Re:Harvard supercomputing cluster hijacked to mine Dogecoin
by gus_massa on Friday February 21, 2014 @08:24PM
(#7280564)
The next complain will be that the cryptocurrencies are so memory intensive that the RAM production is a non-negligible contributor to global CO2 emissions.
What's the defense against someone with a lot of money that can buy an ASIC farm or a memory farm or a whatever farm that is needed for the computation? How much money should the chip builders charge for that? How many energy can be used in the production of the critical item?
Essentially, if 50 BCT cost ~$25000, to create them you must just burn ~$25000 of petrol, i.e. 250 barrels. If you burn only 200 barrels, someone will find a faster method burning 201 that is still profitable. (You can choice to burn them during mining, or during the chips fabrication, or during the chip design, or any combination of them.)
What's the defense against someone with a lot of money that can buy an ASIC farm or a memory farm or a whatever farm that is needed for the computation? How much money should the chip builders charge for that? How many energy can be used in the production of the critical item?
Essentially, if 50 BCT cost ~$25000, to create them you must just burn ~$25000 of petrol, i.e. 250 barrels. If you burn only 200 barrels, someone will find a faster method burning 201 that is still profitable. (You can choice to burn them during mining, or during the chips fabrication, or during the chip design, or any combination of them.)