The BitCam
Bitcoin
has been in the press a lot lately, mostly thanks to the incredible
changes in value for this virtual currency. But when you get down to the
most basic way to get coins, you have to talk about Bitcoin mining. Any
coin that gets transacted between two individuals had to be mined at
some point. They are not created out of thin air, and in order to mine
those coins, you need powerful computer systems to solve algorithm
functions, which is part of the very fabric of the virtual currency. We
talked not so long ago about one particular device, an ASIC, made
especially for mining Bitcoin. These use hardware components optimized
for the mining process, and now some reporters at Wired have obtained
one such device and setup the BitCam.
With
webcams being available to watch about anything you would want to in
our modern ever-online way of life, it was only a matter of time before
someone would stream Bitcoin mining live for all to see. The camera runs
all day long and streams on Ustream, where thousands of people watch
the lines of text scroll down on the monitor positioned in front of the
camera. This text is simply what the mining software outputs, and the
only exciting part of this process is when a successful coin is actually
found.
The
way mining works is that 25 coins are awarded every few minutes from
the virtual network, in relation with how many hashes your particular
device can process. Just like a real life lottery, the more people try
to mine, the lower your chance at getting those coins. Modern miners
however rarely try to mine by themselves. Instead, they join mining
pools, and after just two weeks, the Wired crew said that their $274
ASIC device has paid for itself. Needless to say, this makes these types
of computers in very high demand.
