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Ask HN: Has anyone created a bitcoin mining env. in MS Azure

6 points by caruana 13y ago

caruana 13y ago
Really, no one?
- fuj 13y ago
  ...Read the previous answers. It is simply not profitable. CPU mining is not profitable at all, GPU mining is almost if not already unprofitable. Even most ASICs can't break even like trafficlight said.
joshstrange 13y ago
IIRC that would all be CPU-based which is considered obsolete in the BTC mining world. GPU's are on their way out as well I think with ASIC's taking their place.
- trafficlight 13y ago
  I don't think most ASICs can break even at this point, the difficulty has shot up dramatically over the last 3 or 4 months.
Avalaxy 13y ago
I'm doing this. Not Bitcoins, but Litecoins because mining bitcoins wouldn't be profitable at all. I'm running 7 XS (single core) Windows Virtual Machines that run CPUMiner (or minerd). They produce around 3.6 KHash/s per server, which is very low, but Azure servers don't have a GPU so we can't run GPU-based miners like cgminer. Here's a picture of the running servers: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1415530_763464910345604_1829192798_o.jpg https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/14155... Doing this is not profitable at all, unless you have free credits. I have a free MSDN Ultimate subscription that has $150 worth of Azure credits every month. Since I'm only running a very small and simple website, I have spare resources that I could spend on litecoin mining. This can hopefully produce around 1 LTC per month. Yesterday I stopped running minerd on 2 of my servers and dedicated them to BOINC (cancer mapping). Ripple Labs will give you free Ripples (XRP) for donated computing power: https://www.computingforgood.org/ https://www.computingforgood.org/ If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
- kr4 13y ago
  Look like if you build some web app and have it run for one or more customers, it'd be more profitable; that's what I'm doing with my free msdn ultimate. (passively pocketing at least $300 per month) and another customer is just around the corner which may tripple it. Though, finding such ideas/customers is exponentially harder than installing mining software.
  - Avalaxy 13y ago
    Yea of course, but I'm already busy with 3 different projects and none of them will use Azure any time soon (actually 1 will, but I'll get a new bizspark for that). Al my credits were just wasted on idling servers...
ariejan 13y ago
CPU-Based BitCoin mining hasn't been profitable for a long time. After the introduction of ASIC-miners, difficulty has shot up and only made CPU mining more useless.

6 points by caruana 13y ago

caruana 13y ago

Really, no one?

fuj 13y ago
...Read the previous answers. It is simply not profitable. CPU mining is not profitable at all, GPU mining is almost if not already unprofitable. Even most ASICs can't break even like trafficlight said.

joshstrange 13y ago

IIRC that would all be CPU-based which is considered obsolete in the BTC mining world. GPU's are on their way out as well I think with ASIC's taking their place.

trafficlight 13y ago
I don't think most ASICs can break even at this point, the difficulty has shot up dramatically over the last 3 or 4 months.

Avalaxy 13y ago

I'm doing this. Not Bitcoins, but Litecoins because mining bitcoins wouldn't be profitable at all. I'm running 7 XS (single core) Windows Virtual Machines that run CPUMiner (or minerd). They produce around 3.6 KHash/s per server, which is very low, but Azure servers don't have a GPU so we can't run GPU-based miners like cgminer. Here's a picture of the running servers: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1415530_763464910345604_1829192798_o.jpg https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/14155... Doing this is not profitable at all, unless you have free credits. I have a free MSDN Ultimate subscription that has $150 worth of Azure credits every month. Since I'm only running a very small and simple website, I have spare resources that I could spend on litecoin mining. This can hopefully produce around 1 LTC per month. Yesterday I stopped running minerd on 2 of my servers and dedicated them to BOINC (cancer mapping). Ripple Labs will give you free Ripples (XRP) for donated computing power: https://www.computingforgood.org/ https://www.computingforgood.org/ If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

kr4 13y ago
Look like if you build some web app and have it run for one or more customers, it'd be more profitable; that's what I'm doing with my free msdn ultimate. (passively pocketing at least $300 per month) and another customer is just around the corner which may tripple it. Though, finding such ideas/customers is exponentially harder than installing mining software.
- Avalaxy 13y ago
  Yea of course, but I'm already busy with 3 different projects and none of them will use Azure any time soon (actually 1 will, but I'll get a new bizspark for that). Al my credits were just wasted on idling servers...

ariejan 13y ago

CPU-Based BitCoin mining hasn't been profitable for a long time. After the introduction of ASIC-miners, difficulty has shot up and only made CPU mining more useless.