Quote from: abyssobenthonic on June 02, 2011, 12:02:34 AM

Quote from: creighto on June 01, 2011, 11:35:39 PM

Don't assume that all miners have the same primary costs as yourself, or even most. Mining is literally free if you heat with electric anyway, and it's winter where you are.

Don't assume that I'm mining Wink

If mining is free, then why on earth is a miner who's given it any thought at all on the sidelines?

I never said that mining was free, only that energy costs were effectively free if you had a use for that heat. If I lived in Iceland, where the heating season lasts roughly 50 out of 52 weeks per year, a miner tied to my thermostat is a great thing. However, if the odds of my success at mining profits were to suddenly jump up due to temporal conditions, I might as well move the thermostat to 72 from 69 and enjoy the warmth. (F not C, but you get the idea) The rest of the time I just leave it set on 69 and run on auto. If it finds a block, I get a bonus. If it never finds a block, I've not lost anything for doing it, as the heat bill is still the same.

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Perhaps, it might be ventured, that some non-monetary cost (the noise made by the mining rigs, one's significant other threatening to leave if mining continues, etc.) pushed the benefit-cost difference negative. Regardless of the reason the hash capacity is on the sidelines, it seems unlikely that a 6% increase in benefit to turning on the rig would lead to large number of those differences turning positive.

I contest your numbers are accurate, as I think that users that want to get their transactions processed will pay more than otherwise, but I'm not willing to do the math to see what that would be.

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What primary costs are there to mining in the general case anyway? Electricity, Equipment, and Bandwidth are all I can think of off the top of my head. Equipment cost shouldn't affect the decision of whether to take capacity offline. Electricity and bandwidth cost should be broadly the same over a given period of real time mining, regardless of the block-solving rate(this is true whether your electricity/bandwidth is free or unbelievably expensive (and if electricity and bandwidth are free, again, why are you on the sidelines?)).

I don't know why, neither do you. This is the point. You're just guessing as much as I am.