[rybosworld]

It's not an impossibility that they could eventually do that - but it would be very difficult for them to do for a number of reasons that other folks have listed.

Bitmain, a manufacturer of bitcoin mining hardware, was using their machines to mine bitcoin before eventually shipping them to customers.

[latchkey]

This was a horrible business practice that they got called out heavily on. When I was mining Litecoin, we received a bunch of units that were obviously used. They would claim they were being "tested" first... uh huh.

[metadat]

What were the indications of prior usage?

Edit: @latchkey oh, how delightful! :-/

[latchkey]

Swapped fans and insides of the boxes filled with dust crap.