> If bitcoin flops, all of this effort will have been expended for no net benefit to society. That's not fair, Bitcoin has the potential to offer vast benefits

> If bitcoin flops, all of this effort will have been expended for no net benefit to society. That's not fair, Bitcoin has the potential to offer vast benefits to society on a world wide level. Why are we worried about repurposing hardware in this context if it fails? At the moment it hangs in the balance, if it does fail it's not been all for nothing, it's got people thinking talking and acting on big issues. If the cost of this is some usless computers then so be it, a very small cost to pay. It would suck if it this stuff can't be repurposed but in the wider context it's totally irrelevant. Failure and no benefit to society is not a strong relationship.