We answer your Mining questions, and face reality: difficulty is up, ASICs are hitting the market, and it’s getting hot outside. Should you still mine bitcoin?

Plus the surge in alternative crypto-currencies, ESEA League\’s DRM slips in a bitcoin miner, new regulators looking at bitcoin, and a Bitcoin health check.

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— Discussion —

• E-Sports League Mined Bitcoins with Subscribers\’ Computers [UPDATE]

ESEA League, one of the largest PC gaming leagues, has admitted to putting code into the league\’s client software to \”mine\” bitcoins

• U.S. Regulators Eyes To Take Control Of Bitcoin | BTCPedia

The U.S. CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) considering whether the digital currency falls under their supervision. The alternative currency is \”certainly something we need to investigate,\” said CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton to the Financial Times.

• Futures contract

Regulate Bitcoin? https://i.imgur.com/g3CiTx3.png

• Massive Bitcoin Business Partnership Devolves Into $75 Million Lawsuit

Gawker has learned that a much-hailed partnership between two of the most prominent players in Bitcoin, Mt. Gox and CoinLab, has devolved into a nasty $75 million lawsuit, which appears to be by far the biggest Bitcoin-related lawsuit ever.

• IAAL: Why the CoinLab v. Mt. Gox lawsuit is ho-hum

First, it\’s just a lawsuit. Thousands are filed every day. Breathe. From the complaint, it looks like CoinLab had an agreement with Mt. Gox. CoinLab probably paid a pretty penny (er, satoshi) for that agreement. CoinLab is now alleging that Mt. Gox is not holding up its end of the bargain. What would you do in this situation?

Health Check

• $1 billion in bitcoin was traded in April—16 times the previous record

In April, $1 billion worth of bitcoins was traded across all exchanges, according to an aside in the complaint bitcoin startup Coinlab just filed against the world\’s largest bitcoin exchange, Mt.Gox. Just a month prior, only $60 million in bitcoin was traded, estimates Jeremy Liew, a managing director at Lightspeed Venture Partners.

• Coinbase Now Processing $15M Per Month In Bitcoin Buys and Sells

Back in February we announced that over $1M USD worth of bitcoin was being bought and sold each month on Coinbase.

Here we are a little less than 3 months later and we\’re now doing $15M USD per month of bitcoin buys and sells.

• Bitcoin Client Downloads in China surge: Download Statistic

• Kashmir Hill – Lives on Bitcoin for a Week

Mine or Not to Mine?

• Hardware Picks Chris’ Uses:
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  [asa]B000RGF29Q[/asa]

• Digital Drills: The Monster Machines that Mine Bitcoin

What started as a pastime any computer could dabble in has spurred the evolution of truly ridiculous powerhouse Bitcoin mining rigs. Meet the monster machines more powerful than everything you\’ve ever owned, combined. By a factor of thousands.

• My Mining MANshop! in the attic.

• Darrall Proves Where there is a Will There is a Miner

Good Resources

• Mining hardware comparison · litecoin

• Bitcoin Mining Calculator

• Bitcoin mining profitability calculator | Bitcoinx

• Comparison of mining pools – Bitcoin

• 50miner – Bitcoin Miner

• P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor

• Electrum Bitcoin Client

• burnside\’s Litecoin Mining Pool (LTC) – LTC Mining Calculator

• Future:

• [Announcement] Block Erupter USB

• Bitcoin Mining Hardware | Bitcoinx

• How to Buy ASICMiner Shares

• Litecoin Mining Pool Comparison

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