Are there other uses for BFL ASIC miners other than mining?

[D_Thomas]

I'm guessing my little Jalapeno in a few months may become obsolete for mining bitcoins much like my graphics card has. So is there life after mining for these units? For example, can you use them to hack passwords, etc? Just curious if there are other uses than just mining.

[Rannasha]

I'm guessing my little Jalapeno in a few months may become obsolete for mining bitcoins much like my graphics card has. So is there life after mining for these units? For example, can you use them to hack passwords, etc? Just curious if there are other uses than just mining.

BFL ASICs can be used to mine Bitcoins and any alt-coins that use the same hashing algorithm. But other than that, they're very expensive paperweights. While some password-hashing methods also use SHA-256, the implementation is different and the ASIC is not flexible enough to accomodate that.

[BTCscraper]

The good thing is, you can use them as paperweights WHILE they're still hashing.  Once it's no longer profitable, they may be able to be converted into doorstops.

[digit]

coffee warmer

[CoinHoarder]

paper weight 

[BBQKorv]

Low-power space heater with a hum generator.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Low-power space heater with a hum generator.

Once modified, I have the perfect act to showcase its performance power: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afAdLANgL-s

[erk]

I'm guessing my little Jalapeno in a few months may become obsolete for mining bitcoins much like my graphics card has. So is there life after mining for these units? For example, can you use them to hack passwords, etc? Just curious if there are other uses than just mining.

ASIC stands for   Application Specific Integrated Circuit.

Think about that for a minute or two.

[iikun]

The good thing is, you can use them as paperweights WHILE they're still hashing.  Once it's no longer profitable, they may be able to be converted into doorstops.

LOL!

[-ck]

The good thing is, you can use them as paperweights WHILE they're still hashing. 

Not if they set your paper on fire.

[greyhawk]

You can attach some ropes to them and use them as Bolas when civilization collapses.

[Xian01]

The good thing is, you can use them as paperweights WHILE they're still hashing. 

Not if they set your paper on fire.

 I was looking to make a similar comment. You beat me to the punch

[D_Thomas]

LOL - Cracking up here. I think it makes a good foot warmer under the desk.

It is a shame they can't be used for more productive things when they get old. Has anyone ever calculated the computing power used to mine Bitcoins to date? I imagine it is a very large amount of "wasted" power if you exclude the benefit to the person getting the coins.

[bobboooiie]

I heard you can fry eggs on them

[DeathAndTaxes]

LOL - Cracking up here. I think it makes a good foot warmer under the desk.

It is a shame they can't be used for more productive things when they get old. Has anyone ever calculated the computing power used to mine Bitcoins to date? I imagine it is a very large amount of "wasted" power if you exclude the benefit to the person getting the coins.

If I open a bank and have a vault and I hire a security guard to guard the vault and the bank never gets robbed was the years of salary a waste?  Hint: the purpose of mining isn't to get free coins (that is just the incentive.  The purpose of mining is to _______.

[Lohoris]

If I open a bank and have a vault and I hire a security guard to guard the vault and the bank never gets robbed was the years of salary a waste?

Does the guard warm your coffee?

[noah tall]

I opened the top of the case, turned off the lights, and look what happened...