I wasn’t even aware companies still use Norton - maybe they don’t, which is why Norton is doing this.
At first I read this as they are using us for mining, Norton is the virus.
My read is this is another revenue stream and Ethereum first and then move to other coins. Miningware? Similar to ad supported software.
I dont think a company would go for it but it would be an interesting way to utilizing spare processor time and storage at work. Most engineering firms will have video cards which sit at least half the day being unused (engineers arent CADding).
Not to argue, but I work at an engineering firm. We would never implement something like this to fill up downtime.
- It’s harder on the hardware (we have to deal with enough replacements already)
- Anything crypto related puts a target on our back (security, hacking, etc.)
- Additional tax burden on accounting
- Engineers will surely forget to turn it off.
- Does it continue to work while users are WFH? What are the implications of the company using the users power/internet etc. at home to profit?
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wow I wonder if norton went downhill before or after lifelock.
perfect marriage, I guess.
Discussions are never arguments. I definitely agree on your points as hurdles.
Agreed on the crypto-anything would increase your value but counterpoint having data or resources in general that can be ransomed also paints a target.
Increased usage leading to increased failures is completely valid and the WFH home questions are probably the bigger hurdles.
The WFH is an interesting question should companies be paying for a 1/3 (8 hrs of 24) to a 1/2 (8 hrs of 16hrs - Waking day) of a WFH employees internet? Particularly for the companies which are able to reduce facilities costs with a fully WFH person not just pandemic induced.
I think it would need to be productized for companies to generally take advantage.
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Companies are using certain hardware in multiple capacities, but ones in my neck of the woods aren’t using their VDI graphics cards for mining during off-hours; they’re using it for AI/ML. Nvidia made that business decision to buy those 5-10k cards much more attractive when they pitched that dual-ROI model.
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So the update is it wouldnt be profitable for BackBlaze - processing power and wear and tear on the hardware.
Is Chia Farming in the Cloud Profitable? - Original BackBlaze blog post for all of the details.
In other news, they have a farm to the cloud service. 
" But the real kicker is that Backblaze will continue to offer the farm-in-the-cloud service its own estimates deemed unprofitable.
“Farming Chia didn’t make sense for us,” the company said, “but we love watching people experiment with storage.”"
If backblaze can’t make chia profitable who can?
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