Hello,
i could explain it long, but time is btc right now so short story:
with asic hardware in a box, which produces you a gigantomanic amount of money in short time, would it not be advised, that in the miner FW is a "password" burnt in, so the device in itself is useless, might it be stolen on the parcel way (rogue adress redirection@DHL, some1 intercepting the delivery guy in front of door, badly paid parcel worker sees the miner package and says: TY byebye...etc...). The password would be transmitted via email to the real end consumer.
Just a thought: I would like/prefer Miners that are useless without additional authenticification/unlocking...
not like eldentyrell and tricone FW with a special signcryption server externally, "unlocking"/auth done locally in miner soft. maybe also switch off protection if you want to.
Sorry if this thought is already in a fred....
Idea cause by sgravina thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=163795.0
