Presumably these clusters aren't 100% utilized 100% of the time. They certainly weren't at the national lab I had access to ages ago...
My question was more inquiring if there's any red tape preventing the laboratory from paying the bills with mining, if it could do so profitably. Let's just assume there's idle time where this could hypothetically occur.
I'm not even trying to suggest that they should do that, it's just an interesting relatively new possibility and these things are quite expensive.
The cost of the energy to do so would not be worth the bitcoins mined. Maybe some alternative crypto-currencies would break even, but it wouldn't be easy.
Sitting idle, the machine is not using nearly the power draw of when it's running full-tilt.
I'd be surprised if it sits idle at all. Someone correct me, but it's gotta have a job queue, and a priority for each. There are plenty of problems (every single one submitted) where it's energy consumption is irrelevant.
>The cost of the energy to do so would not be worth the bitcoins mined. Maybe some alternative crypto-currencies would break even, but it wouldn't be easy.
No one wants the national labs accepting payments from anyone but the US government. Especially if they’re selling “digital assets.” I’m trying very hard to not litter this reply with swear words. Concerns about national security abound.
