Does anyone have any experiences with these services like gollum Network? Is it safe? Does it earn you a net monetary gain compared to your electric bill? I have a pretty nice desktop that sits around for most of the day, just wondering what else I can do with it while I’m at work.

Please note, I’m asking specifically for people who have actually done this and what their experiences were, good and bad. I understand I’m not going to make tons of (or possibly any) money or start a business.

  • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    I’ve never done this, so take my response with a cup of salt, but it’s worth mentioning that the big guys with scalable server resources (e.g., Amazon, Microsoft, etc.) are very heavily optimized/efficient, and running on grids with dirt cheap electricity.

    Unless you’re renting for a very niche purpose, I’d be shocked if you could break anywhere close to even at residential electricity rates on consumer gear.

    • legion02@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Especially since in the summer every watt you use has to be cooled with your AC. In the winter the temp is on your side a little, but still probably going to be hard to break even.

      • xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        If you use electric heating, then the use of electricity for computation is basically free in winter, no?

        • legion02@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Purely electric heating is pretty rare I’d think. Most will be heat pump which is wayyy more efficient than an electric heater

  • jam12705@lemmy.nexus
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    1 year ago

    You can donate the time to science:

    Boinc

    I’ve been doing this for severl years without any issues. Currently chugging along in a docker instance on my headless linux server, and I’ve found it runs well on most any OS.

    • tun
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      1 year ago

      I donated my CPU time during COVID pandemic.

      I saw there is LTT pool also donating theirs.

      Though I don’t know how much benefit, it makes me feel great.

    • Tippon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If you’re running the Folding@Home project through it, it might be worth looking at the Banano project. It runs the F@H program in the same way, but using credentials that they give you, and you get Banano as a reward.

      On the one hand it’s a cryptocurrency, so take it with a pinch of salt, but on the other hand you get it for doing what you’re already doing.

  • etchinghillside@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    Are you competing with people that live in countries/places that make it exceptionally cheaper to operate in? If so, seems like any profit margins would be slim or in the negatives.

    Can possibly “donate” it to public projects.

  • Drusas@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    This may be true, but filling up on electricity will get you probably hundreds of miles less than filling up gasoline at this point.