Crypto Mining Hinders Space Science as GPU Prices Skyrocket and Supply Dwindles - Sensationalist Headlines

[quote]Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) researchers want to expand operations at two observatories. However, they have found that key computer chips are in short supply. "We'd like to use the latest GPUs [graphics processing units]... and we can't get 'em," said Dan Werthimer. Demand for GPUs has soared recently thanks to crypto-currency mining.[/quote] [quote] A group looking for evidence of the earliest stars in the universe was recently shocked to see that the cost of the GPUs it wanted had doubled. "We're in the process of expanding our telescope - we got a grant from the National Science Foundation here in the United States to do so," said Aaron Parsons at the University of California at Berkeley. Prof Parsons' radio telescope, the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionisation Array (Hera), is an American, British and South African project located in South Africa's western plains. It has been designed to listen to low frequency radio waves emitted by the reionising hydrogen gas that permeated the universe before the first stars and galaxies formed. GPUs are needed in order to bring together data from Hera's many small radio telescopes - this synthesises a much larger array, offering an especially wide field of view peering out into the universe. [B]Three months ago, the Hera team had budgeted for a set of GPUs that cost around $500 (£360) - the price has since doubled to $1,000. "We'll be able to weather it but it is coming out of our contingency budget." added Prof Parsons. "We're buying a lot of these things, it's going to end up costing about [U]$32,000[/U] extra."[/B] [U][B]He also said he was concerned that future work could even be stopped in its tracks, should the GPU shortage worsen.[/B][/U] [/quote] [url]http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43056744[/url]

For fuck sake, miners are arseholes.

Fuck cryptocurrecy. Seriously.

I cannot stand this crypto bullshit. Does it actually do anything for the economy? Science? Culture? Politics? [I]Anything?[/I] All I see is people buying up things that could be used by others, and generally just sucking down power and not putting anything back into the world around them.

Sorry dickheads, imaginary monopoly money is more important than the future of human kind.

Okay, I'm posing this as a legitimate question. In what way does cryptocurrency benefit anyone other than the initial user.

It doesn't, the tech itself may be useful for security and record keeping reasons but the currency is fucking stupid, with yearly massive ponzi schemes that basically ruin all the 'work' put in.

[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;53145958]Okay, I'm posing this as a legitimate question. In what way does cryptocurrency benefit anyone other than the initial user.[/QUOTE] I don't think it does, and it's obviously in need of some regulation at this point.

[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;53145958]Okay, I'm posing this as a legitimate question. In what way does cryptocurrency benefit anyone other than the initial user.[/QUOTE] mumble mumble fiat currency is evil, mumble mumble lambos to the moon the tech behind cryptocurrency is a novel, cool idea, that people have 100% co-opted for their own greed, to the detriment of tech enthusiasts and academia through inflation of hardware prices and reduction in supply, to the detriment of the environment through meaningless computation and wasting of electricity, to the detriment of people who get scammed because they've got cunts telling them they'll make it to the big leagues because of a new shitcoin

About time to make crypto mining illegal. It kills GPU market for some imaginary buck.

[QUOTE=Hammer7;53145980]About time to make crypto mining illegal. It kills GPU market for some imaginary buck.[/QUOTE] Good luck trying to get that enforced.

[QUOTE=Hammer7;53145980]About time to make crypto mining illegal. It kills GPU market for some imaginary buck.[/QUOTE] How on earth would you enforce that?

[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;53145958]Okay, I'm posing this as a legitimate question. In what way does cryptocurrency benefit anyone other than the initial user.[/QUOTE] 'Cryptocurrency' is a misnomer really. There are obvious benefits of blockchain technology, like provability, decentralisation, transparency, immutability etc etc. There aren't so many actual crypto projects trying to be currencies, a good chunk of them just have exchange tokens to power the network, like Ether on the Ethereum network, which is actually a 'distributed computing platform'. It's not trying to be a currency. Modern blockchain projects are hardly distributed via mining, it just so happened that mining was the first method thought up to give a distributed verifiable consensus on an event. Ethereum is moving away from mining this year I think to a different method, called Proof of Stake. Other 'cryptocurrency' aiming to be actual currency like Stellar, Nano, and Ripple were not and never will be distributed by mining and again have obvious benefits.

[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;53145958]Okay, I'm posing this as a legitimate question. In what way does cryptocurrency benefit anyone other than the initial user.[/QUOTE] The ironic bit here is that contributing to the blockchain is inherent in the currency; So the "initial" user is actually doing more for others than what normal currency does if you want to metric it that way. Though this question is just extremely silly and built on a false premise that implies ordinary currency isn't somehow part of your "problem." [editline]20th February 2018[/editline] [QUOTE=Hammer7;53145980]About time to make crypto mining illegal. It kills GPU market for some imaginary buck.[/QUOTE] Or just realize in the short-term this is a market disruption that GPU manufacturers will just account for? Not like they won't have the funds to adapt to the new market and just manufacture more cards. Legislating over GPUs being sold out is just so pathetically a knee-jerk reaction to something so auto-correcting.

Could it not just be considered not a form of legal tender Wouldn't that kill it almost outright?

[QUOTE=Hammer7;53145980]About time to make crypto mining illegal. It kills GPU market for some imaginary buck.[/QUOTE] Cryptomining is bullshit but don't call for making it illegal in a knee-jerk reaction. That's just silly.

[QUOTE=Tudd;53145988]The ironic bit here is that contributing to the blockchain is inherent in the currency; So the "initial" user is actually doing more for others than what normal currency does if you want to metric it that way. Though this question is just extremely silly and built on a false premise that implies ordinary currency isn't somehow part of your "problem." [editline]20th February 2018[/editline] Or just realize in the short-term this is a market disruption that GPU manufacturers will just account for? Not like they won't have the funds to adapt to the new market and just manufacture more cards. Legislating over GPUs being sold out is just so pathetically a knee-jerk reaction to something so auto-correcting.[/QUOTE] What are you talking about? GPU Makers aren't going to increase supply because this shit is a cancerous fad; they don't want to increase supply if demand is going to fall and Cryptocurrency is far from a stable bet with anything. We're not going to see this issue alleviate; there is no 'correction' this is the new norm because its not just cryptocurrency, its trading companies, researchers, gamers and more. Miners are literally just hogging them up for funbucks. [editline]20th February 2018[/editline] [QUOTE=Reagy;53145984]Good luck trying to get that enforced.[/QUOTE] Banning its trade in the US alone would cripple the currency indefinitly because its main goal is to become a recognized normal currency for use in online payments. If it gets banned in a nation; the use of that goes away and thus the goal of legitimacy is ruined and so the normal person and average miner have zero use for it leading to a devaluation. You don't need to enforce it, the very threat of losing perceived value on a speculated market is enough to crash and burn the market.

[QUOTE=Tudd;53145988]Or just realize in the short-term this is a market disruption that GPU manufacturers will just account for? Not like they won't have the funds to adapt to the new market and just manufacture more cards.[/QUOTE] That will only happen if manufacturers are confident in mining being a long-term thing rather than a simple fad. No point in dramatically scaling up production if demand will fall once mining dies down. It could end up biting them in the ass, it's not as simple as just adjusting to current demand.

[QUOTE=_Axel;53146044]That will only happen if manufacturers are confident in mining being a long-term thing rather than a simple fad. No point in dramatically scaling up production if demand will fall once mining dies down. It could end up biting them in the ass, it's not as simple as just adjusting to current demand.[/QUOTE] And my point still stands that the market will correct itself regardless which scenario you think will happen.

[QUOTE=Tudd;53146081]And my point still stands that the market will correct itself regardless which scenario you think will happen.[/QUOTE] There isn't a correction here, you doofus. If GPU manufacturers aren't going to increase supply, and more people get into mining; that means cards will sell faster. And with several other groups competing, the only correction is increased prices. [I]You fucks gotta stop talking about market corrections.[/I]

[QUOTE=SunsetTable;53146026]What are you talking about? GPU Makers aren't going to increase supply because this shit is a cancerous fad; they don't want to increase supply if demand is going to fall and Cryptocurrency is far from a stable bet with anything. We're not going to see this issue alleviate; there is no 'correction' this is the new norm because its not just cryptocurrency, its trading companies, researchers, gamers and more. Miners are literally just hogging them up for funbucks. [/QUOTE] So is legislation warranted if you think Cryptocurrency is just a fad? My only point here is that suggesting legislation over this issue is incredibly short-sighted and a knee jerk reaction. Telling me that there won't be a correction by the market because "GPU makers won't invest in a fad for supply" sort of implies that atleast you don't believe this is a long-term issue, and thus undermine any meaningful reason to legislate.

blockchain is fucking great, I'm not even a miner but it's so tiring to see "fuck all crypto lul xd" in comments under every crypto artycle

I just can't wait for this stupid trend to die. [editline]20th February 2018[/editline] [QUOTE=Davoc;53146108]blockchain is fucking great, I'm not even a miner but it's so tiring to see "fuck all crypto lul xd" in comments under every crypto artycle[/QUOTE] Then you're going to be very, very tired going forward because this is an absurd situation. Blockchain is fine in an ideal world. It's not being applied like that.

[QUOTE=Davoc;53146108]blockchain is fucking great, I'm not even a miner but it's so tiring to see "fuck all crypto lul xd" in comments under every crypto artycle[/QUOTE] The technology is very cool and is capable of many good things. It just comes with a drawback that has been fucking over PC enthusiasts for a while now. Speaking as someone who was gung ho about crypto 6 months ago, though, I can't say I'm excited about it anymore. I would rather invest traditionally, currently cryptocurrencies are a mess of people trying to get other people to buy into the coin flavor of the day. It's all speculation and bullshit. We're only now seeing some tangentially useful applications of blockchains.

[QUOTE=Davoc;53146108]blockchain is fucking great, I'm not even a miner but it's so tiring to see "fuck all crypto lul xd" in comments under every crypto artycle[/QUOTE] Yeah, well I'm tired of watching it do loads of harm to stuff like the environment, gaming, and scientific research. Guess what things are more important than some stupid internet comments? Like yeah the tech is cool, but we should strive to either do it in a way that isn't so detrimental, or maybe just let it die. And I'm saying this as someone who actually made a pretty penny on bitcoin.

[QUOTE=Davoc;53146108]blockchain is fucking great, I'm not even a miner but it's so tiring to see "fuck all crypto lul xd" in comments under every crypto artycle[/QUOTE] It's warranted however, given the practice is screwing tons of people over. Blockchain technology by itself is useful sure, but it's being severely misused here.

Looked up some GPU benchmark a few days ago, and the table had a column for mining. That was sort of a weird wake-up call. I guess it's a good time to be in the GPU business. Wonder if specific mining hardware will be produced in the nearby future.

[QUOTE=Kazumi;53146138]Looked up some GPU benchmark a few days ago, and the table had a column for mining. That was sort of a weird wake-up call. I guess it's a good time to be in the GPU business. Wonder if specific mining hardware will be produced in the nearby future.[/QUOTE] It already exists, but nobody in the mining market wants to purchase specific "mining hardware" as the people selling them up the price to a point in which it's far cheaper to just buy items separately.

[QUOTE=jonu67;53146142]It already exists, but nobody in the mining market wants to purchase specific "mining hardware" as the people selling them up the price to a point in which it's far cheaper to just buy items separately.[/QUOTE] Also if the cryptocurrency mining fad goes bust there's no real resell value in "mining hardware" as gamers won't have a use for a graphics card that doesn't actually produce video and instead is optimized for computations. You buy a 1080 TI and it goes bust you can sell that used nearly instantly and recoup most of the investment. An aside, I think that when most people think of cryptocurrency, they think of Bitcoin and the like that are solely used as currencies or volatile bonds, rather than the blockchain technology that can be used in a variety of ways. I don't think people have issues with the technology being used in ways like digital identity, data management, record keeping, auditing, contracts, etc. but instead have issues with it being used as an unregulated currency or stock like BitCoin is being used as. So when people say "fuck cryptocurrency" they're not referring to the actual beneficial uses and rather the weird economy it can create.

Are not cryptocurrrncies just one use of blockchain? If that's the case fuck cryptocurrencies specifically and let's use blockchain effectively.