I learned about this post and read in detail. It has become very inspiring, as I am both a crypto mining, AI and energy enthusiast (and professional). There are looming issues around the sustainability of PoW crypto economies, concentration of power in crypto economies, regulation of crypto economies and even availability of power for not only crypto security but also for other high density advancements in technology driven by AI.
For a long time I have felt that there needed to be a more distributed solution to secure the network. Many limitations to GPU mining including power consumption and regulation (even as to individuals but also commercial operations) and simply a huge difficulty in building and maintaining mining rigs that are preventing a broader adoption. Normal people simply can't handle it. I have tons of friends who are like "I would love to have one of those in my living room, I don't care how much it makes but it looks so cool!" I meet software developers that come into my office and see my mining rigs and don't even know what they are. We think everyone in the world knows everything about crypto. But they don't.
This FPGA solution can answer many of those problems, by reducing the amount of power, space and cooling required to maintain blockchain security in PoW systems. Prior to the newer and larger FPGA products this hasn't really been possible.
This has inspired me to consider developing a consumer grade, multi-purpose work station with specific capabilities needed for FPGA mining and deep learning networks. A "Personal Accelerator"
Link to sample marketing document I created for the project:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7w6ibv6q6o5x21k/algorithmic.energy.pdf?dl=0As many people have commented, an open source, community based development approach is probably best. The question remains how to compensate early developers to get it going. Because the FPGA firmware will be hardware specific, this should be easy for hardware makers to do based on cost recovery from hardware sales. I believe that the developers should be compensated for time and costs as any engineer is, but that the growth and maintenance of the available firmware libraries can be built on open source networks and a dedicated (even decentralized) organization.
In a consumer grade product with multiple potential utility streams, it would be possible to leverage traditional financing solutions and with sufficient revenue from mining or cloud computing operations would be net revenue positive from the first day of ownership. By exponentially expanding the potential network, outside of government regulation and concentration of power, it would be possible to overcome both the GPU and ASIC hashing capacity.
What better place to open this can of worms that here. Looking forward to thoughts and comments.
Initial questions would be:
1. Optimal selection of hardware based on cost/performance/packaging. Currently looking at Alpha Data 8k5 with Xilinx KU115 core or comparable packages. Open to any suggestions, however the VU9 does seem a bit much for this kind of solution, the FPGA package needs to come in the $3K-$4K range tops and I don't see Xilinx doing it, even at volume. A data center will pay much more than that, why would they lower their pants? They won't...
2. Support from OP and/or other thread members in working on the open source, based on below T&C assumptions?
3. Should there be a "maintenance model" in which the Open Source Org captures a portion of the revenue to maintain and grow support for new algorithms and uses (including deep learning networks), OR should there be a fixed fee charged upfront (included in hardware purchase price) for a "support term" and then an annual support fee when that term expires? I personally prefer the latter, much simpler.
4. Any ideas on how big of a support team would be required to maintain the org? Would 3 full time developers x $150K/year salary+ 1 full time QC x $100K/year salary overhead $50K/head = $750K/year be sufficient?
5. Would people buy this hardware for the suggested price range $5500-$6500? Would they finance it for 24 months for $265/month (including support and warranty)? Would your friends or family do the same?
6. Anybody interested in investing or partnering in the hardware company? I am currently already looking at MFG solutions and supply chain and have most of that scoped out for volume production, the main part missing would be the firmware and algorithm development and QC. I have been building hardware, sensors, and software (including SaaS) for the last 18 years of my life. I think we can handle this and put a good team together.
7. What do people think of a "trade in" option, where you can get a credit value for exchanging your current GPU mining rig? We could reclaim existing GPU's, set them back to factory specs and then release them back to the gamers for reasonable prices that they so desperately have needed.
Although I appreciate answers from everyone, if someone is interested in a closer relationship I would only be interested in working with serious, professional people. This is not intended to be a hobbyist solution, but a real commercial, consumer grade product run by competent, experienced and professional management. If you have less than 5-10 years of experience in the field and don't have credible professional references as an entrepreneaur, investor or engineer, then this is probably not an opportunity for you at this time (not to be unfair, just realistic).
