When cryptocurrency is mined, it often gives a lot of heat as a result of the powerful hardware that it uses. A French startup has decided to look for a way to use that heat output in houses so that the energy cost can be reduced. Qarnot has created the new type of computing heater which is optimized for the crypto miners. The QCI is able to warm the miner’s house safely using a powerful and functional computer inside. QCI’s slogan states, “Make heating a source of revenue, not an expense.”
The description of QCI says, “The heat of your QC-1 is generated by the two graphics cards embedded in the device and mining cryptocurrencies or blockchain transactions: While heating, you create money. You can watch in real time how crypto markets are trending, on your mobile app and on your QC-1 LEDs.” There are some companies which can rent out some similar systems for people who want to try these systems. However, so far Qarnot is the only company which is selling these units to miners. Co-founder and COO Miroslav Sviezeny said, “We provide computing capacity with an extremely hard constraint, which is the heating needs of consumers.”
QCI has two GPUs, Sapphire Nitro and Radeon RX580, it has an 8GB VRAM. The system is capable to mine Ethers but it can also be modified to mine other currencies since the server is based on Linux. The company also said that they are not getting any coin or earnings. Therefore, miners are free to mine without fear of any loss. Qarnot’s Paris-based development team created the GPU, CPU and PSU system and then installed it in a mixture of materials which were all meant to optimize and dissipate the heat. Qarnot QCI is currently priced at $3600.
The crypto heater was originally released in 2013. The product was reimagined and debuted again at CES 2018. It also won the CES 2018 Eureka Park Climate Change Innovators Award. In 2016, it also won Popular Mechanic’s Editor’s Choice Award. Last November, a report showed an entire cottage with bitcoin mining machine. Qarnot specializes in embedding energy technology with high-performance computers. The company launched a hybrid of a supercomputer and a heater called Q.RAD last year. Qarnot’s tech cannot get the huge number of miners as it’d have gotten at the beginning of the cryptocurrency boom, but the company is still offering a unique alternative which will attract miners who are looking to make the most from their money-making passion.