Ask HN: Monetizing Idle Computer Power Viable?

[Rudgers]

There are over 1.8 billion desktop gamers as of 2021, these expensive machines sit idle over 90% of the time on average.

My startup has been aiming to monetize different both the idle computing power (currently through mining, working on providing generative AI APIS), and bandwidth sharing (currently with a partner in the industry but eventually on our own).

Users are incentivized to download our program since they are able to easily earn a small amount of passive income by having the program at letting it run (100k+ downloads so far).

Do you think this idea is viable in the long run? We expect earnings for users to more than triple on average when we move to AI workloads, and companies can save 50-70% off leading platforms by using our APIs. I am worried we will run into challenges finding customers for our APIs.

[smoldesu]

I've got an RTX 3070 in my main box right now. Currently I choose not to run it for mining processes because I want the hardware to last longer and don't want to pay for 10x the idle power costs. 300w is a lot of wall power, a non-negligible amount of money and potentially a sustained 80c+ heater in my room until I turn it off.

That's just me. 100k downloads disagree apparently, but I do question how many people would stick with this in the long-run.

[Rudgers]

Completely understandable, though you would be profitable at $.1/kWH (https://www.nicehash.com/profitability-calculator/nvidia-rtx...). At what earning threshold would you consider it worth it to let it run when idle? $1 a day? 2? 5? Our AI workloads would be a lot better than current mining profitability