Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: JohnRambo on May 01, 2013, 04:45 pm

Title: Other Uses for Bitcoin mining hardware?
Post by: JohnRambo on May 01, 2013, 04:45 pm
Hi all, I just bought a 50GH/s bitcoin miner, and I was wondering if there are any other uses you can put it to? Besides mining bitcoins, of course.

The one I bought
https://products.butterflylabs.com/homepage/50-gh-s-bitcoin-miner.html

With that much processing power, it's my assumption that it could be put to a whole range of uses.
Title: Re: Other Uses for Bitcoin mining hardware?
Post by: jeremiah173 on May 01, 2013, 04:53 pm
Hi all, I just bought a 50GH/s bitcoin miner, and I was wondering if there are any other uses you can put it to? Besides mining bitcoins, of course.

The one I bought
https://products.butterflylabs.com/homepage/50-gh-s-bitcoin-miner.html

With that much processing power, it's my assumption that it could be put to a whole range of uses.

I bought one in January and still haven't received it :( - It could be used for a number of hacking purposes but don't do it, it will just reduce you to the same level as the people who have been hitting SR.  Karma will find you.
Title: Re: Other Uses for Bitcoin mining hardware?
Post by: 19467382 on May 01, 2013, 04:54 pm
Unfortunately, no (with a slight caveat). These miners are based on ASICs (application specific integrated circuits). That means that the hardware components (circuitry) has been specifically designed for computing hashes, SHA-256 in this particular case. So, if you have another application that would require quickly computing SHA-256 hashes, then you could go and try to hack the firmware for the ASIC to do some other task, but it seems pretty impractical.
Title: Re: Other Uses for Bitcoin mining hardware?
Post by: JohnRambo on May 01, 2013, 06:39 pm
Impractical or not, I am just asking, are there any other specific purposes or uses that the mining hardware can be used for?

With that level of processing power, I bet it could do a lot.
Title: Re: Other Uses for Bitcoin mining hardware?
Post by: 19467382 on May 01, 2013, 10:39 pm
Like I said, the processing power is great, but only good for computing SHA-256 hashes. One possible application would be cracking SHA-256 hashes, but I don't think that the bandwidth for the bus going to the ASIC is wide enough. When you're dealing with mining, you have a single block to hash at a time with difference nonces. Cracking, on the other hand, you would have to process a crap ton of possible passwords.
Title: Re: Other Uses for Bitcoin mining hardware?
Post by: White 0ut on May 01, 2013, 10:45 pm
I would use it for mining bitcoins, I believe what above poster is saying is basically like this...

Yes it is capable of focusing a lot of processing power, but only on one specific task or operation.

I have no idea though.

I wish I had one.

Can I buy a % of yours mining capability?  ;D
Title: Re: Other Uses for Bitcoin mining hardware?
Post by: JohnRambo on May 02, 2013, 08:25 am
I would use it for mining bitcoins, I believe what above poster is saying is basically like this...

Yes it is capable of focusing a lot of processing power, but only on one specific task or operation.

I have no idea though.

I wish I had one.

Can I buy a % of yours mining capability?  ;D

Yea sure maybe. Let me first wait for it to arrive, one guy said his hasn't come yet and he ordered in January. Who knows, might take fucking months for the goddamn thing to arrive.
Title: Re: Other Uses for Bitcoin mining hardware?
Post by: Linkzfirst on May 02, 2013, 08:30 am
50 post spam
Title: Re: Other Uses for Bitcoin mining hardware?
Post by: RogerTheAlien on May 02, 2013, 05:07 pm
the fans are pretty good for making jet type engines for very small boats