The business world has had an increased interest for the last 50 years in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The concept is not necessarily new, as companies undertake social initiatives for centuries. However, as customers are no longer buying just a product, but rather a brand, companies have to make sure that consumers want to be a part of their brand. CSR refers to the company’s sense of responsibility towards the community and the environment in which it operates. Companies are accountable not only to shareholders, but also to employees, consumers, suppliers, local communities and society.
Butterfly Labs is one of the companies that sell ASIC-based Bitcoin miners, machines that compute SHA-256 very quickly. The smallest, ‘Jalapeño’, computes 5 GH/s which is about 5 billion hashes per second, its price being $274. The prices for larger ones (500 GH/s) can even go as high as $22, 484.
The evolution of human administration and knowledge from the hunter gatherers and band societies of 10,000 years ago to today’s interconnected human society is fascinating. One of the most important steps in modern human society progress was the uptake of the manned spaceflight.
Google launched in the autumn of 2009 a new resource page called “Internet Stats” which “brings together the latest industry facts and insights” (Google Internet Stats, 2010).
