T w e n t y S i d e d

Last week I gave a lightweight overview of what bitcoin is and how it works. ) Like I said, people can make money by certifying blocks for the blockchain. And to do this they need to try lots and lots of SHA256 hashes, looking for the magic nonce that will complete a block. The more computing power you have, the more hashes you can try per second. This improves your odds of winning the SHA256 lottery and netting yourself a few thousand dollars worth of bitcoins.

This works to keep bitcoin secure, but it has also created an intense and sudden demand for lots of computing power. At some point these bitcoin miners looked at consumer-grade graphics hardware and realized that they were an incredible deal in terms of cost vs. computing power. So they began buying them up and stuffing them into minimalist cases where the cards can sit and crunch numbers all day. They’re not even hooked up to monitors! They’re just crunching on SHA256 hashes!

(Note that when I say “bitcoin” I’m sort of doing this handwave-y inclusion of crypto currency in general. I’m talking about bitcoin because it’s the most recognizable and notorious of the currencies, but a lot of the things I talk about below apply more to the other currencies than to bitcoin specifically. But I don’t want to clutter this article up with all the asides and asterisks it would take to sort out the various strains of cryptobux. Just remember that this article is more concerned with graphics hardware and less concerned with crypto.)

The Graphics Hardware Market

All of this has pushed prices up. Normally a new graphics generation comes out, and then the price drifts slowly downward as the technology ages. Eventually a new card comes along to replace it, and the old one undergoes a price drop. Most of us budget-conscious gamers shop in this “recently dethroned” spot on the price curve, which is where you get the most bang for your buck. Any newer than that and you’re paying the hefty enthusiast markup. Any lower than that and the power falls off more quickly than the price.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “This Dumb Industry: The Disaster of GPU Prices”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Lots of people are curious about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency these days. This is particularly true among PC gamers. Not only is cryptocurrency making headlines, it’s also screwing up the graphics card market. Which naturally leads people to asking questions like, “What is this stuff?”

I am not remotely an expert and I’ve never had a reason to use Bitcoin, but I understand a little bit of the underlying technology and I think I can help explain it to people.

Essentially, a bunch of math nerds have invented a new form of money and the world is curious what’s going to happen next. We’ve never had “money” that worked like this before. It’s not tied to a specific paper currency. It’s not guaranteed by a bank. It’s not issued by a government. It’s not backed by precious metals. Instead the currency is governed by a few simple rules and guaranteed by math. This creates a lot of interesting questions regarding economics, trust, law, and existing financial regulations.

But we’re not here to have those debates. We’re here to try and understand what this system is and how it’s possible to have a secure currency with no centralized power. Do note that every level of simplification is bound to bruise the truth a little. What I’m going to give is a very rudimentary overview and many, many details have been left out. This will not make you an expert, but I hope I can at least help you understand a couple of basic questions like:

1. How does cryptocurrency work?
2. What is this “block chain” thing people keep talking about?

Cryptocurrency is built using two key technologies: asymmetrical cryptography, and hash functions. Those terms might sound complex and scary, but anyone can grasp them. So before we explain cryptocurrency and the blockchain, let’s explain these two technologies.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Cryptocurrency and the Blockchain: What is This Stuff?”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.