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Hmm I wonder if users of "free apps" that currently show us advertisements would accept bitcoin-mining by the app instead of ad-display as a revenue stream. I

Hmm I wonder if users of "free apps" that currently show us advertisements would accept bitcoin-mining by the app instead of ad-display as a revenue stream. I guess the issue would be that mining bitcoins takes a bunch of CPU resources and would thus actually cost "money" for the user in the form of an electricity bill

zeidrich 13y ago
Running a free app takes CPU resources and costs money in the form of electricity bills too. It's something that I'm sure users would be willing to do if it were advertised and well implemented.
- gohrt 13y ago
  It would be cheaper for users to... actually pay for the product... then to burn electricity for bitcoins. (I will never be rich, because I implicitly assume the consumer market is populated with people of basic numeracy and logic skills....)
  - icebraining 13y ago
    That depends on who pays for the bill. I can see employees abusing their companies' electricity, or students in schools, etc.
  - phyalow 13y ago
    >I implicitly assume the consumer market is populated with people of basic numeracy and logic skills. Hehe. Nice to see at least some people have faith in humanity.
citricsquid 13y ago
Doubtful this would work long term, as the difficulty rises it will become worth much less than advertising. People are already preparing to lose money on their investments in dedicated mining hardware, consumer hardware is not going to be able to generate more than a few pennies even with significant usage in a few months.
pdog 13y ago
CPU and GPU mining are pretty much useless at this point. ASIC mining is where it's at.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  I thought that was true for individual mining, but aren't large pools still filled with lots of CPUs tied together with BOINC or similar? I thought I read something along those lines a few months ago (a long time ago, I know), but I'm only vaguely recalling that.
  - rallison 13y ago
    Yes, there are still lots of pools - https://www.btcguild.com/ https://www.btcguild.com/ https://mining.bitcoin.cz/ https://mining.bitcoin.cz/ etc. While CPU mining is basically useless, GPU mining is still popular and still profitable for many (given current bitcoin prices). That said, as more ASICs start coming online, GPU mining will become less and less profitable.
  - TylerE 13y ago
    No, not really. To give you an idea, a fast i7 mining on all cores is about 15 Mhash/sec. A single ASIC miner can be 100,000-500,000Mhash. You would literally need 20,000+ CPU miners to equal a single asic miner.
    - celticninja 13y ago
      or 22 x i7 cpus just to match a USB ASIC doing 335Mhash/sec - they currently retail at 1BTC so anywhere between £45 and £57 - whereas 22 x i7 will be approx £5500 (at £250 a piece).
Aldo_MX 13y ago
I think it's more profitable to install Google Chrome or the Ask Toolbar, even "reputable companies" have fallen to the dark side :/

zeidrich 13y ago

Running a free app takes CPU resources and costs money in the form of electricity bills too. It's something that I'm sure users would be willing to do if it were advertised and well implemented.

gohrt 13y ago
It would be cheaper for users to... actually pay for the product... then to burn electricity for bitcoins. (I will never be rich, because I implicitly assume the consumer market is populated with people of basic numeracy and logic skills....)
- icebraining 13y ago
  That depends on who pays for the bill. I can see employees abusing their companies' electricity, or students in schools, etc.
- phyalow 13y ago
  >I implicitly assume the consumer market is populated with people of basic numeracy and logic skills. Hehe. Nice to see at least some people have faith in humanity.

citricsquid 13y ago

Doubtful this would work long term, as the difficulty rises it will become worth much less than advertising. People are already preparing to lose money on their investments in dedicated mining hardware, consumer hardware is not going to be able to generate more than a few pennies even with significant usage in a few months.

pdog 13y ago

CPU and GPU mining are pretty much useless at this point. ASIC mining is where it's at.

jlgreco 13y ago
I thought that was true for individual mining, but aren't large pools still filled with lots of CPUs tied together with BOINC or similar? I thought I read something along those lines a few months ago (a long time ago, I know), but I'm only vaguely recalling that.
- rallison 13y ago
  Yes, there are still lots of pools - https://www.btcguild.com/ https://www.btcguild.com/ https://mining.bitcoin.cz/ https://mining.bitcoin.cz/ etc. While CPU mining is basically useless, GPU mining is still popular and still profitable for many (given current bitcoin prices). That said, as more ASICs start coming online, GPU mining will become less and less profitable.
- TylerE 13y ago
  No, not really. To give you an idea, a fast i7 mining on all cores is about 15 Mhash/sec. A single ASIC miner can be 100,000-500,000Mhash. You would literally need 20,000+ CPU miners to equal a single asic miner.
  - celticninja 13y ago
    or 22 x i7 cpus just to match a USB ASIC doing 335Mhash/sec - they currently retail at 1BTC so anywhere between £45 and £57 - whereas 22 x i7 will be approx £5500 (at £250 a piece).

Aldo_MX 13y ago

I think it's more profitable to install Google Chrome or the Ask Toolbar, even "reputable companies" have fallen to the dark side :/