So is the plan for gold "mining" still on ? I think it will decrease BTC value.
I think it has just as much potential to cause a rise in price. For example, lets say someone usually cashes out all of his bitcoins that he receives from the pool everyday. Then that person decides he wants a gold coin so he sets his account to pay out gold. He's now saving up bitcoins until he has enough for the coin. Could you imagine if every miner on slush's pool suddenly started saving up 600+ bitcoins? That would be very bullish for the bitcoin price.
That would be great! But I don't think that too much people will do this...
well, if "only" a dozen or so... depends on how big they are with their mining operations.
A 1GH/s miner would probably need a cuple of days to save up to a coin.
Someone with 30+GH/s wouldnt. It all depends.