alt Hacker NewsI partially heat my home by running the default Monero client on old Xeons (heat ejects near my desktoes). As I only mine when it's cold outside (otherwise using resistive heating), there is no actual net electricity cost. IMHO it's not "worth it" for an individual to buy equipment specifically to mine crypto... but if you already have an old machine AND you heat without a heatpump, it's a free hobby/heater.
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To anybody else that is syncing a fresh monero blockchain copy (i.e. installing the official client), I recommend using the custom node flag ` --db-sync-mode safe ` — which is slower but corruption-avoiding — before node's initial bootup. Without safemode, any halt of the client will [most likely] corrupt the local blockchain (losing days of DL/verification).
Also, if you use an SSD for storing any blockchain (as recommended by monero team... but not by me), know that its lifespan will be greatly reduced from the constant IO/access. Personally, I recommend safemode (see above) on a 7200RPM spinner (HDDs effectively don't wear during IO/access).
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What are your thoughts on running xmrig vs. the default getmonero.org client? Would you in general agree that monero remains ASIC-resistant?
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Just use a Linux laptop with a working battery so you never have to worry about power outages or other system crashes. In that case, you don't need safe sync mode, and you don't have to kill your SSD.
A heat pump would arguably be more efficient for society (can provide 4x heat for 1x energy), but if you make enough money on the mined monero I guess it might be rational.
Would be curious if the marginal savings from a heat pump would allow you to buy more monero than you mine with this energy.