Protein folding would be a better use of your resources. GoL even has a team.

Hi Catkiller,

Yes I agree, I already run folding at home on my xeon workstation using the CPUs.
I didn't know about the GOL team though, I shall join it.

Thanks for your input.

Last edited by nattydread on 27 November 2020 at 12:44 pm UTC

For everyone reading this:

It should be obvious, but think about the climate crisis we are in and avoid such completely unnecessary non-sense such as cryptocurrency mining.
Turn of the computers when all (rather) useful stuff is done.

I'd also add that the return on any mining with consumer hardware is rather low. Yeah, you'll get part of a coin that may appreciate over time, but you likely spent more money in electricity to generate it.

Quoting: dr_jekyllFor everyone reading this:

It should be obvious, but think about the climate crisis we are in and avoid such completely unnecessary non-sense such as cryptocurrency mining.
Turn of the computers when all (rather) useful stuff is done.

Yes that's a very good point.
However the, waste heat goes to heating the house,
whereas otherwise I would be burning wood or gas to keep warm.

Last edited by nattydread on 28 November 2020 at 1:13 am UTC

Quoting: nattydread

Quoting: dr_jekyllFor everyone reading this:

It should be obvious, but think about the climate crisis we are in and avoid such completely unnecessary non-sense such as cryptocurrency mining.
Turn of the computers when all (rather) useful stuff is done.

Yes that's a very good point.
However the, waste heat goes to heating the house,
whereas otherwise I would be burning wood or gas to keep warm.

I think the problem is the production and distribution of the required electrical power (coal ? nuclear ? etc), not the heat dissipation of the computer components.

Quoting: nattydreadHowever the, waste heat goes to heating the house,
whereas otherwise I would be burning wood or gas to keep warm.

1. In summer this logic doesn't apply, it's the opposite.
2. Many people still have manual or inaccurate thermostats, so the heating system will not adjust (=waste of more energy).
3. Many people use servers(/computers) (for crypto-mining) that run either in some serverfarm or in rooms in the house that don't need heating (like rooms in the basement or the attic).

Quoting: furaxhornyxI think the problem is the production and distribution of the required electrical power (coal ? nuclear ? etc), not the heat dissipation of the computer components.

That is also an additional point.
If you use gas for heating for example, it is already much better than energy produced out of coal.
And there are of course even better energy systems: heat pumps (uses heat from the ground), solar-heated water-systems etc.

Also there is always a loss when energy needs to be transported.

Last edited by dr_jekyll on 28 November 2020 at 4:11 pm UTC

I also happened to find out about this the other day:
https://ioquake3.org/2019/06/13/ioquake3-security-notice-06-13-19-test-builds-possibly-compromised/

Quoting: HamishI also happened to find out about this the other day:
https://ioquake3.org/2019/06/13/ioquake3-security-notice-06-13-19-test-builds-possibly-compromised/

Oh that's very naughty.

Background info: I did a proof-of-concept project for a company in the finance world using Ethereum blockchain.

The concept of mining is such a backwards one. For a blockchain to process transactions, somebody has to be mining it. As soon as there is nobody mining, the whole thing stalls. This means that the mining server is always at 100% load, even if there is nothing to process, and cannot be used for anything else. Imagine having a web server running at full load all the time, regardless if you have visitors or not.

As a result of more mining, the complexity (the cost) of mining a transaction is inflated. This means that eventually only a few super-computers are powerful enough to mine the blockchain for a reward, and everybody else would just be wasting electricity not being able to catch up.

I still think a blockchain is an interesting concept, but current implementations leave a lot to be desired. I know there exist alternatives to mining based on some complex math, but none are really proven in the field yet.

Also there exist blockchain implementations that are complete bullshit. Either because they are technically not blockchains at all, but pretend to be, or have so many holes that you can exploit that it's not even funny.

I think that blockchains are good testing grounds for new interesting crypto theories, but I do not believe that they will see widespread use in the current form. We will probably see cryptocurrencies that are not blockchains, or elements from blockchains implemented in more traditional systems. But that's just my opinion, man.

Last edited by Linas on 1 December 2020 at 11:47 pm UTC