Haven't seen a line like this for a product launch probably ever. I've seen lines this big like, 30 minutes before one releases. But never 8 hours beforehand.

    • Rem [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Right, people are using them to do puzzles that make bitcoins or whatever, someone tried explaining this to me once

      • SerLava [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Somebody contrived a type of math problem that can only be done by a computer chugging for like, fucking months. Doesn't really matter how that works. Once a specific computer solves one of these math problems, it's easy to verify that they're not lying, and actually solved it. So this big network of computers owned by Captain Planet villains declares that this person's account has +1 bit coin.

        These bit coins are arbitrarily valued at a bunch of money. The high value is because people are excited about money laundering, and also price speculation.

        That's pretty much all the important details.

        • Lovely_sombrero [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          The high value is because people are excited about money laundering, and also price speculation.

          And because people spent a lot of money mining for that Bitcoin, so the feel like they are entitled to a relatively large sum of stinky fiat currency in exchange for it.