Crypto currency mining

[ainarssems]

Well spotted, could work for Nectar points as well. I actually introduced it to my friend today as well and he was looking at it more as a trading platform instead of FOREX for currency exchange as there are no fees and it looks like there are no spreads either just fixed exchange rate.

As far as crypto currencies go I actually registered for premium account £72 per year but asked to cancel it after I found out it does not support external transfers. Even after I cancelled premium I still have crypto accessible on their platform and I also got their premium Master Card to keep instead of free Visa, not sure how it's better though. They did keep £10 for card postage though as I did not cancel Premium before card was shipped.

[ulfilias]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

I think I have a Tesco Hudl in a cupboard in the office actually That'd work!

Shouldn't that be a Tesco Hodl

[ulfilias]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

Some speculate that V9 is old S7 boards from Bitmains own farms underclocked in new casing and maybe new controller.

Yeah. Read a bit of the bitcoin talk thing on it.
To be fair I'll be disappointed if they are not S7's as if it is a NEW product, then it's worrying....I mean the efficiency and hash rate are poor in relation to the S9 which implies that things are going backwards in terms of silicon etc.

However i'm guessing that it was something that was "quick" to market to cash in on the BTC boom that happened. I mean a three month turn around for a new mass produced product is pretty damn quick.....Shame BTC dipped heavily and it now looks stupid!

[ulfilias]

Originally Posted by moltuae

I think I've spotted a potential money-making loophole with that ...

If you top up your Revolut account with a credit card, it seems the card company register it as a purchase rather than a cash advance. So, if you have a credit card that gives cash back on purchases, unless I'm missing something, you could top up your Revolut account, transfer the funds to your bank, transfer the funds from your bank back to your credit card, thereby receiving cashback without making any purchases.

Possible. I do have a couple of cash back credit cards and make a couple of hundred on them a year as i run everything through them and also buy a fair bit for work etc.
Usually they charge you for cash advances etc. It's probably a fair bit of hassle for a relatively small amount of cash and if you go big you're likely to get questions ?

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by ulfilias

Possible. I do have a couple of cash back credit cards and make a couple of hundred on them a year as i run everything through them and also buy a fair bit for work etc.
Usually they charge you for cash advances etc. It's probably a fair bit of hassle for a relatively small amount of cash and if you go big you're likely to get questions ?

That's pretty much what I was thinking. Still, could be worth a try. I have an Asda Money CC that gives cashback. I topped up my Revolut account using it and the payment seems to have been registered as a purchase rather than a cash advance. It was only a small amount and there's no way to see the amount of cashback earned on individual transactions in my Asda Money account (that I can find). The card gives me 0.5% cashback on purchases outside of Asda so I'm thinking I might try a cyclic transfer of say £2,000, which should give me a free tenner for very little effort. Not going to make me rich but it's kind of a fun experiment


On the subject of banking: Somewhat unsurprisingly, many of the high street banks have now made their position clear by imposing restrictions on cryptocurrency trading, in some cases even closing accounts of customers who chose to invest in cryptocurrencies with their own money ... which serves to highlight the control they have on our money and the need for change.

My own Bank, Lloyds, are guilty of this too so, despite being with the bank for pretty much my entire life, I think it's time to vote with my feet and leave. So I've been looking at a few 'challenger banks', such as Fidor, Coconut and Tide, but many don't (yet) offer all traditional banking features such as faster payments in/out or Direct Debits/Standing Orders. The best one so far seems to be Monzo. Has anyone here used them?

This was an email reply I received (within 1 hour of emailing them!), responding to my questions relating to Direct Debits, Standing Orders and cryptocurrency trading:

Hey Mark, thanks for your message!

Firstly, here is a brief overview of the features of the current account to answer your first question (and hopefully give you an insight of what else you get with your account):

• a sort code and account number, so anybody can send you money, and you can get your salary directly into your account
• Faster Payments, so you can send a bank transfer to any other UK bank account with a sort code and account number – most payments arrive in seconds
• Pots, which let you set money aside for anything you might be saving for
• Direct Debits, so you can pay regular bills like rent, utilities and phone contracts
• Standing Orders, so you can set up regular payments out of your account for things like rent or ISAs
• A Mastercard® debit card, so you can spend anywhere that accepts Mastercard around the world, with a direct connection in to Mastercard (built on our own in-house processor!)
• FSCS protection for your money, up to a total of £85,000

Secondly, we don't have a problem with crypto trading! We are aware that some banks have started blocking crypto trades, but we haven't. However, one thing to note is that we currently don't support 3DS which most crypto sites use, so you may have problems buying crypto with your Monzo card.

Lastly, we don't offer current account switches to Monzo yet, but will do in a few months. In the meantime, you can absolutely move your Direct Debits to Monzo – you'll need to give your account details to each merchant. For standing orders you can set them up in the Payments tab of the Monzo app.

Please let me know if you have any further questions!

Natalie

[ainarssems]

I wonder if I could remove existing fans from Antminers and use something like this:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/manrose-m...flow-fan/26867

It's a lot quieter at 24dB, not sure if it will provide enough cooling, I understand I would need some signal generator for rpm to keep Antminer happy Or I could remove the blades from the original fans and just keep the motors running to provide speed reading

Edit:

actually this would be better, similar price from different vendor, higher flow rate and higher staic pressure: https://www.extractorfanworld.co.uk/...fan-2785-p.asp

[ainarssems]

another thing is to use air filter to stop dust entering miner and reducing cooling performance, something like this if it does not restrict airflow too much : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Performan...53.m1438.l2649

Might have some effect on noise as well.

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

I wonder if I could remove existing fans from Antminers and use something like this:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/manrose-m...flow-fan/26867

It's a lot quieter at 24dB, not sure if it will provide enough cooling, I understand I would need some signal generator for rpm to keep Antminer happy Or I could remove the blades from the original fans and just keep the motors running to provide speed reading

Edit:

actually this would be better, similar price from different vendor, higher flow rate and higher staic pressure: https://www.extractorfanworld.co.uk/...fan-2785-p.asp

That could work. I wonder how it compares the the airflow of the Antminer's fan.

I find acoustic ducting helps to quieten the original fan a little. Combined with a quieter fan it should be significantly quieter:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acoustic-D...t/162103654575

To fool the Antminer's fan circuit, you could make a simple emulator. If you take the PWM speed control and put it through a 'charge pump' (essentially a diode and a capacitor) you could convert the duty cycle into a variable voltage. You should than be able to convert that voltage into a variable frequency, using something like an LM331, to give you an emulated fan tacho output that varies according to the speed 'requested' by the PWM. The use of a charge pump will add a little latency but that shouldn't cause a problem. If anything it may make the output respond more like that of a real fan.

EDIT: This info might help: http://www.formfactors.org/developer...1_2_Public.pdf

[MikkiJayne]

How about quieter fans? Be Quiet! have a pretty good range.

[ainarssems]

I already have some acoustic ducting, just waiting for adapters, UPS should deliver them on Monday. I was thinking something like this for rpm signal https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NE555-Adj...53.m1438.l2649 I don't think it would matter if it's fixed speed, just set it about 4500-5000 rpm( 9-10kHz)

Be Quite fans will be too weak. Their 12cm model is only 50CFM/ 17Pa Static pressure (73CFM/ 33Pa for high speed model). Bitmmain does use several different fans but you are looking at 180 to 200+ CFM and 200-300 Pa static pressure. So this 5 inch model with 180 CFM, 230Pa should be suitable considering that original fan does not run at full speed https://www.airconcentre.co.uk/manro...+fan/912387649