German Startup Says Its New Chip Halves Bitcoin Mining Energy

[Sheldor333]

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

If bitcoin takes off the mining industry is going to lead to much more efficient chips.
People complain about the energy consumption of the network but that's a constraint that's going to be overcome in order to be more profitable as a mining company. The result of this will be more efficient chips in your phone, tablet, laptop, etc.

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[Hexadecibel]

It still boggles my mind that we are in the peta-hash range.

[scryptasicminer]

Can miner profit from the energy saving miner? Is the saving worth the cost?

[Light]

Can miner profit from the energy saving miner? Is the saving worth the cost?

Depends on how the miner is priced. If it costs more than the others to a greater extent than the margin saved on electricity then it won't be worth it. But if they keep a similar price as current competitors it will be more efficient - nonetheless you may still not actually make a profit.

I'd be interested to see if these chips actually come out anytime soon and whether their claims are actually backed up in a real world scenario.

[lihuajkl]

"A German start-up is looking for funding to produce a new high-performance microchip that it says would make bitcoin mining much less energy intensive, and thus cheaper." It is used to attract new investment. Whether the statement as it was stated needs to prove until the star-up will product this chip out.

[LiteCoinGuy]

It still boggles my mind that we are in the peta-hash range.

yeah true, we cant imagine what will happen in that space.




i started in march 2013 with btc...not even on that scale 

[yayayo]

"A German start-up is looking for funding to produce a new high-performance microchip that it says would make bitcoin mining much less energy intensive, and thus cheaper." It is used to attract new investment. Whether the statement as it was stated needs to prove until the star-up will product this chip out.

Yes, claiming superior performance is one thing, proving it is another. One should be very skeptical in regard to such announcements of mining hardware manufacturers. The majority of products failed to match their initial performance specifications.

But I'd still give a German company a little bonus in credibility. Would be outstanding if they really achieve energy savings of that magnitude.

ya.ya.yo!

[bryant.coleman]

It still boggles my mind that we are in the peta-hash range.

Is this hash rate sustainable? If it continues to increase logarithmically, then I am afraid that at one stage we will hit the limit and the entire Blockchain system will collapse completely.

[Ayers]

you mean with 20nm tech? still the hash is growing too low for casual mining, a little less consumption won't save us

[protokol]

It still boggles my mind that we are in the peta-hash range.

Is this hash rate sustainable? If it continues to increase logarithmically, then I am afraid that at one stage we will hit the limit and the entire Blockchain system will collapse completely.

 

Seriously though, it would be cool if the Bitcoin network really started to be the No.1 industry in advancement of microchip tech. We're pretty close to Moore's Law slowing down - 20nm is almost small enough to get weird quantum errors in the chips.

Proper quantum chips will be next, let's hope the BTC network doesn't shoot itself in the foot by accidentally inventing a superfast hashing chip that can brute-force sha256... 

[Kayex]

Can miner profit from the energy saving miner? Is the saving worth the cost?

Depends on how the miner is priced. If it costs more than the others to a greater extent than the margin saved on electricity then it won't be worth it. But if they keep a similar price as current competitors it will be more efficient - nonetheless you may still not actually make a profit.

I'd be interested to see if these chips actually come out anytime soon and whether their claims are actually backed up in a real world scenario.

At this rate, if btc mining becomes really energy efficient and big enough, every household might be mining btc in the future. O.o

[Brewins]

There are many fantastic techno claims that end up being nothing, or impractical in the real world, so better be skepitical.

And even if the energy problem is diminushed(I guess people will just buy 2x more ASICS), the hardware waste will problem still will be there. Old computers can have some use if they still work, but olds ASICs are kind of useless if the network hash keeps growing exponentially.

[jbreher]

Is this hash rate sustainable? If it continues to increase logarithmically, then I am afraid that at one stage we will hit the limit and the entire Blockchain system will collapse completely.

I'd be interested to know what limit it is about which you are worried.