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
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    44
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      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
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

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

        • legion02@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          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
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    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@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      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
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    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.

  • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    For Golem specifically I don’t think it’s worth it. You get paid in their own currency (GLM) which is probably worthless. Nobody will likely exchange it for BTC or ETH because they’d have to find a reason to use Golem for computing. As others have said it’s more likely for someone with serious needs to use AWS.

  • Drusas@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    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.