31–40 of 419 posts
Future humans will wonder why humanity wasted so much valuable time, effort and real for no reason.
Bitcoin mining is still wastes half of the electricity of dormant (plugged in but unused) electrical devices in the US -- it's bad but we do other things that are worse
I wonder if we could make it even better and make smart heaters that instead of wasting calculations actually do something useful, something like folding proteins or some other computing load that doesn't require huge network load and can be easily distributed (something like SETI@home but actually useful). In densely populated cities we could bury huge datacenters underground and use that energy for heating directly…
Welcome to Qarnot. https://qarnot.com/en/the-radiator-computer/
... which are what, exactly?
I wonder if we could make it even better and make smart heaters that instead of wasting calculations actually do something useful, something like folding proteins or some other computing load that doesn't require huge network load and can be easily distributed (something like SETI@home but actually useful). In densely populated cities we could bury huge datacenters underground and use that energy for heating directly…
I understand your point but it does gloss over the fact that the calculations are useful to the bitcoin network in terms of security.
The issue is building consensus protocol (in this case consensus that a transaction happened or did not happen).
There exist no physics law that says that achieving this requires burning extraordinary amounts of energy.
Years ago when mining with a single gaming card was more common and viable, I lived in a rented room in a house owned by a live-in landlord who controlled the heating, and wouldn't turn it on for very long in the winter. Since electricity was included in my (fixed) rent, I was able to keep my room a few degrees higher than the rest of the house. However I must point out that you shouldn't do this in most circumstance…
But I'm also thinking, maybe actually this is for the better? (Not only for the stingy landlord, but for the environment).
I mean, even if a heat pump is much better than an electric heater... Having to heat up only the rooms that need it, instead of kitchen, bathrooms, living room (plus the rooms of other flatmates who might not be bothered) might actually use up less energy total, than using a more efficient mechanism, which otoh would be used for the whole home.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He is using a heat pump, he is using the excess heat of the miners to pre-warm air used by the heat pump to heat his house. The miners offset some of the cost of the heat pump and pay for their own electricity use.
I think he is wrong when he calls his ventilation system a heat pump. The point of the heat pump is to pump the heat from outside.
https://www.jerrykelly.com/blog/how-does-a-heat-pump-work-in...
So this is a heat pump, it its taking heat from outside air, its just that in this case the outside air is first primed by running it via some cryptominers, which makes the heat pump work more efficiently.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first sentence in the second paragraph explains that the author has a heat pump and what it does for them. The article then goes on to explain where the miners fit in.
He also says he doesn't actually have a real heat pump setup because it's too expensive.
Years ago when mining with a single gaming card was more common and viable, I lived in a rented room in a house owned by a live-in landlord who controlled the heating, and wouldn't turn it on for very long in the winter. Since electricity was included in my (fixed) rent, I was able to keep my room a few degrees higher than the rest of the house. However I must point out that you shouldn't do this in most circumstance…
What aspect do you think could be friendlier to the environment? Rare metals and production emissions in high tech electronics? Or the fact that it's using electricity (as opposed to more isolation)?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Welcome to Qarnot. https://qarnot.com/en/the-radiator-computer/
> The computing-heater warms buildings ecologically and for free, thanks to the waste heat released by embedded microprocessors. By performing complex IT operations... ... which are what, exactly?
Edit: Dug around some more, looks like they're building a BOINC-like service? https://computing.qarnot.com/en/
I wonder if we could make it even better and make smart heaters that instead of wasting calculations actually do something useful, something like folding proteins or some other computing load that doesn't require huge network load and can be easily distributed (something like SETI@home but actually useful). In densely populated cities we could bury huge datacenters underground and use that energy for heating directly…
Interesting idea to combine it with larger heating than to heat a room or two. Many will probably argue that it is an ineffective way to create heat without also looking at the benefits from the work done