[2014-08-16] WSJ: German Startup Says Its New Chip Halves Bitcoin Mining Energy

[LiteCoinGuy]

German Startup Says Its New Chip Halves Bitcoin Mining Energy

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/08/15/german-startup-says-its-new-chip-halves-bitcoin-mining-energy/

[CoinMode]

German Startup Says Its New Chip Halves Bitcoin Mining Energy

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/08/15/german-startup-says-its-new-chip-halves-bitcoin-mining-energy/

German engineering!!!

[bitbouillion]

Made in USA wasn't even tested

[LiteCoinGuy]

[odolvlobo]

The misconception is that improvement will reduce the total amount of energy used to mine Bitcoin, but the truth is that it will result in an increase in the difficulty. The total amount of energy used to mine Bitcoin depends primarily on the cost of energy and the value of a bitcoin.

[bryant.coleman]

Those guys who get free or heavily subsidized electricity wouldn't mind. BTW... I am more concerned about the retail price of these chips. If they are considerably more expensive than the other chips, then there is no use in buying them.

[bitbouillion]

I am more concerned about the retail price of these chips. If they are considerably more expensive than the other chips, then there is no use in buying them.

It all depends on if ...

[bornil267645]

I guess the main question will be the price

[CryptInvest]

The total amount of energy expended in mining compared to the energy expended in maintaining the banking system is negligible. Therefore, nothing to talk about.

[ajareselde]

The total amount of energy expended in mining compared to the energy expended in maintaining the banking system is negligible. Therefore, nothing to talk about.

Ok, but theres a good chance that this will bring the price down a bit ; since the cost of mining will be lowered once more.
It seams that market doesnt care how much it takes to produce a new chip.
Soon im expecting to see alot of price drops in current asics, prepare for sell-threads overflow

[patrike]

I guess that just clocking down any of the existing ASIC's to lower speed will lower their power consumption. The reason why people don't do that is because even if the chip is getting more power efficient, you still make more money by getting more hashes with the higher speed and higher power usage.

[CoinsCoinsEverywhere]

The misconception is that improvement will reduce the total amount of energy used to mine Bitcoin, but the truth is that it will result in an increase in the difficulty. The total amount of energy used to mine Bitcoin depends primarily on the cost of energy and the value of a bitcoin.

But miners don't care about this.  They just want to be the first to use the more efficient chips so they can make a profit before the rest of the miners get them and the market renormalizes.

[barney_stinson]

Due to this, at some point, miners pay more for energy costs than they get back in bitcoin.

I always thought about this problem. I hope the solution will be found

[Lethn]

Due to this, at some point, miners pay more for energy costs than they get back in bitcoin.

I always thought about this problem. I hope the solution will be found

That's the difficulty working as intended, it's supposed to prevent people from getting Bitcoin easily and churning out coins at a ridiculous rate, as for the cost of electricity itself, that's a problem that has plagued our species for a long time.