Comparison of GPU's

[dbc]

It will (for a while, at least). ArtForz will have 65% of the network.

I've not spotted how to figure out what hash speed the entire network is searching at? Can anyone link me?

[Essjay]

I've not spotted how to figure out what hash speed the entire network is searching at? Can anyone link me?

Maybe there's a web page out there that says "the current hash speed of the entire network is..." In the absence of this, we can calculate it.

Assume that the network calculates 6 blocks per hour (i.e. 2016 blocks every 2 weeks).

If we go to http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php and play around with it, we discover that 80000000 khash (or 80,000 million hashes) per second equals an average of 10 minutes. Therefore that's my current wild estimate!

(It's probably slightly higher than this, because we're generating more than 6 blocks per hour. Add a bit more.)

[theymos]

I've not spotted how to figure out what hash speed the entire network is searching at? Can anyone link me?

Take the average number of hashes required to solve a block:
http://blockexplorer.com/q/hashestowin
And divide that by the average interval between the last 1000 blocks or whatever:
http://blockexplorer.com/q/interval/1000

Right now it's ~102 ghash/s.

[lfm]

It will (for a while, at least). ArtForz will have 65% of the network.

I've not spotted how to figure out what hash speed the entire network is searching at? Can anyone link me?

You can simply estimate for each block at the specified difficulty results in the estimated total net hashing rate and you get a graph like this:

http://www3.telus.net/millerlf/hashes.png

[Hal]

I'd predict that difficulty will stop rising once it becomes impossible to mine at a profit. Based on ribuck's figures, we're pretty much there if you account for GPU prices, and maybe a factor of 4 away even for people who only count electricity (because they use their cards for gaming etc). So unless the price of bitcoins rises, I expect difficulty to start leveling off soon.

[ribuck]

... unless the price of bitcoins rises, I expect difficulty to start leveling off soon.

I think that should say "unless people think that the price of bitcoins is going to rise..."

[Cdecker]

Well investing now in the generation of Bitcoins is a two-way bet: you are betting that the increase in generation difficulty  is not going to outrun the value increase at exchanges, both when the difficulty leaps to an incredible high, or the exchange price drops, you're screwed.

[ribuck]

... when the difficulty leaps to an incredible high, or the exchange price drops, you're screwed.

...unless you can make money from transaction fees, or bitcoin-based DNS, or whatever else the future may hold. For sure though, buying hardware is a speculative gamble. GPU mining would have been very profitable for ArtForz because he started early when the difficulty was low. For the same reason, mining with custom hardware will work for him if he's first-off-the-block. But for most of us, the economics of generating is marginal.

Of course there are other reasons to generate apart from monetary reward. It's quite satisfying just to be part of the movement helping to get Bitcoin established.

PS: Anyone who is buying hardware for generation, why not click through the affiliate links at bitcointo.com and claim your bitcoin reward. I got 35 bitcoins back on my purchase of a 5870 card. Thanks to noagendamarket, the operator of that service.

[mimarob]

hehe now I know why I like this so much, its like the original gold-rush, few of the miners got rich, but many of the providers of the pots an' pans did :-)