Your TV Set May Become a Mining Rig

Bitcoin mining rig manufacturer Canaan Creative has reportedly come up with a creative new way for ordinary people to mine bitcoins by using their TV sets.

Source: iStock/Bet_Noire

With a hashing power of 2.8 trillion hashes per second, the company is betting on increased retail demand for bitcoin mining rigs, the South China Morning Post reported. However, the new TV set, known under the name AvalonMiner Inside, is still a far cry from the company’s most powerful bitcoin mining machine in terms of computing power – the AvalonMiner 841 with 13 trillion hashes per second, that retails for USD 618.

The report did not specify, when the 43-inch TV set is going to be available in the market and how much it would cost.

According to cryptocompare.com, a machine with a hashing power of 2.8 trillion hashes per second could mine BTC 0.04319 (USD 331 at current prices) per year. However, the report did not specify power consumption numbers.

Canaan’s TV set can reportedly be controlled by voice commands and is able to calculate bitcoin mining profitability in real time. The new product is the first in a planned new range of blockchain-related home appliances from Canaan, the newspaper wrote.

Although it is certainly a creative idea, early reactions from the bitcoin community reveals some skepticism. Beijing-based bitcoin analyst Xiao Lei was quoted in the article as saying “it looks more like a hype. It will be more meaningful if these companies are able to embed the mining function into existing major TV brands.”

Canaan Creative is the world’s second biggest maker of bitcoin mining rigs, following Bitmain Technologies. Both companies are headquartered in Beijing, China.

The news comes after Canaan earlier this year filed an application to list the company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where the hardware maker is aiming to raise up to USD 1 billion through an initial public offering (IPO).

Canaan reported revenues of USD 205 million last year, an increase of an astonishing 27 times from the year before. The company sold nearly 300,000 mining machines last year, with the US and Sweden being among its biggest markets.

According to figures from the company’s IPO application, Canaan’s mining machines accounted for approximately 20% of bitcoin hashing power globally in 2017.