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Topic: Are there other uses for BFL ASIC miners other than mining? (Read 4044 times)

full member
Activity: 524
Merit: 100
I opened the top of the case, turned off the lights, and look what happened...

hero member
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Bitgoblin
If I open a bank and have a vault and I hire a security guard to guard the vault and the bank never gets robbed was the years of salary a waste?
Does the guard warm your coffee?
donator
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1079
Gerald Davis
LOL - Cracking up here. I think it makes a good foot warmer under the desk.

It is a shame they can't be used for more productive things when they get old. Has anyone ever calculated the computing power used to mine Bitcoins to date? I imagine it is a very large amount of "wasted" power if you exclude the benefit to the person getting the coins.

If I open a bank and have a vault and I hire a security guard to guard the vault and the bank never gets robbed was the years of salary a waste?  Hint: the purpose of mining isn't to get free coins (that is just the incentive.  The purpose of mining is to _______.
hero member
Activity: 656
Merit: 500
I heard you can fry eggs on them
member
Activity: 66
Merit: 10
LOL - Cracking up here. I think it makes a good foot warmer under the desk.

It is a shame they can't be used for more productive things when they get old. Has anyone ever calculated the computing power used to mine Bitcoins to date? I imagine it is a very large amount of "wasted" power if you exclude the benefit to the person getting the coins.
legendary
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1067
Christian Antkow
The good thing is, you can use them as paperweights WHILE they're still hashing. 
Not if they set your paper on fire.

 I was looking to make a similar comment. You beat me to the punch Wink
hero member
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You can attach some ropes to them and use them as Bolas when civilization collapses.
-ck
legendary
Activity: 4088
Merit: 1631
Ruu \o/
The good thing is, you can use them as paperweights WHILE they're still hashing. 
Not if they set your paper on fire.
legendary
Activity: 1062
Merit: 1003
The good thing is, you can use them as paperweights WHILE they're still hashing.  Once it's no longer profitable, they may be able to be converted into doorstops.

LOL!
erk
hero member
Activity: 826
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I'm guessing my little Jalapeno in a few months may become obsolete for mining bitcoins much like my graphics card has. So is there life after mining for these units? For example, can you use them to hack passwords, etc? Just curious if there are other uses than just mining.
ASIC stands for   Application Specific Integrated Circuit.

Think about that for a minute or two.



legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
Low-power space heater with a hum generator.

Once modified, I have the perfect act to showcase its performance power: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afAdLANgL-s

sr. member
Activity: 280
Merit: 250
Low-power space heater with a hum generator.
legendary
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In Cryptocoins I Trust
paper weight  Cheesy
legendary
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coffee warmer Wink
full member
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The good thing is, you can use them as paperweights WHILE they're still hashing.  Once it's no longer profitable, they may be able to be converted into doorstops.
hero member
Activity: 728
Merit: 500
I'm guessing my little Jalapeno in a few months may become obsolete for mining bitcoins much like my graphics card has. So is there life after mining for these units? For example, can you use them to hack passwords, etc? Just curious if there are other uses than just mining.

BFL ASICs can be used to mine Bitcoins and any alt-coins that use the same hashing algorithm. But other than that, they're very expensive paperweights. While some password-hashing methods also use SHA-256, the implementation is different and the ASIC is not flexible enough to accomodate that.
member
Activity: 66
Merit: 10
I'm guessing my little Jalapeno in a few months may become obsolete for mining bitcoins much like my graphics card has. So is there life after mining for these units? For example, can you use them to hack passwords, etc? Just curious if there are other uses than just mining.
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