6 ms·

In a very roundabout way, RAM being a valuable item isn’t too far off from bitcoin

• whatshisface 8y ago
  The cost of bitcoin is mainly determined by the price of electricity and the price of ASICs. RAM is more important for other coins, but for Bitcoin it's mainly about the hashing output of some specialized circuits.
  • jstanley 8y ago
    The cost of bitcoin is determined by supply and demand. The hashrate is determined by the price of bitcoin, the price of electricity, and the price of ASICs.
    • whatshisface 8y ago
      >The cost of bitcoin is determined by supply and demand. That's the price of bitcoin, not the cost. Price is what you can sell it for, cost is what you can make it for. The cost is determined by the price of the inputs, which are electricity and ASICs.
      • thaumasiotes 8y ago
        The cost of creating bitcoin is dynamically adjusted so that a fixed number are created in a given period of time based on the hashrate. You'd have the same number of bitcoins regardless of the price of electricity and ASICs. So in this case, the price determines the cost, not the other way around. People will invest money into creating bitcoins until their cost of acquisition equals the price they can sell for, and this effort purely drives up the cost without generating any additional bitcoins.