[Idea] Buy blocks of time for mining?

[Ryu.Hayabusa]

Currently just seeing if there is any interest, but I had the idea of selling blocks of time in 1 hour intervals at a set price per hour for mining time on 1 (or more) GPUs (7950s, maybe others).

Would anyone be interested in this?
How much would you be willing to pay per hour per GPU (in USD, I will accept LTC/BTC but it will be converted at the time of purchase to the current exchange price)?

I'm not currently giving out much more detail than this other than it would be automated.  You would provide the pool (or solo pool/client) address you want to mine for along with the worker user/pass.

If there is interest I will begin development and will provide an open beta with very low rates (possibly free) for a short run to test that everything is working and to get user feedback on problems encountered or what to improve/add on.

[Vorksholk]

This idea has been attempted before, sometimes with some pretty great success.

If you made it so that people chose what pool they wanted the miner pointed at (even their own private pool), this could be very successful.

Would you be scrypt mining, or SHA256 mining? If you could find a way for that automated program to support both, that would be really cool!

[Ryu.Hayabusa]

Yeah, you would provide the pool address (or solo address) and the user/pass for the worker.  I'd be willing to support both scrypt and SHA256, wouldn't be too much extra work to do both.

[Ryu.Hayabusa]

Hrm..  I didn't think the response would be so underwhelming. 

If there is an interest even from a few people I'll go ahead and start work on it.

By the way thank you for your input Vorksholk!

[Soak]

I don't understand the advantage for the buyer. If there is an electricity fee for example, and you sell your 1 hour mining for USD, ok for someone can't invest in cards or don't want to mine himself.

But, instead of that, why don't directly buy LTC on some exchange site like Gox or BTC-E?

[brie]

As mentioned above, there are already people selling time on their mining farms out there.
So it must be at least somewhat feasible.

[Vorksholk]

I think it's mostly interesting to a buyer in two scenarios:

1.) The person needs a bit of extra hash power on a coin they find more profitable than the current rate of the mining contract (Like PPCoins were a week or two ago)
2.) People want to get crypto currencies without having to put money into an exchange and hassle with long waits.

[Bytas]

if the buyer can pay with BTC, why don't you mine it yourself instead
If the buyer makes more BTC than he pays, you are getting ripped off, if it is the other way around, he is getting ripped off.

Am I right?   

[Vorksholk]

if the buyer can pay with BTC, why don't you mine it yourself instead
If the buyer makes more BTC than he pays, you are getting ripped off, if it is the other way around, he is getting ripped off.

Am I right?   

It's all about the party providing the hash power wanting consistent earnings while miners take on risk. For example, say Terracoin is 160% profit and OP charges 130% PPS for his shares, he makes more than he would Bitcoin mining, your bitcoins earn more terracoins than bitcoin>terracoin conversion. Alternate currencies really act as the lifeblood of this project.

[Ryu.Hayabusa]

Thank you all so much for your input on this.  I unfortunately do not have sufficient time, and might not for a few more weeks to start on this.  I hope to by then have 3x7950s available to rent, which would be more worthwhile to most I think.

Thanks again!

[jonytk]

I don't see the point in paying in btc, since the buyer will lose money in the long run,
the owner of the rig only pays the electricity,

this could only work if you set up low prices like your electric cost +50% in btc, and in some way it automatically updates it,
i'm thinking 0.002 btc per hour, or maybe a competitive bid to use your machine.

if everything is automated, ex. the user has a webinterface where he sees his credits,
and can update the mining command etc etc,  

then it could work.
it will be usefull for people that don't own many coins or can't have a mining rig and want to try luck with a new coin etc.

[Ryu.Hayabusa]

@jonytk: USD would probably be what everyone would use, but for those who would like to pay in BTC or LTC, it will be available.

[HotSwap]

Seems interesting me, I'll keep an eye on this.