挖 Ethereum 加熱房間...

大家都好像有過類似的想法,只是實際去做的不多 XDDD

有人把整個作法寫出來,挖 Ethereum 加熱房間:「How I heat my home by mining crypto currencies」。

從網站上的「About me」這邊看起來應該是住在奧地利?

I am a tech geek from Austin TX (USA), living on the country side in Austria and devote most of my time to my girlfriend, my company, my students and different projects.

不確定是哪個城市,先抓了首都維也納的溫度來看,看起來一到三月的平均氣溫都在個位數 (攝氏),可以理解暖氣應該是常備物品:

作者之前就先搞過一個可以一路接到 Grafana 的電錶,然後也有裝太陽能電板,但因為暖氣用電的關係而不夠用:

After building my own smart meter using 4$ in parts I started checking my electricity usage every day, which made me realize how expensive it is to heat your home. Especially since all heat and warm water in my low-energy house is made with electricity. I do have 4.8 kwp solar panels on my roof but in winter they don't cover too much for obvious reasons.

順便查了一下電價,在「Austria electricity prices」這頁可以看到奧地利的每一度要 USD$0.248:

而同一份資料上,台灣是 USD$0.101:

回到他的暖氣機,他是屬於中央空調大台機器的類型:

這種機器會恆溫輸出,所以是進風溫度愈低,就需要使用愈高的電能加熱。所以他想到的解法就是針對進風口預先用顯卡挖礦加熱 (四張 AMD 的 R9 390),這樣就可以降低暖氣機的電力消耗 (不過整體的消耗會提昇):

I had 4 older AMD R9 390 GPUs laying around (for the nVidia crowd that's basically on a level with a GTX 970) and I thought it could work.

後面就是改裝過程了,最後的結果雖然整體的電力使用量上升,但因為暖氣機的電力消耗降低,加上礦機挖到的 ETH 直接 cover 暖氣機的費用,反而讓暖氣機變免費了:

Success! I was able to lower my heat pump's electricity needs by ~50% and half of the costs are also paid for by the mining earnings

台灣的氣溫應該是用不太到 XDDD

PayPal 也要提供加密貨幣服務

先是看到「PayPal to allow cryptocurrency buying, selling and shopping on its network」這篇,另外翻到了 PayPal 的新聞稿:「PayPal Launches New Service Enabling Users to Buy, Hold and Sell Cryptocurrency」。

幾個比較重要的地方是,這次會提供的是 BitcoinEthereumBitcoin Cash 以及 Litecoin 這四種:

To increase consumer understanding and adoption of cryptocurrency, the company is introducing the ability to buy, hold and sell select cryptocurrencies, initially featuring Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, directly within the PayPal digital wallet.

會先提供美國 PayPal 的使用者使用,然後再展到其他服務以及地區:

The service will be available to PayPal accountholders in the U.S. in the coming weeks. The company plans to expand the features to Venmo and select international markets in the first half of 2021.

另外這次的服務也不是自己跳進去搞,而是透過 Paxos Trust Company 建立起防火牆,所以當加密貨幣那邊出包的時候大概就會切割出來:

The service is enabled in the U.S. through a partnership with Paxos Trust Company, a regulated provider of cryptocurrency products and services.

比較像是個嘗試,只是這個主題很適合發新聞稿...

在美國政府宣佈贊助非法後,Snowden 取得大量 Bitcoin 贊助

美國政府宣佈資助「反動組織」非法後 (感謝對岸發展出來這個用語,用在這邊還頗適合的),也就代表資助 Edward Snowden 非法。

而這反而引起類似「史翠珊效應」的情況發生,反而造成大量的 Bitcoin 贊助 Edward Snowden:「After Anti-Donation Executive Order, Bitcoin Donations For Snowden Jump」,原始報導出自「After Obama's cybersecurity order threatens Snowden fund, bitcoin donations spike」。

Bitcoin 的「無中央控管」以及「交易不可回退」的特性在這個事件中展現相當大的優點。

Minecraft 與 Bitcoin 的結合?

VentureBeat 的這篇「How Minecraft may make bitcoin the ‘official currency of virtual worlds’」讓人想了一下遊戲的虛擬貨幣與 Bitcoin 的結合...

與以往的不一樣的情況:

  • 不需要找金流系統接,Bitcoin 可以直接獨立運作,馬上可以想到不少方法利用 Bitcoin 的架構來規劃虛擬貨幣。
  • 法令更不容易管制,如果遊戲本身再透過 Tor 隱藏在 Tor network 裡的話就更完整。以往在最後要換錢的部份都還會經過金流系統與實體界接,現在連這個部分都避開了。

再來是 Bitcoin 的中立性,跨遊戲之間的交易也許是另外一個可能的強大之處?

不過 Bitcoin 的 n=6 確認應該會讓人感覺到愈來愈痛,不知道後面會怎麼解決...

PayPal 本家也要支援 Bitcoin

先前 PayPal 的分家 Braintree 宣佈支援 Bitcoin,而現在本家也宣佈要支援:「PayPal and Virtual Currency」,不過目前只是放話順便在北美試辦,速度還是慢了不少...

Bitcoin 交易不可逆的性質讓很多事情都改變了,接下來應該會愈來愈精彩...

PayPal 旗下的 Braintree 將支援 Bitcoin 貨幣

Bitcoin 的特性使得各家金流業者被逼著要支援,不然就等著在市場上被淘汰。

Stripe 的測試「Stripe: Bitcoin」表態後,龍頭 PayPal 也出手了:「Braintree Brings One Touch Payments to the People and Will Offer Bitcoin to Developers Soon」。

目前是跟 Coinbase 合作:

In addition we announced that Braintree has partnered with Coinbase to offer a trusted and secure way for people to pay with bitcoin across their favorite apps in the coming months.

Bitcoin 有單一團體超過 50% 計算能力了...

Bitcoin 的安全性是利用「當整個社群夠大時,不會有單一團體擁有超過 50% 的計算能力」的假設上發展演算法及防護機制:(參考「Weaknesses - Bitcoin」)

An attacker that controls more than 50% of the network's computing power can, for the time that he is in control, exclude and modify the ordering of transactions. This allows him to:

  • Reverse transactions that he sends while he's in control. This has the potential to double-spend transactions that previously had already been seen in the block chain.
  • Prevent some or all transactions from gaining any confirmations
  • Prevent some or all other miners from mining any valid blocks

不過讓人噴飯的消息出來了,即使在 Bitcoin 這麼火熱的情況下,仍然有單一團體計算能力已經超過 50%:「Largest Bitcoin Mining Pool Pledges Not To Execute '51% Attack'」。

這應該是當設計時始料未及的... XD

比利時電信業者 Mobile Vikings 宣佈接受 Bitcoin 付款...

是全世界第一家電信業者接受 Bitcoin 付款:「Belgian Telecom Becomes First To Accept Bitcoin」,新聞稿在「Mobile Vikings can pay with bitcoins, a world first!」。

實際上是透過 BitPay

Mobile Vikings works with the Bitpay platform, which is like the bitcoin variant of PayPal.

仍然是很讓人振奮的事情 :p