Bitcoin Mining Startup Gets $500k In Venture Capital 381
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from the coinlab-partners-with-slashdot-to-improve-your-d2-experience dept.
from the coinlab-partners-with-slashdot-to-improve-your-d2-experience dept.
Sabbetus writes "Seattle based Bitcoin startup CoinLab secured a $500,000 investment from various investors such as Silicon Valley firm Draper Associates and angel investor Geoff Entress. CoinLab is an emerging umbrella group for cultivating and launching innovative Bitcoin projects. CEO Vessenes said 'if there is a currency that can trade around the world, it's semi-anonymous, it's instant, it's not controlled by government or bank, what's the total value of that currency? The answer to that is, if it works, it's gotta be in the billions. It just has to be for all the reasons you might want to send money around the world.' This type of talk is common from Bitcoin enthusiasts but apparently seasoned investors are starting to agree. Forbes explains the details of their business plan but in short it has to do with tapping the GPU mining potential of gamers, more specifically gamers of free-to-play games. This would add a new revenue stream for online game companies that are trying to provide free games profitably."
Re:Bitcoin why? (Score:5, Informative)
If you like technology, there are many fascinating areas that Bitcoin brings together: p2p networks, cryptography, economics to name a few.
Regardless of the image problem Bitcoin has and people's propensity to denounce it based on what they've heard, it really is a revolutionary development. If the current Bitcoin network doesn't make it into your life, you can bet that one or many of its predecessors will.
One of the things it enables is fast global transactions. I created a site to sell digital downloads for Bitcoin called CoinDL: https://www.coindl.com/ [coindl.com] and the processing time is averaging under 10 seconds which is pretty impressive considering there's no company, government or other centralized organization involved in the transfer.
Re:Bitcoin why? (Score:1, Informative)
It's not revolutionary. It's a scam so a couple of people get rich whilst idiots waste countless amount of money on electricity and GPUs in vain hope of getting rich. It's a rather run-of-the-mill scam at that.
Re:It has to be? (Score:1, Informative)
Money (most currencies anyways) has a value because people want it to have a value.
gold included
Re:Prioritization? (Score:4, Informative)
150W = 0.15kW x 24hrs/day = 3.6kWh/day x $0.10/kWh = $0.36 / day x 30 days/month = $10.80 / month.
Rescale according to your local electricity cost and actual number of hours per day.
Re:Sucker born every minute. (Score:3, Informative)
Bitcoin doesn't have "built in deflation." It has built-in monetary inflation, which is currently around 35%, and which decreases over time.
Re:Sucker born every minute. (Score:4, Informative)
Given that its (eventual) deflation is a key feature of the protocol, I would think it merits mentioning up front. I mean, hell, they wouldn't have to say much about it, since you can assume a Forbes reader knows what currency deflation is. Something simple like:
The supply of Bitcoins is not infinite. After a set number of transactions (estimated to be reached around the year 2140), no more Bitcoins will be generated, making the currency permanently deflationary from that point forward.
There you go, summed up in 36 words. Could probably even be trimmed a bit for space, if necessary.
Re:Sucker born every minute. (Score:1, Informative)
> due to HDD crashes, malware, or whatever,
The system is more complex than that. There is an extensive audit trail allowing the currency's owner/location to be clearly defined. In the case the actual representation is somehow lost through intentional sabotage, the currency can be "refound" through the same means it was originally found, in a fraction of the time. You really don't know enough about bitcoins, to be commenting.
Re:Sucker born every minute. (Score:4, Informative)
Er, not quite. When you lose the private key to a bitcoin public key that has received (net) bitcoins, those bitcoins are gone. You would have to somehow infer the private key from the public key, which is by design impossible to do in feasible time.
There is no mechanism for getting the network to "re-credit" you your lost coins. No amount of whining about how this or that HD crashed or computer was hacked will allow you to regain access to the credits. At the very least, it would require a full fork and migration of the entire blockchain (i.e. global ledger), with full cooperation, to cover up your little oopsie ... which isn't going to happen.
As always, of course, if you have the private key(s) backed up somewhere, you can go right on re-spending like nothing happened.