Essay: ASICS are real
By: Tom Peckelpent

This is the fifth essay. The muse is upon me!

From time immemorial, mothers told their daughters bedtime stories about ASIC units shipping in October. And a thousand daughters said "cool story mom". October became November. November became December. December became January. Days became hours. Hours became minutes. Minutes became seconds. People started asking for refunds. Tom and Jerry made friends. The cow's milk spoiled. Toast landed buttered side up. Becoin started whining about BTC exchange rates and people were just like wat. There were whispers of Witchcraft in the air. Then all at once, just when Khan was least expecting it, a group named AVALON shipped the first ASIC unit. And a thousand men said "Well done".

Yes, Virginia Wolf, ASICS are real. They're as real as it gets. As the Rolling Stones said, "You can't always get what you want" and super not if what you want is satisfaction. But in this case, we can get tangible satisfaction. We can get what we want. We can get an ASIC. And it only costs two month's pay to buy one. We can be da man. And Jeff Garzik will be the first man. The first man created by God. In a steaming hot soup of fire and brimstone and invented the elevator. And the ice cream cone.

But it was a long hard rocky road filled with speed bumps and hospital zones and explosions (yes, explosions) to get to this point. For many, the countdown felt like the watch stopped and had to be sent to the watch store for repair before it could continue. Three times. We had constant delays by Butterfly Labs. As well there is now konsiderable kontroversy (sources close to Fox news say) over whither they actually have a fab. That's fab one. Then there's the bASIC group, which maybe or maybe not has a fab. That's fab two. Don't forget ASIC MINER in China, who has working chips at this point. Let's call them fab three. And then, coming to us live from London is the fab four, AVALON. They're more popular than Jesus!

But let's face it, let's face it, what's the rage today? Mining with FPGA is all the rage. Everybody now is either mining with GPU or FPGA. I mean, half of rome is either cooking or puking. Cooking or puking! Ha! But you can't blame these people. You can't blame these people for wanting mine with ASIC. I mean, who wants to look at a big, fat power bill?

As a final thought, please walk and do not run to the AVALON ASIC order form. ASICS are finalité real. It's like Christmas in January. Or February. Or maybe early March. Unless you haven't ordered yet. Uh oh.

Does anyone have a pre order for sale? I'll pay double!

And the moral of the story is, some times people just get lucky. 


If you enjoyed this essay please donate some bitcoins to me, Mr. Tom Peckelpent, at 1yGcq85LPT3EnUtTh1qRC6d48RmDxaJwB. You may check this address to see how much money this story has generated by visiting http://blockchain.info/address/1yGcq85LPT3EnUtTh1qRC6d48RmDxaJwB.

Essay: A Guide to Mining in 2013
By: Tom Peckelpent

This is the fourth essay. An essay for all seasons.

Welcome to bitcointalk.org, the go-to place for all things bitcoin. In this essay I will cover the best ways you can mine bitcoins. Why would you want to mine bitcoins? The idea is of course to make money, no pun intended. While there are many reasons to mine including promoting a robust bitcoin network, the best one is the money. And there is still a lot of money left to be made mining. Here's what you need to know.

First, you need to know what mining really is. Mining is a promise to buy bitcoins in the future. Think of mining hardware as a bond. Something which you buy, and which in turn pays back a certain amount of money to you at a fixed rate. This rate is variable. Some bonds pay out each year, some pay out each quarter, and some pay out each month. Still some bonds pay more or less often than that. So mining hardware is bought at a fixed price just like a bond, and mining hardware pays out at a variable rate as you mine coins with it. This is not the same as buying coins because you need to think about stuff like the cost of power, or mining difficulty. The takeaway is, you need to know how to keep long term costs down.

Power (electrity) costs are controlled by class of hardware. This is because class of hardware affects all of the other variables. When you mine with a GPU (a video card) your electricity cost is very expensive because it must support the rest of the computer too. Plus, the GPU itself is not as good for mining compared to a FPGA. FPGA units used for bitcoin mining use one tenth the power of a GPU. It's true that they cost more, but with power costs up these days it is good to know. If you're planning on serious mining and you leave a computer turned on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week it will cost more than $100 per month. At the end of the day, running a couple video cards versus a FPGA unit is likely to cost more than the computer (and forget the video cards)! Mining with a GPU is great if you're just starting out, but we have now passed the point where buying a rig just to mine is going to be a waste of money.

ASIC units are even better than FPGA. If you're looking out six months or a year you will save even more money. So much so that it may not be worth getting into FPGA mining "now". If you are serious about making money mining, do not buy FPGA units "now". You will end up making less money than waiting and buying ASIC units when they ship in a couple of months.

The only long term cost you will face is power. Now that you know about that, you should think about cost per mHash (or cost per gHash). Here is what you need to know:

1. BTCFPGA's bASIC-72 $1069.99/72 = $14.86 /gHash
2. BTCFPGA's bASIC-36 $599.99/36 = $16.66 /gHash
3. Avalon ASIC $1299.99/66 = $19.70 /gHash
4. BFL MiniRig 'SC' = $29899/1500 = $19.93 /gHash
5. BFL Jalapeno $149/4.5 = $33.11 /gHash
6. BFL "little" Single SC = $649/30 = $21.63 /gHash
7. BFL Single 'SC' $1299/60ghash = $21.65 /gHash
(Note: No ASIC units are shipping yet. Buyer beware of fraudulent ASIC order takers. For maximum safety do not pre order any ASIC product.)

This is just a quick look at three companies. There are many more. This does not mean you should run out and only buy #1 on this list. Competition is strong and no one is shipping yet. But you need to understand what is going on compared to the previous generation FPGA designs.

1. BFL FPGA Single: $599/0.832 = $720 /gHash
2. Enterpoint's Cairnsmore1 "Quad XC6SLX150" Board - $640/0.880 = $727.27 /gHash
3. BTCFPGA ModMiner Quad $1069.99/0.840 = $1273.80 /gHash

See here, even the cheapest FPGA boards are 33 times more expensive than ASIC! And ASIC units use just a fraction of the electricity that FPGA does. It's easy to see where FPGA units will be going once ASICs hit the market: into the garbage! In short, there is no other option if you are interested in profitable mining other than to buy an ASIC product.

Then what should you buy? We once again return to the comparison between a bond and mining hardware. If you buy hardware, you will have to buy the whole thing yourself. On the other hand, you may be interested in buying a mining bond. But if you do, be careful that you are not buying into someone who is trying to dump their FPGA (or worse, GPU) units on you. Make sure that you only invest in high quality ASIC mining bonds that do not mine with GPUs or any FPGA units. The best place to invest in mining is on BTC-TC (http://btct.co). It is a bitcoin exchange that allows you to buy a mining bond in a mining company. You don't have to spend $29,899 for a 1,500 tera hash ASIC mining rig. You can spend one bitcoin or less on a mining bond that represents one share in that hardware and get about the same return.

In conclusion, it does not matter if you choose to buy mining hardware or pool your resources with others in a mining bond. The only thing to worry about is buying ASIC products. Steer clear of anything related to FPGA or GPU. ASIC is the only way to fly in 2013.

If you enjoyed this essay please donate some bitcoins to me, Mr. Tom Peckelpent, at 18dsWSHbTZFE7cWKtJPFEgTLhA3BFbdVeS. You may check this address to see how much money this story has generated by visiting http://blockchain.info/address/18dsWSHbTZFE7cWKtJPFEgTLhA3BFbdVeS. Please mine responsibly.

Essay: How should i get 5 posts if i'm newbie? (;
By: Tom Peckelpent

Essay number three. And the number of the essays was three.

I believe it was Marie Joséphine de Suin who first said, "Boredom is the fear of self." Since that famous day, we have progressed in our culture and now find ourselves posting on bit coin talk. And it is now that we find our selves so often asking the fun question "How should i get 5 posts if i'm newbie? (;" The answer is one we may find within ourselves if only we realize that final truth; "Boredom comes from a boring mind." -Metallica. It is by sharing our lives with others here that we form bonds. And so, we know now what we must do to get out of the newbie forum. We must share ourselves. We must share our lives, our feelings, and form a bond. Only then can we be strong enough to allow the friendships we have formed here to tow us ever so gently into the seas we wish to sail.

But don't be boring. Share an exciting thing that happened with you last week. Like, I was talking with this friend at school about bit coins, and he said, "bit coins, what's that?" and I said "It's a Crypto currency." And he says, "Crypto currency? Sounds like something you give Charon in the underworld" and I'm all like no no dude it's about computers and shit. And he says, "Computers?" and then I said ok look, you can buy steam games with it. And he said "Shit bro, sign me up. That's what I'm talkin' bout bro! Hey buy me a beer." Then you can make a joke about buying beer with bit coins. From this we can learn that the best way to explain bit coins to people is to tell people about what they can buy with bit coins. Did you know you can buy clothing, books, and even chocofudge with nuts in it? It's true. You can even buy macs or an iPad. That's what people want to know.

Fact. Why are you here? Talk about it. Maybe like so many, you wish to buy things in bit coins. But could it be, you also wish to sell? Look around your house. Do you have anything valuable? Maybe you can sell it for bit coins! Talk about the stuff you are thinking of selling. If you have a unique item to sell, people will want to know. The more special it is, the more people will want to talk about it. For example, trying to sell a pizza for bit coins (I do not condone this) is sure to cause people to laugh and start talking about that time someone sold a pizza for 10,000 bit coins (now worth over $130,000). Then you can respond to them and laugh. That's gotta be worth two posts right there.

Trying to sell fun and cool stuff is great but one more great way to meet people is to sell something that no one else has thought of selling before. That means, no steam games. How about opening a bookstore? That's fresh. If you have a lot of books in your home, you can take photos of them and make a simple bookstore webpage. Who knows, it might be a good job for you. Make bit coins strong.

Buying and selling is not the only way to get involved with us here on bit coin talk. You can also offer a service. If you are a girl for example you could try to be the first chick ever to sell her virginity for bit coins. The press coverage would be immense. If you're looking to get into the community big time then selling your body is a great way to get involved. Lots of guys try selling their soul or offering to hurt themselves for bit coins, but letting a guy pop your cherry is just that much more real. Don't forget to take photos, because you will be able to sell them later on, to anyone who wants a piece of bit coin history.

In the end there are many unique and special ways you can become involved in the bit coin community many of which are limited only to your imagination and even then the best way to join the community might be to listen to other people since no one can think of all the stuff to talk about by themselves plus people tend to have good ideas anyway and have fun in the sharing of those ideas and the learning which takes place among friends. This is how we are. After all, it was Voltaire in his epic "Candide" who once said, "Our labour preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want."

If you enjoyed this essay please donate some bitcoins to me, Mr. Tom Peckelpent, at 1L6xTpyx3gbhwdfJYPaFNN414DdVgDh9tA. You may check this address to see how much money this story has generated by visiting http://blockchain.info/address/1L6xTpyx3gbhwdfJYPaFNN414DdVgDh9tA. Thank you and enjoy the New Year.

Dear Bitcoin Forum,

Essay: Please whitelist me in the newbie forum so I can increase the awareness of bitcoins in the bitcoin community.
By: Tom Peckelpent

Essay number two. The second.
Hello my name is Tom Peckelpent and I am here to day to share with you an essay I've written about why I should be whitelisted in the newbie forum.
All of us reading this at one point in their lifes were newbies on the bitcoin forum. Through magic, or other special means, we eventually posted 5 posts and waited the four hours necessary to get automatically whitelisted. However, some of us also made whitelist requests. I would like to point out that of all the people here now who made whitelist requests and are now no longer newbies, all of them eventually initiated into the forums. I therefore pitch, solicit and tender in good faith that I be whitelisted because that’s how things get done around here.

Even Dr. Obvious would tell you that as long as you keep your nose clean and keep a stiff upper lip, that you too can become a part of this forum. I'd like to stake my little ground of bitcointalk.org territory, and in doing so I would like to engage breeding, civility, and conduct. Tact and usage are not far behind.

I don’t expect this request to be honored simply because I asked. There is a special reason about it. I want to increase the awareness of bitcoins within the bitcoin community. This does not only involve technical discussion but the gainful employment of politesse and punctilio. One must be the model of courtliness and gentility to emmanatise the eschatan. Good grace, habits, and politeness will be what I strive for here. And therefore I should be whitelisted. For this whitelisting to occur, several important steps must be taken. For example, did you know that bitcoins are not fungible? This means that some bitcoins are distinguishable from others and are assigned value contradictorily from others. This is not like how some coins are shiney and as a result are collected by children and small birds. It means that you can trace the transaction history all the way back to the block they were generated in. To prove this, one man recently paid two bitcoins for one bitcoin because someone bought a pizza for over $100,000 in bitcoins a few years ago.
Another thing most of you probably don’t know about bitcoins is that it is a community effort. Each one of us, large or small, fat or weak, has a role to play. If you want to see bitcoins succeed, take part in the community. You could help the development of bitcoins. You could talk to people in your school about bitcoins. As well you can think, there is a way to promote bitcoins. This is your responsibility as a member of this community. Don’t take your role lightly. Everything you say and do is important.

Of course, not all of us want to learn more about bitcoins. Some people don’t like to matriculate the new things. Others feel insecure when someone else tries to explain something to them so they fight back with nasty words. In such a case sometimes the best thing to do is ignore people. This is a very important thing you should consider. If someone is making you angry or you are upset at someone try to understand their point of view, and then ignore them. Once you have conquered their brains by understanding their position you can ignore them, since you will understand that you cannot change their mind. We must strive to realize that we are all human and not everyone always agrees. Sometimes it is best just to let people be to suffer on their own.

In conclusion I would like to request that I be whitelisted because I want to raise the general level of intelligence on these forums. Not everything is always black and white. People’s attention spans have been ruined by 15 second commercials. I remember a time when commercials were two minutes long, and they even had a plot. Forthwith, when someone sees a two minute commercial like the ShamWow guy people laugh and think it’s funny.
This is how we are.

If you enjoyed this essay please donate some bitcoins to me, Mr. Tom Peckelpent, at 16UZ4fCzkpMWWsyQ7aDjYSW5tTT6iDyFov. You may check this address to see how much money this story has generated by visiting blockchain.info/address/16UZ4fCzkpMWWsyQ7aDjYSW5tTT6iDyFov. Thank you and enjoy the New Year.

"80/20® 3931 Drop-In T-Nuts"

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Essay: Bitcoins will intensify to over $1,500 in our lifetime and we will all be millionaires.
By: Tom Peckelpent

Essay number one. The first essay.

Hello my name is Tom Peckelpent and I am here to day to share with you an essay I've written about how Bitcoins will aggrandize in value to $1,000 and beyond.

Bitcoins are a digital currency which has materialized out of thin air from the open source community on the internet. On the surface, it appears as if bitcoins well-represent two of the three classic requirements of money. But is this really true? They are a medium of exchange in that they are used as intermediaries in the exchange of goods and services. They are a unit of account in that they are represented by standard numerical unit of measurement. What's more? They are almost infinitely divisible. Finally, and most importantly they are a store of value because they are able to be reliably saved, stored and retrieved in their usable form as a medium of exchange. It is this last point which underscores why bitcoins will go to $1,000. They will go to $1,000 because as adoption increases over time the trust placed into bitcoins as a store of value will cause them to geometrically increase in reckoning (that is, price, I say).

Perhaps the most obvious question is, why being a store of value is of pressingly salient vitality. Being a store of value is so required mightn't it be, because it allows us to value bitcoins by the trust people put into them. If people trust bitcoins, they will use them as a store of value. We may therefore state that the value of a bitcoin is proportional to the trust which is placed in bitcoins as a whole. There are only 21 million bitcoins in the whole world ever. Withal, this value will decline over time. There are currently approximately ten million bitcoins. Therefore we may state that based on supply and demand the total value of bitcoins, should there be 21 million bitcoins, would be approximately the current price divided by 21 million over 10 million, or about $6.40 US. Next, due to the laws of supply and demand, assume a logarithmic scale for adoption as newcomers into the bitcoin market drive bitcoin prices up exponentially due to there simply never being any more bitcoins available. A doubling of the user base would then cause the $6.40 to become $12.80; a further doubling of the user base would cause it to go to $51.40. Should the user base double again the value would go over $200. Then everything will explode in value. There are only a few hundred thousand bitcoin users at most, according to statistics.

This means that however many bitcoins you have now, in the future you are always likely to have less. This fact means that bitcoins today will always be worth more in the future, because the same amount of bitcoins will chase the same utility you yourself give to bitcoins today, but also every newcomer to the scene will also chase the same utility with whatever bitcoins they have as well. Therefore, if you end up on average with 1/5th the bitcoins you have today, the assumption is that bitcoins must rise in price by five times to afford you the utility you have now. If we estimate conservative worldwide adoption numbers of ten million users, we can then easily predict a bitcoin price of over $1,000 per coin.

Of course, the story is not at all like the movies. Even now, it no longer possible to accumulate large amounts of bitcoin easily. Bitcoin has been "money" for too long, that people will spend 10,000 bitcoins for a pizza anymore. Coming by your next bitcoin requires work, or the sale of goods. This is proof that bitcoin has evolved and has found a niche for the average person to use. What remains to be seen is how fast we will get to ten million users and $1,000+ per coin. Based on logic, the number of transactions per day would be a rough estimate of utility as the numbers of users grow. In 2011, the number of bitcoin transactions went up by more than seven times. If we conservatively assume a double each year from here on, then we will reach ten million users in just a few short years.

In conclusion, I believe bitcoins will up more than $1,000 because bitcoins, their trust and use of the currency will cause the utility of bitcoins, and therefore their value, to increase due to bitcoins being available less per person over time. Additionally, as the velocity of bitcoins increases, new utility will be found and is in fact currently being developed. It seems clear to me that while volatility will always be a problem when valuing bitcoins based on some other currency, the only way forward from here is up. Let's enjoy the ride.

If you enjoyed this essay please donate some bitcoins to Mr. Tom Peckelpent, at 1DSUgbTzKnd3WWaYk78jQYd2vNDJR9v5CQ. You may check this address to see how much money this story has generated by visiting blockchain.info/address/1DSUgbTzKnd3WWaYk78jQYd2vNDJR9v5CQ. Thank you and enjoy the new year.