Hello odolvlobo,

I know that it is difficult to compare two different measuring systems. That's why I was looking out for someone with technical knowledge to help me out. Fortunately, xhomerx10 managed to do so  Nevertheless, thank you for your participation in the discussion

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Dear jonald_fyookball,

Thank you for your help! And that you explained it in a way I could follow it so easily! That’s great and very useful for me! I appreciate your time.

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Dear AmDD,

Your calculations (and you posted several ones) are really very helpful to me! Thank you for your support so much! The comparison in terms of costs and CPU is relatable even for non-experts like me. Exactly what I was hoping to find. Thank you for your time

I’ll express my gratitude by buying you a beer via your BTC tip jar ( as soon as I figured out how to actually send Bitcoins instead just writing about it, I’ll pm you;)

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Dear Carlton Banks,

I think I’m able to relate to what you said, now that I have some additional information. The comparison is not ideal. But it does work (I know I’m repeating myself over and over) for Blockchain newbies.

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Dear xhomerx10,

Finally, you came up with the number I was desperately looking for: 544,730! I’m lucky that you adopted AmDD’s calculation on a level that I’m able to follow. Thank you very much for taking your time to empathize with a non-expert like me  I’m happy to buy you a beer, too, just to express my gratitude somehow

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Dear AGD,

I can follow your chain of thoughts on our fiat money based system. I don’t want to weaken the strength of your arguments, stressing how powerless consumers are in this system are. I don’t see a solution for this problem in the system (i.e. capitalism). I’m more interested in the question how Bitcoin can support moving to a new economic system without capitalistic pillars.
We already do see prohibitions on Bitcoin exchange in the UK. The ECB is completely behind with an appropriate reaction (which leads to hilarious statements as you quoted). But Estonia and Philippines are already welcoming the use of digital currencies and implement regulations. Which shows that it’s not an issue for a state to deal with Bitcoin, if it wants to.

Collecting taxes would work for states using this three way bookkeeping system. Probably even better than it does now. From my personal point of view paying taxes is an appropriate way to give back to society, but I don’t want to argue about the deficits of tax distribution key in this discussion.

The question is: Can you, AGD, imagine a different world? Right now! If the answer is ‘yes’ change is achievable. If it is a ‘Theoretically yes, but, No, but what if’ no change is realistic. It begins in our heads. This is where the fences begin. We could argue about the dangers (crime, terror financing, money laundering) for years. Or we can decide to make it work. It’s a glass half full/half empty question broken down. So please understand, that I don’t want to get into more detail with the different topics you brought up (prohibition wave, money supply, legislative bodies).

I totally agree with you, that all those dangers apply to FIAT. And I see this as a proof, that people are just afraid of Bitcoin, which they are scared to confess so they come up with crazy arguments. Fear of fear or fear of change is within all of us, it’s our challenge to face it.

But allow me to come back to one sentence “People could simply hide their wealth”. People are already hiding their wealth. That doesn’t stop them from becoming President of the United States. But IF a government decided to set up regulations for Bitcoin, decided to analyze, build trust, have faith in a decentralized system, the downsides for the state could be reduced.

AGD, I’m confident that you are a Bitcoin expert and I’m not. I’m not trying to reduce your arguments because I’m pretty sure, you and I are both on the Pro-Bitcoin block. I’m trying to give you some other points of view, some pro arguments that you maybe haven’t thought of by now.


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Eventually I would like to thank everyone involved in this discussion. You helped me a lot, with your calculations, pointing out my mistakes and of course by answering the questions, which –without you- I couldn’t have answered. So thank you  #blockchange

P.S.: I’m happy to share my bachelor thesis with anyone interested. If so, please let me know, because I’m not sure whether it would be a matter of interest to post in a new thread solely for this purpose.

Dear AmDD,

Wow! I'm impressed. Thank you for your comprehensive calculation.
Yet I'm not an expert, I can not really judge whether your estimation is correct.
The comparison is interesting. I wasn't quite familiar how effective a specialized mining computer is. It was not my question, how good at hashing a supercomputer would be. But I wrote down your figures, I'm not finished with the chapter about mining, I'm thinking about integrating your analogy.

Unfortunately, my question from the beginning is not answered by your post.
I want to make a comparison to show how effective the entire Bitcoin mining network is (e.g. by contrast with supercomputers, or anything John Doe can relate to). It needs to be a comparison that non-experts (like me) can easily relate to

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To everyone still not exhausted about my stubborn focus on this comparison: Thank you for your time. I wouldn't know where/who else I could ask this questions, as my Professors are non-experts like me.

Hello Haladay,

Many thanks for the wishes.

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Hello naughty1,

so far the thesis isn't anything but almost half-done. I appreciate your wishes though. The grade is not that important either, it's just exactly what I want to do right now.

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Dear jonald_fyookl,

I'm aware of the crucial importance of SHA-256 already, I just thought the '64 turns' were miner relevant to my question. I didn't meant to be rude

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Dear AGD,

thank you for your time. I welcome your thoughts.
Maybe we are talking about the same thing but just use different words. "Bitcoin" is one (and the first) application of "Blockchain Technology". I agree with you, that the decentralized nature of the open ledger is important.

Your statement "the industry has no interest to let everybody else know, what is written in "their" blockchain." is correct. And it's an argument why we shouldn't wait to let the "the industry" (e.g.banks, insurances, google) run blockchain and take advantage of a technology that was on purpose build to replace those intermediaries. We all can only assume what Nakamoto's actual intentions were, but there are some clear pieces of evidence, that he(or she;) intended to, not only criticizes, but make those third parties redundant.

I couldn't agree more with your second statement "they can't control Bitcoin"
The financial sector would kill to grab Blockchain and reshape it for their profit.

I'm trying to give you an idea, why I'm writing this paper. I would like to do my share and spread the word about the Blockchain/Bitcoin/Etherum. I really believe that the more people do understand the less fear of change they'll have. The less power banks would have. The more Nakamoto's idea of an economy/currency without central authorities would be realized.
It's not an option for me to accept the status quo of what a regular company would/wouldn't do. Once people do know what Blockchain can do, they will embrace it.

Well, and lastly, I do not know much about mining business. Those people (maybe you are one yourself?) that were running miners on a PC, were they really doing it for money cashout, which wasn't that much back then? I can only speculate on the intentions of miners nowadays and what/why they are doing it (pay off? likelihood to be the creator and earn US-$ 13,000 )

How do you feel about companies adapting Blockchain for their business? You're obviously aware of the reservation of "old" companies for new change possibilities. I'm curious what your future outlook is...

Hello everyone,

thank you for your time. I made notes to everything you said and try to make conclusions for my thesis.

To sum up what my intention is: I want to make a comparison (e.g. supercomputer, bitcoin mining network) to demonstrate the potential of Bitcoin/Blockchain.

I'm happy if anyone gives me information that I can use (and understand;) to make a persuasive analogy.
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Dear xhomerx10,

I appreciate your input:
1. True. I mixed up the network and the network of miners. Thank you for your feedback.
2. You're correct, Sunway is 93 Pflop/s.
3. Idk. Seems like this was pointless. Probably bc I'm not good in converting.
4. I would love to use this "494,418 x times the power" but as Carlton Banks stated, I can not make this comparison.
4b. Good point, I'll keep in mind the SHA256 hash.
Well, I'm happy if I'll manage to understand the very basic technical background:)
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Dear Carlton Banks,

what you mentioned is an important reminder (although I can not really make sense out of it, due to my lack of understanding the difference of a floating point operation and an integer based arithmetic) How do I compare 1 Flop. Can you give me an idea of how those two can be compared to bring up a powerful conclusion? I want to make a statement pointing out how powerful the Bitcoin network is, in comparison to supercomputers.

If I understood your assumption to alter the equation correctly, then...

... 1.45,730,934 (Network hashrate in Petaflops) / 2 (bc a single block header involves 2 SHA-2 hashes) = 22,865,467 (headers).
2. 9.3e+16 /22,865,467 = 4,067,268,776 (what )

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Dear odolvlobo, dear jonald_fyookl,

I bet it's important what you mentioned. I can see that there must be a difference between petaflops and terahashes/second and 64 'turns' in one header. I can just not make sense out of it, I'm sorry, that I can not follow you.

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Dear European Central Bank,

thank you for your question. The comparison is not pointless. Let me explain to you why.
I bet to you and everyone familiar with encryption, computing language and technical knowledge (I guess most of you guys), the comparison is useless, because you know the details and program and do things I have no clue about ( I'm bad in maths, but ok in macroeconomics)

But there are many people out there that should understand what Bitcoin/Blockchain is about. They should be able to feel the impact the open ledger can have, not just for finance but so many other industries that we can't even imagine now. I need the comparison between the supercomputers and the bitcoin network to delight the minds of non-experts. And even we can, to some point, imagine if a US-$ 270 million supercomputer loses against Bitcoin, that must be wicked stuff. I'm writing this thesis to give economists some fundamental information about Blockchain.

With your name (eCENTRALb, an institution that's not amused about a peer-to-peer network invented to substitute them) you should see where I'm going.

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Dear Qartada,

thank you for your contribution. Mining itself is interesting, unfortunately, I can not focus on all the different points of interest of Bitcoin.

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Dear Amph,

I understand your point of view. The bitcoin mining ecosystem is a whole giant supercomputer. This is, why I was trying to make a comparison in the first place.

I agree, that a comparison with all the full nodes would work too. I'm not sure whether I'll find figures for all full nodes combined though.

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Dear AGD,

The title of the thesis is focusing on Blockchain technology instead of bitcoin because I want to show the impact for economy with all the industries and not just finance. Finance is, by now, the most discussed industry which will be impacted by Bitcoin (or already is). I admire Nakamoto for having this outstanding, positive change idea of a public ledger. The idea behind bitcoin is what I'm concentrating on.

Dear Xester,
thank you for your inspiration with the CIA supercomputers, I have not thought of this massive computer power source. Maybe I'll be able to find some figures to compare. I appreciate your effort!


Dear FlamingFingers,
I totally agree with your2013 report, I just wanted to upgrade those old calculations to 2017. Thank you for your time! This helped me a lot.

Hello everyone,

my name is Rosa, I'm studying International Business in Germany and am currently writing my Bachelor thesis 'The disruptive potential of Blockchain on economy'. I would like to ask a clarification question concerning the current computing power of the bitcoin network (resp. the network hashrate).
Please correct me if I'm wrong with the following:

1. The Bitcoin network hashrate is 45,988,115.27 petaflops ( http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/ ).
    45988115.27 petaflop = 45988.11527 exaflop ( http://endmemo.com/convert/computer%20speed_s.php )
2. The fastest super computer works with 93,014.6 petaflops ( https://www.top500.org/resources/top-systems/sunway-taihulight-national-supercomputing-center-i/ ) Cost for the system (excluding running costs: US-$ 270 million ) ( http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/sunway-report-2016.pdf )
3. Hence: All nodes of the bitcoin network combined are 494 x more powerful than the super computer? ( 45,988,115.27/93,014.6=494.422)

It just seems to be so overwhelming that it makes me doubt my own calculations.

I'm not an expert on technical details (though I'm trying to become one;), so I would be really grateful for your feedback:)
Thank you for your time in advance. I appreciate your effort to help me .

Rosa