I personally look at it like he's taking advantage of a unique point and time in history. If I could do the same, I'd definitely be doing it...

I think it's all paid for... Here's a quote from page 2:

"I figure I spent about $1 million building the existing facility and racking and deployment of the mining hardware, and then we probably spent in the range of $2 million to $3 million on the hardware itself," he said. Rent is another $8,000 a month, power $40,000 a month. "I think we spent probably $3 to $5 million dollars total on the operation. It's paid itself off [in bitcoins] many times over already."

He's aiming to mine 10% of new coins...

ArsTechnica just posted a story about Dave Carlson who says he's 'slightly below' his target of 7-10 percent of the world's mining power! He's running more than 1.4 million BitFury mining chips out of Washington state. The company has less than 10 people and Carlson owns about 5,000 bitcoins. He didn't even get his first rigs up and running until July 2013. Quite an accomplishment!

The full story's here: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/meet-the-manic-miner-who-wants-to-mint-10-of-all-new-bitcoins/

It's there on the link if you follow it: http://crypt.la/2014/03/01/top-100-digital-currencies-by-social-media-presence/

I only looked at the 100 coins listed on CoinMarketCap...

If you have the links with numbers that corroborate that, I can update it...

Thanks for the links. I just updated the list... It was really hard to find the pages with the most viewers for some of the coins. If anyone else sees any other discrepancies, please post them.

I just don't know how to make an 8 without turning it into a smiley!

Check out the sortable table and the top 100 here: http://crypt.la/2014/03/01/top-100-digital-currencies-by-social-media-presence/

Here are the top 10 coins based on Facebook, Reddit and Twitter followers:

1) Bitcoin
2) Dogecoin
3) Vertcoin
4) Litecoin
5) Cryptogenic Bullion
6) Pandacoin
7) Maxcoin
NXT
9) Fastcoin
10) Megacoin

Good point. I just added that... I didn't reset the votes since there are so few right now.

Bitcoin prices on Mt. Gox have swung between $91 and $350 over the past three days... Weigh in on whether or not you think the exchange is doomed. What do you think they need to do survive?

That site is ridiculously biased... I wrote a post rebutting Ripplescam: http://crypt.la/2014/01/22/unexposing-the-ripple-scam-rebutting-ripplescam-org/

Bitcoin has Satoshi, which gives the lends the coin a backstory that the media loves. I think it's time we elevate the status of Ripple's founder, Jed McCaleb. To that end, I've written two articles on him:

1) Where I talk about the origins of Ripple:
http://crypt.la/2014/02/02/jed-mccaleb-the-secret-origins-of-ripple-xrp/

2) A breakdown of all my favorite Jed McCaleb quotes:
http://crypt.la/2014/02/02/best-jed-mccaleb-quotes-of-all-time/

He really is a fascinating guy: a 38-year-old college dropout/surfer who builds up insanely successful businesses (like MtGox) then tosses the keys to someone else so he can go enjoy life. I also love the fact that he's a bitcoin believer who saw issues with the waste in mining... Here are my top three favorite Jed quotes:


More great Jed quotes here: http://crypt.la/2014/02/02/best-jed-mccaleb-quotes-of-all-time/

Please note Jed still believes (as I do) that ripple won't "replace" bitcoin, but rather complement it... Both of them should have a great year in 2014.

I do think Reyes is making the point that the ripple (as a protocol) has more utility because you can use it to transfer almost anything of value. His own currency (XNF) trades on ripple, but he also mentioned stocks and bonds. I think we're in the very earliest stages of seeing what starts trading on ripple exchanges... It's going to be pretty impressive.

Ok. I can't argue with that. +1

I guess when we say "profitable," we've got to think about what currency they'll be getting paid in

I just posted an article on my blog where I quoted the founder of NoFiatCoin as saying he thinks mining is going to go the way of the dodo: http://crypt.la/2014/01/31/eventually-mining-is-going-to-be-dead-and-ripple-will-rule-says-nofiatcoin-xnf-founder/

I agree for the most part, though I could see bitcoin being the exception to the rule (and perhaps litecoin, too). That said, I believe the vast majority of the 500 other altcoins are toast. There's just no way people are going to devote serious computing power to hundreds of different altcoins for years to come. Even using all that power for bitcoin is disconcerting... I wonder if Satoshi would do it the same way if he got to start over again from scratch?

I landed an exclusive interview with the founder of NoFiatCoin (XNF) over the weekend and he offered to sponsor a 100 XNF giveaway on our site! The full interview and details are here: http://crypt.la/2014/01/30/exclusive-nofiatcoin-xnf-founder-speaks-to-media-for-first-time-on-gold-backed-currency/

Tweet a link to enter the contest between now and Feb. 5.

Prizes:
1st prize 50 XNF
2nd 30 XNF
3rd 20 XNF

Here's my favorite quote from the interview:


More: http://crypt.la/2014/01/30/exclusive-nofiatcoin-xnf-founder-speaks-to-media-for-first-time-on-gold-backed-currency/

I could see it hitting $0.35 in a year or so, and maybe $1 in the years to come after that... I just wrote a long post on my reasoning: http://crypt.la/2014/01/18/ripple-price-prediction-xrp/

He's referring to the "bitcoin trust," which is the official name for the etf. I wouldn't say they're making decisions so much as trying to guide the SEC toward viewing bitcoin in a certain light (i.e. as an asset rather than currency or commodity). I haven't done enough research to know if that's a good thing or not, though I do know the capital gains tax rate is lower than other tax rates (if you make more than $72k a year). Capital gains are taxed at 20% in 2013. Personal income is taxed on a sliding scale with the bulk of people paying 15%. if you make more than $72k, though, your tax rate jumps to 25% and keeps climbing from there all the way up to an obscene 39%! So, I guess it's good if you're making a lot of dough.