I'm about to write a bunch of really weird words in a row, but I need you to hang in there. We'll get through this together. Are you ready?
ASRock has just released a new motherboard series designed specifically to mine for Bitcoins. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time PC hardware has been built with Bitcoins in mind. Actually, these are the first PC components built to, theoretically, make you money.
Let's back up a little bit. Bitcoins are the internet-based, peer-to-peer currency, as explained in the video above. At about 0:30 in the video, the narrator mentions Bitcoin mining in passing, but it deserves a little more attention. The miner is an application that solves math problems to generate coins, but in order to curb inflation and stabilize this decentralized currency, every time a Bitcoin is created, the algorithms needed to make the next one get a little more complex. After years of this process and over $400 million worth of Bitcoins now floating through the electronic ether, the algorithms are getting brutal enough to make a gaming rig groan as it chews through them.
Enter: the ASRock Pro BTC-series motherboards. These babies sport enough room for six graphics cards (GPUs are the mining tool of choice) and some extra power connectors to light up all that hardware. There's no price listed yet, but considering the rates of return some early Bitcoin adopters have seen, it could be a worth investment for those interested. On the other hand, Bitcoin is prone to wild price fluctuations , so maybe it's best not to joke around with money you can't afford to spare.
Still, all that aside, you can keep your flying cars and laser beams; I'm living in a future where computers solve math problems to make money. After we sort out the Holodeck, I'm pretty much set as far as technology goes.
