Even supporters of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have to admit a major disadvantage: Cyber money consumes enormous amounts of energy, most recently about as much as five million households. This is exactly what a French company now wants to exploit. The start-up Qarnot has developed its own crypto heater. It looks like a large black radiator, like the radiator provided by a heating contractor Alexandria VA, only with a chic wooden cover. Inside, however, is a computer with two high-performance graphics cards. This is already set for “mining”, i.e. the mining of crypto money. The heating produces Ethereum, currently the second most important cryptocurrency after Bitcoin.

How Bitcoin Mining Works

But users can also use it to generate other digital money. Because the basic principle of mining is usually the same: Transactions of cryptocurrencies are stored in a chain of data blocks, the so-called blockchain. This cash book is stored decentrally on the computers of all users. Every few minutes, a new block is created by saving the last transactions. Users compete to see who can create the next block: they have to solve complex mathematical problems, whoever does it first, creates the block and receives new units of the cryptocurrency as a reward.

In order to have a chance, you need particularly powerful computers, such as those in the heating. It only needs an Internet connection and should then be ready after ten minutes to produce cyber money. With an output of up to 650 watts, it can also heat a room of about 20 square meters, according to the manufacturer.

The basic idea of using the heat of computers is not new. The French have also previously developed another heating model with integrated computers, 500 of which are now installed. Their computing power is made available to other users via the Internet, creating a decentralized data center that is mainly used for complex data analysis or complex computer animations.

The German company Cloud & Heat. It builds computers with water cooling whose waste heat is also used for heating. Currently, the Dresden-based company is building server cabinets on two floors in the former headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt am Main, which will also produce 600 kilowatts of heat and thus heat the entire high-rise building.

 

ALSO READ: How to Buy Cryptocurrencies Using Credit Cards

 

Heating generates 100 euros every month

But even if the basic idea of crypto heating is one of the biggest problems of Bitcoin & Co. concerns, it is questionable whether the model of the French pays off for buyers. According to Qarnot, the device is expected to produce about 100 euros worth of ether per month at the current exchange rate. However, the device costs 2900 euros. So you would need 29 heating months for it to armor. Of course, it takes even longer for profits to flow, because the electricity costs come on top of that and could exceed the revenues. In addition, it is completely unclear how the Ether price will develop during this period. For a month now, it has fallen from just under $1,000 to $600. Bitcoin is also far from its highs. In December, it had risen to as much as $20,000, but then fell and had been hovering around $10,000 since February. Since Wednesday, it has lost 15 percent and fallen below $8,000. The reason: Google no longer wants to advertise cryptocurrencies in the future. In addition, authorities in the USA and Japan are taking stronger action against companies and stock exchanges.

Alternative cryptocurrencies The hunt for the better Bitcoin

In addition, the mathematical mining tasks become more difficult over time and new hardware gets better, so it is also likely that the amount of digital money generated will decrease over time. And there is another catch: the first devices are to be delivered by June. Experience has shown that the heating requirement is rather low.

bitcoin mining, home heating alternative