Hello Free-DCers! I know it's been a LONGGGGGGGG time since I've been around. I've been up to many things including backpacking Europe recently.
Anyway, I wanted to open up a little discussion here and see what everyone thought about it.
Who hear has heard of BitCoins? It's been in the news a little bit recently, especially on the tech news sites. The currency greatly interested me and I started digging a little deeper. It's a P2P currency essentially where the users actually help process transactions via hashtables and make sure no one is double dipping. Thereby keeping the integrity of the currency, while verifying transactions that have taken place or "letting them clear". While I won't explain it all (if this interests you then please by all means do a bunch of reading on it too), there are ways to make money off processing BitCoin transactions without putting anything into it other than the hardware you currently own. This is definitely for people (like Free-DCers) who may already own a large number of GPUs that are CUDA/OpenCL capable. As the currency gains interest and more people move money into it, the hashtable automatically increases in processing difficulty (likewise it decreases if it begins to have currency removed from it). Now it's set to generate 50Bitcoins per designated "block" through January 2012. At which time it will cut in half every year after (25 BCpb, 12.5, etc etc) until it maxes out at 21,000,000 million bitcoins in circulation. So, the rest of this phase and the next make economical sense to participate in (depending on how much you pay for electricity and hardware).
Unfortunately, there is no real gain anymore by just trying to participate solo because the hashtable is too large and blocks need broken up into work units and divided out essentially. In comes "pools". There are large pools now setup that individual users can join. It's a group effort (and there are different payout structures depending on the pool), and the money gets divided out at the end of each "round" of crunching (solving the right block ((confirming the transaction)) and moving the hashtable forward). Now, I'm not sure how much GPU power Free-DC may have, or the level of participation here anymore, but if it were large enough, then it would be feasible to create the forums own pool. Lots of power + less people = more bitcoins to divide less ways. It doesn't solve any math problems, or help towards a cure for diseases, but it is a form of distributed computing I found very interesting (and potentially rewarding to many if the power is there).
There's a LOT of reading behind it all it kinda get the whole thing. It's not easy to make sound simple because it's just not simple. I'm not sure I fully understand it still. But I do have a miner working in a pool right now. The currency fluctuates constantly like any currency, but currently 1 Bitcoin is worth about $19/USD as of this posting.
Is there anyone who can look more into maybe creating a pool just for Free-DC? Also, Free-DC members, are there any of you with GPUs that would want to switch to something like this and start finding blocks collectively? The more who work on it the faster they're done and the better it pays out. CPUs CAN participate but generate MUCH less work and would not earn as much as people using GPUs.
1 block = 50 bitcoins = $950USD right now. Now that's not per person, but there could be discussion of pay structures (there are 3 types used currently) to spread it evenly so those who do more work can get more credit like in any project.
So, let's hear it guys! Sorry if the post is kind of jumpy and sloppy. Lots of stuff to put in here and not easy to think about it all.
-Moose
