It looks like you're new here.If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!Sign In Register Categories Recent Discussions Activity Unanswered Best Of... Categories All Categories Mining Pool Discussion General Project Discussion (non-technical) Education Protocol and Client discussion web3-js Whisper Swarm 2 RLP IoT & Hardware Smart Contracts and Dapps Serpent Solidity Projects Reference clients code and builds Eth & AlethZero- Cpp Implementation Geth - Go Implementation Mist Node.js Implementation Python Implementation Mix Other Implementations Meetups Other Events Jobs & Skills Press and Articles Audio/Video Ether Sale Other Languages Chinese German Italian French 2 Hebrew 6 Japanese Portugese Romanian Russian Spanish Turkish Watercooler recycling the SHA-256 ASIC rigs Hadrien 17 May 2014 in Mining 1 Comments Jasper 514 May 2014 0 chris613 93 May 2014 @Hadrien‌ I too lament the colossal waste associated with mining rigs that serve no other purpose than performing a double-SHA256.

Re-using them for other purposes is tricky, though, and brings all the original problems along for the ride.Part of Ehtereum's mining algo design (which is not yet finalized) is to attempt to use programmatic logic as part of the problem to solve (instead of just one hash function) so that any "specialized" mining hardware would actually be a powerful general purpose CPU, instead of a single purpose hash machine.Your question "how to recycle what will soon or later be a HUGE obsolete distributed supercomputer dedicated to SHA-256" is a tough one.litecoin developer apiEven assuming longevity of bitcoin, SHA-256 will eventually(/probably) need to be replaced at some point, which would make these rigs even more useless.litecoin asic miner buyI will brainstorm and sleep on this question, but currently I don't see a bright future for these particular silicon wafers.is bitcoin scrypt

1 Pouncer 1 May 2014 The folks over at Nxt have figured out an innovative way to put mining rigs to good use, despite Nxt being a 100% PoS network.They will channel the hashing power to the most profitable coin to mine at any instant, and automatically convert them into NXT.1 chris613 93 May 2014 1 Jasper 514 May 2014 @Pouncer Interesting to know, but thats just a mining pool they run?bitcoin litecoin profitabilityThey are still dependent on the existence of SHA256 PoW coins.lost my bitcoin wallet passwordThe very model turning into Nxt is a statement against the existence of those PoW coins.Probably merged mining approach is possible, afaik that puts a coin in the merged chain?Prefer it on Ethereum, or even paid-for, Thought of this, 'Truth or Punish' aint all bad, but the bit where a large fraction has to vote to punish if you are not receiving the block in that idea is weak.new jersey bitcoin regulation

Once people have the block data, the Merkle tree approach should allow any person can indicate invalid parts, and invalidate the block, take the stake.Really though, SHA256 for that is useless too, better go for some kind of stake.. 0 Hadrien 17 May 2014 @chris613‌ I slept on it as well:twisted thoughts:First, alternate use of ASIC rigs will depend on the implementation (each series are different and could permit different "alternate stuff").By creating smart Contracts (a bit like futures), we could organise betting on which ASIC will allow alternate use, or in other worlds, a second life cycle.The underlying value of those second hand ASIC would potentially increase an undetermined way.Skilled programmers will try to to the hack to demonstrate that one ASIC can potentially be worth more than another one.This creates a (speculative) market.Would this market grow enough, it would catch the attention of manufacturers, who logically implement ASIC with secondary use in mind.That's the best I could come up with for "recycling the ASIC rigs".("neveropencl bitcoin

tell a kid who loves computer that a computer is useless please") 1 chris613 93 May 2014 @Hadrien‌ betting on which ones will allow alternate use?The manufacturers already know and they just can tell us.I know too, and the answer is that unless the alternate use is ALSO finding nonces for SHA256 blockchain headers (for some other purpose, of course), the answer is no.bitcoin kurs wocheThey have no other purpose.Perhaps a manufacturer shipped chips with an extra feature set that was disabled and can suddenly be made available with a new rig firmware, as part of some huge publicity stunt or massive long term business gamble.bitcoin transaction sender addressI have my doubts.0 StephanTual 1,282 May 2014 3 Jasper 514 May 2014 Murphies law says they're either too light or too bulky.

I mean look at the usb ones dont weight nearly enough.0 StephanTual 1,282 May 2014 Drill a hole in that BFL Jalapeno and you got yourself one sweet ashtray 2 chris613 93 May 2014 0 zupreme 4 May 2014 0 Hadrien 17 May 2014 @chris613‌ & @zupreme‌ : @vitalik‌ , ideally we have your opinion:So it is possible to expect something else from those rigs: "finding nonces for SHA256 blockchain headers (for some other purpose, of course)" (chris613) "However there is the strong possibility that someone will write a contract or will create a "coin" on top of Etherium which leverages SHA256 and for which the originally Bitcoin-focused algorithms will eventually apply."(zupreme‌)I am certain a smart contract can make use of SHA-256.Vitalik wrote that he specifically designed Ethereum with ASIC avoidance in mind (and I guess it wasn't trivial).I deduct that their is plenty of uses for the ASICs.one thing at a time?.. 0 Jasper 514 May 2014 @Hadrien It is essentially trivial to dodge the particularly SHA-256 ASICs..

Just dont do SHA.Lite and Doge use Scrypt.Eventually people created an ASIC for that..So they created VertCoin, to avoid that.Not sure how effective that will be.It isnt trivial to stay ahead of potential new ASICs being designed.The SHA-256 ASICs are probably useless outside mining.. I mean, sure you can make your ethereum subcurrency that can be mined with them, but how do you get the subcurrency any value?If the subcurrency doesnt have value, you do not earn the energy costs to run those ASICs.Furthermore how would that value have any relation to the use of those ASICs?The community around those ASICs is essentially paying for the energy costs of running them, what would they get back for it?1 Hadrien 17 May 2014 @Jasper‌ : we are back to my first post beginning this discussion.Do we conclude their is no possibility to recycle the bitcoin & script ASIC rigs with Ethereum?At least for the present implementations.If yes that would unfortunately close the discussion.