Quote from: Sonny on February 02, 2014, 10:13:12 AM

Quote from: vpasic on February 02, 2014, 08:26:27 AM

Now that scrypt/sha256 combo asic are jumping in the scene diff is rising again.
Alpha-t is shipping by the middle of July and I don't see reason why not to believe them.
What are the chances that another "BFL fail" will happen again.

With scrypt ASIC starting to come out, are we going to have a exponenitally increasing difficulty just as bitcoin?

No. The first gen ASICs for scrypt have only one benefit thus far - lower power consumption... no increase in hashrate density (at all) and they are priced to compete ONLY as a lower power replacement for GPUs - meaning their $/MH is almost double what a GPU runs even at inflated prices we have today for GPUs. It'll take at least another year and a lot of work to increase the hashrate density of scrypt ASICs to the point where they are competitive in the $/MH area with GPUs... so if you are inclined to mine your way to crypto, it's going to be viable via GPU for quite a bit longer than most people are claiming. There is still a very good argument to be used in the mining versus buying controversy:

If you are mining, you are 'buying' crypto in small increments - buying as price rises, buying as prices fall - mining is a price-neutral way of acquiring crypto which makes it very valuable to those of us who look at prices and are caught like a deer in the headlights about what price to buy at. Further, when you buy crypto, you establish a 'position' from which you are either losing or making money on your investment - and that can also drive folks crazy and cause overreaction to price deltas - panic selling being one such reaction.

So, depending on your investment profile or personality, mining may, indeed, make a lot of sense. Ultimately, if your goal is to acquire crypto for the long term, an investment in some equipment can make a lot of sense. Set up the rig, point it at a pool, and enjoy the ride not worried about trading differentials or prices and know that you are investing every single minute in your financial future...

This is how I look at it anyway, YMMV.

r00tdude