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Show HN: RentMyCPU – An open-source computational network

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Re: Show HN: RentMyCPU – An open-source computational network

#3

Post by spicybright »

Just some observations:

- I don't have any info on how this works from the repo. 99% of people will click on the repo and click back because of the lack of this. I went on google and found a [this](https://sideprojects.net/posts/NB697xnBrWQioywoP/rentmycpu-r...) link, but still no information.

- How are payments processed? Do you need to trust the other party a good amount? As a cpu cycle seller, how do I know I'll get money for time I process? How does a cpu buyer know they aren't getting scammed?

- How are computations done? If I have to re-write my existing software to leverage this, I might as well rent a VPS to save a lot of time.

- Do I need to select user by user at a granular level to run my tasks, or can I just throw a task + $ at a pool and have the system figure it out?

I love the idea though, it's really been a bit of a pipe dream for the past 20 or so years. It's just a very tough problem to execute correctly. Best of luck.

Re: Show HN: RentMyCPU – An open-source computational network

#7

Post by throwawaypls »

spicybright wrote: post #3

Just some observations: - I don't have any info on how this works from the repo. 99% of people will click on the repo and click back because of the lack of this. I went on google and found a [this]( https://sideprojects.net/posts/NB697xnBrWQioywoP/rentmycpu-r... ) link, but still no information. - How are payments processed? Do you need to trust the other party a good amount? As a cpu cycle seller, how do I know I'll…

Don’t want to be cynical (and appreciate your more constructive feedback), but i’m surprised by the kind of stuff that makes up to the front page these days.

Re: Show HN: RentMyCPU – An open-source computational network

#10

Post by geocrasher »

In 2007 when distributed computing was still a New Kid On The Block, I shared an idea with a colleague for what I considered to be a good idea at the time:

Distributed computing for hire.

Families around the world have reasonable amounts of computing power that sits mostly unused; why not make a few bucks doing things similar to Folding@Home Seti@Home, but for a price? Get paid for your computations.

Of course this was before Bitcoin was a thing, and looking back, it feels naïve to have thought it could be successful. I certainly lacked the expertise to build such a thing. But I wasn't the only one thinking of it. Others tried it and appear to have failed. From 2011:

Ask HN: Is there a paid Distributed Computing service? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2499466

These days I'd be concerned to run somebody else's workload on my own equipment, lest the FBI/CIA/KGB/FSB/Interpol/SecretService/GRU show up at my door.

Still, an interesting thought especially given how powerful so many devices have become.

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