We are now in the darkest depths of winter and electricity can be expensive. To hear Canaan say: Bitcoin will fix that.
A growing number of hardware manufacturers are trying to soften the blow of sky-high bills by offering Bitcoin miners that can heat your house.
Kanaan has become the latest company to throw its hat in the ring, unveiling user-friendly, plug-and-play tools for beginners. The company unveiled its new mining rig at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The $899 Avalon Mini 3 aims to recycle excess heat generated during mining to heat living spaces — “offering homeowners a unique way to offset energy costs and reduce environmental impact,” the company said.
But those dreaming of opting to check out a Bitcoin block with this portable heater and walk away with a prize of 3,125 BTC (almost $300,000) will probably need to crunch some numbers first.
The Avalon Mini 3 has a computing power of 37.5 TH/s (terahash per second). At the same time, Coinwarz data shows The total hashrate of the Bitcoin network was over 800 million Terahashes per second as of January 7th.
For context, one terahash is equal to 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) hashes per second. In the context of Bitcoin mining, the rate of hashes per second is important because it determines how long it takes to complete a block.
More hashes means a miner has a higher chance of completing a Bitcoin block and receiving the coveted block reward.
In other words, Avalon Mini 3 users have a one in 19.5 million chance of winning a block prize every 10 minutes.
That’s not to say it’s impossible. In 2023, a single miner challenged one of 26.9 million to solve a block with a valid hash for the first time.
Kanaan joins other players in trying to put a few cents in the pockets of consumers during the cost of living crisis.
More than a year ago, The founder of Heatbit company Alex Busarov said about it Decryption its boiler can offset 50% of a UK consumer’s energy bill, rising to 70% in parts of the US
“It’s moving with Bitcoin mining, but it’s not making too much noise,” he said at the Web Summit. “For people who know how to mine Bitcoin, it can be very noisy…we built it for the general audience, not for tech geeks. Just like any other heater, you plug it in, connect to your cell phone, press a button, and it works.”
The concept of using excess energy from Bitcoin hardware is nothing new. Resort in New York took a little heat (ahem, controversy) after a small-scale mining operation was announced in 2023 to help keep its pools warm.
And in 2018, the heat generated by bitcoins was used to grow tomatoes in greenhouses. The resulting “crypto-tomatoes” once served as the basis for bruschetta at a Bitcoin Amsterdam side event.
Edited by Stacey Elliott.
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