Bitcoin stands to be one of the most useful pieces of technology since the internet. It has the potential to take the power to abuse money out of the hands of governments and central banks. The inquality caused by central banks in this world is attrocioius - a tragedy of epic proportions. Bitcoin can prevent this from happening again. But right.. maybe the search for aliens is more important.. how could I have been so short sighted.

If you have a choice between a radiator and a miner, then you do mine to make the heat. The added btc (or any other) is a bounus which perhaps helps to cover the electricity. Since the bulk of mining is done in specialized facilities then home-mining can be about heat (plus tinkering/hobby).

That's oversimplifying a little. Miners are much more expensive than radiators, so again, the heat is the bonus, you are investing in mining equipment, not a heater, and the resources for making said mining equipment are much more than what it costs to make a heater. Using old junk equipment works but won't make you much.

It's also less efficient than a normal heater, especially compared to heat pumps. The difference is only made up in mining, which is itself a super inefficient process, as we know. Less so when you use them as heaters... but they aren't great heaters.

Perhaps it's not that simple, true. What I meant was that there are people who need to heat a room, but are hobby IT people. So instead of getting a radiator they put a mining rig in the room. It won't mine in any substantial amount and won't generate a massive profit, perhaps just pays for the electricity. What I'm just saying is that people do mine in a situation where heat is primary and the rest is hobby.

Also, as the sibling says, miners are just as efficient as radiators for the same amount of electricity. Heat pumps are another story, they don't generate heat from electricity but transfer it from somewhere else.

> It's also less efficient than a normal heater,

If you're saying that "normal heaters" produce more heat for a given amount of electric usage, that is absolutely wrong. Yes heat pumps are more efficient, but those are not "normal heaters". Sounds like you're either being disingenuous or you have a misunderstanding of basic physics.