True. This started as a technical solution with only one finance person present. We know we have evaluations to do, etc to figure it out. I figured why waste the time going into budget and P&L meetings and crap if there's some huge reason it won't pay off. From the majority of replies it sounds like we'll burn more electricity and make some money but likely earn less BC value than we'll spend in power. That will be the focus of our next meeting and investigation and determining if we move forward with this.

Apparently /. has started to allow 12 year olds to post again. Please go back to pretending you have a life on Facebook and leave /. to people that don't have to pretend their existence is greater than their phone tells them it is. :P

Thanks valuable insight here. I would mod you up if I could...

Well, that's the general idea we're trying to figure out. Obviously if the PC is idle it uses fewer resources. But at what point does ratcheting it up to 100% utilization for 8-12 hours become worthwhile? Sure, it will consume more electricity, but say the extra electricity is $0.10 per PC times 18K PC's is an electrical bill increase of $1800. So we would need to generate 24 bitcoins in that 8-12 hours to break even and more to make money. Granted, this is loosely rounded math, but that's what we're trying to figure out. Is it feasible now? Or do I need to wait til a BC is $200 versus $75? Of course the real money *could* be to the botnet guys as they can use the swarm to generate revenue without caring about the electrical costs.

So one thing I should throw out there we're already very, very green compared to many companies. We are positioned near a local river & lake for cooling needs and use a solar farm (no I don't work for Apple in NC). All building roofs are painted white, etc etc etc. All laptop users are required to run on battery power throughout the day until 20% and then they plug in. Compared to your average company on a grid, we're already about 60% green and our electrical bills now are about 75% lower than they were 5 years ago accounting for inflation and the market and other offsets and adjustments that bean counters like to do. Our goal is to shave off another 10% within 3 years EITHER by consuming fewer resources or by offsetting our costs (ie: making money that covers electrical costs) or both. Please add your comments to the main thread, not this one just wanted to throw this out there as some additional information.

Trust me I would like to. In fact, in our ESX environment we do turn vmotion VMs and turn off servers each evening to save power in the datacenter. However, for desktops and to meet requirements, etc we are required to have them on for the AV scans and backups, as well as automated Windows Updates.

And no AV scans or backups. Unfortunately, not an option for our org but thanks for the info. Any resources or public data available for figuring out the value of BC mining? I've looked but can't find any...

Nokia is in love with Microsoft. Apple has IOS. Motorola/Google has Android. BB10 is around the corner. There are a few other niche OS's out there. I honestly cannot see any carrier shipping an Ubuntu based phone.

Half the items shown at CES will be vaporware. Most of the rest will come to market too late to be of any value. The only thing worth seeing are the good ideas that some new or small company has come up with that Zuckerberg, Apple, or some other company can clone or otherwise knock-off and then present as their own (as FB likes to do) or as some new thing no one has ever thought of before (Apple I'm looking at you). I just hope it doesn't scroll or have rounded corners.

I thought South Park already covered this idea or at least the idea of getting whacked every time you start a game. Doesn't seem like it deterred them. http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s10e08-make-love-not-warcraft

If you're assassinated in a video game, what happens to your assets? I can totally see a new a career here. First, I play video games all day long and get really good at them. Then, I offer to assassinate other players with the stipulation that I get to keep all their goods. So I get real world cash for the hit and virtual world goods from the person I just wiped out. And all while sitting on my ass playing video games. Hmmm I think I need to take this idea to a good VC firm before Zuckerberg steals my idea and integrates it into Facebook.

Or maybe his father just needed to establish a usage contract for the video games similar to the cellphone one that made the news: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/mom-attaches-18-point-contract-teen-iphone-article-1.1229991

Considering that a 1st grader just got suspended from school for making a gun with his finger and saying "pow" http://abcnews.go.com/US/maryland-grader-suspended-pointing-finger-shape-gun/story?id=18123294#.UOcsEaXstuo , I can totally see the son pursuing his father in court for "attempted murder". And then he won't need a job. He can just sue and live off the money he gets from his father. Oh the irony...