

Ask HN: Will efforts toward efficient Bitcoin mining advance computing? - anauleau

My friend asked this question on Quora but has yet receive any responses, thought I would try this forum. &quot;How will efforts toward making Bitcoin mining more efficient have an impact on technological development? There is a clear profit incentive that is motivating a lot of people to spend a lot of time and money on Bitcoin-mining research &amp; development. Is this helping to accelerate specific fields of technological development? If so, which?&quot;
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asperous
Well it's only speculation, but Bitcoin mining is a specific activity. It's
true there's probably plenty of money going into making the fastest double-
sha1 + nonance chip; that activity alone isn't likely to advance computing.

There's some money going into making better Litecoin/Scrypt miners, which is
currently only gpus so that's positive.

The question you _should_ be asking is how will _Bitcoin_ advance computing.
That question I think will get you a lot more answers:

\- Security is essential. People require secure computing to safely operating
in Bitcoin.

\- etc.

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maxerickson
At the moment it is doubtful that they are spending anywhere near what intel
and their suppliers are on process development (intel spends billions of
dollars on R&D every year; they probably spent more last year than dollars
have ever touched bitcoin).

