Using mining gear for other financial purposes?

[JackH]

I think I saw a thread somewhere on the forum that came up with solutions on where to utilize the computing power most people may have here. However not on the Bitcoin network, but for renting it out to other companies or agents that would be able to sell the computing power.

I am just thinking as a plan B if everything fails in regards to mining on the Bitcoin network.

Anyone has any suggestions for where someone can utilize high performance computing?

[1714661138]

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[1714661138]

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[1714661138]

1714661138

[layyen]

i have been looking for the same, and didnt find anything which worth more then ele... costs but of course you can mine another currencies

[malevolent]

I think I saw a thread somewhere on the forum that came up with solutions on where to utilize the computing power most people may have here. However not on the Bitcoin network, but for renting it out to other companies or agents that would be able to sell the computing power.

I am just thinking as a plan B if everything fails in regards to mining on the Bitcoin network.

Anyone has any suggestions for where someone can utilize high performance computing?

You can look around russian hacking/cracking forums and see if anyone is in need of cracking hashed passwords.

[gweedo]

what about generating vainty addresses?

[Stephen Gornick]

I think I saw a thread somewhere on the forum that came up with solutions on where to utilize the computing power most people may have here.

This thread?

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=94192.0

[Jessica]

password cracking, of course.

[JackH]

Hmm I find it hard to believe all this processing power cannot be utilized more efficient. There are tons of universities, government agencies and what not out there that needs to solve complex problems. There must be a better way to utilize all this power beside mining Bitcoin.

[organofcorti]

BOINC does something similar to that which you propose.

The problem for a pool operator is that they'd need to release a new client (or new module) for every new job that needs to be done. The work would have to be profitable to make this worth while. Soon though it might be the only way GPU owners can profit since ASIC and FPGA miners will arrive soon - but they can only calculate SHA256 hashes, whereas GPUs can perform any calculation available to OpenCL/CUDA.

[JackH]

While BOINC seems like a perfect thing, it lack payment plans. It is actually incredible Bitcoin is the first and one and only project that allows people to utilize processing power to earn money. This should by now be a common business model.

[organofcorti]

BOINC does have some sort of credit system. Shouldn't be too hard to change it to a different payment system - say, based on bitcoin for ease of payment.

[dust]

Litecoin

[organofcorti]

Good point - ASICs and FPGAs made for bitcoin solving can't be used for Litecoin, so reaper gives GPU owners a chance to keep earning. I don't think it was what the OP was getting at though.

[Graet]

Good point - ASICs and FPGAs made for bitcoin solving can't be used for Litecoin, so reaper gives GPU owners a chance to keep earning. I don't think it was what the OP was getting at though.

cgminer also supports scrypt now

I have been wondering on this topic since about a month after I opened the pool
whoever solves this could become very wealthy

We have a huge resource thats great for sha256, how can we use this resource for other applications. And more importantly how do we sell this to the market we identify
"Hi I have a bunch of home computers in a distributed computing network, can I sell you some hashpower" - sounds legit

[Transisto]

At the beginning, I had way too many Nvidia GPU used for F@H,   So I though of a market were one could pay BTC for F@H credits sent under his name or team.  (ex. Chimp Challenge) http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=1027661

It would have been a way for ATI owner or BTC riches to participate in F@H.

BTC's ease of small payment and small fees would have been the enabling feature.

[Dargo]

Would OpenCL be any good for writing programs that emulate neural networks? I don't know how one would make money doing this, but it's something I would enjoy at least as a hobby.

[Cranky4u]

Good point - ASICs and FPGAs made for bitcoin solving can't be used for Litecoin, so reaper gives GPU owners a chance to keep earning. I don't think it was what the OP was getting at though.

cgminer also supports scrypt now

I have been wondering on this topic since about a month after I opened the pool
whoever solves this could become very wealthy

We have a huge resource thats great for sha256, how can we use this resource for other applications. And more importantly how do we sell this to the market we identify
"Hi I have a bunch of home computers in a distributed computing network, can I sell you some hashpower" - sounds legit

if cgminer now supports scrypt, does this mean my FPGA array can mine LTC?

[organofcorti]

if cgminer now supports scrypt, does this mean my FPGA array can mine LTC?

No. Unless your FPGAs can support scrypt too.

[layyen]

scrypt need fast access to memory, its not posible to do through usb ... needed direct access...

[CoinLab]

Anyone has any suggestions for where someone can utilize high performance computing?

CoinLab's Pool! We don't have HPC jobs online yet, but expect they will be available through our pool within the next couple months. Check out our announcement thread.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=99643.0

[JackH]

Well what I asking for was an alternative "outside" of this industry. The worse thing is to keep working within the same industry, if that industry for some reason is about to fail or simply provides too little funds to make a good living out of it. Lets call it saturation for the sake of the argument.

Now I am not saying Bitcoin is gonna blow anytime soon, if ever. But what I am saying is that there will be a lot of GPU's sitting there doing nothing because they are too expensive to run compared to the myriad of FPGA cards coming out now, and one day ASIC.

So what should all that processing power do? Go to waste and never be used?

I remember I once stumbled upon articles stating how the Japan had denied Iran and North Korea access to PS2 boxes, as those could be utilized for their great processing power: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s119754.htm
However I am not sure our current technology would apply to this scenario and a PS3 or any other computer chip for that matter can handle all the processing need of warfare now at days?

So from this I extrapolate that there must be a need for processing power, even many years later than the PS2 ban. Not that I am all in for processing for Iran or North Korea here, but if one needs it, more must also need it.

What I lack to find is someone that would actually pay for it. That or we are simply to far ahead of the rest of the world thinking in terms like we do in the Bitcoin industry.