Thought this might interest a few of you who have been discussing Bitcoins. Apologies for any discontinuity in the article, as I had to remove numerous embedded photos. url: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/06/how-a-total-n00b-mined-700-in-bitcoins/">http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/06/how-a-total-n00b-mined-700-in-bitcoins/</a><div>
<br></div><div>James<br><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div class="page" id="page1" style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:'PT Serif';font-size:16px;line-height:24px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9)">
<div class="page_content" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
<div id="articleHeader" style="margin:0px 0px 1.875em;padding:0px 0px 0.8125em;border-width:0px 0px 1px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-color:rgb(197,197,197);font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">
<h1 style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-size:1.875em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:normal;line-height:1.3em;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_0" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">H</span>ow a total n00b mined $700 in bitcoins<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_1" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></h1>
</div><h2 style="margin:2.285714em 0px 0.75em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;vertical-align:baseline">We take a Butterfly Labs Bitcoin miner, plug it in, and make it (virtually) rain<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></h2>
<div style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">This is the second in a two-part series exploring Butterfly Labs and its lineup of dedicated Bitcoin-mining hardware<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_3" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> In part one, we <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/06/gold-in-them-bits-inside-the-worlds-most-mysterious-bitcoin-mining-company/" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">looked at the company </a>and the experiences customers have had with it<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_4" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> In part two, we share our experiences running a Bitcoin miner for a couple weeks<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_5" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></div>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">There is a whirring, whining presence in my dining room<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I notice it every time I walk through<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_7" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Every day, it sucks down about one full kilowatt-hour of electricity<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> In a year, it will consume almost $100 worth of juice—and that's on top of the $274 it costs to buy the box in the first place<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_9" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Oh, and it's hot, too. If I moved it into my office and could stand the noise, I could keep a cup of coffee comfortably warm on top of the thing<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_10" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Why on earth would anyone want such a disagreeable little machine in their home<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_11" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The short answer: every day, that machine magically generates something like $20 in bitcoins<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_12" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<h2 style="margin:2.285714em 0px 0.75em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;vertical-align:baseline">The BFL miner: A video intro<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_13" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></h2>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
Allow me to introduce you to the Butterfly Labs 5GH/s "Jalapeño" Bitcoin miner<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_14" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></div>
<h2 style="margin:2.285714em 0px 0.75em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;vertical-align:baseline">A newbie and his miner<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_15" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Ars Senior Business Editor Cyrus Farivar tapped me on the shoulder a few weeks back with a proposition<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_16" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> "I've got a Butterfly Labs Bitcoin mining box," he explained<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_17" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> "There aren't that many in the wild right now. I'm working on a story about the company, but I'm about to go on vacation<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_18" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Do you want to see if you can get the thing working while I'm out<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span>"</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I was intrigued. Bitcoin<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_20" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span> That's the electronic currency that's quickly rocketed from lame nerd project to ludicrously valuable hot topic, right<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_21" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span> I didn't know a lot about the world of Bitcoin other than the fact that "mining" them involved people building custom PCs with tons of video cards to handle the math<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_22" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I certainly didn't know how to "mine" bitcoins myself or what to <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">do</em> with the things once I had them<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_23" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I just knew that people eventually try to trade them in for cash somehow (but how to do <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">that</em> was also a total mystery)<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_24" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">And yet here was the opportunity to take a piece of hardware I'd never heard of and see if I could use it to magically create some money out of nowhere<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_25" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I told Cyrus to send me the Butterfly Labs miner<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_26" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> As he trekked off to Peru for his vacation, I settled in with the little black box<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_27" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Butterfly Labs is a company that has drawn a fair amount of controversy for what the Bitcoin community at large perceives as a string of broken promises<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_28" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>The company sells ASIC-based Bitcoin miners—machines that are built around customized chips that do nothing except compute <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sha-256" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">SHA-256 </a>hashes very quickly<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_29" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>Its smallest miner (the one I had to get working) is codenamed "Jalapeño" and computes a bit over five billion hashes per second (or 5GH/s)<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_30" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The problem is that Butterfly Labs started selling the machines long before it actually had a product to sell<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_31" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> It began taking paid-in-full preorders back in mid-2012, and thousands of customers opened their wallets for Bitcoin miners ranging from the small 5GH/s miner at $274 all the way up to the large 500Gh/s miner, which costs $22,484<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_32" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Butterfly Labs promised certain performance targets to customers—it initially felt confident that its application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs would deliver one billion hashes per second for every 1<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_33" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>1 watt of power consumed<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_34" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> This proved extremely optimistic. Hardware delivery slipped multiple times<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_35" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Now, a full year later, the first few real live Butterfly Labs boxes are finally being shipped, though no small number (as many as 30) were sent to journalists to review rather than to paying customers<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_36" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">B ut when the little black box showed up on my doorstep, I had no idea about the deep and extremely vocal Bitcoin community or the story behind Butterfly Labs<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_37" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I didn't really even fully understand what the miner did<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_38" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I simply knew that I wanted to get this thing working and make some money<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_39" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<h2 style="margin:2.285714em 0px 0.75em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;vertical-align:baseline">Out of the box<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_40" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The 5GH/s Jalapeño miner is a black rounded cube with a brushed metal finish<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_41" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>The only connectors on the exterior of the device are on the back: a mini-USB port for data and a power plug<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_42" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Near the power plug are a series of small red LEDs that the device uses to tell you its status, though there was no documentation in the box to explain what the LEDs meant<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_43" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The front of the cube contains another red LED to indicate power<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_44" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">There are two sets of vents, one low on the front and the other high on the rear<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_45" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>The device's internal 80 mm fan draws cooler air up from the front through the fins of the large heat sink mounted on the ASIC chip<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_46" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> It expels the now-warm air out through the top vents<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_47" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<div style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"><div style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
<div class="readableLargeImageContainer" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:center">
<a href="http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/bfl2-ext-front.jpg" target="_blank" class="readableLinkWithLargeImage" style="font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none;display:inline!important"><div class="readableLargeImageContainer" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;display:inline!important">
<span style="font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit">Front view of the Butterfly Labs 5GH/s Jalapeño miner</span><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_48" style="font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline">.</span><span style="font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit"> </span><span style="font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit">The understated Butterfly Labs logo is on the top of the device; visible on its front are the air intake vents</span><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_49" style="font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></div>
</a></div></div></div></div></div><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> After I unboxed the thing and took some photos, I was sort of stuck<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_50" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I had no idea what to <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">do</em> with the little rounded-off cube<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_51" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Before I consulted the Internet for documentation, I tried briefly—and in vain—to see if I could make it work on my own<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_52" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> "I am a geek, and I work at Ars Technica, which is a major technology website of some renown," I thought<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_53" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> "I have built Web servers. I use, like, Linux and stuff. How hard can this really be<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_54" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span>"</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Too hard, apparently. Connecting it via USB to any of the computers I had handy didn't really cause anything to happen<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_55" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The device showed up on the USB bus and identified itself, but it didn't <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">do</em> anything<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_56" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I naively wondered if there was some kind of application I needed to download to "log on" to the device to get it mining<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_57" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/bfl2-systeminfo.png" target="_blank" class="readableLinkWithLargeImage" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none;display:block"><div class="readableLargeImageContainer" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:center">
</div></a><div style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">When connected via USB, the miner shows up as a "BitFORCE SHA256 SC," which is the ASIC identifier<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_58" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
Lee Hutchinson</div><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I admitted defeat and consulted the Internet<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_59" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Unfortunately, as I was to quickly learn, I was coming at the miner with a certain set of false assumptions<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_60" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The BFL miner is a pretty simple device; it doesn't have an "interface" or a console or anything like that at all<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_61" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> It talks via serial-over-USB, and you do need an application running on your computer to actually do anything with it<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_62" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">In fact, you need several things: a mining application, a "wallet," and a "pool," though the pool is optional<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_63" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__1_64" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> </span><span style="font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;font-family:inherit">The prerequisites</span><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_0" style="font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></div>
</div><div class="page" id="page2" style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:'PT Serif';font-size:16px;line-height:24px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9)"><div class="page_content" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The first thing I needed to do was to set up a wallet, or a place to keep my bitcoins<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_1" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> A wallet lets you engage in Bitcoin transactions—it lets you create Bitcoin <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">addresses</em> you can share and that people can send money to<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> In addition to being able to send and receive bitcoins to and from other Bitcoin users, you need a wallet so that you've got somewhere to keep the bitcoins you generate through mining<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_3" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I wound up creating my wallet at <a href="http://blockchain.info/" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">Blockchain.info </a>, though there are many alternatives<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_4" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Once you've got a wallet, you really ought to join a mining pool because Bitcoin mining is best done with shared labor<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_5" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Nothing at all forbids you from striking out on your own, but the nature of the entire virtual currency system is such that by sharing the work required for "discovering" the currency, you share in the reward as well<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Understanding how bitcoins are brought into being requires understanding the network behind the currency<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_7" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Briefly, the entire record of every Bitcoin transaction ever made stretching back to the currency's beginning is public<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> This is called the <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">block chain</em><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_9" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Bitcoin mining involves confirming those transactions by collecting several of them together into a group called a <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">block</em> and running specific cryptographic functions on it<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_10" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">chain</em> concept comes into play because every time a bitcoin is "spent," the spender appends a hash to the bitcoin derived from his or her own cryptographic private key, the previous transaction's hash, and the recipient's cryptographic public key<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_11" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> As each bit of data added to Bitcoin's history of transactions is cryptographically derived from previous data, altering earlier data would invalidate the entire chain<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_12" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">When a collected block of transactions is confirmed by a Bitcoin miner—that is, when the SHA-256 hashing that the miners are doing on a transaction results in a very specific value that starts with a number of zeros—the block is said to have been "mined<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_13" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>" The winning miner is allowed to reward itself with some number of bitcoins<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_14" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> That number is currently 25, and it decreases by 50 percent in intervals over time<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_15" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">If you're mining in a pool, you split the reward with the other members of your pool based on the pool's specific rules<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_16" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> If you're mining by yourself, you keep the entire payout<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_17" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The issue with mining by oneself is that it's very likely to take you much, much longer to confirm a block than it would with an entire pool's resources<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_18" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Joining a pool is the way to faster payouts of bitcoins<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<h2 style="margin:2.285714em 0px 0.75em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;vertical-align:baseline">Mining!</h2><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">
Because I can never do anything the easy way, I wasn't content with getting the BFL box working under Windows, which is a well-documented and fairly straightforward process<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_20" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> No, I wanted to make it work under OS X. That required a bit of help<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_21" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I spent quite a bit of time talking with John O'Mara, creator of the <a href="http://fabulouspanda.co.uk/macminer/" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">MacMiner</a>application for mining bitcoins on a Mac<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_22" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> MacMiner is a FOSS <a href="https://github.com/fabulouspanda/MacMiner" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">GUI wrapper </a>that uses another FOSS application, <a href="https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">bfgminer </a>, to tell the mining hardware (be it video cards or separate ASIC-based boxes) what to do<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_23" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> In the end, the solution involved a lot of work on John's part and not really that much on mine, except for me running commands and reporting back their results<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_24" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Because Butterfly Labs miners are still relatively scarce in the wild, John didn't have one to test with<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_25" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Still, using me as a (dumb) remote manipulator, we eventually got the BFL box correctly hooked up and mining<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_26" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The release version of MacMiner supports the Butterfly Labs ASIC miners now, but since I had gotten it working first on the command line, that's what I stuck with<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_27" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">In fact, once it worked, it was a little anticlimactic<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_28" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I typed in the command and the bash prompt to kick the miner off<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_29" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Rather than spitting out an error like it had been doing, the screen lit up in a deliciously cryptic display<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_30" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<div class="readableLargeImageContainer" style="margin:1em 0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:center">
</div><div style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">We are now mining<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_31" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> There are numbers happening.</div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
Lee Hutchinson</div><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Numbers<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_32" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Lots of numbers everywhere. I stared at it for long seconds, watching the updates crawl upward from the bottom of the screen<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_33" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Am I actually mining?</em> I wondered. <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Is money happening<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_34" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span></em> I envisioned my little MacBook Air lighting up like a slot machine if I found an actual block<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_35" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Would sirens go off<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_36" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span> Would money shoot out?</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I quickly shared a screenshot with the rest of the Ars team in IRC<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_37" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> "IS THIS GOOD?<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_38" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">!</span>" I asked. No one really knew.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I kept staring at the numbers, not yet willing to glance at bfgminer's<a href="https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/blob/bfgminer/README" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">documentation </a>to see what they meant<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_39" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> All I knew is that there were lots of counters and things on my screen, and I wanted them to be <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">higher</em><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_40" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I had a sudden flashback to my first job out of college in 2000, when I dragged 20 unused Pentium II PCs into a corner and rigged them all up with the SETI@Home client and briefly became an ET-searching superstar<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_41" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<h2 style="margin:2.285714em 0px 0.75em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;vertical-align:baseline">Performance, noise, heat<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_42" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The BFL miner does precisely one thing: compute SHA-256 hashes as fast as it can<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_43" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> So from a benchmarking perspective, the main question to answer is whether or not it hits its rated target of five billion hashes per second<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_44" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">When hashing, the BFL miner actually hovers at between 5<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_45" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>4-5.6GH/sec, delivering a bit more than its rated amount of hashes per second<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_46" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The device pulled about 30 watts of power when idle and 50 watts of power when actively hashing<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_47" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> It reported internal temperatures as high as 80C<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_48" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Some back-of-the-napkin math based on my Kill-a-Watt meter's readings show that the device would consume a bit under $100 per year in electricity<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_49" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> However, at current Bitcoin mining difficulty levels, it produces about 0<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_50" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>1 BTC about every 12 hours. It's impossible to speculate on BTC-to-dollar rates in the future since they're so volatile<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_51" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> But at the exchange rates that were current as I was piecing this article together, the miner had repaid its purchase price <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">within ten days</em><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_52" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> If the value and difficulty of BTC holds, an ASIC-based miner like this could generate thousands of dollars of revenue per year<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_53" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<h2 style="margin:2.285714em 0px 0.75em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;vertical-align:baseline">Cashing out<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_54" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">After a couple of days tinkering with the box to actually get it mining, it was kind of a letdown<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_55" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The box made noise and consumed a bit of electricity; every 12 hours or so I would get a notice in e-mail from Blockchain.info, letting me know that another ~0<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_56" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>1BTC had been deposited into my account thanks to the combined efforts of me and the rest of <a href="https://mining.bitcoin.cz/" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">the pool I'd joined </a><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_57" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> It definitely worked. It was not a scam. It was a legitimate 5GH/s miner<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_58" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The Ars editorial team had resolved even before I plugged in the device that we'd be donating any monies it generated to the EFF<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_59" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> So after I'd gotten a representative sample of bitcoins, I was ready to stop and donate<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_60" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> However, there was still one major aspect of Bitcoin mining that wasn't terribly clear to me<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_61" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> How, exactly, does one <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">cash out<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_62" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span></em></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Before I donated the fruits of the miner's labor, I resolved to actually take the bitcoin generation through to the end I'd been wondering about<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_63" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> At this point, which was the last week in May, the little BFL box had generated precisely 2<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_64" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>90220929 BTC. I would take those bitcoins and turn them into cold, hard cash<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_65" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I quickly learned that transforming BTC into USD wasn't a single-step process<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_66" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>There's no "cash out" button; rather, you must either arrange a transaction yourself with a private party or sell your BTC through an <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">exchange</em><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_67" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I started with<a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Selling_bitcoins" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">the list of exchanges </a>on the Bitcoin wiki to get a feel for my options<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_68" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The most famous exchange is <a href="https://mtgox.com/" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">MtGox </a>, but looking at its options for withdrawing funds quickly turned me away<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_69" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Most exchanges allow you to sell your BTC for US dollars, but few provide a way to retrieve your dollars that I felt comfortable using<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_70" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Many allow you to transfer dollars to a PayPal account, but I don't use PayPal<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_71" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Others let you pull money directly into a personal checking account via ACH or wire transfer, but I wasn't willing to share my bank account details or open a new throwaway checking account<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_72" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Some exchanges, including MtGox, allow you to withdraw dollars using <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Dwolla" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">Dwolla </a>(no thanks) or <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/feds-smash-liberty-reserve-alleging-billions-in-money-laundering-charges/" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">Liberty Reserve </a>(too late)<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_73" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Finally, a little way down the list, I noticed one exchange with the option to withdraw funds in the form of USPS money orders: <a href="https://campbx.com/" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">Camp BX </a><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_74" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I popped over to its site and established an account, then I generated an address to receive the bitcoins<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_75" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Back over at my Blockchain.info wallet, I clicked the "Send Money" option, entered the address I'd generated for my Camp BX account, selected my entire store of 2<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_76" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>90220929 bitcoins, and hit "Send Payment."</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The transaction went through. I'd just created some work for the legions of other Bitcoin miners to verify<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_77" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Several minutes later, the balance showed up in my Camp BX account<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_78" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Somewhere else, a new block of 25 bitcoins was awarded and spread around as incentive for helping validate my transaction<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_79" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The cycle continued.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I was far more concerned at this point with actually getting some money out of the infernal machine<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_80" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Without being too terribly sure what I was doing, I clicked "TRADE NOW" and then initiated a "Quick Sell" order<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_81" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The ticker at the top of the screen informed me that the current bid price for bitcoins was $129<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_82" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>52 per, and it recommended that I sell my BTC at that rate<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_83" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> So I gamely typed in my maximum amount of BTC, entered the suggested rate of $129<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_84" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>52, and previewed the order.</p>
<div class="readableLargeImageContainer" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:center">
</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/bfl2-selling-02.png" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">Enlarge </a>/ Is money happening<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_85" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span> I think money is about to be happening.</div>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">"You are about to execute a Quick Sell order," the site informed me, showing me the details I'd entered on the previous screen<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_86" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Feeling every bit the Internet tycoon, I clicked "EXECUTE SELL<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_87" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>"</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The next screen informed me that my sell order had gone through immediately<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_88" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>Camp BX kept a bit over $2 in commission, and I suddenly had $374 in my Camp BX account<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_89" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<div class="readableLargeImageContainer" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:center">
</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/bfl2-selling-03.png" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">Enlarge </a>/ Money has kind of happened<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_90" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">!</span> I think I just got paid... somehow<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_91" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">!</span></div>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Next, I clicked "TRANSFER" and initiated the withdrawal process<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_92" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> There's a $20 fee for pulling out funds in the form of a USPS money order, as well as a maximum daily withdrawal of $1,000<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_93" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I didn't mind giving up $20 of what was essentially free money anyway if it meant I didn't have to give out my checking account information<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_94" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I punched in my information and requested the withdrawal<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_95" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<div class="readableLargeImageContainer" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:center">
</div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/bfl2-selling-05.png" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">Enlarge </a>/ Wait<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_96" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> OK, money hasn't happened yet<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_97" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I mean, it has—sort of. Now I just need to get the money to me<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_98" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></div>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">A few days later, I received a hand-addressed envelope via certified mail<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_99" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Inside, sure enough, was a hand-written USPS money order for $354<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_100" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>00 from "BulBul Investments LLC." I drove it down to my credit union, and they cashed it without complaint<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_101" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<div class="readableLargeImageContainer" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:center">
</div><div style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"><a href="http://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/bfl2-moneyorder2.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">Enlarge </a>/ You guys<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_102" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> We are so close to having turned bitcoins into actual real money<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_103" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
Lee Hutchinson</div><div class="readableLargeImageContainer" style="margin:1em 0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:center">
</div><div style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">After a quick trip to the bank, you can call me THE RAINMAKER<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_104" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
Lee Hutchinson</div><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I had done it<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_105" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I had legitimately mined bitcoins and transmuted raw electricity into dollars, through the power of <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">mathematics</em><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_106" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Truly, my skill knew no bounds<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_107" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">!</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">But the story doesn't <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">quite</em> end there<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_108" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__2_109" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> </span><span style="font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;font-family:inherit">Catastrophe</span><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_0" style="font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline">!</span></div>
</div><div class="page" id="page3" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:'PT Serif';font-size:16px;line-height:24px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);margin-bottom:0px!important">
<div class="page_content" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">You might wonder, dear reader, why I stopped at 2<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_1" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>90220929 bitcoins<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> It's rather an odd number. Why not three? Why not four or five?</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">After I filmed the video at the beginning of this piece, I resituated the little BFL miner back into its corner of the dining room to resume its work while I edited<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_3" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>As I walked away, I heard the whirring of the BFL miner take on a decidedly<em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">angry</em> tone<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_4" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I approached it and knelt, thinking that the fan bearing might have started to go bad, because that's certainly what it sounded like<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_5" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I tapped with one finger on the top of the device.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR—WHOCK,"</em> it said, before going totally silent<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I pulled the power cord and disassembled the machine to take a peek<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_7" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> One of the fan blades had snapped off, catching itself in the aluminum fins of the heat sink<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<div class="readableLargeImageContainer" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-align:center">
</div><div style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"><a href="http://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/bfl2-fanblade.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">Enlarge </a>/ Ruh-roh, Shaggy<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_9" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
Lee Hutchinson</div><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Clearly, the BFL 5GH/s miner's mining days were done—and at an odd number of BTC mined, too<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_10" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<h2 style="margin:2.285714em 0px 0.75em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;vertical-align:baseline">A new challenger appears<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_11" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I contacted Butterfly Labs and let them know that the fan had broken, and they immediately offered to send a replacement miner<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_12" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> At first I demurred, but on reflection I decided to take them up on their offer<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_13" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The power numbers mentioned in my <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/05/weve-got-a-butterfly-labs-bitcoin-miner-and-its-pretty-darn-fast/" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">initial quick post </a>didn't jibe with the numbers of some other BFL miners in the wild<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_14" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I was curious to see if a replacement unit's stats would vary that much<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_15" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Plus, with one BFL miner down after only two weeks of mining, I wanted a second sample<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_16" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Was there a quality issue? Or did I just happen to get one with a bad fan?</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Butterfly Labs quickly shipped the replacement, and the very next morning a friendly FedEx driver dropped it off at my front door<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_17" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Superficially, it looked identical, but on plugging it in I was quite surprised at the difference<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_18" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I noticed immediately that the noise was lower; I didn't measure the decibel level of either box scientifically, but to my ear the new one was markedly quieter than the old<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Power consumption was also far lower. While crunching numbers, the new box drew just 30 watts—roughly the same amount of power that the first miner drew while idling<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_20" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The reduced amount of power consumed was reflected in the temperatures too<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_21" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>After being left to run all night, the thermal sensor reported about 37C—about<em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">half</em> of the first box's temperatures under load<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_22" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Half the noise, half the heat, and almost half the power draw<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_23" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span> What was going on in that little box?</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I reached out to Jeff Ownby of Butterfly Labs and asked about the variances<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_24" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>"The [ASIC] chips each have a potential of 4.2GH/s," he explained. "So the theoretical max of a Jalapeño with two chips is 8<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_25" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>4GH/s. However, we use the lower graded chips in the Jalapeño and the higher grade chips in our other products, so the maximum performance in a Jalapeño is something less, which is what you're seeing<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_26" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>"</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Butterfly Labs has its share of troubles with its ASIC suppliers—in fact, most of the long delay between preorder taking and delivery appear to be related directly or indirectly to the actual design and manufacturing of the ASIC itself<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_27" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>These problems appear to have been somewhat solved and the company is <a href="http://bfl.ptz.ro/" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">actually shipping miners </a><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_28" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> It seems that all efforts are going to filling the 5GH/s Jalapeño orders first<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_29" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The second unit I got was apparently a higher-graded chip that might have been fit for duty in a higher-spec miner (though in an e-mail sent after I'd turned in my first draft of this piece, Jeff Ownby let me know that Butterfly Labs is now shipping models other than the low-end Jalapeño)<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_30" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Obvious question: if there's headroom, can I overclock the miner<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_31" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span> I dashed off another e-mail to the Butterfly Labs folks<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_32" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> "We'd prefer to leave the question of overclocking officially unanswered, but we don't mind you throwing that possibility out there for curious minds<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_33" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>"</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">A<em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">ha</em>. Unfortunately, I wouldn't even know where to begin<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_34" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The miner accepts commands via serial-over-USB, and I don't know if it's possible to pass it any commands over that interface to alter its clock speed<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_35" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I don't have a command reference for Butterfly Labs' ASIC, so reverse-engineering is a difficult prospect<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_36" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>It's entirely possible, if Butterfly Labs is doing voltage regulation and clock speed multiplication in the software, that there might be some magic commands you could issue to up the juice to a cool-running miner<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_37" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Speaking of reverse-engineering, there's also this:</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit">If you've got the tools and the talent, there's a JTAG here that you can go crazy with</span><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_38" style="font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin-bottom:0px!important">
Lee Hutchinson</div><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">There's a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JTAG" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">JTAG </a>connector clearly visible<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_39" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I don't have the equipment to actually utilize the connector, but in a group as technically minded as the Bitcoin mining community, I'm sure there will be someone out there who will be poking at the miner through this interface to see what they can learn (if it hasn't already been done)<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_40" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Additionally, Butterfly Labs has published the source code for their board firmware programming tools in a <a href="https://github.com/luke-jr/BitForce_SC" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">Github repo </a><span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_41" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> "This code has the mining logic and directs the nonces to the appropriate engine and collects the results and sends them back out to the world," explained Ownby when I asked him what was contained in the files<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_42" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Developers with an interest in seeing what the Butterfly Labs miner can do and in possibly extending its capabilities can use this code as a starting place<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_43" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<h2 style="margin:2.285714em 0px 0.75em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;vertical-align:baseline">The final tallies<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_44" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">In the end, the two miners together consumed a total of 28<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_45" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>30 kWh of electricity. According to my latest utility bill, I'm paying $0<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_46" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>13 per kWh, so my Bitcoin mining experiment cost me $3<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_47" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>68 in real electricity (without accounting for taxes and fees and whatever else the power company pads my bill with)<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_48" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> The tally is obviously complicated by the two different miners consuming different amounts of juice<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_49" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Even at the higher electricity rate of the first miner, it's clear that—at current exchange rates and difficulty—Bitcoin mining with one of these boxes is a profitable endeavor<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_50" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">In fact, if it's so profitable, why on earth is Butterfly Labs <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">selling</em> these devices<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_51" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span>Why not rent a warehouse, fill it with miners, and make infinity bitcoins<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_52" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The answer is two-fold. First, BFL required a great deal of capital in order to design and manufacture the ASICs that power its boxes and then to assemble the miners themselves<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_53" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> This capital was provided in no small part by pre-selling the miners; hanging onto them to do some BTC mining with them is sketchy at best and at worst illegal<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_54" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Plus, there are practical considerations: a giant BTC warehouse adds overhead costs, and I can't even begin to take a guess at the bookkeeping implications of warehousing capital like that<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_55" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">However, the second reason is far more practical: bitcoins, for all their current value, are still speculative<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_56" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> A large amount of US dollars is a large amount of US dollars no matter which way you cut it<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_57" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> It can be readily exchanged for goods and services<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_58" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Bitcoins themselves don't necessarily hold value, and it's difficult to exchange them in large quantities for an equivalent amount of dollars<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_59" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> So selling Bitcoin miners for dollars guarantees a certain number of dollars; investing capital into mining a truly large number of bitcoins might work well as a short-term hedge, but the value of the trade is utterly impossible to predict<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_60" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">This, I suppose, is part of the nature of high-risk investments<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_61" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> But in this case, Butterfly Labs can simply charge whatever it wants for its gear in order to make whatever margin it deems is sufficient<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_62" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Why bet on the future of a relatively new virtual currency that may go up or down when you can simply get a bunch of real US dollars<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_63" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Obviously, the value of those US dollars may—will<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_64" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">!</span>—also go up and down, but it's also extremely easy to extract value from a dollar<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_65" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I can't—at least yet—pay my mortgage in BTC, or buy a car in BTC, or really even buy everyday necessities (I don't live anywhere near any random merchants who have decided to begin accepting BTC)<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_66" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> A dollar, at least today, has far greater utility and far greater immediate value<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_67" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<h2 style="margin:2.285714em 0px 0.75em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-size:1.3125em;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.15;vertical-align:baseline">Bitcoin’s not for me—but it might be for you<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_68" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">I ran the replacement miner for an equal amount of time as the first one ran before breaking; it held up without complaints and churned out an additional three bitcoins<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_69" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> Both our cash from the first miner and our bitcoins from the second have been turned over to the EFF, and our second Butterfly Labs miner has been returned to its manufacturer<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_70" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I am once again a normal person who traffics in normal-person money<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_71" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> I'd actually gotten used to walking past the dining room in the morning and hearing the <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">whirrrrrr</em> of the miner in the corner, and now the house seems weirdly quiet<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_72" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The biggest takeaway from my time working with the Butterfly Labs "Jalapeño" miner is that you don't really have to know a damn thing about how bitcoins work to mine them<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_73" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> As complex as the underlying cryptography is to a layman like me, the only reason why I couldn't pull this thing out of the box and start mining after reading a couple of wiki articles was that I wanted to get it working on OS X. John O'Mara's help was priceless, and once we had the application side figured out, it was smooth sailing<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_74" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">So should you don your prospecting gear, buy a Butterfly Labs miner this very instant, and start making money<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_75" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">?</span> You <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">could</em>, but there are a couple of issues<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_76" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span>The first is that Butterfly Labs has only recently started shipping products, and its first priority is to its year-long backlog of preorder customers<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_77" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> If you're buying a unit today, you're going to be way, <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">way</em> down the list<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_78" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> There are tons of other high-speed ASIC-based miners, though—sites like <a href="http://www.thegenesisblock.com/category/mining-2/" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,9,9);text-decoration:none">The Genesis Block </a>keep tabs on what's available and what's worth buying<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_79" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The other issue is a bit stickier: the Bitcoin system adjusts its overall difficulty as mining speed increases in an attempt to limit the speed of Bitcoin production<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_80" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span> A few years ago, a 5GH/s miner like the Jalapeño would have produced a veritable torrent of bitcoins in a day; a few years <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">from</em> now, specialized hardware will be required to mine even tiny fractions of BTC<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_81" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 1.5em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">If you're going to buy an ASIC-based miner, it might be best to get one, as they say, while the gettin' is still good<span class="speechFragmentSeparator" id="speechFragmentSeparator__3_82" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p>
</div></div>
</div></div>