1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:17,320 Speaker 1: John van Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart 4 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:21,880 Speaker 1: Radio and I love all things tech. And Twitter user 5 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:25,160 Speaker 1: Janusian w O seven asked if I could do an 6 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:31,000 Speaker 1: episode talking about LHR versus non LHR or f HR 7 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:35,240 Speaker 1: graphics cards, And that's actually a gateway question to really 8 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: dive into the proof of work style cryptocurrency mining operations. 9 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:44,760 Speaker 1: So today we're gonna talk about what that process actually involves, 10 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:49,760 Speaker 1: how that process has affected the graphics card industry, what 11 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:54,560 Speaker 1: a s i C is, what an fpg A is, 12 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:58,080 Speaker 1: and how companies like Nvidia are trying to respond to 13 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:00,400 Speaker 1: the issue so that gamers can act they get their 14 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,800 Speaker 1: grubby little hands on graphics cards because, in case you're 15 00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:08,160 Speaker 1: not familiar, uh, graphics cards are sometimes very hard to 16 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:11,840 Speaker 1: get hold of, especially to get hold of at their 17 00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:16,840 Speaker 1: market price. They often end up on secondary markets at 18 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: ridiculous markups. So we'll also touch on some other elements, 19 00:01:20,959 --> 00:01:24,120 Speaker 1: like the proposed stopping the grinch bought acts in the 20 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: United States, But first let's talk about what it takes 21 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:32,920 Speaker 1: to mine some cryptocurrency that uses the proof of work approach. Now, 22 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:37,880 Speaker 1: first of all, what the heck does mining mean? I mean, 23 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:42,840 Speaker 1: cryptocurrency is digital, right, It's just a digital record when 24 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:45,200 Speaker 1: you get down to it. So when you really boil 25 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:48,440 Speaker 1: it all down, you ultimately get to machine language of 26 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: zeros and once. How the heck do you mind zeros 27 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:57,160 Speaker 1: and ones? Well, since the whole intended point of Bitcoin, 28 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:02,240 Speaker 1: which is, you know, kind of the the cryptocurrency that 29 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:05,600 Speaker 1: really started at all, at least as far as the 30 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:10,919 Speaker 1: current craze is concerned. If you assume that the creators 31 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:15,119 Speaker 1: of bitcoin were being sincere they wanted it to perform 32 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:18,080 Speaker 1: as a currency, well, that means you have to have 33 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:20,359 Speaker 1: some sort of systems in place in order to make 34 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: this happen. So let's take Bitcoin as our example. Though, 35 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:29,240 Speaker 1: just to be clear, the issue with graphics cards doesn't 36 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: relate to bitcoin. Bitcoin has outgrown graphics cards. When we 37 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: talk about cryptocurrency, mining and graphics cards, we're more frequently 38 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:42,960 Speaker 1: talking about ethereum, not Bitcoin. But we'll get more into 39 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:46,640 Speaker 1: that later in this episode. But Bitcoin is the easy 40 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:48,360 Speaker 1: one to talk about, right because that's the one that 41 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:50,520 Speaker 1: everyone has heard about. A lot of people have heard 42 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: about ethereum, but not as many as have heard about bitcoin. 43 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:57,680 Speaker 1: So in order for bitcoin to work, you need to 44 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:02,760 Speaker 1: have a record or ledger of who has bitcoin and 45 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:07,000 Speaker 1: who is transferring bitcoin to whom. So without a verifiable 46 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,960 Speaker 1: record of all the bitcoin that are in circulation, it 47 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:15,000 Speaker 1: would be possible for someone to duplicate a bitcoin and 48 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:19,520 Speaker 1: to spend it repeatedly. Right, It's just a digital file. 49 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:22,160 Speaker 1: You can copy digital files. I'm sure you've done this 50 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:26,320 Speaker 1: thousands of times, whether it's to copy a file from 51 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:29,000 Speaker 1: your hard drive to go also onto a network drive 52 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:32,720 Speaker 1: or maybe onto some form of physical media, or maybe 53 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:36,000 Speaker 1: you're just copying a file on your own computer multiple 54 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:39,200 Speaker 1: times for some reason. I don't I'm not judging you anyway. 55 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 1: Duplicating files is easy, Like it's just a couple of 56 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:47,800 Speaker 1: clicks on your mouth, right, So that would mean that 57 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:50,960 Speaker 1: you have to have a way to counteract that for 58 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:56,760 Speaker 1: digital currency, otherwise you could just print your own money essentially, 59 00:03:56,920 --> 00:03:58,800 Speaker 1: And they have to be able to prevent people from 60 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:03,360 Speaker 1: copying or counterfeit bitcoin, otherwise the whole system would collapse. 61 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:08,400 Speaker 1: So one element that helps with this is a distributed 62 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:13,080 Speaker 1: ledger of all transactions. To be involved in bitcoin mining, 63 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: you have to connect to the Bitcoin network, and everyone 64 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,479 Speaker 1: connected to this network can see a shared ledger that 65 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 1: records each and every transaction dating back to the origin 66 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:31,360 Speaker 1: of bitcoin itself. Actually, the transactions propagate outward from their 67 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:34,359 Speaker 1: point of origin throughout the network. It can take a 68 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:37,480 Speaker 1: little bit of time, as much as fourteen seconds. In fact, 69 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:41,560 Speaker 1: that is an issue that is a limiting factor for 70 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: bitcoin in particular. But it's a that's a that's a 71 00:04:46,279 --> 00:04:49,200 Speaker 1: matter for another podcast because it goes a little beyond 72 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:52,039 Speaker 1: what we want to talk about today. So Bitcoin protects 73 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:56,280 Speaker 1: itself in part by having this ledger visible to everyone 74 00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:58,960 Speaker 1: in the system, so that it would be pretty much 75 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:04,320 Speaker 1: impossible for someone to to cheat the system because everyone 76 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:08,360 Speaker 1: can see the history of transactions. It gets more technical 77 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:11,320 Speaker 1: than that, but we'll leave it here. However, you also 78 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 1: have to have a way to verify transactions to authorize payments. 79 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:19,200 Speaker 1: So let's say you're going to a brick and mortar store. 80 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:23,039 Speaker 1: This is just like a an example from everyday life. 81 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:27,360 Speaker 1: So you're going to a store physically yourself, and you 82 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:29,880 Speaker 1: fill your shopping card up with whatever it is that 83 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:32,000 Speaker 1: you're buying, and you're going to use a credit card 84 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:33,760 Speaker 1: to pay for it. So when you go up to 85 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:37,480 Speaker 1: the cashier and you swipe your credit card or inserted 86 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:40,000 Speaker 1: into the machine, whatever it is, the system does a 87 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:42,839 Speaker 1: quick check to make certain that you have the available 88 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:46,839 Speaker 1: credit in order to make that purchase. So in this case, 89 00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:49,880 Speaker 1: the point of sale at the cashier would send an 90 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:54,760 Speaker 1: electronic request to the appropriate bank or processor for that 91 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:59,120 Speaker 1: particular merchant via a phone line or an internet connection. 92 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:02,880 Speaker 1: So the request goes from the merchant to a bank. 93 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:06,000 Speaker 1: That bank then forwards the details of the credit card 94 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:10,479 Speaker 1: to a credit card network like Visa for example, that 95 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:13,880 Speaker 1: can then clear the request to send a message on 96 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:18,600 Speaker 1: to whatever bank issued the credit card, and it's this 97 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:22,599 Speaker 1: bank that authorizes payment if you have the available credit 98 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:26,000 Speaker 1: if everything lines up. In other words, so if it's 99 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:29,479 Speaker 1: clear that the credit card is is a valid card 100 00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:33,080 Speaker 1: and that there is UH credit on it. In the 101 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:35,719 Speaker 1: case of filling out stuff online, it would check things 102 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:37,760 Speaker 1: to make sure that the building address that you filled 103 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:39,680 Speaker 1: out matches the one that's in the records, all that 104 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:43,160 Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So, assuming everything is cool, the issuing 105 00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:46,440 Speaker 1: bank since the approval backed down the same chain, so 106 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:49,640 Speaker 1: the approval goes to the credit card network. The credit 107 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:53,479 Speaker 1: card network then sends that over to the merchant's bank. 108 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:55,839 Speaker 1: The merchants bank then sends it to the merchant and 109 00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:59,880 Speaker 1: says transaction complete. The money has been transferred from the 110 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,159 Speaker 1: airline of credit to you, and the merchant then prints 111 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:07,039 Speaker 1: up a slip that's usually either you sign it or 112 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:10,239 Speaker 1: it's just a you know, receipt. UH. This whole process 113 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:14,600 Speaker 1: takes very little time typically with the classic system. Right, 114 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:20,320 Speaker 1: We've got incredibly fast communication systems, so assuming everything's working it, 115 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 1: there's rarely much of a delay. You might be standing 116 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:25,560 Speaker 1: there for a couple of seconds while you're waiting for 117 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:28,200 Speaker 1: the approval to go through, but it doesn't take long 118 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:32,360 Speaker 1: at all. UH. There's also transaction fees that are involved 119 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:35,120 Speaker 1: with this. That's important too because it's going to play 120 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:39,960 Speaker 1: into cryptocurrency. So with this approach, merchants who accept credit 121 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: cards also have to pay transaction fees on every sale 122 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,480 Speaker 1: that involves a credit card. UH. It's usually a small 123 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 1: percentage of whatever the overall price is for the items, 124 00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:55,560 Speaker 1: and merchants typically seek out the cheapest available processing fees, 125 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:59,640 Speaker 1: or they might also you know, increase the price of 126 00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:02,800 Speaker 1: their products to help compensate for that expense, or they'll 127 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:07,000 Speaker 1: do both. So credit cards have these centralized authorities, the 128 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:12,400 Speaker 1: issuing banks. They ultimately authorized transactions and they verify that 129 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:15,440 Speaker 1: money has changed hands. So again, in this case, it 130 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:17,360 Speaker 1: would be a line of credit issued to the card 131 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:21,040 Speaker 1: holder and then transferred over to the merchant that amount 132 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:24,040 Speaker 1: of money. But one of the big selling points of 133 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:29,520 Speaker 1: cryptocurrencies like bitcoin is that there is no centralized financial 134 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:32,200 Speaker 1: authority at the middle of all this. There is no 135 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:36,400 Speaker 1: issuing bank, but you still have to verify transactions otherwise 136 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:39,160 Speaker 1: we get back to that problem that someone could duplicate 137 00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:43,760 Speaker 1: cryptocurrency and crash the whole system. So the way bitcoin 138 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:48,080 Speaker 1: does this is it groups transactions together in blocks, and 139 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:52,160 Speaker 1: these blocks form a chain, a block chain if you were, 140 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:57,239 Speaker 1: and bitcoins blocks currently have a limit of one megabyte 141 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:00,640 Speaker 1: in size. That's how big a blockchain block in bitcoin 142 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:04,920 Speaker 1: can be. In twenty nineteen, a simple transaction from one 143 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:10,120 Speaker 1: Bitcoin wallet to another would take up around around the bytes. Now, 144 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:12,640 Speaker 1: if you do some math and you take one megabyte 145 00:09:12,679 --> 00:09:15,720 Speaker 1: and you divide it by three eight bytes, you end 146 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:19,559 Speaker 1: up with around two thousand, seven hundred and sixty transactions. 147 00:09:19,559 --> 00:09:22,240 Speaker 1: A little less than that, actually, uh, that can fit 148 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:25,880 Speaker 1: in one block of the Bitcoin blockchain, so two thousand, 149 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:30,320 Speaker 1: seven sixty or so uh per block. By the way, 150 00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:33,360 Speaker 1: this leads us to some serious limitations of bitcoin when 151 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:35,800 Speaker 1: it comes to actually using it as a currency, but 152 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:40,000 Speaker 1: again that's the story for another matter, another podcast episode. So, 153 00:09:40,559 --> 00:09:43,440 Speaker 1: the way the bitcoin system currently works is that a 154 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:47,360 Speaker 1: block of transactions are to join the chain every ten minutes. 155 00:09:47,679 --> 00:09:50,319 Speaker 1: So really the goal here is that every ten minutes 156 00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:54,400 Speaker 1: you add a block, whether it's full of transactions or not. 157 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:57,080 Speaker 1: So even if let's say it's a super slow time 158 00:09:57,120 --> 00:09:59,600 Speaker 1: and there's not that many transactions, you still need to 159 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:01,839 Speaker 1: add a block every ten minutes, because that's just the 160 00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:05,040 Speaker 1: way the system works. So you have all these computers 161 00:10:05,080 --> 00:10:09,360 Speaker 1: that connect to the bitcoin network, right these are uh 162 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:11,959 Speaker 1: and then you have all these transactions that are waiting 163 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:15,800 Speaker 1: for verification. So every time a bitcoin has changed hands, 164 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:18,640 Speaker 1: as it were, all of that has to be verified. 165 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:21,360 Speaker 1: So the computers that are connected to the bitcoin system, 166 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:25,199 Speaker 1: the miners, in other words, when you really break it down, 167 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:29,240 Speaker 1: their auditors. They are auditing the list of transactions to 168 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:32,840 Speaker 1: verify that they are all valid transactions, that in fact 169 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:37,800 Speaker 1: the entity that transferred bitcoin to another entity, that all 170 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:40,600 Speaker 1: of that is accurate and valid that in fact there 171 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:44,760 Speaker 1: was that bitcoin to transfer, that the wallet it came 172 00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:47,320 Speaker 1: from is valid, and the wallet it's going to is valid. 173 00:10:47,640 --> 00:10:50,720 Speaker 1: The computers connected to the bitcoin system are all trying 174 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:53,960 Speaker 1: to process this at the same time. They're taking on 175 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:56,840 Speaker 1: a role that would normally go to a centralized bank authority, 176 00:10:57,160 --> 00:11:00,040 Speaker 1: and instead of a merchant paying a transaction fee of 177 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:04,440 Speaker 1: the auditors, you've got the bitcoin system itself releasing some 178 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:09,440 Speaker 1: bitcoin into circulation, and that that circulation goes straight to 179 00:11:09,640 --> 00:11:14,280 Speaker 1: whichever auditor is able to verify the transactions first. That's 180 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:17,920 Speaker 1: the mining element here, So when you mine bitcoin, what 181 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:21,760 Speaker 1: really means is that you were able to validate a 182 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:27,320 Speaker 1: block of transactions before anyone else could. Now, interestingly, bitcoin 183 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:30,360 Speaker 1: mining will only last as long as there are bitcoin 184 00:11:30,679 --> 00:11:33,959 Speaker 1: left to be mined. But there is a finite amount 185 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:36,360 Speaker 1: of bitcoin. There didn't have to be, you know, you 186 00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:39,240 Speaker 1: could have created a system where there is no limit, 187 00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:42,200 Speaker 1: but that's not how bitcoin was designed. So there's actually 188 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:45,800 Speaker 1: a cap of twenty one million bitcoin, and once they 189 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:49,200 Speaker 1: are all mined, there will be no new bitcoin going 190 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:54,400 Speaker 1: into circulation. Interestingly, the number of bitcoin released upon verifying 191 00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:57,920 Speaker 1: a block of transactions goes down by half every two 192 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:02,720 Speaker 1: d thousand blocks, which because a new block has added 193 00:12:02,760 --> 00:12:05,120 Speaker 1: every ten minutes or so, we can essentially say that 194 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:09,439 Speaker 1: around four years, you see the number of bitcoins released 195 00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:14,480 Speaker 1: per block, mind go get cut in half. So when 196 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:17,439 Speaker 1: bitcoin first launched back in two thousand nine, if you 197 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:20,520 Speaker 1: were to mind a block of transactions, that would get 198 00:12:20,559 --> 00:12:23,160 Speaker 1: you fifty bitcoins. So if your computer was the first 199 00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:26,160 Speaker 1: one to mind it, you got fifty bitcoin. Now, back then, 200 00:12:26,559 --> 00:12:30,160 Speaker 1: bitcoins were worth a fraction of a dollar, right, fifty 201 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:34,640 Speaker 1: bitcoin was nothing back then. Today a single bitcoin is 202 00:12:34,679 --> 00:12:38,199 Speaker 1: worth more than fifty seven thousand dollars at least as 203 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:40,960 Speaker 1: I record this episode, that's where the value is. It's 204 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:44,880 Speaker 1: above fifty seven thousand dollars per bitcoin. So imagine that 205 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:47,920 Speaker 1: you were able to get fifty bitcoin for mining a block. 206 00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:51,160 Speaker 1: That means, assuming that the value was the same back 207 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:53,880 Speaker 1: then it wasn't, but let's say it was. That would 208 00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:57,199 Speaker 1: mean you would pull in two point eight five million 209 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:02,320 Speaker 1: dollars just for verifying block of transactions, and another block 210 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:05,240 Speaker 1: would join every ten minutes. So let's say that you 211 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:09,760 Speaker 1: had built out the best mining system to verify transactions, 212 00:13:10,120 --> 00:13:13,000 Speaker 1: and if bitcoin had been as valuable back then as 213 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:16,720 Speaker 1: they are today, then you would soon be a billionaire, except, 214 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:19,559 Speaker 1: of course bitcoin weren't worth nearly as much back then. 215 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:22,440 Speaker 1: In fact, people would spend thousands of bitcoin just to 216 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:26,800 Speaker 1: buy a pizza. It's a very different world. But the 217 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,640 Speaker 1: number of bitcoin released per block has gone down since 218 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:36,000 Speaker 1: two thousand nine. In it was twenty five per block, 219 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:39,880 Speaker 1: so went from fifty to twenty five. It reduced again 220 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:43,839 Speaker 1: to twelve point five bitcoin per block. Mind today it's 221 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:48,079 Speaker 1: at six point to five bitcoin per block. That process 222 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:51,680 Speaker 1: will continue until nearly all bitcoin or mind. The fact 223 00:13:51,679 --> 00:13:54,480 Speaker 1: that you're having and having and having means that eventually 224 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:56,679 Speaker 1: you get to a point where it's like, not all 225 00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:59,480 Speaker 1: bitcoin will actually be mine. There'll be some that will 226 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:03,280 Speaker 1: rum unmind, but it's like a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction, 227 00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:06,839 Speaker 1: right um. But that means that once you get to 228 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:09,199 Speaker 1: that point and there are no more bitcoin to mind, 229 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:13,599 Speaker 1: then auditors will not be paid out in mind bitcoins 230 00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:16,960 Speaker 1: because they're they're all gone. Instead, they'll be paid in 231 00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:21,600 Speaker 1: transaction fees, very similar to the way that merchants have 232 00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:26,960 Speaker 1: to pay transaction fees on credit card purchases in their establishments. Anyway, 233 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:30,560 Speaker 1: that whole system of bitcoin, where we're only looking at 234 00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:33,320 Speaker 1: transaction fees. That's the good ways off. In the future, 235 00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:37,200 Speaker 1: it won't be tillt before all the bitcoin or mind. 236 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:41,400 Speaker 1: So for now, the promise of mind. Bitcoin provides an 237 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:46,640 Speaker 1: incentive to miners to dedicate their computer processing power to 238 00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:50,120 Speaker 1: verify blocks of transactions. And when I say computer processing power, 239 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:52,800 Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the desktop or a laptop. I'm 240 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:57,480 Speaker 1: talking about specialized machines that are drawing enormous amounts of 241 00:14:57,520 --> 00:15:01,040 Speaker 1: power in order to process this as fast as possible. Now, 242 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:04,840 Speaker 1: the mining process fulfills some very important functions. It creates 243 00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:08,160 Speaker 1: a predictable rate of adding more bitcoin to circulation. We 244 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:10,360 Speaker 1: know that every ten minutes we're gonna get six point 245 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:13,760 Speaker 1: to five more bitcoin, at least until we hit that 246 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:17,000 Speaker 1: next milestone, in which case it will be had yet again. 247 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:21,320 Speaker 1: And it also brings in auditors to perform the task 248 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:24,880 Speaker 1: of verifying transactions, which is necessary for the system to 249 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:28,680 Speaker 1: really work alright, So mining ultimately boils down to someone 250 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:33,040 Speaker 1: using a computer or these days bloods of specialized computers 251 00:15:33,080 --> 00:15:36,400 Speaker 1: to comb through a block of transactions and verify them 252 00:15:36,400 --> 00:15:39,080 Speaker 1: before anyone else does. And then the winning computer system 253 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:42,640 Speaker 1: gets some bitcoin for their trouble. But when I say, 254 00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:47,160 Speaker 1: verifying it's kind of misleading, like that's one way to 255 00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:49,560 Speaker 1: look at it. But really, what the computers are ultimately 256 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:53,760 Speaker 1: doing is trying to come up with a hash value 257 00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:59,359 Speaker 1: that most closely matches one created by the bitcoin system. 258 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:01,960 Speaker 1: So we have to talk about hash values. And yes, 259 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:06,400 Speaker 1: this does tie in to those LHR graphics cards. So 260 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: hash values are really good at establishing the identity of 261 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:14,880 Speaker 1: something like say a file. Uh so this gets a 262 00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:17,960 Speaker 1: little confusing, but just stay with me, all right. So ultimately, 263 00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:21,000 Speaker 1: you know, a computer file, just like any other computer 264 00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:25,320 Speaker 1: information is data that you can ultimately reduce down to 265 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:31,160 Speaker 1: binary to zeros and ones using a hashing algorithm, which 266 00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:34,520 Speaker 1: is essentially a set of rules that say this is 267 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:39,320 Speaker 1: the process of operations you should perform on any incoming data. Right, 268 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:43,840 Speaker 1: That's what an algorithm does, is just algorithms are just instructions. 269 00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:47,400 Speaker 1: So a hashing algorithm is a specific type of algorithm 270 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:52,760 Speaker 1: where a machine takes this binary data these zeros and 271 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:58,600 Speaker 1: ones that represent a file, performs some mathematical operations on 272 00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:03,880 Speaker 1: that data and generates a hash value. Hash value is 273 00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:07,520 Speaker 1: a fixed length value, and it can you know if 274 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:10,680 Speaker 1: it's hexadecimal, it can contain numbers and and other characters 275 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:15,400 Speaker 1: as well. Um, so a lot of hashing algorithms convert 276 00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:19,120 Speaker 1: data into hexadecimal values. I'm not gonna go deep into 277 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:22,720 Speaker 1: hexadecimal here. The important bit is that you have a 278 00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:25,719 Speaker 1: fixed lengths set of values. That means you have a 279 00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:29,000 Speaker 1: fixed number of characters that will always appear as a 280 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:32,720 Speaker 1: hash value no matter what you fed into the UH. 281 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:36,280 Speaker 1: The algorithm is going to produce an answer or a 282 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:39,320 Speaker 1: result that is that number of characters long. So let's 283 00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:42,960 Speaker 1: say it's sixty four characters long. That means you feed 284 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:45,959 Speaker 1: a big file into this algorithm, it will generate a 285 00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:49,399 Speaker 1: result that's sixty four characters long as a hash value. 286 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:52,679 Speaker 1: You feed a tiny file into the same algorithm, it 287 00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:58,560 Speaker 1: will also generate a different sixty four character lengths UH 288 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:02,200 Speaker 1: hash value. So another words, just looking at the hash values, 289 00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:04,840 Speaker 1: there's no way for you to tell what the size 290 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:08,240 Speaker 1: of the file was, let alone the content of that file, 291 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:12,520 Speaker 1: what type of file it was. But it will, which 292 00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:14,720 Speaker 1: is why it's used on a lot of security measures 293 00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:17,840 Speaker 1: right because just glancing at it doesn't give you enough 294 00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:20,359 Speaker 1: information for you to draw any conclusions about what was 295 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:23,840 Speaker 1: fed into the algorithm. So again, let's say that we've 296 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:26,520 Speaker 1: got an algorithm that puts hash values that are sixty 297 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:29,879 Speaker 1: four characters in length. It doesn't matter how you know 298 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:32,439 Speaker 1: how large the file is, if it's huge or if 299 00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:35,760 Speaker 1: it's tiny, you still get a sixty four character length answer, 300 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:40,480 Speaker 1: and you will always get that answer based upon the input. 301 00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:43,320 Speaker 1: So if I have file A and I feed it 302 00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:46,840 Speaker 1: through the algorithm a hundred times, I will get one 303 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:50,800 Speaker 1: hundred identical hash values. But if I feed file B 304 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:55,360 Speaker 1: into the algorithm a hundred times, I'll get that one 305 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:57,439 Speaker 1: same times, but it will be different from file A. 306 00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:01,080 Speaker 1: Right like, the hash values are unique to whatever the 307 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:05,200 Speaker 1: input is. So hashes are also not reversible. You can't 308 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:09,080 Speaker 1: get a hash value and then magically reverse it back 309 00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:13,120 Speaker 1: to the original file. So if you sent me a hash, 310 00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:15,679 Speaker 1: I couldn't do anything with it other than really, you know, 311 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:18,280 Speaker 1: look at it and compare it against hash values that 312 00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:22,320 Speaker 1: I have. I can't. I can't reverse it and say, oh, 313 00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:25,280 Speaker 1: you took a copy of pac Man and you hashed it. 314 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:28,199 Speaker 1: I wouldn't know. So what you can do is you 315 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:32,280 Speaker 1: can use hash values to verify that a file, for example, 316 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:35,320 Speaker 1: that someone has is the exact same file that you have. 317 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:39,000 Speaker 1: You both use the same algorithm. They hash their file, 318 00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:42,240 Speaker 1: you hash your file. They send you the hash value, 319 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:44,879 Speaker 1: not the file itself, and you compare it to your 320 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:48,080 Speaker 1: hash value. If it's the same, then you say, ah, 321 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:51,520 Speaker 1: we both have the same file. That's a way of 322 00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:56,000 Speaker 1: verifying that someone is who they say they are. For example, 323 00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:59,320 Speaker 1: like if you ask them to prove that they are 324 00:19:59,359 --> 00:20:02,040 Speaker 1: who they claim to be, and they send you a 325 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:06,080 Speaker 1: hash value that could only come from them because it's 326 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:08,439 Speaker 1: unique to something they possess, and you have a record 327 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:11,720 Speaker 1: you have like a database that matches this, then you 328 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:17,280 Speaker 1: can say, ah, ha I got it. You're in Okay, 329 00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:20,600 Speaker 1: that's basics for hash values. We're gonna take a quick 330 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:22,440 Speaker 1: break because I've been going on a long time here. 331 00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:24,640 Speaker 1: When we come back, I'll talk a little bit more 332 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:34,920 Speaker 1: about hash values before we move on. Okay, I talked 333 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:36,919 Speaker 1: before the break about hash values and how you can 334 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:40,479 Speaker 1: use them for verification processes where you don't really know 335 00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:44,800 Speaker 1: the content that was in the original piece. Necessarily you 336 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:47,959 Speaker 1: just can compare hash values to each other. Well, hashes 337 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,040 Speaker 1: are used in lots of other ways. So for example, 338 00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:55,040 Speaker 1: some anti virus databases will take known malware and they'll 339 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:59,119 Speaker 1: create a hash value from the malware, and then anti 340 00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:02,159 Speaker 1: virus saw where will have a whole database of all 341 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 1: these hash values, and the antivirus software will search a 342 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:11,199 Speaker 1: suspected infected computer system and hash the various files that 343 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:15,639 Speaker 1: are on the computer system, compare it against that database 344 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,520 Speaker 1: of known malware hash values, and if it finds matches, 345 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:23,119 Speaker 1: it says, aha, your computer has been infected by the 346 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:26,760 Speaker 1: specific types of malware. All right, but let's let's go 347 00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:30,440 Speaker 1: back to bitcoin and talk about what hash values mean 348 00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:34,600 Speaker 1: for that. So, for each block of transactions in a 349 00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:39,439 Speaker 1: bitcoin blockchain, the bitcoin system itself assigns a sixty four 350 00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:45,240 Speaker 1: digit hexadecimal hash, and the auditors the miners are trying 351 00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:49,520 Speaker 1: to generate a hash that is closest to the one 352 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:54,280 Speaker 1: provided by the system without going over. And the more 353 00:21:54,320 --> 00:21:57,960 Speaker 1: miners that joined the system, the more possible solutions there 354 00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:02,040 Speaker 1: will be to the hash value. So as more auditors join, 355 00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:07,120 Speaker 1: as more computational processing power is added to the Bitcoin system, 356 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:11,919 Speaker 1: the bitcoin system increases the difficulty of the guessing game 357 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:16,000 Speaker 1: problem that all the computers are engaged in, and that 358 00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:18,880 Speaker 1: means you have to have even more computing power if 359 00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:22,720 Speaker 1: you want to be the one to first mind a 360 00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:28,760 Speaker 1: block of transactions. Now, computing power is expensive, both to 361 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:32,040 Speaker 1: acquire all the pieces for the computing power and to 362 00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:35,040 Speaker 1: maintain it. Right, you have to pay for specialized hardware 363 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,399 Speaker 1: because if you don't, then others will. Then you'll be 364 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:42,480 Speaker 1: left behind. Right the older stuff that you're using won't 365 00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:44,560 Speaker 1: be up to task. It would be like if you 366 00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:48,360 Speaker 1: were trying to enter a street race and you were 367 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:52,760 Speaker 1: driving like an old Volvo and everyone else is driving supercars. 368 00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:54,720 Speaker 1: You would do it doesn't matter how good a driver 369 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:58,000 Speaker 1: you are, your your equipment just won't be able to 370 00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:01,560 Speaker 1: keep pace and uh. And since bitcoin mining is effectively 371 00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:04,280 Speaker 1: a race to guess a very complicated number as quickly 372 00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:07,680 Speaker 1: as possible, being left behind means you're stuck with expensive 373 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:11,280 Speaker 1: equipment and a reward. So now you've got you know, costs, 374 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,840 Speaker 1: but you're not bringing money into offset those costs. You 375 00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 1: would be out of business. So there becomes this escalation 376 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:21,920 Speaker 1: among bitcoin miners to get hold of the most advanced 377 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:26,760 Speaker 1: machines possible that can work at screamingly fast rates in 378 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:30,040 Speaker 1: an effort to mind blocks before anyone else can so. 379 00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:33,640 Speaker 1: Right now, a block is worth around three fifty six 380 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:37,480 Speaker 1: thousand dollars. I got that by multiplying fifty seven thousand 381 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:41,960 Speaker 1: dollars per bitcoin times six point two five bitcoins per block, 382 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:45,960 Speaker 1: and you get a new block mind every ten minutes. 383 00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:49,760 Speaker 1: So a day has one thousand, four hundred forty minutes, 384 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:52,800 Speaker 1: and that means there are one hundred forty four ten 385 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:58,080 Speaker 1: minute blocks per day. So let's let's say hypothetically you 386 00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:05,240 Speaker 1: create the best killer mining system and you improbably managed 387 00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:08,080 Speaker 1: to beat out everyone else in the world for every 388 00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:11,879 Speaker 1: single block in one day. That would mean one day's 389 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:15,879 Speaker 1: mining would let you fifty one million dollars at the 390 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:21,160 Speaker 1: current value of bitcoin per day, fifty one million dollars. 391 00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:24,639 Speaker 1: That is a heck of an incentive. Now, this is 392 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:28,639 Speaker 1: why you hear about huge bitcoin mining operations that co 393 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:33,359 Speaker 1: locate with power plants, because to run those machines, you 394 00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:37,040 Speaker 1: need a lot of electricity, and electricity costs money. Right Like, 395 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:40,600 Speaker 1: if you're if you're paying for your electricity, that bill 396 00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:43,800 Speaker 1: is an operating expense you have to factor in. And 397 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:47,080 Speaker 1: while you could theoretically net around fifty one million dollars 398 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:51,000 Speaker 1: a day, in reality, you're you are competing against lots 399 00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:55,040 Speaker 1: of other big bitcoin mining operations around the world. You're 400 00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:58,680 Speaker 1: not going to succeed with every single block, So bitcoin 401 00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:01,640 Speaker 1: mining becomes a balancing act. You know, can you make 402 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:04,679 Speaker 1: more money then you have to spend to cover the 403 00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:09,119 Speaker 1: costs of operation. Can you make a profit? So for 404 00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:11,199 Speaker 1: a lot of miners, the answer is yes. I mean, like, 405 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:15,439 Speaker 1: the value of bitcoin is so high that it's worth 406 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:18,480 Speaker 1: going to these extremes to try and go after it 407 00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:22,560 Speaker 1: because the payoff is better than what the costs are. Right. So, 408 00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:26,800 Speaker 1: we've talked about how bitcoin mining involves lots of computers 409 00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:29,080 Speaker 1: all racing to guess the number that will produce a 410 00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:32,760 Speaker 1: hash that is equal to or less than the hash 411 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:36,200 Speaker 1: value that the bitcoin system generates. I'm not going to 412 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:41,040 Speaker 1: go into further detail with that because, um this episode 413 00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:44,040 Speaker 1: is going to be super long already. But but the 414 00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:47,600 Speaker 1: important part here is that, you know, the more miners 415 00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:50,720 Speaker 1: that join the system with more computing power makes these 416 00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:54,280 Speaker 1: problems get even more difficult, which means the bitcoin miners 417 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:57,720 Speaker 1: have to feed even more computational power into the system 418 00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:01,359 Speaker 1: if they want to be competitive. It becomes this vicious 419 00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:05,480 Speaker 1: cycle that will continue as long as the value of 420 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:10,160 Speaker 1: the bitcoin is greater than the cost sunk to chase. 421 00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:12,560 Speaker 1: After that bitcoin. Right, if you get to a point 422 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,040 Speaker 1: where the value of the bitcoin is lower than that, 423 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:18,680 Speaker 1: then obviously people are going to ease off because otherwise 424 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:23,800 Speaker 1: you just lose money. Now this we'll switch gears now 425 00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:27,320 Speaker 1: and talk about graphics cards. So again, graphics cards are 426 00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:33,080 Speaker 1: more relevant to ethereum mining than bitcoin mining. Uh. Ethereum 427 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:37,200 Speaker 1: one point oh follows a similar approach to bitcoin, and 428 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,480 Speaker 1: that it's a proof of work system. So that's why 429 00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:43,639 Speaker 1: I focused on bitcoin first because a lot of what 430 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:47,720 Speaker 1: we talked about with bitcoin also relates to ethereum one 431 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:50,880 Speaker 1: point oh. Alright, So when it comes to computer processors, 432 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,240 Speaker 1: there are a lot of different kinds. So your basic 433 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:58,760 Speaker 1: central processing unit or CPU is a microchip that has 434 00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:03,240 Speaker 1: one or more core is dedicated to executing commands operations 435 00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:07,560 Speaker 1: in other words, on input data. You know, numbers. So 436 00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:12,480 Speaker 1: a very oversimplified approach might say, like, take whatever data 437 00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:16,639 Speaker 1: comes in and then add this specific number to that 438 00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:20,000 Speaker 1: incoming data and produce a result. That would be a 439 00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:24,640 Speaker 1: very very very simple operation. Right now, your basic CPU 440 00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:26,840 Speaker 1: has to be flexible. It needs to be able to 441 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:30,159 Speaker 1: process information for lots of different kinds of programs. It 442 00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,280 Speaker 1: needs to be able to allow anything from a spreadsheet program, 443 00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:37,320 Speaker 1: to a media player, to a web browser, to complex 444 00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:42,280 Speaker 1: computer simulations to run on a machine. These are general 445 00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:45,720 Speaker 1: purpose microchips. In other words, they need to be able 446 00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:49,520 Speaker 1: to do pretty much anything. But there's a trade off 447 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:53,080 Speaker 1: with this. While a general purpose processor can pretty much 448 00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:56,720 Speaker 1: do anything, that doesn't mean it can perform any specific 449 00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:00,480 Speaker 1: task better than a microchip that is only nt to 450 00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:04,280 Speaker 1: handle that specific task. So, in other words, your basic 451 00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:10,520 Speaker 1: CPU lacks optimization for particular tasks because the CPU has 452 00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:13,120 Speaker 1: to be concerned with everything, not just that one thing. 453 00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:18,800 Speaker 1: Enter the graphics processing unit or GPU. When these emerged 454 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:21,600 Speaker 1: a couple of decades ago, the whole intent was to 455 00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:26,399 Speaker 1: offload calculations relating to computer graphics that would normally go 456 00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:30,920 Speaker 1: to the CPU and instead redirect those to the GPU, 457 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:33,320 Speaker 1: so the CPU would be freed up to work on 458 00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:36,000 Speaker 1: other stuff, and the GPU would be optimized to do 459 00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:39,760 Speaker 1: the kind of work needed to produce more sophisticated graphics. 460 00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:42,720 Speaker 1: So one element that you find in processors is called 461 00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:48,080 Speaker 1: an a l U or arithmetic logic unit. GPU cards 462 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:50,720 Speaker 1: typically have a lot of a l U s, and 463 00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:54,040 Speaker 1: it's this specific element that becomes really useful when you're 464 00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:57,280 Speaker 1: trying to perform calculations to guess the right hash value 465 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:00,760 Speaker 1: when you're trying to mine a block of cryptocurrency that's 466 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:05,360 Speaker 1: on a proof of work style blockchain. The GPUs are 467 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:09,240 Speaker 1: great at performing repetitive tasks at very high speed. That's 468 00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:13,200 Speaker 1: what they were built to do. So Bitcoin miners originally 469 00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:17,960 Speaker 1: sought out powerful graphics cards to build bitcoin mining rigs. 470 00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:23,520 Speaker 1: Uh And there are some cryptocurrency mining rigs no longer 471 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:27,239 Speaker 1: bitcoin Bitcoin outgrew graphics cards, and again we'll get to that. 472 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:31,400 Speaker 1: But like ethereum, mining rigs that are essentially a computer 473 00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:35,640 Speaker 1: case that holds as many graphics cards as the motherboard 474 00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:41,160 Speaker 1: can support. And typically these are part of larger networks 475 00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:45,280 Speaker 1: of similar systems, all with similar buildouts. So you end 476 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:48,720 Speaker 1: up with a very high demand for graphics cards to 477 00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:53,920 Speaker 1: mine ethereum. Moreover, as more miners jump on to try 478 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:57,640 Speaker 1: and mine you know, ethereum or bitcoin, it creates a 479 00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:01,400 Speaker 1: demand for the fastest machines on market. So it's not 480 00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:04,440 Speaker 1: just good enough to have a ton of graphics cards. 481 00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:07,040 Speaker 1: Let's say it's ethereum, it would be graphics cards. It's 482 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:09,160 Speaker 1: not just good enough to have a lot of graphics cards. 483 00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:13,080 Speaker 1: You need graphics cards that work at the best rates, 484 00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:17,760 Speaker 1: at the best efficiencies possible. You're possibly modifying them a bit. 485 00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:21,560 Speaker 1: If you're new to it, you might over clock your GPUs. 486 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:24,360 Speaker 1: That means make them run faster than they were meant 487 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:27,760 Speaker 1: to run uh in order to try and process this 488 00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:34,160 Speaker 1: information faster. But interestingly enough, experienced miners typically won't over 489 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,920 Speaker 1: clock their their GPUs. In fact, they might underclock the 490 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:42,400 Speaker 1: GPU because they're more concerned with efficiency than they are 491 00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,680 Speaker 1: with speed, so they'll still get really fast GPUs, but 492 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,320 Speaker 1: then they'll reduce the amount of power going to the 493 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:51,960 Speaker 1: GPU to make them more efficient. Now, this means that 494 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,880 Speaker 1: crypto minors have a big incentive to rush out and 495 00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:58,880 Speaker 1: grab all the best graphics cards that are available, So 496 00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,960 Speaker 1: when a new graphics it hits the market, crypto minors 497 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:08,200 Speaker 1: are among the most let's say, enthusiastic customers. Meanwhile, graphics 498 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:13,360 Speaker 1: card companies are producing products based on their own manufacturing capacity. 499 00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:16,600 Speaker 1: In other words, you can't make more cards than what 500 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:19,920 Speaker 1: your facility can produce, right, I mean that just makes sense. 501 00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:24,160 Speaker 1: You can't, like, if you're limited to cards per day, 502 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,280 Speaker 1: you can't magically produce five hundred cards in a day. 503 00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:29,640 Speaker 1: So we often see a problem where the demand for 504 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,520 Speaker 1: a new graphics card is way higher than the supply 505 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,200 Speaker 1: and the rate of production is such that bitcoin miners 506 00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:38,440 Speaker 1: will keep on scooping up as many cards as they 507 00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:42,400 Speaker 1: can until something better comes along, and then they repeat 508 00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:46,720 Speaker 1: the whole process. Meanwhile, gamers find themselves struggling to track 509 00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:50,680 Speaker 1: down a new graphics card. This also creates a pretty 510 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:54,320 Speaker 1: vicious aftermarket for graphics cards, because there are profiteers who 511 00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:57,239 Speaker 1: will rush out and buy graphics cards as fast as 512 00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:01,720 Speaker 1: they possibly can in an effort not to join bitcoin mining. 513 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:05,720 Speaker 1: Like they're not necessarily interested in mining bitcoin themselves instaid, 514 00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:08,280 Speaker 1: what they want to do is sell off the cards 515 00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:12,320 Speaker 1: they have bought at an incredible markup, like on eBay 516 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:17,440 Speaker 1: or whatever. These folks are exacerbating an already tough problem, 517 00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,080 Speaker 1: and they probably don't really care if the person who's 518 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:22,720 Speaker 1: buying from them is a gamer or if it's a 519 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,840 Speaker 1: crypto minor. They're just looking to make a profit. And 520 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:29,280 Speaker 1: this brings us to the stopping the Grinch Act proposal 521 00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:32,080 Speaker 1: in the United States. See One way to get an 522 00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:36,520 Speaker 1: edge on others is to develop automated scripts or bots 523 00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:40,400 Speaker 1: that shop for specific items faster than any human could 524 00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:44,000 Speaker 1: possibly manage. So the idea is that you design a 525 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:48,000 Speaker 1: bot to go after something specific, like the latest graphics 526 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,680 Speaker 1: card from a specific manufacturer, and you buy up all 527 00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:55,080 Speaker 1: the available stock as fast as you possibly can. Now, 528 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:57,960 Speaker 1: maybe you're doing it because you're a bitcoin miner and 529 00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,760 Speaker 1: you just want to dedicate that to your sister. Stim 530 00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:03,080 Speaker 1: Maybe you're doing it because you're a profiteer and you 531 00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:05,680 Speaker 1: just plan to sell the cards to whomever wants them 532 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:09,640 Speaker 1: on the aftermarket for a huge markup. Either way, you're 533 00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:14,000 Speaker 1: beating regular human customers to the punch. Well. In twenty nineteen, 534 00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:18,320 Speaker 1: several US politicians introduced proposed legislation that would make it 535 00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,760 Speaker 1: illegal for people to use those kinds of automated scripts 536 00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:25,320 Speaker 1: or bots to get the jump on normal retail customers. 537 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:28,600 Speaker 1: And they call it the Stopping the Grinch Act, because 538 00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,280 Speaker 1: the Grinch is a character from Dr SEUs who sneaks 539 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:34,120 Speaker 1: into a town on Christmas Eve to try and ruin Christmas, 540 00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:37,280 Speaker 1: which partly involves him stealing all the presents in the town. 541 00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:40,880 Speaker 1: While the two thousand nineteen version of this legislation stalled 542 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,680 Speaker 1: out in committees in Congress, but that was back in 543 00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:47,520 Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. That was before, problems like the pandemic and 544 00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:51,640 Speaker 1: the semiconductor chip shortage really made things worse now because 545 00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:54,920 Speaker 1: of supply chain woes and shortages. The fear is that 546 00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:58,080 Speaker 1: people using these automated scripts will make a tough situation 547 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,000 Speaker 1: even worse for millions of people who are just trying 548 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 1: to do stuff like buy some gifts for their loved 549 00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:08,360 Speaker 1: ones for the holidays. So, should this legislation pass, the 550 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:12,239 Speaker 1: Federal Trade Commission or FTC in the United States will 551 00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:15,400 Speaker 1: be in charge of enforcing this law, and the hope 552 00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:18,240 Speaker 1: is that this would create a more even playing field 553 00:34:18,239 --> 00:34:22,000 Speaker 1: for everyone seeking certain retail items without fear that some 554 00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:25,160 Speaker 1: automated bot is gonna scoop all of them up before 555 00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:28,280 Speaker 1: you even have a chance to go to the store virtually, 556 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:31,360 Speaker 1: and we'll end up scalping these at a much higher 557 00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:34,719 Speaker 1: cost down the road on other you know, sites like eBay. 558 00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:38,280 Speaker 1: Of course, we might just see this legislation dying committee 559 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:42,080 Speaker 1: the way it did the first time. Okay, I'm gonna 560 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:45,239 Speaker 1: take a break here. Then then we're gonna join in 561 00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:49,200 Speaker 1: with some more information about crypto mining and graphics cards. 562 00:34:49,920 --> 00:35:00,799 Speaker 1: But first I'm gonna catch my breath. Okay, let's talk 563 00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:05,040 Speaker 1: about the issue of ethereum miners going after graphics cards. Now, 564 00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:09,919 Speaker 1: according to the John Petty Research Group, crypto miners bought 565 00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:14,720 Speaker 1: up of all GPUs all GPUs in the first quarter 566 00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:19,520 Speaker 1: of one, so one quarter of all GPUs on the 567 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:23,960 Speaker 1: market were claimed before gamers could get a chance at them. Now, 568 00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,520 Speaker 1: that might sound like a bummer, but not too bad. 569 00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:30,680 Speaker 1: I mean that means three quarters of GPUs we're not 570 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:35,319 Speaker 1: claimed by crypto miners like ethereum miners, right, But then 571 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:38,600 Speaker 1: you have to remember that crypto miners were targeting the 572 00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:43,600 Speaker 1: best of the best, the highest end cards, specific graphics cards, 573 00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:46,799 Speaker 1: which meant that a lot of gamers were left with 574 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:51,200 Speaker 1: cards that weren't at the highest of performance levels. And 575 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,040 Speaker 1: it's not that much fun when you're a gamer and 576 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:56,319 Speaker 1: you're trying to really invest in building out a good 577 00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:59,000 Speaker 1: gaming PC. Then you find out you're gonna have to 578 00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:02,279 Speaker 1: settle for less and the best because there's just none 579 00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:06,640 Speaker 1: of the cards you want are available. Also, sometimes miners 580 00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:10,560 Speaker 1: will choose to sell off used GPUs. This could happen 581 00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:12,840 Speaker 1: for lots of different reasons. Let's say that the value 582 00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:18,600 Speaker 1: of a certain cryptocurrency like Ether goes down. Well, if 583 00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,080 Speaker 1: it goes down enough, it could get to a point 584 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:23,920 Speaker 1: where the cost of operation is so high that it's 585 00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:28,520 Speaker 1: no longer profitable to run a large scale mining operation. 586 00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:31,560 Speaker 1: You know, you'd be paying more money to run things 587 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:35,000 Speaker 1: than you would be making in mining. So that's one 588 00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:39,640 Speaker 1: time when people might start selling off used GPUs. Or 589 00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:42,839 Speaker 1: it might be that the miner is changing things up, 590 00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:45,520 Speaker 1: maybe they want to switch to a different GPU, or 591 00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:49,640 Speaker 1: maybe even the different system altogether, And so occasionally miners 592 00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:52,279 Speaker 1: will sell off the GPUs they had been using to 593 00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:56,000 Speaker 1: mine crypto. So the question is should you buy a 594 00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:59,680 Speaker 1: used GPU from a mining operation, Well, you gotta keep 595 00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:02,640 Speaker 1: in mind that those GPUs have been run for twenty 596 00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:05,480 Speaker 1: four hours a day, seven days a week, for however 597 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:09,080 Speaker 1: long the operation was relying on them. Now, it's possible 598 00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:12,200 Speaker 1: that a used GPU will be in good condition and 599 00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:14,680 Speaker 1: that you'll be able to run it just fine, and 600 00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:20,000 Speaker 1: that there won't be any appreciable difference in its useful lifespan. However, 601 00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:23,520 Speaker 1: it's also possible that the mining operation was cramming as 602 00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:27,640 Speaker 1: many components together as they could in order to conserve space, 603 00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:31,600 Speaker 1: and if the card received insufficient cooling, because these cards 604 00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:33,600 Speaker 1: do generate a lot of heat, and heat is bad 605 00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:37,360 Speaker 1: for electronics, right, Well, not only are these cards generating 606 00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:39,759 Speaker 1: a lot of heat individually, they're packed in with other 607 00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:43,320 Speaker 1: cards that are also generating heat. So these these bitcoin 608 00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:47,120 Speaker 1: mining operations get real hot if they are not sufficiently 609 00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:50,680 Speaker 1: cooled down while then those cards could be damaged right 610 00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:53,440 Speaker 1: just from being exposed to heat for so long. So 611 00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:55,640 Speaker 1: that's something you need to look out for. It's possible 612 00:37:55,680 --> 00:38:00,000 Speaker 1: that used GPU from a mining operation really doesn't operate 613 00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:03,680 Speaker 1: at what it should anyway, because just the wear and 614 00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:06,600 Speaker 1: tear and the heat wore it down. So it really 615 00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:09,560 Speaker 1: all depends on the mining operation and how it was 616 00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:11,960 Speaker 1: set up and how it was maintained. Also, you're not 617 00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:14,520 Speaker 1: likely to see a big mark down in price. Yeah, 618 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,160 Speaker 1: it's a used GPU and it was used for months, 619 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:19,520 Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean it's going to be cheap. Doesn't 620 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:21,480 Speaker 1: mean it's even gonna be less than what the market 621 00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:24,600 Speaker 1: prices for those cards, because they are still in such 622 00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:27,319 Speaker 1: high demand. I mean, GPUs are are in such high 623 00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:30,520 Speaker 1: demand that even a used one will end up being 624 00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:33,760 Speaker 1: valuable enough that people are willing to pay market price 625 00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:36,960 Speaker 1: or higher than if it were brand new, because again 626 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:41,520 Speaker 1: that the supply is so low compared to the demand. Uh, 627 00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:44,760 Speaker 1: this is dependent upon the actual card and the region 628 00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:46,680 Speaker 1: you're in and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, 629 00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:49,600 Speaker 1: it's a harsh reality. Now I've said it a few 630 00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:51,720 Speaker 1: times in this podcast, but when it comes to graphics 631 00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:55,440 Speaker 1: cards used in crypto mining, we're typically talking about Ethereum 632 00:38:55,680 --> 00:39:00,080 Speaker 1: and Ether rather than Bitcoin. Ethereum has some similar at 633 00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:03,320 Speaker 1: east to bitcoin, but there are also a few major differences. 634 00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:06,560 Speaker 1: For one, Bitcoin, as I mentioned earlier, has a cap 635 00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:10,560 Speaker 1: of twenty one million bitcoin. There will never be more 636 00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:15,160 Speaker 1: than twenty one million bitcoin in circulation. Ethereum does not 637 00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:17,760 Speaker 1: have a cap. There are actually more than a hundred 638 00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:21,320 Speaker 1: million Ether coins out there today and there's no cap 639 00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:25,799 Speaker 1: on supply. Bitcoin's value, as I record this podcast, is 640 00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:29,880 Speaker 1: more than fifty seven thousand dollars per coin. One Ether 641 00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:34,359 Speaker 1: is equal to around four thousand, seven hundred dollars. Now 642 00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:36,640 Speaker 1: four thousand, seven hundred dollars. That's a lot of money, 643 00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:39,879 Speaker 1: but it's less than one tenth of what you would 644 00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:43,680 Speaker 1: see with bitcoin, right and you only get to Ether 645 00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:47,560 Speaker 1: per mind block. Remember right now, with Bitcoin it's six 646 00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:51,279 Speaker 1: point two five bitcoin per block. Ether you only get 647 00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:55,799 Speaker 1: to per block. However, you can also mind blocks more 648 00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:58,759 Speaker 1: frequently in Ether than you can with Bitcoin, because with 649 00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:02,919 Speaker 1: Bitcoin it's unblocked every ten minutes. With Ether it's one 650 00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:06,879 Speaker 1: block every fifteen seconds on average. So you do get 651 00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:10,799 Speaker 1: smaller payouts per block with a bit more than nine 652 00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:14,080 Speaker 1: grand in value of ether mind per block, but you 653 00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:17,759 Speaker 1: also have way more blocks mind per day, so it 654 00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:21,719 Speaker 1: is a different beast from Bitcoin. Graphics cards are still 655 00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:24,120 Speaker 1: the rage when it comes to mining Ether, but for 656 00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:28,239 Speaker 1: Bitcoin many miners have moved on to heavier artillery in 657 00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:30,640 Speaker 1: the form of a S I C S or a 658 00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:34,759 Speaker 1: SEX If you prefer and FP G A S or FOOTCAS. 659 00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:38,320 Speaker 1: I guess you don't. I guess you don't actually pronounce 660 00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:42,360 Speaker 1: the the initialism. Okay, So, and a s I C 661 00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:47,640 Speaker 1: is an application specific integrated circuit. So remember how I 662 00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:51,799 Speaker 1: said CPUs are general purpose machines and GPUs are more 663 00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:56,520 Speaker 1: specialized machines. Well, the A s I C is even 664 00:40:56,600 --> 00:41:00,080 Speaker 1: more specialized than a GPU. This is a cir it 665 00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:03,960 Speaker 1: that has been hard coded to do a specific task. 666 00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:07,600 Speaker 1: It cannot do other stuff because that's just not how 667 00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:10,840 Speaker 1: the circuit is wired. So an A s I C 668 00:41:11,480 --> 00:41:15,239 Speaker 1: can be optimized to do something ultra specific and do 669 00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:18,640 Speaker 1: it wicked fast. A lot of bitcoin miners have spent 670 00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:22,520 Speaker 1: a huge amount of money developing A s I C machines. 671 00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:26,600 Speaker 1: They are more expensive than your typical computers are, and 672 00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:29,240 Speaker 1: they have finally tuned these A s I C machines 673 00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:33,799 Speaker 1: specifically to generating those hash value guesses in order to 674 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:37,799 Speaker 1: mine bitcoin. It's not something that would necessarily be economical 675 00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:41,080 Speaker 1: for ether mining because again, the scale of the payout 676 00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:44,279 Speaker 1: is different, so you wouldn't necessarily use these to mine ether. 677 00:41:44,719 --> 00:41:48,720 Speaker 1: There'd be too expensive to acquire and maintain, you wouldn't 678 00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:50,839 Speaker 1: get enough of a payout for it to be worthwhile. 679 00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:54,640 Speaker 1: But for Bitcoin it makes total sense because of the 680 00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:58,000 Speaker 1: scale of the value. As for f p g A, 681 00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:03,200 Speaker 1: that stands for fuel programmable gate array, this is another 682 00:42:03,239 --> 00:42:06,120 Speaker 1: type of integrated circuit. It is very similar to a 683 00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:09,560 Speaker 1: S I C with one major difference, and that is 684 00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:12,520 Speaker 1: with a s I C, what you have is what 685 00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:15,000 Speaker 1: you got right. It's kind of like the old style 686 00:42:15,239 --> 00:42:18,600 Speaker 1: video game cartridges. You can't write to it, you can't 687 00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:22,080 Speaker 1: change it. You're limited to whatever was hard coded programmed 688 00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:24,920 Speaker 1: on the circuit board itself. But an f p G 689 00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:30,080 Speaker 1: A is at least slightly alterable, slightly programmable so you 690 00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:34,520 Speaker 1: can make changes to it. Only recently have fpg as 691 00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:36,920 Speaker 1: started to reach a level of performance that puts them 692 00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:40,560 Speaker 1: on par with A S I C systems. Before that, 693 00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:44,360 Speaker 1: they were considered much slower and less efficient than A 694 00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:47,680 Speaker 1: S I C s, so you didn't see them as 695 00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:51,480 Speaker 1: much in bitcoin mining operations. That's starting to change, by 696 00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:56,880 Speaker 1: the way, the bitcoin situation eventually will change dramatically, because 697 00:42:57,040 --> 00:42:59,040 Speaker 1: either we'll get to a point where the number of 698 00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:02,520 Speaker 1: bitcoin your that you mind per block is gonna drop 699 00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:05,480 Speaker 1: to a level where it just doesn't make financial sense 700 00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:09,120 Speaker 1: to run expensive operations, or we'll get to a point 701 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:12,440 Speaker 1: where the miners all become just auditors because there's no 702 00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,640 Speaker 1: more bitcoin to mind. They're only paid in transaction fees, 703 00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:18,760 Speaker 1: and it wouldn't make sense to run these super huge 704 00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:22,080 Speaker 1: bitcoin mining operations anyway, and they'll all fade out. So 705 00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:24,640 Speaker 1: it's hard to say temporary problem, because it's a problem 706 00:43:24,719 --> 00:43:27,680 Speaker 1: that could potentially last beyond all of our lifetimes, since 707 00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:31,759 Speaker 1: bitcoin will continue to be mined until but it isn't 708 00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:34,880 Speaker 1: a problem that lasts forever with bitcoin right. Also, we 709 00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:38,200 Speaker 1: have to remember that as the amount of computational power 710 00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:45,000 Speaker 1: reduces in the bitcoin system, the problem. Uh, difficulty will 711 00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:49,200 Speaker 1: also reduce, so it will become easier to get to 712 00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:53,120 Speaker 1: that hash value uh as more computers drop out the 713 00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:55,440 Speaker 1: bitcoin system. So it is one of those things that 714 00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:59,640 Speaker 1: will correct itself in theory over time. Obviously, if the 715 00:43:59,719 --> 00:44:03,160 Speaker 1: value you a bitcoin continues to skyrocket, this will persist 716 00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:05,600 Speaker 1: longer and longer. Right, I mean we know that in 717 00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:08,680 Speaker 1: a couple of years the number of bitcoin released per 718 00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:12,959 Speaker 1: block is going to be cut in half yet again, right, Well, 719 00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:17,719 Speaker 1: if it gets to a point where that number of 720 00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:21,759 Speaker 1: bitcoin and the value of bitcoin falls below what would 721 00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:25,719 Speaker 1: mean operational costs, we'll see a drawbag change. But if 722 00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:28,400 Speaker 1: the bitcoin value goes up, like let's say it's a 723 00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:32,200 Speaker 1: hundred fifty thou dollars per bitcoin, then people are gonna say, no, 724 00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:35,640 Speaker 1: it's still totally makes sense to keep to keep pushing 725 00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:38,520 Speaker 1: as hard as we can because the value is so high. 726 00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:41,319 Speaker 1: So it's depended upon a lot of variables, all right. 727 00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:44,360 Speaker 1: That finally sets us up to talk about what the 728 00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:47,920 Speaker 1: heck and l h R graphics card is. So this 729 00:44:48,080 --> 00:44:52,520 Speaker 1: was introduced by Nvidia earlier this year, and LHR stands 730 00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:56,920 Speaker 1: for light hash rate l i t e. Hash rate, 731 00:44:57,400 --> 00:44:59,840 Speaker 1: and you can probably make some guesses as to what 732 00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:04,000 Speaker 1: that means. Now, essentially, this technology is intended to check 733 00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:06,840 Speaker 1: for signs that the card is just being used to 734 00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:11,200 Speaker 1: mine cryptocurrency by generating hash values. So when the card 735 00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:14,600 Speaker 1: detects this, the idea is that it cuts that hash rate, 736 00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:17,680 Speaker 1: that is the speed at which the card can make 737 00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:20,719 Speaker 1: these kinds of guesses, and these are the kind that 738 00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:25,120 Speaker 1: relate to proof of work cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, one point 739 00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:29,319 Speaker 1: oh and Bitcoin. So in other words, the card hamstrings 740 00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:34,680 Speaker 1: itself if it determines that it's being used for mining cryptocurrency. 741 00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:39,080 Speaker 1: Now that is a huge disincentive for crypto miners obviously. 742 00:45:39,239 --> 00:45:41,400 Speaker 1: I mean they want cards that will give them the 743 00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:45,400 Speaker 1: advantages they need to outperform all the other miners that 744 00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:48,600 Speaker 1: are going after Ethereum in this case, so they would 745 00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:53,880 Speaker 1: naturally avoid cards that would essentially slam on the brakes instead. Also, 746 00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:57,800 Speaker 1: the LHR cards have a higher power draw rate. That 747 00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:01,440 Speaker 1: means they need more electricity to run, So that means 748 00:46:01,520 --> 00:46:03,480 Speaker 1: you have you have cards that are not going to 749 00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:07,000 Speaker 1: process hash values as quickly as other cards are, and 750 00:46:07,080 --> 00:46:10,000 Speaker 1: they're drawing more power than other types of cards are. 751 00:46:10,600 --> 00:46:13,279 Speaker 1: That means they're also more expensive to operate if you're 752 00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:17,160 Speaker 1: running them seven. Technically they're more expensive to operate for 753 00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:21,880 Speaker 1: gamers as well, but your your average gamer isn't playing 754 00:46:22,239 --> 00:46:24,279 Speaker 1: twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, so 755 00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:27,400 Speaker 1: it doesn't accumulate as much. It is a bigger expense, 756 00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:32,040 Speaker 1: but hopefully not as um prohibitive as it would be 757 00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:36,200 Speaker 1: for a bitcoin or rather ethereum mining operation. Now you 758 00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:40,960 Speaker 1: might wonder if this LHR technology would also inhibit gameplay, 759 00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:45,200 Speaker 1: Like if you hear, oh, this graphics card is designed 760 00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:49,720 Speaker 1: to put out half it's uh it's output under certain conditions. 761 00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:52,239 Speaker 1: Does that mean that when I fire up you know, 762 00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:57,640 Speaker 1: the latest game, uh, that everything's gonna perform more poorly, 763 00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:00,600 Speaker 1: Like I'm not gonna get the graphics quality and speed 764 00:47:00,719 --> 00:47:02,320 Speaker 1: that I expect. I'm not going to get the phrase 765 00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:04,759 Speaker 1: per second that I want. The answer to that is no, 766 00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:10,279 Speaker 1: because that doesn't relate to generating hash values. As long 767 00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:13,600 Speaker 1: as whatever you're doing doesn't relate to generating hash values, 768 00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:18,280 Speaker 1: then the cards not gonna kick in that that break system. 769 00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:22,360 Speaker 1: In other words, now, the video's approach is not perfect. 770 00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:25,800 Speaker 1: When the company released the g E Force r t 771 00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:32,120 Speaker 1: X thirty six, they did so with including the LHR limited. 772 00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:36,680 Speaker 1: When it started releasing it's it's thirty or three thousand line. 773 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:40,360 Speaker 1: Some of the earlier ones came out before in Video 774 00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:43,560 Speaker 1: had developed LHR, so they don't have an inhibitor on 775 00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:46,080 Speaker 1: them at all. They can be run at the full 776 00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:50,640 Speaker 1: speed that's f HR full hash rate. But the thirties 777 00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:56,080 Speaker 1: sixty came out with an LHR limitter. However, in Video 778 00:47:56,200 --> 00:48:01,200 Speaker 1: accidentally included in a beta driver for the card away 779 00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:05,360 Speaker 1: to deactivate the limitter. Essentially, it's like removing a limited 780 00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:09,080 Speaker 1: on a on a car so that it can exceed 781 00:48:09,280 --> 00:48:12,759 Speaker 1: its quote unquote top speed. Same sort of thing here, 782 00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:15,840 Speaker 1: Like you could deactivate that and then run the card 783 00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:20,239 Speaker 1: as a full hash rate card, and that meant that 784 00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:24,240 Speaker 1: crypto minors could use the thirty sixty without worrying about 785 00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:27,320 Speaker 1: the LHR slowing things down. And Video went back to 786 00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:30,560 Speaker 1: the drawing board and reportedly make sure that newer cards 787 00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:35,080 Speaker 1: will integrate LHR elements closer to the firmware to make 788 00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:39,200 Speaker 1: it more difficult to bypass it. That doesn't mean that 789 00:48:39,280 --> 00:48:41,800 Speaker 1: minors won't try to find ways to crack the limitter 790 00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:45,640 Speaker 1: and deactivate it. Currently, the r t X thirty seventy 791 00:48:45,719 --> 00:48:49,160 Speaker 1: t I and the thirty E t I cards still 792 00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:53,360 Speaker 1: are light hash rate only that's the only version that 793 00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:56,600 Speaker 1: that in videos cells of those two cards. I can 794 00:48:56,680 --> 00:48:58,680 Speaker 1: guarantee you there are people who are working to find 795 00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:03,960 Speaker 1: ways to crack the LHR limitters. Okay, we have a 796 00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:06,160 Speaker 1: little bit more to talk about, but I've been going 797 00:49:06,200 --> 00:49:08,359 Speaker 1: on for a long time. Let's take another quick break 798 00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:19,120 Speaker 1: and we'll be right back. So I think this issue 799 00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:25,000 Speaker 1: with light hash rates and graphics cards and the the 800 00:49:25,360 --> 00:49:27,759 Speaker 1: desire for miners to get around it is going to 801 00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:29,840 Speaker 1: be a bit of a c solve problem in the 802 00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:32,680 Speaker 1: short term. Um, as long as there is money to 803 00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:36,600 Speaker 1: be made mining ether through proof of work, then people 804 00:49:36,640 --> 00:49:39,840 Speaker 1: are going to explore every possible avenue in order to 805 00:49:39,880 --> 00:49:43,360 Speaker 1: make that money, as long as the amount they're investing 806 00:49:43,680 --> 00:49:46,720 Speaker 1: is less than what they're going to get as a payout. Again, 807 00:49:47,719 --> 00:49:50,719 Speaker 1: if we eventually, if this all revolves around money, if 808 00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:52,839 Speaker 1: it eventually gets more expensive to do than you make 809 00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:54,680 Speaker 1: out of it, then it doesn't make sense to keep 810 00:49:54,719 --> 00:49:57,279 Speaker 1: doing it. Eventually you'll bankrupt yourself trying to do it. 811 00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:01,480 Speaker 1: So if in videos implementation strong enough and hard enough 812 00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:05,560 Speaker 1: to crack, not not perfect, but hard enough that could 813 00:50:05,600 --> 00:50:08,400 Speaker 1: be enough to push crypto miners to look at different 814 00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:11,520 Speaker 1: graphics cards and just avoid in video graphics cards because 815 00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:16,280 Speaker 1: they have to spend time to crack that LHR protection 816 00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:19,600 Speaker 1: and time is money. If they take too long to 817 00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:23,760 Speaker 1: crack LHR before the next round of graphics cards are released, 818 00:50:24,080 --> 00:50:26,359 Speaker 1: well then it's a waste of effort, right because there 819 00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:28,840 Speaker 1: are better cards that are already on the market. So 820 00:50:29,560 --> 00:50:31,800 Speaker 1: that's the ideas. It doesn't have to be perfect, it 821 00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:35,160 Speaker 1: just has to be hard enough where there's no reason 822 00:50:35,239 --> 00:50:37,319 Speaker 1: to go that route, you can go some other way. 823 00:50:37,880 --> 00:50:41,160 Speaker 1: And not all companies are working to discourage crypto mining. 824 00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:45,359 Speaker 1: Both A m D and Intel are not incorporating any 825 00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:49,600 Speaker 1: sort of crypto limited on their graphics cards. And you 826 00:50:49,760 --> 00:50:52,400 Speaker 1: might even say, well, of course, why would they. I mean, 827 00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:56,839 Speaker 1: the crypto miners represent valuable customers. They demand the best 828 00:50:56,920 --> 00:51:01,200 Speaker 1: performing cards on the market, so their guarantee, right, You 829 00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:03,320 Speaker 1: don't have to even market to them. You just have 830 00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:08,280 Speaker 1: to make a screamingly fast card. So while in videos 831 00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:11,600 Speaker 1: trying to cater to a specific customer base that of gamers, 832 00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:16,759 Speaker 1: other companies don't necessarily worry about that. Now that could 833 00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:19,400 Speaker 1: work in gamer's favor if they happen to like in 834 00:51:19,520 --> 00:51:22,360 Speaker 1: Video's cards, because if the crypto minors all go to 835 00:51:22,480 --> 00:51:25,200 Speaker 1: Intel an a m D that frees up in video 836 00:51:25,560 --> 00:51:27,919 Speaker 1: means that there will be a greater supply of those 837 00:51:28,040 --> 00:51:30,359 Speaker 1: cards and gamers will actually be able to get their 838 00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:33,160 Speaker 1: hands on them. If the gamers instead prefer a m 839 00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:36,400 Speaker 1: D or Intel, well, then they're still competing with the 840 00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:40,040 Speaker 1: crypto minors. Something else that will likely have a massive 841 00:51:40,120 --> 00:51:43,200 Speaker 1: impact on this whole situation is that Ethereum is actually 842 00:51:43,239 --> 00:51:47,799 Speaker 1: headed toward a different method than proof of work. That's 843 00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:50,680 Speaker 1: how you currently mine ether. Proof of work is the 844 00:51:50,800 --> 00:51:54,400 Speaker 1: same way that bitcoin works. Right that you have these 845 00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:57,759 Speaker 1: computer systems that are putting out all this this computational 846 00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:00,799 Speaker 1: power to race to get to an answer first, Well, 847 00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:04,640 Speaker 1: Ethereum is going to move away from proof of work 848 00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:10,200 Speaker 1: and head toward proof of steak s T a k E. 849 00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:13,960 Speaker 1: So in that strategy, participants in the ether community who 850 00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:18,560 Speaker 1: want to mine ether will have to put a steak 851 00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:22,479 Speaker 1: of some of their ether toward the chance to earn 852 00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:27,120 Speaker 1: more ether from mining. So, in other words, they're dedicating 853 00:52:27,640 --> 00:52:31,920 Speaker 1: some percentage of the ether they own towards this process. 854 00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:34,680 Speaker 1: And the more you stake, the more you dedicate to this, 855 00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:37,839 Speaker 1: the better the odds are that you'll earn more ETHER. 856 00:52:38,640 --> 00:52:42,040 Speaker 1: This quickly becomes a system that rewards the people who 857 00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:44,480 Speaker 1: have the most already, or at least who are willing 858 00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:49,160 Speaker 1: to stake the most already. And there's other problems with that, 859 00:52:49,360 --> 00:52:51,879 Speaker 1: but we won't get into it. But you know, there's 860 00:52:51,880 --> 00:52:55,120 Speaker 1: no hash value guessing in this approach, so there's not 861 00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:59,360 Speaker 1: nearly the same need for computational power. That means that 862 00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:04,240 Speaker 1: that hold scent of structure that is feeding this frenzy 863 00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:08,080 Speaker 1: around graphics cards falls away, at least for ethereum, so 864 00:53:09,080 --> 00:53:12,920 Speaker 1: it will no longer tie to graphics cards, and all 865 00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:15,680 Speaker 1: those miners who are currently pushing so hard to mind 866 00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:20,720 Speaker 1: ether will be in possession of very expensive and largely 867 00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:25,239 Speaker 1: useless hardware. Right, they'll have these computers with screamingly fast 868 00:53:25,320 --> 00:53:29,120 Speaker 1: GPUs that are expensive to run. But since it's no 869 00:53:29,200 --> 00:53:32,600 Speaker 1: longer a proof of work system, those systems won't won't 870 00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:36,400 Speaker 1: do them any good. Those computers won't do them any good. Uh. 871 00:53:36,560 --> 00:53:40,000 Speaker 1: They could switch to mining a different proof of work cryptocurrency, 872 00:53:40,120 --> 00:53:43,799 Speaker 1: because there's no shortage of different cryptocurrencies out there. There 873 00:53:43,800 --> 00:53:47,839 Speaker 1: are hundreds of them. Uh. That and many of them 874 00:53:47,920 --> 00:53:50,200 Speaker 1: still use proof of work. There's some that use proof 875 00:53:50,239 --> 00:53:52,680 Speaker 1: of steak, but a lot most of them use proof 876 00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:56,080 Speaker 1: of work. However, a lot of those currencies are built 877 00:53:56,120 --> 00:53:58,480 Speaker 1: on top of the Ethereum blockchain, so things are going 878 00:53:58,520 --> 00:54:02,120 Speaker 1: to change for them, Plaut. A lot of those currencies 879 00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:06,399 Speaker 1: have a fraction of the value of Ether, so yeah, 880 00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:09,560 Speaker 1: you could use them to mind these other types of crypto. 881 00:54:10,560 --> 00:54:15,239 Speaker 1: But if you know, like one Ether is worths and 882 00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:18,520 Speaker 1: one of these other cryptos is worth point zero to 883 00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:24,520 Speaker 1: five dollars, well it wouldn't make financial sense to dedicate 884 00:54:24,600 --> 00:54:30,040 Speaker 1: your screaming fast system two getting loose change, right, You 885 00:54:30,040 --> 00:54:34,360 Speaker 1: wouldn't be making a profit. Plus, uh, you know, the 886 00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:38,359 Speaker 1: GPU miners aren't likely to scale up to bitcoin, at 887 00:54:38,440 --> 00:54:40,800 Speaker 1: least not with GPUs, because they wouldn't be able to 888 00:54:40,800 --> 00:54:44,040 Speaker 1: compete against the bitcoin miners who are using a S 889 00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:48,160 Speaker 1: I C systems out there, because GPU just can't match that. 890 00:54:48,840 --> 00:54:52,600 Speaker 1: So the ethereum miners out there are working on borrowed 891 00:54:52,680 --> 00:54:58,040 Speaker 1: time at least as the current ethereum process works, and 892 00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:01,800 Speaker 1: once Ether switches is to proof of steak sometime in 893 00:55:01,880 --> 00:55:06,439 Speaker 1: two at least that's the plan, we should theoretically see 894 00:55:06,480 --> 00:55:10,760 Speaker 1: a decline in demand for graphics cards from the crypto community. 895 00:55:11,719 --> 00:55:15,880 Speaker 1: That should, in theory, give gamers a greater supply and 896 00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:19,719 Speaker 1: lower the costs for those graphics cards. Uh, you know, 897 00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:22,160 Speaker 1: there won't be as strong of an aftermarket for them. 898 00:55:22,920 --> 00:55:26,160 Speaker 1: I think that will be a good thing, And it 899 00:55:26,239 --> 00:55:30,080 Speaker 1: would also mean that LHR might not be as important 900 00:55:30,320 --> 00:55:33,600 Speaker 1: unless some other proof of work cryptocurrency gains a ton 901 00:55:33,680 --> 00:55:36,719 Speaker 1: of popularity, in which case the whole process will start 902 00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:39,880 Speaker 1: up again. Now, I might do another episode down the 903 00:55:39,960 --> 00:55:43,480 Speaker 1: line to talk about some of the other limitations of cryptocurrencies, 904 00:55:43,920 --> 00:55:47,319 Speaker 1: with Bitcoin being the prime example, and I might really 905 00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:50,360 Speaker 1: focus on things like the number of transactions that a 906 00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:54,040 Speaker 1: system can handle per given unit of time. Bitcoin has 907 00:55:54,120 --> 00:55:58,120 Speaker 1: a scaling issue when it comes to processing transactions. The 908 00:55:58,239 --> 00:56:01,320 Speaker 1: limitations on the size of the blocks in the blockchain 909 00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:03,640 Speaker 1: and the fact that you only generate a new one 910 00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:08,000 Speaker 1: every ten minutes means that Bitcoin is limited to processing 911 00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:11,400 Speaker 1: a fraction of the number of transactions per minute that 912 00:56:11,760 --> 00:56:15,680 Speaker 1: a centralized company like Visa could handle. Like I think 913 00:56:15,719 --> 00:56:19,200 Speaker 1: it's like three eight times slower something like that, Like 914 00:56:19,360 --> 00:56:22,760 Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's just in other words, for Bitcoin 915 00:56:22,840 --> 00:56:25,359 Speaker 1: to work as a currency, so that people can use 916 00:56:25,440 --> 00:56:29,760 Speaker 1: it for regular transactions, then it has to be faster 917 00:56:30,120 --> 00:56:33,320 Speaker 1: at processing those transactions. Otherwise you're waiting forever for a 918 00:56:33,360 --> 00:56:37,320 Speaker 1: transaction to be verified, and that slows everything down. The 919 00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:43,279 Speaker 1: entire capitalist system that we use right now is built 920 00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:46,480 Speaker 1: on speed, and this would be a reversal of that. However, 921 00:56:47,200 --> 00:56:49,919 Speaker 1: that's kind of a moot point, at least at the moment, 922 00:56:50,040 --> 00:56:53,000 Speaker 1: because right now bitcoin is really more of a speculative 923 00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:57,080 Speaker 1: investment and it's less of a currency. So it kind 924 00:56:57,120 --> 00:57:00,520 Speaker 1: of doesn't matter because we don't see the number of 925 00:57:00,560 --> 00:57:06,200 Speaker 1: transactions reaching anything close to what VISA handles because people 926 00:57:06,239 --> 00:57:10,280 Speaker 1: aren't buying and selling or they're not they're not spending 927 00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:15,000 Speaker 1: bitcoin at that kind of pace. Uh, they're more people 928 00:57:15,040 --> 00:57:17,760 Speaker 1: are investing in bitcoin. They're buying it, but then they're 929 00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:21,120 Speaker 1: holding onto it and hoping that that investment grows up, 930 00:57:21,880 --> 00:57:24,080 Speaker 1: and it might not be for another century or so 931 00:57:24,240 --> 00:57:27,800 Speaker 1: before we see that change, so we've got some time anyway. 932 00:57:28,400 --> 00:57:31,920 Speaker 1: My hope is that the combination of LHR technology and 933 00:57:32,080 --> 00:57:35,280 Speaker 1: the oncoming merge of ethereum one point oh, which is 934 00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:38,320 Speaker 1: the proof of work version, with Ethereum two point oh, 935 00:57:38,600 --> 00:57:41,320 Speaker 1: which is the proof of steak version, well, mean, we'll 936 00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:44,440 Speaker 1: see some relief for gamers out there. I know I 937 00:57:44,600 --> 00:57:47,960 Speaker 1: have been putting off putting together a gaming rig until 938 00:57:48,040 --> 00:57:51,840 Speaker 1: that stuff is a little less hectic. The combined problems 939 00:57:51,960 --> 00:57:54,960 Speaker 1: of profiteers who are buying up cards and selling them 940 00:57:55,000 --> 00:57:58,000 Speaker 1: at huge markups. Then you've got the crypto minors who 941 00:57:58,000 --> 00:57:59,960 Speaker 1: are champing at the bit to scoop up cards left, 942 00:58:00,160 --> 00:58:03,240 Speaker 1: right and center. And then you've got the semiconductor shortage 943 00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:06,360 Speaker 1: and all the supply chain issues that are already made 944 00:58:07,120 --> 00:58:09,920 Speaker 1: the expensive activity of building out a gaming rig to 945 00:58:10,040 --> 00:58:14,600 Speaker 1: become prohibitively expensive, at least for me. Here's hoping for 946 00:58:14,720 --> 00:58:19,720 Speaker 1: better days and better gaming ahead. All right, that's it 947 00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:22,120 Speaker 1: that you and I know that that went well beyond 948 00:58:22,720 --> 00:58:26,959 Speaker 1: what the heck is an LHR gaming or graphics card. 949 00:58:27,520 --> 00:58:31,480 Speaker 1: But really, I think to appreciate why it's necessary we 950 00:58:31,600 --> 00:58:33,520 Speaker 1: had to go through all of that and to kind 951 00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:37,760 Speaker 1: of get a handle on the landscape of crypto, it 952 00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:41,520 Speaker 1: is possible that will we will see bitcoin miners return 953 00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:45,520 Speaker 1: to graphics processing cards in the future if the value 954 00:58:45,560 --> 00:58:48,240 Speaker 1: of bitcoin drops to a point where it would be 955 00:58:48,320 --> 00:58:51,600 Speaker 1: prohibitively expensive to run as a systems or a s 956 00:58:51,680 --> 00:58:57,000 Speaker 1: I C. Systems, and you would want to downgrade because 957 00:58:57,520 --> 00:59:00,919 Speaker 1: otherwise you'd be losing money by I mean, that's a Again, 958 00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:04,040 Speaker 1: that's a delicate balancing act that will be dependent upon 959 00:59:04,240 --> 00:59:08,120 Speaker 1: the value of bitcoin and what other miners are doing. 960 00:59:08,640 --> 00:59:10,560 Speaker 1: So we'll have to wait and see how that all 961 00:59:10,600 --> 00:59:14,400 Speaker 1: shakes out over the next few years. Um, I'm still 962 00:59:14,920 --> 00:59:18,280 Speaker 1: not like you could say I have a bias against crypto, 963 00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:19,880 Speaker 1: and I think that would be totally fair for you 964 00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:23,600 Speaker 1: to say that I am not a huge crypto fan. 965 00:59:24,400 --> 00:59:30,520 Speaker 1: I feel like it's it's not a Ponzi scheme, at 966 00:59:30,600 --> 00:59:33,440 Speaker 1: least not in the purest sense of the word. But 967 00:59:33,560 --> 00:59:37,520 Speaker 1: I do feel like it's yet another system that consolidates 968 00:59:37,640 --> 00:59:40,720 Speaker 1: an enormous amount of wealth among a very tiny group 969 00:59:40,760 --> 00:59:43,920 Speaker 1: of stakeholders at the expense of everyone else, and that 970 00:59:44,720 --> 00:59:48,200 Speaker 1: it doesn't really benefit society in any way apart from 971 00:59:48,320 --> 00:59:51,040 Speaker 1: like the small number of stakeholders who are making crazy 972 00:59:51,160 --> 00:59:55,120 Speaker 1: bank on the whole thing. Ah, but hey, that's my opinion, 973 00:59:55,680 --> 00:59:58,680 Speaker 1: and and I fully admit there are plenty of evangelists 974 00:59:58,760 --> 01:00:02,480 Speaker 1: out there who love crypto who would disagree vehemently with me, 975 01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:05,200 Speaker 1: and I'm not saying they're wrong, And then I'm right 976 01:00:05,680 --> 01:00:08,520 Speaker 1: it's just kind of my own perspective. If you have 977 01:00:08,880 --> 01:00:11,960 Speaker 1: suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff, kind of like 978 01:00:12,040 --> 01:00:14,400 Speaker 1: the one we just did today, reach out to me 979 01:00:14,480 --> 01:00:17,520 Speaker 1: on Twitter. The handle for the show is text Stuff H. 980 01:00:17,880 --> 01:00:21,880 Speaker 1: S W and I'll talk to you again really see. 981 01:00:27,360 --> 01:00:30,320 Speaker 1: Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more 982 01:00:30,440 --> 01:00:33,840 Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, 983 01:00:33,960 --> 01:00:37,120 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.