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I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

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Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#361

Post by lunatuna »

gkfasdfasdf wrote: post #279
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #49

I did this in an apartment I lived in years ago, and do it now in my house. My computer room in the house is the lowest point in the house, so naturally, it tends to be a couple degrees cooler than the upstairs. This means that if I set the thermostat so that the computer room is comfortable, the bedroom is too warm. If I run the house circulation fan constantly, it's not an issue, but that consumes a decent amount o…

I would really like to try NiceHash, but the fact that I have to add it as an exception to Windows Defender antivirus, and that one of the founders has previously been convicted [0] and served time for writing botnet malware, really gives me pause. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NiceHash

I'll take a bit of your NiceHash and add some water [0] to that and make you something tasty. A bit more turnkey and a middleman if you don't mind.

[0]: https://www.753.plus/

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#362

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

gkfasdfasdf wrote: post #355
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows Defender flags all crypto miners. It is not unique to NiceHash. You don't have to add an exception for the whole NiceHash directory for it to work, but it makes it easier. NiceHash updates the miners occasionally, and if you don't add an exception for the whole directory, then every time a miner gets an update, it's disabled by Windows Defender until you manually allow it.

Seems like there should be a way to have NiceHash sign their binaries or otherwise vet with Microsoft so Defender can automatically allow it. Setting an exception seems like it makes it a target for other malware to hijack or piggyback on.

A signed binary won't help.

Cryptominers fall into the "Potentially Unwanted Program" category, along with remote access software like a VNC server. They're not malware, but can be installed maliciously. If Windows Defender finds a cryptominer, it has no way to determine if it was deliberately installed, so it flags. Manually excepting the directory NiceHash installs the miners is the only way around it.

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#363

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

gkfasdfasdf wrote: post #356
mtone wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nicehash (the app) is a convenience tool to manage miner executables -- it's mostly those that are flagged by AVs. You can connect most miner executables to Nicehash (the service) or other pools directly, and some are open-source. For instance I GPU mine with https://github.com/ethereum-mining/ethminer and CPU mine with https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig , both built from source and I don't use Nicehash (the app). But I…

This is interesting, so I could run the NiceHash app (which doesn't require an AV exception) and have it mine using open source miners which I have built myself?

Possibly.

Depends on whether or not the heuristics scanning in Windows Defender would still flag the miners if you compiled it yourself.

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#364

Post by the_jeremy »

ramraj07 wrote: post #339
xenocyon wrote: post #276

1. At an individual/hobbyist level this is a fine thing to do, if one is already a cryptocurrency enthusiast. 2. At a social/planning level it is important to remember that opportunity costs matter, and this should not be recommended as public policy. One kWh of electricity could either be used for mining bitcoin (creating at most one kWh of indoor heat), or it could be used for running a heat pump[*], yielding multi…

Looks like even OP with their fancy own home didn't actually install a heat pump the way which will make it more than 100% efficient, what about the large horde of people who rent and can't do a thing about how their house is heated? It's trivial to find out if your heating system is actually efficient and if it's not why shouldnt you run crypto mining?

I am renting a house and can't do a thing about how my house is heated. How do I find out if my heating system is efficient?

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#365

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

bseidensticker wrote: post #353
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #49

I did this in an apartment I lived in years ago, and do it now in my house. My computer room in the house is the lowest point in the house, so naturally, it tends to be a couple degrees cooler than the upstairs. This means that if I set the thermostat so that the computer room is comfortable, the bedroom is too warm. If I run the house circulation fan constantly, it's not an issue, but that consumes a decent amount o…

You're not actually mining Bitcoin with your GPU. I think nicehash automatically picks the most profitable coin to mine at the time and just pays out in bitcoin. It hasn't been profitable to mine bitcoin with a GPU since 2013 or 2014.

I'm well aware of all this.

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#366

Post by bseidensticker »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #365
bseidensticker wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not actually mining Bitcoin with your GPU. I think nicehash automatically picks the most profitable coin to mine at the time and just pays out in bitcoin. It hasn't been profitable to mine bitcoin with a GPU since 2013 or 2014.

I'm well aware of all this.

Cool

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#367

Post by bouncycastle »

inter_netuser wrote: post #193
bouncycastle wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read bitcoin.pdf

do you want to cite a specific paragraph?

You can search for the word "honest" and read everything around there…

Section 6 about incentives discusses about why nodes may be honest rather than collude to attack the system. This is the main pillar of bitcoin's security.

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#368

Post by abiogenesis »

alasdair_ wrote: post #330
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #49

I did this in an apartment I lived in years ago, and do it now in my house. My computer room in the house is the lowest point in the house, so naturally, it tends to be a couple degrees cooler than the upstairs. This means that if I set the thermostat so that the computer room is comfortable, the bedroom is too warm. If I run the house circulation fan constantly, it's not an issue, but that consumes a decent amount o…

I have a 3090 and cheap-ish electricity. Is it actually worth doing GPU mining again? I thought that died out long ago.

Nvidia even offers dedicated mining GPUs: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/cmp/

In related news: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26192201

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#369

Post by mey »

Nition wrote: post #311
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will be pleased to know that the majority of heat pumps are installed in homes whose exteriors stay above 0 kelvin year round. Also, in what I assume is an efficiency feature, most heat pumps do not allow operation in a zero Kelvin environment. Also, to nit pick: Kelvins are not degrees and do not use a ° sign.

Damn, I've been looking for a zero Kelvin heat pump that works in a vacuum to heat my spherical cows.

Gotta watch out for that Maxwell brand heat pump.

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#370

Post by bigiain »

ramraj07 wrote: post #339
xenocyon wrote: post #276

1. At an individual/hobbyist level this is a fine thing to do, if one is already a cryptocurrency enthusiast. 2. At a social/planning level it is important to remember that opportunity costs matter, and this should not be recommended as public policy. One kWh of electricity could either be used for mining bitcoin (creating at most one kWh of indoor heat), or it could be used for running a heat pump[*], yielding multi…

Looks like even OP with their fancy own home didn't actually install a heat pump the way which will make it more than 100% efficient, what about the large horde of people who rent and can't do a thing about how their house is heated? It's trivial to find out if your heating system is actually efficient and if it's not why shouldnt you run crypto mining?

> didn't actually install a heat pump the way which will make it more than 100% efficient

Or, more likely, they installed a heat pump of a suitable capacity for 80+% of the expected conditions, with a pragmatic "old school" pre-heater to make up when conditions are out near the end of the bell curve.

> why shouldn't you run crypto mining?

I think the key takeaway here is that any time you're using resistive electrical heating for air, crypto mining is a suitable alternative to just making resistive nichrome wire glow red. Whether the cost of 1000W worth of GPU cards compared to the cost of a cheap 1000W fan/column heater makes sense for you is a different question. Whether the payout in whatever crypto you're mining ever comes close to breakeven on the cost of the mining rig and it's depreciation as it becomes more and more out of date is another question. If, like the article's author, you can build an effectively zero cost mining rig from parts on hand, then it's almost certainly worthwhile (modulo what you value your time building/configuring/maintaining it...)

(And there's the deeper ethical question of whether participating in a Proof Of Work cryptocurrency at all is just outrageously leveraging your personal heating requirements into a planet burning speculative ponzi scheme "asset" trashfire...)

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