You're correct about the existing hardware not being useful. I don't think the bitcoin ASIC research is generally applicable to other fields. This came up on t

You're correct about the existing hardware not being useful. I don't think the bitcoin ASIC research is generally applicable to other fields. This came up on the bitcoin Stack Exchange: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/10421/are-bitcoin-asics-good-for-anything-else-other-than-mining http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/10421/are-bitcoin...