Apparently Home Heaters Now Mine Crypto

In Brief

French company Qarnot has revealed a new space heater that can mine ether while keeping your house warm. Called the QC-1, it uses two AMD graphics cards and could mine nearly $120 worth of ether per month.

Computers get hot, sometimes to the point that they even overheat and shut down. Now, French startup Qarnot is taking advantage of what for most of us remains an inconvenient side effect. They’re selling a cryptocurrency heater that mines crypto while also warming your home.

Officially called the QC-1 crypto heater, the device looks like a black radiator adorned with a grille and wooden top. Housed inside the cryptocurrency heater are two AMD graphics processing units (GPUs) (Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 580 with 8GB of RAM). The GC-1 mines ether by default, but the user can direct the device to mine another cryptocurrency, such as litecoin or bitcoin.

According to Qarnot, the QC-1 takes 10 minutes to set up. It connects online via an Ethernet cable, and the owner can monitor the heater’s mining progress or activate a heating booster using a companion app.

Qarnot doesn’t take a cut of the crypto the QC-1 mines, according to a Tech Crunch report, meaning you can profit and stay warm without worry. Using the current price of ether as a base, Qarnot estimates their cryptocurrency heater can mine an average of $120 worth of ether per month.

The rig will set you back €2,900 ($3,571), and if you preorder one before March 20, it will arrive around June 20.

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The QC-1 isn’t the first device of its kind. Russian startup Comino sells two similar mining rigs that double as space heaters: the Comino N1 and the Comino N4. The N1 mines ether while the N4, which is currently sold out, mines Zcash. Both sell for €4,999 ($6,157).

In any case, that is a lot of money to spend on a mining rig, regardless of the company behind it. However, if you’re all in on crypto mining and want to cut down on your heating bill, these look like the most specific way for you to address two problems simultaneously.

Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

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