Tom's Hardware will soon have (yet another) article on the subject. Back in the day it was lucrative, but this comment from latest nVidia 770 review maybe explains current situation well:

"I can tell you a story about how a pair of 7970s at 1070 MHz mining 24/7 only make 0.03 BTC/day and dwindling.... so yeah... the GPU gold rush is over. 7970s will no longer pay for themselves in any appreciable way with BTC mining."

Heh yeah that's a given...But I feel that the private gun and ammo reserves will be long depleted by the time few million of us are left standing.

That's why the most cost effective gpus are still the 5870.

and 1 bitcoin = 130 dollars. Gaining that in about 3 months (on average) without actually having to do nothing.... thats a good business to me.

So there is two side to using Bitcoin if I understand.

One is simply using it, so you can have a completely private and untraceable transaction.

The other is mining, but it require to have a powerful gpu that is constantly running just to get a one bitcoin ($130) in a month. So I don't really understand the point of mining unless there are dedicated machines or configurations that are worth the investment on a short/middle term.

the transactions are always traceable... And the best method to ge tmoney out of bitcoins is to set up a website that organizes pools.

Is there any real use for silver after a World War? I'd rather stock up on canned food, medicine, water and tools for trading. I doubt silver will be essential for surviving, thus it won't be worth shit after the downfall of our civilization.

The transactions are traceable? So what's the point in using Bitcoin with say, Silk Road ?

All that stuff is usefull yes, but it has a limited shelf life. I don't see a world war being done in a year or two... In a complete colapse of civilization, you're technically right. A bag of flower will be worth more than a bag of gold. However a more realistic scenario would be a little less dramatic .

Some sort of economic system and power hierarchy would probably exist, and that would allow precious metals to remain precous.

So yeah...23 dollars per ounce...may save your life down the road. :)

I'm a professional Litecoin miner. BTC is careening towards ASICs, especially given the ~25% difficulty retarget this time around.

For those that don't know, there are application-specific integrated circuits that are about 30x more efficient per dollar and watt than a GPU. That is why you can't mine many BTC with a good card. This is also why people are going over to Litecoin for GPU mining.

Is just way easier to get a job, then get some education and then get a better job. The only thing of worth in the future will be gold, bullets and gasoline.