[Cryptography] Bitcoin compute power (was Re: Aggregate signatures)

[Paul Ferguson]

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On 6/11/2014 5:53 AM, John Levine wrote:

>> Another big concern should be what would happen if the cost of 
>> mining exceeded the cost of running an appreciable percentage of
>> the rigs. At that point the only way to make money would be to
>> shut down the rigs, let the difficulty factor ease off and then
>> bring them back in bursts to unwind the chain.
> 
> It is my impression that mining has been unprofitable for at least
> a year.  People keep doing it because they hope the coins they're 
> hoarding will increase in value enough to be retroactively
> profitable.
> 

....unless you have access to a few supercomputers?  :-)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27779030

- - ferg


- -- 
Paul Ferguson
VP Threat Intelligence, IID
PGP Public Key ID: 0x54DC85B2
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