Topic: Next consumer model miner (Read 8926 times)

I think we are a while from this.  You can get 5T unit from SP used gear.  But it's much greater energy used.  For 5T even on 1k watt's we need multiple times more efficient chip's.   That .2 watt/GH is just a little bit away.   Possibly end of next new gen.

I don't think we will get that lucky at beginning of next gen.  But I hope I am wrong.

I would be happy with some units coming up with maybe 5 to 10TH power using maybe 800 to 1,000watt. Right now I doubt will happen but maybe 6 to 8 months down the road or sometime next year if the future of aisc chips get smaller and use less energy then this could be done or someone comes along brakes the record to use current tec and blows markets away with power use.

Avalon is or was planning a 100Gh/s model, which should be a small miner.  SFARDS is also willing to work with integrators for smaller miners.  Both would be based on new chips, though, so have to await availability.  SFARDS's chip should be out Soon™

The way I'd see such a business model work - somewhat - is if the miner is indeed a small miner (low hash rate, but also low heat, probably passively cooled and potentially using the excess heat for work), but playing the lottery.  The miner itself can be a minor cost (doesn't need to be the latest design, doesn't even need to be custom designed - buy an existing declared-obsolete one) relative to the appliance.  The electricity cost is entirely for the user.  Any found blocks, you get to keep the reward and you may or may not decide to split that with the user.  Even at slim chances, this could theoretically be profitable.
Even if the mining itself ends up being useless, you could still try to monetize it by requiring users to connect to a specific pool - this alone gives you things like IP data. Add an appliance ID and a unique ID and now you've got things to sell to marketing groups.. "User X has appliances A, B and D and research shows they might be interested in G".  But all of that has very little to do with putting mining in the hands of users as a direct cause; any IoT (ew.) company can do that, so the mining bit would only be the schtick to try and lure people into buying your device, and not a competitor's.

Crazier things have happened, but it still seems highly unlikely to be a model pursued anytime soon (if anything, this would have worked better in the past).

So how anyone thinks a toaster or fridge will do the same is beyond me, the only scenario I can think of is that it's got a small miner built in which at best might make you dust everyday in which case it's pretty much useless.