<i>>The 21 Bitcoin Computer consumes 15W (5V @3A) and has an efficiency of approximately 0.16 Joules per Gigahash and arrives configured to calculate at a rate of approximately 50 Gigahashes per second.</i><p>So taking the computer's price of $400 and using this calculator [1] w/ the current difficulty level, 50 Gigahashes/s, 15W consumption, 5% pool commission, $0.15 $/kW energy costs, and the current exchange rate of $332USD/BTC we get:<p>$0.07 in daily revenue or<p>5714 days (15.6 years) to breakeven assuming constant difficulty and current exchange rate levels.<p>---<p><i>> Please note: the satoshis you mine provide a source of readily-available bitcoin for application development, but are not intended to be used for investment purposes.</i><p>I wonder if they included this disclaimer because the 21 Bitcoin computer will never generate a profit, or because of some other legal barrier? Either way, they should stick "NOT AN EFFICIENT MINING DEVICE, SOLELY FOR DEVELOPMENT PURPOSES" at the top of their description instead of dancing around the issue, making it seem like they're hoping to lure naive miners into purchasing the device.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.alcula.com/calculators/finance/bitcoin-mining/" rel="nofollow">http://www.alcula.com/calculators/finance/bitcoin-mining/</a>
I Googled cloud mining and found <a href="https://www.genesis-mining.com/pricing" rel="nofollow">https://www.genesis-mining.com/pricing</a> this page where I can buy 50 GH/s in the cloud for $22.49. Why would I want this local for 18 times the price?
I fail to see why embedding bitcoin inside hardware is a smart idea, especially given that most of the world are moving towards mobile devices where battery life and storage are super important.<p>I can see this would make payments more decentralized, but how much do regular users or developers care about decentralized systems? Most of the world depends on highly centralized systems, including the decentralized protocols such as email or the Internet itself.
They should remove bullshit claims like "provides you with a constant stream of Bitcoins". People might actually think that this is a miner, which it really isn't. It is the equivalent of digging for gold with a rusty spoon. You could spend 10 times less on an exchange and that would provide you with a bigger "stream of Bitcoins" than what this thing could make in a year.
This company has <i>121 MILLION</i> in funding [1]. Can this possibly be true? Why would I need my refrigerator to mine bitcoin?<p>[1] <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/21e6#/entity" rel="nofollow">https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/21e6#/entity</a>
What is the point of this? If they want to get merchants started, offer a "starter kit" download. If they want to offer a miner, this thing would take 15.6 years minimum to pay for itself.
So, yeah, this product is a bit confusing until you realize it's just meant to be for application development. The whole idea is to build services that people will pay you for, that are served off of your personal 21.co machine, that or to purchase the services that are being offered. The mining bit is just meant to give you a small stream of bitcoin to mess around with.<p>This could all be done with your own server or whatever, the 21.co machine just makes setup easier.
None of my BTC friends understand who this product is for.<p>You can develop for Bitcoin either by a) using chain.com or blockchain.info or b) by installing Bitcoin on your computer and waiting for the blockchain to sync.<p>Can anyone explain why one would want this?
> <i>Developers use it to build bitcoin-payable apps and services.</i><p>I'm confused as to what problem this is actually solving. I thought I could build bitcoin-payable apps using my laptop?
I like how the price and CPU power, the two most important aspects of a Bitcoin miner, are not listed anywhere on the page, forcing a click to the Amazon page where customers are likely to be disappointed.<p>"Growth hacking" has become very annoying lately.
Very flashy but overall bad web design. What should be on the frontpage as the first thing the user sees is hidden, three actions away:<p><a href="https://21.co/learn/21-mining/#redecentralizing-bitcoin-with-distributed-mining" rel="nofollow">https://21.co/learn/21-mining/#redecentralizing-bitcoin-with...</a><p>------<p>Regarding the product. I don't see why developers need to develop using actual bitcoins so I don't buy that spiel. There's alternative testing blockchains for a reason.<p>It seems to me like they are simply trying to become one of the dominant mining pool players. I don't see how they increase mining pool decentralization. All other mining devices are not tied to one mining pool. Their's is.