In the world of money, there's virtual currency, digital currency, and cryptocurrency. These currencies overlap at times. In cryptocurrency the most popular software-based payment systems right now are Bitcoin and Litecoin.
What caught my attention about crypto was a report of a shortage of AMD video cards due to cryptomining in Litecoin. Here's some information on the reason for the shortage, "Massive surge in Litecoin mining leads to graphics card shortage."
You may well ask why a newly-released, discrete video card is needed for cryptomining. In December, 2013, the CoinDesk reported:
Note that hashrate is directly related to profit. The difficulty reported in the graph above is due to investors/miners competing for coins. As you know, a fundamental tenet of economics is the greater the demand, the higher the price. The CoinDesk explains "How Bitcoin Mining Works." CoinWarz has a nice online mining and profit calculator.
You can make your own mining rig. Jason Evangelho at Forbes offers "Litecoin 101: How To Build Your Own Mining Rigs." CryptoBadger describes setting up a Linux rig. There are detailed instructions at Crypto Rigs.
If you just don't want to get into making all these parts work together, you can buy a custom-made at Xidax that looks pretty impressive.
Options for software are posted on the Litecoin Wiki. To see how involved people can get with their rigs, take a look at "Insane Crypto-Currency Mining Rigs."
-- Marge
What caught my attention about crypto was a report of a shortage of AMD video cards due to cryptomining in Litecoin. Here's some information on the reason for the shortage, "Massive surge in Litecoin mining leads to graphics card shortage."
You may well ask why a newly-released, discrete video card is needed for cryptomining. In December, 2013, the CoinDesk reported:
Bitcoin mining on a standard GPU is a thing of the past. Put simply: it’s no longer economically viable, given the power consumption of discrete graphics cards and their relatively high price.
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| Litecoin hash (1 month), CoinDesk |
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Note that hashrate is directly related to profit. The difficulty reported in the graph above is due to investors/miners competing for coins. As you know, a fundamental tenet of economics is the greater the demand, the higher the price. The CoinDesk explains "How Bitcoin Mining Works." CoinWarz has a nice online mining and profit calculator.
You can make your own mining rig. Jason Evangelho at Forbes offers "Litecoin 101: How To Build Your Own Mining Rigs." CryptoBadger describes setting up a Linux rig. There are detailed instructions at Crypto Rigs.
If you just don't want to get into making all these parts work together, you can buy a custom-made at Xidax that looks pretty impressive.
***
 |
| Cryptocurrency mining rigs, Xidax |
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Options for software are posted on the Litecoin Wiki. To see how involved people can get with their rigs, take a look at "Insane Crypto-Currency Mining Rigs."
-- Marge
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