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"Data" doesn't make (much) heat. Data processing might. Calculation certainly does. I heat some of my house with cryptocurrency miners (which are not cost-effe

"Data" doesn't make (much) heat. Data processing might. Calculation certainly does. I heat some of my house with cryptocurrency miners (which are not cost-effective to run during warm months, but in the winter are as effective as space heaters, and slightly offset their cost to operate with cryptocurrency returns). If there were a service that provided computation for a few and paid people with big GPUs to run it, that'd be really cool. I'd like for my computers to be doing something a bit more useful to the world than "proof-of-work" for a handful of also-ran cryptocurrencies. (I also have some Bitcoin ASICs, but they produce so little revenue that I don't run them anymore, even in the winter.)

lutorm 12y ago
Do the miners also offset their investment cost? It seems that, depending on how expensive they are, it may be a better solution to just run the space heater.
- SwellJoe 12y ago
  Did mine? Pretty close to it, at least when Bitcoin was high. Would they today? Certainly not. I bought my ASICs and within a couple of months had recouped about 80% of the cost, and probably another 5% in the following couple of months before I turned them off due to heat. The GPU miners continued to make a reasonable amount of money by using currency hopping pools. But, they probably reached only about 65% of being recouped. Now, it would take a couple of winters to make another 5% back (but, since I'd be running heaters anyway, it might still work out OK...or, I may still be better off selling the GPUs, since they are still roughly current generation technology (I have a mix of R270, R280, and R290). I bought before the demand drove prices up, but still it was a pretty big chunk of change compared to the four or five space heaters they could replace. I certainly don't recommend mining. I got involved partly for the experience, as I was writing a novel that included Bitcoin oriented stuff, and partly for the GPU (I wanted a better gaming system anyway, so one 290 was getting purchased, no matter what), and partly for the gold rush (knowing it was probably a poor investment). But, it seems like there ought to be a system that pays people for their GPU cycles. Though what they'd be doing is up in the air. I can't think of much that doesn't also require fast communication. Folding@Home and SETI@Home are cool, but don't pay, which is unfortunate, since I don't run these things without something offsetting the electrical cost.
X-combinator 12y ago
I personally think this whole concept is amazing. Especially for big data companies, like Google.

lutorm 12y ago

Do the miners also offset their investment cost? It seems that, depending on how expensive they are, it may be a better solution to just run the space heater.

SwellJoe 12y ago
Did mine? Pretty close to it, at least when Bitcoin was high. Would they today? Certainly not. I bought my ASICs and within a couple of months had recouped about 80% of the cost, and probably another 5% in the following couple of months before I turned them off due to heat. The GPU miners continued to make a reasonable amount of money by using currency hopping pools. But, they probably reached only about 65% of being recouped. Now, it would take a couple of winters to make another 5% back (but, since I'd be running heaters anyway, it might still work out OK...or, I may still be better off selling the GPUs, since they are still roughly current generation technology (I have a mix of R270, R280, and R290). I bought before the demand drove prices up, but still it was a pretty big chunk of change compared to the four or five space heaters they could replace. I certainly don't recommend mining. I got involved partly for the experience, as I was writing a novel that included Bitcoin oriented stuff, and partly for the GPU (I wanted a better gaming system anyway, so one 290 was getting purchased, no matter what), and partly for the gold rush (knowing it was probably a poor investment). But, it seems like there ought to be a system that pays people for their GPU cycles. Though what they'd be doing is up in the air. I can't think of much that doesn't also require fast communication. Folding@Home and SETI@Home are cool, but don't pay, which is unfortunate, since I don't run these things without something offsetting the electrical cost.

X-combinator 12y ago

I personally think this whole concept is amazing. Especially for big data companies, like Google.