Far from it. The point is to isolate mining with the prototype devices to prevent network disruptions (in total hash rate, difficulty,
and profitability). If it was discovered the any of the companies were profiting on their own product, it wouldn't make the community very happy, including their investors. It's a terrible business model.
The same applies to the drug trade...don't use your own product
Well, they wouldn't profit as they'd be passing it on to their customers. It might also count as a bit of reassurance : "This device generated x bitcoins in y minutes". Not that I mind either way as I'm not going ASIC, it just seems a shame to waste energy (assuming all other things equal)
It's a nice idea, but it should have been conceived of, communicated, and articulated in the plan up-front. What you refer to may happen as a promotional thing in the future, but at this point everyone is all "shut up and take my money" so why put all that extra effort into some (very) fancy coupons? When you have a business venture growing at a massive rate the
last thing you want to do is add any complications that are not absolutely needed.
I'm going to be burning 1-2Gh/W compared to .01Gh/1W with an FPGA single. This is wasteful?
Of course, all other things are
not equal, every miner helps add to the security of the network which is why it pays in proportion with the contribution. Contribute less security, get less Bitcoin.
If you want to be green, decide on a wattage that you are willing to donate to bitcoin, and pay for carbon offsets to match that wattage. Every 3, 6 or 12 months buy the gear with the best GH/W rating that fits in your wattage allowance (and get some extra carbon credits for the manufacturing cost offset)
Personally this is too much trouble for me, so I'm replacing a standard light bulb with a florescent or LED bulb for every 10Gh and calling it even.
