Using mining hardware for non-Bitcoin applications

[alidorri]

Dear All,

I am currently working on a research project and I am wondering if it is possible to buy mining hardware and use solely to solve some hash puzzles? In another word, I want to solve my own POW by Bitcoin mining hardware. Is this possible?

I mostly am in favor of ASIC hardware, since I need a small and  cheap miner for my research.


Regards

[1714031437]

1714031437

[1714031437]

1714031437

[1714031437]

1714031437

[sidehack]

Have you searched for the threads asking about the same question which have popped up pretty much monthly for the last couple years?

Bitcoin mining ASICs are really only good for solving double SHA256 on data in a specific format. You don't actually get the hash back out though; they only report the nonce which gives a hash corresponding to a specified difficulty threshold. Not terribly useful for anything else.

[alidorri]

Thanks for your reply and apologize if I re-asked a question.

My point is, can we  run our own BC. We give the hardware a hash and a difficulty and ask it to return the nonce that solved the POW. Is this possible?

Thanks

[sidehack]

Look into the data formats that actually go into the chip. A lot of them take in a data and a midstate, which is derived from the first round of SHA256. The chip crunches all of that with incrementing nonces until it finds at least a diff-1 share. Most chips have a means of setting a target diff within the chip, so they won't return anything less than that (to save on tying up the IO lines with discards).

Yes, it's possible. If you have something that can be crunched down into the data formats the chips can take, and all you want back is a nonce, they'll do the job beautifully.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Thanks for your reply and apologize if I re-asked a question.

My point is, can we  run our own BC. We give the hardware a hash and a difficulty and ask it to return the nonce that solved the POW. Is this possible?

Thanks

Yes you can run private blockchains if that is what you are referring to. There are lots already in use, for one, contract recording in some EU countries and probably in the USA as well along with the biggest app I'm aware of - Public lighting. As in tracking smart streetlights -- from installation location/crew/date/time to verifying data from the associated sensors that can be part of them eg cameras, microphones for shots triangulation...

As Sidehack said, it's just a matter of formatting the data and having nodes spread around for redundancy, then either opening the actual work to the public as some kind of reward or run data tanks to do it internally and keep it entirely private enterprise.

Can 'normal' miners be used for them -- don't know.

I will say this, last week one of my engineering blogs point to a whitepaper from Intel on Blockchain and it's application to the screamin' new FPGA line they are introducing. BTC of course gets mention but the paper dealt with blockchains for medical records, contracts and such. Not to mention a huge elephant in the room -- Banking. And before it's brought up as a negative -- why FPGA? Programmability with near etched-in-stone ASIC performance.