 30,000 other people really hope that shirt is proven wrong soon 

Battman I'll give it some thought

best Bitcoin domain ever

If I could get it in black, I would probably order one Otherwise cool shit design anyway

I remember those monsters, they needed their own dedicated power from the wall

There may well be an increase of GPU based miners being sold as ASICs come online, which is a good thing for the Litecoin and Terracoin crowds as GPU is still the most viable option for those that are where Bitcoin was a couple years ago. Others will sell because its getting too intense to keep up with Bitcoin, as ASICs will simply be required to jump in and actually make anything doing it soon enough which are more than a dabbler will invest. Those serious enough will get the big hardware and probably rent out GHash to those who don't want the worry of hardware but still want to participate in mining.

A big fundamental shift is coming, we'll see who's metal enough to run with it.

Beware companies with simple spelling errors on their page...

Plus this Photoshopped Butterfly miner isn't fooling anyone...is it? Red flags all over this

Note a curious lack of any information about the company, where it is from, who runs it, etc.

Until ASICs really begin hitting production and actually shipping be careful who you jump in bed with for an ASIC. I keep my fingers crossed Butterfly Labs will deliver, I wasn't willing to invest more until I see something in person. Some are scams, some are brand new companies to fill this market and won't be perfect starting out, just have to expect that with new technology to a degree.

I wouldn't have sent PrimeASIC my pubes without a lot more evidence it is what it claims to be, even if it is still risky if the early company folds for some reason, most startups in this arena will.

Nvidia cards are not profitable unless you get your hardware and electricity for free

Since the word "union" seems have some negativity around it, and rightfully so, here are some alternatives that feel a little more with the tone here




Therein lies the real question, how would something like this work, what would the goals be. One thing could be getting support of vendors to meter their product release or somehow randomize who gets what and when to limit a cash grab from any one individual or group at any time. No idea if such an idea would be practical in reality, but an idea of the issues to focus on.

These things have to be the first business entities in history actively trying to keep a financial system debased on purpose.

As Bitcoin grows so will the politics, going it alone doesn't sound like much fun in the future.

As noted, I just made the graphic for the hell of it, but why not explore an idea.

I would never propose something anything similar to real world labor unions and the like, as yes they have absolutely shown to become corrupted to failure and too powerful. Not what I'm thinking at all. If anything more just a mining community

I agree that we not only should, but need to keep mining decentralized for the system to keep operating correctly with no one entity able to sway it. You seem to propose that guild owners and Bitcoin Foundation make all the decisions and hold all the cards, how is that different? The coders can be organized but the miners can't be and shouldn't have a say about things like transaction fees when that directly impacts business? I'f were investing $1000s into the next generation hardware you're damn right we should have a say about things like that. Im from a future standpoint when these are not garage operations anymore but invested Bitcoin businesses with serious capital involved. Bitcoin Foundation isn't eating the hardware cost, we are.

Aside the voluntary metering of ASIC product distribution by the company, there is effectively nothing stopping an investor armed with a few million to simply buy most of the hashing power on the network. Nothing to worry about today I think, but what about tomorrow? How do we deal with a problem like that? There someday will be someone greedy enough to try that who is just in it for the ROI and not the overall message.

Im just talking a cooperative trust, not a central "Union" union or operating like one, propagate the message of Network First and discourage mining monopolies in relation to the 51% issue. Any dues to fund site ops and hosting would be voluntary donations and made public in the spirit of Bitcoin transparency. Old school unions helped get us all in this mess, not what I would be after at all with this.  This is our world, we can make a new breed of cooperatives to further galvanize Bitcoin and push it forward.

Bitcoin Foundation protects the integrity of the protocol, Miners Union Global would protect the integrity of the network and develop better and more secure open source mining hardware and standardized software.

Bear in mind it doesn't have to be called that either, again we're just discussing the concept





 

Because the fiat banks have done so well in managing the uncertainty of the future...

Of course real money relies on technology, the business world went online years ago, what do you think it is that processes credit card transactions when you buy something from a website, a magic troll at the end of the fiber cable? Bitcoin is the next evolution of money, people like these will eat their words soon enough.

As time goes on those issues will matter more and more as hobbyists convert to investors and entrepreneurs with something to lose, having a more official representation would be beneficial when voicing our interests and concerns to Bitcoin Foundation and the like in future revisions of Bitcoin software. Even a cooperative trust that we that join the union will put network health above business interests as a gentleman's agreement. We are the new banking industry, and it's our responsibility as the hardware operators to ensure the network runs smoothly and is not victim to any one party. Based on this, I wouldn't think its unfair that our interests are heard as one.

But we're also the ones investing the most in time and real world money to propagate and strenthen the network, until now simply volunteering as an interesting distributed computing experiment. But Bitcoin has hit the big time, and things are going to change into a whole new industry and with it investing a giant amount of capital. Everyone's getting serious now about this now.


I suppose much like a traditional one, there would be some kind of operating agreement and standards to abide by, a central leadership to represent us to other large organizations and the Bitcoin hardware industry, dues to fund Union activities and actions (all assets and transactions would be 100% public), assuming something more traditional is wanted. Something run democratically where everyone gets a say by vote for all Union initiatives. To be a badge wearing member one must adhere to the code and be active in the organization.

Not sure what kinds of operating rules there would be or need to be just yet

I was just messing around with Illustrator and came up with a hypothetical logo for a crypto-currency mining union like those that were born out of the original goldrush, please use it if you would like in your own projects. The Latin means "connected through strength".



Then it got me thinking further, could miners use a more centralized voice in the cryptocurrency mining community as it becomes a more serious business venture? There are concerns about 51% attacks as powerful new ASIC hardware comes online, system security, and other topics that could use centralized discussion. Just a thought, even as competition increases between miners, there should also be cooperation.

Think this should be real? Lets discuss

Operatr

It would be for sure if I were going production with these, but this one is more of a custom case project that is geared toward mining. I have started looking into the tooling for production Litecoin miners however 

Thanks! 

This is just a single project though if there is interest in something similar in a production version I will definitely start looking into that. Production Litecoin miners would be where something like this would fit in later on as Bitcoin outgrows GPUs with ASIC hardware. Litecoin is still heavily done with GPUs and will be for the foreseeable future as going full tilt is still way too expensive to justify for Litecoins and other currencies. There is a business aspect I'm working on to go along with this, a brand new tech industry.

BlockBurner's first mining machine is in the works, built with budget and utility in mind as our master plan unfolds. Not content to have some hacked together mess of GPUs and wires on a baker's rack like many GPU miners out there, I wanted a custom solution.  Because I've always been a builder and computer modder, I'm going to have a little fun with it too by scratch building an optimal case instead of off the rack, because why the hell not. My partner has dubbed our dedicated mining rig "Garden Party".

True enough, in a few months ASIC will begin a strong ground campaign that will put rigs like this into the ground for Bitcoin, though when those ASICs will be around in quantity is anyone's guess, so GPU mining is still the only way for the vast majority of us. Though later when ASICs do take over (eagerly awaiting our Butterfly Labs SC line to ship in), GPUs will find a new home in minting other cryptocurrencies like Litecoin as nothing close to ASIC type specialty hardware exists for them yet. The goal here is to create a solid rig that can perform well in all mining types.


Gigabyte AM3+ motherboard with 4x PCIe x16 slots, and a Silverstone 850w power supply to feed those hungry GPUs. Processor is a humble Sempron 145 as it won't be doing much more than running the mining programs coupled with 2Gb of bottom barrel GSkill DDR3 memory. I may increase this soon just because it is cheap, and possibly running a CryptoStore virtual machine. The VM would be better suited to run off of a proper server, but we're not there yet...



The frame will be made out of L aluminum stock found at most hardware stores





Just enough space for the essentials and cooling via several 120mm fans. The power supply I have decided will actually be mounted right over the CPU, giving more room for front fan intakes up front.<a


The outer casing will be made from 1/4 smoked acrylic plastic, that looks like this. The outer sides will have another plate we will see a little later.




After some liberal use of the table saw, all sides cut for the outer case. More to come soon, and a CNC table router will be involved.


Operatr blockburner.net

As long as the Bitcoins reside in in-network, those Bitcoins will still buy that product will still be equivalent to how much it is worth retail. Today the buying power of a Bitcoin is about $100, any Bitcoin price would increase or decrease to reflect the change in how much a Bitcoin can purchase. If you can now buy $100 worth of stuff with a coin you bought much earlier at $10, you still gained $90 of buying power just for being an early adopter.

I think people are looking too short-term though. This growth will occur over years, don't worry about your coins but save some up, and spend some of them too to help the Bitcoin economy function.

The Bitcoin network is consuming bank accounts right now from broken systems, naturally its going to be a crappy looking graph while this goes on, this is just the beginning.

 

Ponzi schemes are derived from single individuals and entities, Bitcoin is owned by no one but operated by everyone. A $1.4 Billion market cap is the beginning of a brand new economy that will systematically erase the old one as banks continue to burn down and trust is lost to all but Bitcoin, pretty much the only appreciating asset in the world. They can stop this no more than they stopped BitTorrent. We the pioneers have the most to gain as the economy shifts into this new matrix. No single person gains from the downfall of Bitcoin, so a Ponzi scheme it is not. All of us that watched our wealth get stripped away have everything to gain.

Bitcoin is global