If you are switching to this because mining for Bitcoin is unprofitable, then you are only fooling yourself.
Scenario 1)
- You give $100 to the goat-needing families
Scenario 2)
- You mine 5 BTC for Coinbase, using $100 of electricity.
- Coinbase converts the BTC to USD.
- Coinbase sends $67.50 to the goat-needing families.
And no one sees the problem with this?
Now, if mining is still profitable for you, then all power to ya! Just don't fool yourselves by thinking that this is a good idea if you can't already make money Bitcoin mining.
Also, Coinlab hasn't mentioned if 100% of the proceeds are indeed going to these needy families, or if they are taking a cut for "server" usage or something. Would be nice if they put what percentage that cut is up front.
We are donating 100% PPS for all shares earned by people running the goat client. So, no fee at all, we're actually taking a slight loss on this (due to orphaned blocks). In addition, CoinLab is kicking this off by donating one full goat and our test-machine's 7970's hashing power.
This is mostly just a fun project for the holiday season while everyone is in the giving spirit. (And to possibly introduce some people to the idea of Bitcoin mining who aren't familiar with it).
If you cant mine profitably anymore, we would love to hear that you're donating to Heifer directly: we're hoping this will both raise money for and awareness of their great organization. Please feel free to post in this thread if you do!