Sealed-bid silent auction: 1.1 MILLION GHz-days of credit!

[PhilF]

This has to be the strangest thread I have ever read on these forums, lol. Is this even real?

[kriesel]

All cpu credit is bought. Some by the participant, some by Google or other free-to-the-user cloud computing offerings as marketing methods, and in some cases by mom and dad paying the utility bill.
1.1M is about an RTX2080-Super-year. That's about a $230 utility bill here.
But since this is trading, not PRODUCING, advancing the goals of the project, these credits ought not count in top PRODUCER standings, or the purchaser be omitted entirely from those listings.

[retina]

Originally Posted by kriesel

All cpu credit is bought. Some by the participant, some by Google or other free-to-the-user cloud computing offerings as marketing methods, and in some cases by mom and dad paying the utility bill.

That is different. At least the work is being done. If you can convince your Mom, or Google, or whoever to pay for the electricity then more power to you. Just make sure you do the actual work.

[axn]

Originally Posted by kriesel

All cpu credit is bought.

You've defined the word "bought" to be so broad as to be practically useless.

That some money is spent in earning the credits doesn't make them "bought". Your typical cruncher selects their hardware, chooses to run GIMPS, selects a work type (maybe), goes crunching, obsesses over the top producer report (maybe), participates in the community (maybe), and most importantly, persists in running GIMPS.

You've just trivialized all the time, effort and perseverance people put into this hobby with that comment. Even if you didn't mean it like that, that's what it comes across as.

[kriesel]

I think we may be in vigorous agreement here. I view purchased credit, versus earned credit through persistent application of various talents, for a solid year or more, about the same as buying a Super Bowl ring at a pawn shop versus earning the achievement award through years of preparation and hard work. Re-read post 13 in its entirety. "...this is trading, not PRODUCING"
That's why my entry in the poll is <$10. Zero is <$10. There is no honor in purchasing tokens of honors earned by others."It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...elts-man-arena

There is no shortage of critics in this endeavor. Those truly in the arena are few. There are perhaps 3 to 10 top programmers active in the past year, out of all the thousands of participants; a smattering of script writers, how-to authors, and software testers.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

That sounds really complicated. We were thinking people would just bid privately and the highest bid wins. (Maybe our understanding of a silent auction is wrong?)

What you are talking about is a "sealed bid" auction.
https://www.redappleauctions.com/sea...ilent-auction/
As opposed to a "silent" auction (no one calling for bids.)
https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-silent-auction.htm

[Xyzzy]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

What you are talking about is a "sealed bid" auction.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

As opposed to a "silent" auction (no one calling for bids.)
https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-silent-auction.htm

One sequential-bid-sheet is used per item in silent auction at my family reunion, showing all bids. It's nice to be able to see who's interested in what and consider whether the current high bidder is a particularly good choice for that particular item of family memorabilia. The auction proceeds pay the cost of the reunion. Items reappear regularly and circulate around the extended family over several years.

[The Carnivore]

Where does the credit come from? Was there any actual CPU or GPU work involved in that credit, or are we simply adjusting the stats page to make the winning bidder have a higher rank? If it's the former, who did the actual work? If it's the latter, will there be an asterisk or anything indicating that those GHz-days do not reflect any actual work that was done?

To simplify things, let's say that there's no P-1, trial factoring, ECM, or double-checking work, just first-time LL tests. Now suppose that all exponents below 90M have been tested, while none of the exponents above 90M have been tested. If I were to contribute 1.1 million GHz-days of work, that 90M limit would go up to, say, 91M. But if I were to buy the 1.1 million GHz-days of credit instead, would the testing limit still go up to 91M, or would it stay at 90M?

To put it another way, suppose that the winning bidder is a widget-manufacturing company that claims to have self-produced 1 million widgets last year and 2.1 million widgets this year. Is the scenario:

A.) The company's actual production remained at 1 million widgets, but it obtained an additional 1.1 million widgets from someone else.

Or -

B.) The company's actual production remained at 1 million widgets. It did not obtain an additional 1.1 million widgets from anyone else, but it fraudulently claims to have made 2.1 million widgets to inflate its stock price.

edit: One more thing - is this expected to be a one-time auction, or will there be other similar auctions in the future?

[Prime95]

Originally Posted by The Carnivore

edit: One more thing - is this expected to be a one-time auction, or will there be other similar auctions in the future?

This is a one-time lark, for the amusement of us all. The credits were earned by an actual user that no longer wants them / wants to donate them to charity.

P.S. I do not have available the breakdown of credits by year or by work type. Thus, the impact in the Top 500standings over the last 365 days is a mystery.

[The Carnivore]

Originally Posted by Prime95

This is a one-time lark, for the amusement of us all. The credits were earned by an actual user that no longer wants them / wants to donate them to charity.

P.S. I do not have available the breakdown of credits by year or by work type. Thus, the impact in the Top 500standings over the last 365 days is a mystery.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm guessing the winning bid will be $220 - one dollar for each 5000 GHz-days of credit.