I've been thinking this over for a while. Right now, the general consensus is that the price of bitcoin will end up being related to the cost of electricity for computing, and in the long run transaction fees will have to go up or down to make that happen.
I think this will change.
When you have negative externalities like this, where people don't pay for electricity (they're renting, or in a condo/apartment building that has electricity included) or even free CPU power, as in an office, then the economics change. The price of bitcoin won't be tied to the price of electricity/CPU power, it will be tied to the cost of running a website like mine that lets people take advantage of free CPU power.
Yes, I think there will be a "base" of miners who basically have zero marginal cost, then a certain number of "suckers" who think that they'll make money even though they won't, and then "serious" miners whose number will vary according to profitability. Ultimately the base + suckers is probably enough to keep Bitcoin working in some form.
Even if they are, it's not worth it. Using my laptop CPU, I can expect to get a payout of about 0.0003 BTC in an hour and half. Using my gpu at home, I get about 1.25BTC/day.
Comments
Unless your office is paying for the electricity ;)
--edit-- Really? I'm getting downvoted for a valid point?
True.
I've been thinking this over for a while. Right now, the general consensus is that the price of bitcoin will end up being related to the cost of electricity for computing, and in the long run transaction fees will have to go up or down to make that happen.
I think this will change.
When you have negative externalities like this, where people don't pay for electricity (they're renting, or in a condo/apartment building that has electricity included) or even free CPU power, as in an office, then the economics change. The price of bitcoin won't be tied to the price of electricity/CPU power, it will be tied to the cost of running a website like mine that lets people take advantage of free CPU power.
Yes, I think there will be a "base" of miners who basically have zero marginal cost, then a certain number of "suckers" who think that they'll make money even though they won't, and then "serious" miners whose number will vary according to profitability. Ultimately the base + suckers is probably enough to keep Bitcoin working in some form.
Even if they are, it's not worth it. Using my laptop CPU, I can expect to get a payout of about 0.0003 BTC in an hour and half. Using my gpu at home, I get about 1.25BTC/day.
I'm curious, is your computer usable while you're using your GPU for mining? Or do you have a 2nd graphics card dedicated to mining?
I tried out GPU mining but my computer was unusable while it was running.