Using a university supercomputer to mine bitcoins.

[MisO69]

I came across this article this morning on the BBC http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27779030

I wonder what kind of hashrates this guy was getting. If they were anywhere near competing with asics.

[fivejonnyfive]

According to this article:

http://tradeblock.com/research/bitcoin-network-8-times-faster-than-top-500-super-computers-combined/

1 Hash equals 12.7kiloflops,

So, if they were using the most powerful supercomputer in the country at the time at 8.2 Petaflops, my math says 645 GH/s.

Not bad, but terribly inefficient :-P

[Hazir]

Inefficient, yes probably. But when you are not the one who is paying for energy it does not matter for you if this is efficient. It pains me that other computers can be used that way and will never know.

[DrG]

Meh that's nothing.  Botnets back in 2011 and 2012 were making more than what 650GH/s can do today 

[guitarplinker]

Meh that's nothing.  Botnets back in 2011 and 2012 were making more than what 650GH/s can do today 

Still, 650GH/s is an insane amount for a single computer. Wonder how much power it uses though...

[fivejonnyfive]

Meh that's nothing.  Botnets back in 2011 and 2012 were making more than what 650GH/s can do today  

Still, 650GH/s is an insane amount for a single computer. Wonder how much power it uses though...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Mira

3.9 Megawatts.

3,900,000/650=6,000

6 KILOWATTS PER GIGAHASH

[DrG]

Meh that's nothing.  Botnets back in 2011 and 2012 were making more than what 650GH/s can do today  

Still, 650GH/s is an insane amount for a single computer. Wonder how much power it uses though...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Mira

3.9 Megawatts.

3,900,000/650=6,000

6 KILOWATTS PER GIGAHASH

Only 6KW/GH!?!  Wow, now I can finally max out my fuel rods 

You can eat soup with a fork, but why...

[guitarplinker]

Meh that's nothing.  Botnets back in 2011 and 2012 were making more than what 650GH/s can do today  

Still, 650GH/s is an insane amount for a single computer. Wonder how much power it uses though...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Mira

3.9 Megawatts.

3,900,000/650=6,000

6 KILOWATTS PER GIGAHASH

Jeebus that's ridiculous! Sounds like it needs some optimizing. :p

[sukamasoto]

According to this article:

http://tradeblock.com/research/bitcoin-network-8-times-faster-than-top-500-super-computers-combined/

1 Hash equals 12.7kiloflops,

So, if they were using the most powerful supercomputer in the country at the time at 8.2 Petaflops, my math says 645 GH/s.

Not bad, but terribly inefficient :-P

If your calculations are correct it would be very detrimental to the payment of electricity because it is not in accordance with coins obtained

[FlyForFun]

What if they use the supercomputer to mine litecoin or cpu coin instead, it is going to be super profitable..

[DrG]

What if they use the supercomputer to mine litecoin or cpu coin instead, it is going to be super profitable..

Um, no.  Any "profit" is at the expense of whoever is hosting the SC. The newer Scrypt ASICs will be 1000x more efficient per watt for Scrypt.  CPU coin maybe - but none of those are established.

[lowbander80]

What if they use the supercomputer to mine litecoin or cpu coin instead, it is going to be super profitable..

This what they did they mined doge and each day according to the article I have read it miner about 15000 daily.
Now the supercomputers are regulated and its not possible to have access to all of the power because they run
projects from various people so its mostly BUSTED

just a student trying to make a  small profit lost his ability to use the supercomputer

[Youghoor]

well it seems things didn't go good for him as he lost his access to supercomputer . I hope they will let him keep his profit

[monim1]

Inefficient, yes probably. But when you are not the one who is paying for energy it does not matter for you if this is efficient. It pains me that other computers can be used that way and will never know.

I agree with you. If you are not paying the electricity bill then you can mine. But i think solo mining is not much profitable. You may join any pools and start mining.

[nickgaff]

well it seems things didn't go good for him as he lost his access to supercomputer . I hope they will let him keep his profit

There is no law saying they can 

[DrG]

Why are you new users condoning the outright theft of other people's property?  If you are mining with somebody else's hardware (in the case above it is a gov sponsored entity so it belongs to the taxpayers) without their consent than that is theft.  It's no different than using a large botnet.

There have been several documented cases of IT people coming on these forums asking how to mine illegally and stealthily and they end up losing their job if not going to prison.

And for 15000 doge/day?  Sheesh, in March I mined 200K doge per day with just 20 video cards and you want to waste a supercomputer for 15000 doge... unbelievable.

[Questionator2]

I still don't get the fact that my few antminers are faster than this supercomputer in whatever I'm doing.
Still calculations right? I know I don't know what I'm talking about but stilll, arrgggg... The unknown info...

[DrG]

I still don't get the fact that my few antminers are faster than this supercomputer in whatever I'm doing.
Still calculations right? I know I don't know what I'm talking about but stilll, arrgggg... The unknown info...

The simple analogy I use is the spoon/fork analogy.  Think of a supercomputer as a whole bunch of forks.  You can try feeding yourself soup with 25 forks at once and it will work but it's not efficent.  ASICs are Application Specific Integrated Circuits - basically they were engineered for this one task and one task only which is to hash SHA-256.  The ASIC would be equivalent to a spoon.  One little spoon can feed you soup faster than even 25 forks stuffing your mouth at once.

So ASICs are made solely for this purpose so even though they're clocked lower they do this one job damn well.

The spork would be FPGAs

[ALToids]

Ah yes the proverbial spoon and fork, wait what 

[Malok]

I came across that article as well.  You had to wonder if he really thought he'd never get caught.....not a very smart college person IMO.