Bitcoins are digital currency that can be mined by computers solving mathematical puzzles. Over the years, they’ve shot up in value. They might make you rich! Maybe not! It’s a Bitcoin rush, and the mining operations are getting large, complex and bonkers.
As website Hong Wrong points out, the puzzles are getting increasingly difficult. And once 21 million Bitcoins are produced, production will cease. In the past, we’ve seen impressive digital drilling outfits — and our colleagues at Gizmodo have even noted their environmental impact. However, this set-up in Hong Kong seems to be a step above from your typical Bitcoin mining operations.
Website Bitell, run by journalist Xiaogang Cao, posted photos of a Bitcoin mining outfit in Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung industrial building. According to Bitell (via Hong Wrong), the company behind this mine is called Asicminer, and it owns other mines as well.
The farm is filled with computer boards soaked in cooling liquid to keep the machines cool. There is also an advanced cooling system on the roof to maintain the temperature. Bitell says the mine is “quieter than a library”.
Construction on this mine began in August; however, actual mining didn’t begin until this past October. While Hong Wrong doesn’t say how many Bitcoins this outfit mines, with the cost necessary to start and maintain such an elaborate set-up, someone sure thinks this is worth it.
从ASICMINER液冷矿场访问归来 [Bitell via Hong Wrong]
Comments
12 responses to “Bitcoin Mining Is Getting Out Of Control”
Obligatory question regarding operation of Crysis…
LOL
When Sam Biddle wrote the original article it was mentioned Bitcoin was $7.50 (late 2011)
$897.45 When I posted this comment, I sure hope some of you bought some!
I had 200 bitcoins all mined by myself during the time when they were around $7-$16 each.
I made the mistake of having my Phone as a bitcoin wallet.
about a few months ago when bitcoins were kinda “meh” the memory of my bitcoin wallet slipped from my mind as I just started to root my android handset.
2 days after “OH SHIT! I HAD MY WALLET ON THERE!”
no every time I see something about how good bitcoin is doing I cry inside, lol.
PS I mined them just using my gaming computer running a single ati 6770 , it took ages to get one back then now I it would probably take about a year to even maybe get a single coin.
–
Ouch!
Puts my single ASIC miner to shame….
and here I was planning to start mining with my Raspberry Pi…
🙁
A digital currency that is so prohibitively expensive to acquire that only a handful of wealthy individuals or companies can afford to ‘mine’ them?
Sounds like any other mining operation in existence.
You can still afford a fraction of a bitcoin as it is designed to be divisible to 8 decimal places for transactions. While $100 will get you only 1/10th of a bitcoin, it is still $100 or possibly more.
The mining is indeed becoming less profitable but goods and services utilizing bitcoins is where the next frontier lies anyway.
A lot of long term investment in a currency not backed by anything.
What do you think that normal currency is backed by?
Lots of people think it’s Gold, but that hasn’t been true for some time, infact Fort Knox is relatively insignificant now. The only back up that currency has is the word of the Government of the country.
Try getting your money back when there is a war, an unforeseen change of government or financial collapse.
For reference try, the American war of independance, the fall of the Nazi party WWII japan WWII, all these countries had currency that was “Backed” by the government or ruleling party at the time and had worthless pieces of paper after,
It’s backed by the fact that governments pay salaries and require taxes to be paid in those currencies.
Yes, if the US government collapses then the dollar will become worthless. But if the US government collapsed and the dollar was backed by gold sitting in Fort Knox, exactly how would that help you?
This whole bitcoin thing was cool, back when it was possible for regular people to actually mine some. In fact it follows the historical path of other mining operations aha.
Now, with operations like THIS in existence, it has become just like every other mining operation in the world.
That’s why everyone is on one or more of the various alternate e-currencies out there – specifically, ones using a different algorithm than Bitcoin.
I’ve been mining a trickle these past few months with my video cards – BitCoin quickly lost its profit : cost ratio (in terms of hardware and power), and people who didn’t want to spend hundreds or thousands on dedicated hardware moved onto the scrypt coins like LiteCoin, FeatherCoin, and more.
I’ve made about 3.5 BTC, which for a while wasn’t worth much more than it cost to mine – but like I’d hoped, it’s gone up in price.
Now that huge corporations are buying into it, I’m hoping the price at least stays stable – I’m not making as much BTC per day as I used to, but at the current prices I’m making a nice few dollars per day.
My mining hardware is cheap Radeon 7850 and 7750 I picked up on special, and my gaming computer’s 7950. Interestingly, the 7750 is about 80% as fast at mining as my 7950, and runs cooler.
With how much BitCoins are worth these days, it will pay itself off in no time. With how much BitCoin wallets are being hacked these days, you’d want to recoup that cost before any crashes or losses.
i wish i understood how this all worked when i first heard the word bitcoin…. :/
The more miners you see, the stronger the coin gets.
Its just a matter of time when the bubble will explode. Sames goes to the gambling market for the bitcoins, more games more players, more bitcoin value. Ask the latest Bitoomba winner 🙂