The amount of the existing Bitcoins is limited by the inventor Satoshi Nakamoto and it is a rule that cannot be changed. The only way to succeed and to gain more than the competitors is to continue mining - faster, safer and easier that everybody else. In the beginning of the coin history, approximately during the first 2-3 years of the existence of the value, it was easier to find a new block of coins, to solve the task offered by the open source software and to gain a particle of the overall wealth. As almost the half of the coins was mined during 5 years, the second part might be extracted not earlier than in a century or even longer. The process gets slower, but to be on time the speed has to increase thanks to progressive capacities of the hardware.
The desktop machines do not provide sufficient power to miners. It is possible to get a block of coins, but it requires long operation hours and huge amounts of electricity. The aim is to make the process not just faster, but also greener and more compact, due to reduced sizes of software. The new bi•fury 5GH USB ASIC developed by group of inventors from Poland is of a size of a household battery, but has the power of a big server.
The idea is introduced by Filip Pawczy?ski, an engineer and co-founder of the company FPITM. The pocket USB hardware was presented in early November of 2013, but as time has passed by, it is rather interesting to look back on the success and its reasons. Filip describes himself as an enthusiast of the cryptographic world being fond of the idea of virtual currencies. Together with some other specialists from Poland they form the so called “Cryptopol”. The organization sets up many tasks, but the most interesting is the one that occupies all of the time - the USB ASIC Bitcoin Miner. The project was launched in summer, and less than in a half of the year they succeeded in producing a device with the speed of 5 Gh/s. As the task is almost completed, some additions and extensions might be applied, the initial goal is left – the popularization of the Bitcoin on the local financial market, to provide education and sometimes advertising. However, the process of promotion is going very slow, but in 2014 more people will be engaged in this important work.
Mr. Pawczy?ski sees potential in the coin in Poland. He personally knows many users and statistics prove that many wallets are established by local people. The most of the activists are IT and economic science students and graduates – about 60%. This major group is working towards the development of the environment, but the rest is happy to use the features already provided by the network. He was an observer very long too. He knew about the currency, but only his friend Sebastian was able to wake up his interest. After watching a promotional video on the Internet he sparked up with many ideas he is now working on.
He explains that earlier engagement from him was impossible due to personal reasons. Everyday routine, family and regular work need time; it is hard to switch to something without earlier developments, support and experience. Fillip explains his final decision by the perspective of the coin.
“Bitcoin has many useful and logical rules; they can easily improve our financial behaviors and make it more healthy for us users.”
He does not support the idea of emitting more money due to some financial complications of a country or union. It is better for a currency to work under strict rules that cannot be changed by will, decision or even actions. The basics are strong enough to withstand any kind of pressure from the authorities.
It seems to be right for many people around the world. The interest for the device seems to be extraordinary. The bi•fury 5GH USB ASIC could not be preordered and it has increased slightly the overall price. The company already had bad experience with preorders, so the feature was cancelled. Some people have voiced negative comments on the situation, but still the demand was very big. The units have travelled to many countries - Malaysia, China, Japan, South Korea, USA, Australia, Russia, Argentina. The most popular destination in EU became Germany, because of friendly policy and a god level of education on virtual moneys.
Filip Pawczy?ski happily concludes:
“Since the beginning of Bitcoin it was impossible to stop it. And we are only at the half of the first phase now.”