official confirmation of mini-rig availability from a BFL rep would be great, even if its labelled as a pre-announcement community preview leak.

i can see how a pony fits in with the list as a whole.  i do however think a more respectable warranty for an expensive piece of hardware is a reasonable request.

seconded

Check the OP.
[/quote]

yeah, i actually figured out the low end within like 30 seconds of posting.

what do you consider small/large?

couple here:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Profitability_Calculator

don't know why, but i like the first one best.  could use updated with some from this thread.

epoch, i definitely dig the wild west analogy.  i think it works on a few levels.  i'm going to get started on that bitbrothel.

go for it wogaut.  quote me freely, although i retain all commercial rights

grown men popping off mom insults = weak sauce

gotcha, thanks.

do you have an educated guess as to what kind of hashrate one of those 4k chips could push?

i'm not sure how that impacts my opionion that more/easier mining doesn't have a huge upside to spreading bitcoin...that more main stream acceptance will come with a deeper market buying and selling services, products and accepting donations in bitcoin.

i'm not saying there is anything wrong with mining and selling on mtgox, nor was i trying to imply that there was any increase in coins being sold if mining was further diversified amongst new miners, just that if mine and dump is all they do, they don't benifit bitcoins advancement.


silly me, i was under the impression there were wide and diverse means to get bitcoins.  things like exchanges, otc markets, and to a lesser extent meat space exchanging.  i must also be mistaken that people are acquiring bitcoin by selling services and products like on silkroad, bitmit and other online companies:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade

and a small but growing number of brick and mortar companies accepting bitcoin:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Real_world_shops

personally, i'd rather my grandmother accepted bitcoin for her incredible baked goods then have her set up a mining rig.

yes, mining helped spread the popularity of bitcoin.  i'm of the opinion that we've reaped the majority of the benefits there.  sure, there may be some additional popularity gains to be gained from making mining more popular, but as mentioned, your not considering that the more popular mining gets, the less profitable it becomes.  its a way forward that shoots itself in the face.  show people that they can donate to wikileaks even though paypal and vc/mc tried shutting them down, show them they can pay for their offshore seedbox anonymously, show torrent sites they can accept donations and pay for their servers anonymously and be insulated from corporate payment processors actions, show individuals and companies that they can save a non negligable percentage on processing fees, and then use those same bitcoins to puchase items for their company and profits in bitcoin can be spent for their personal needs desires...then and only then will bitcoin start seeping more steadily, more permanently into the mainstream.

as long as the bulk of the bitcoin economy consists of miners dumping bitcoin on exchanges and speculators, it will remain fragile.  strength and permanence will only be gained through broad and diverse use of bitcoin as a tool of commerce and money transfer.

i don't think accessibility to mining will have a huge impact on bitcoin popularity.  we need more people spending bitcoin, we need more organizations accepting bitcoin, we do not however need more miners simply dumping their coins on mtgox.

it didn't start that way, but i agree, it seems it has ended up like that.  i was mostly just disagreeing with you statement that websites that take donations shouldn't be contacted to consider taking donations in bitcoin, and was genuinely interested in what your ideas on spreading bitcoin acceptance was.

so you just "show up" and tell them they are going to use bitcoin without first even contacting them?  sounds like a much better idea then simply requesting they use bitcoin.  i'm intrigued, how has it been working out for you?

yes, i'm specifically saying how do we move towards that critical mass, because by definition, once its reached, momentum will do all the work.

i'd count irregular people as included in regular people here.  the fringe group is bitcoin users, the rest of the population are "regular"

personally, i think its a multifaceted approach that will push bitcoin forward, but i think contacting organizations, if they be donation based or retail, about bitcoin is an important facet.

the more functional bitcoin is, the more items services you can purchase, the more options "regular" people have when they learn about it, the more likely they will be to take that first hardest step to become involved with it.

ok, and how do you plan on spreading that?  bluntly, what i'm saying, is you expressed a strong disapproval of people contacting companies about accepting bitcoin, yet you feel an important part of the spread of bitcoin is to get blogs and forums to use bitcoin.

i'm asking specifically how you reconcile disproving of contacting organizations to request/recommend they accept bitcoin, with wanting to spread bitcoin use throughout blogs and forums.

how specifically do you want to spread bitcoin without contacting blogs, forums and websites?

and how do you intend to get to the point where every forum/blog has a bitcoin donation/karma/ratings utility?

yes, but what do you feel is the single most important thing to have more "regular" people using it?

well, the fees bitpay charges are similiar to cc or paypal fees.  he can be shown a real benifit with the .2% gox fee.

why not just point him towards the mtgox merchant solution?