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Wired Mines Bitcoins, Then Destroys Them


Stashed in: Robots!, SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!, Awesome, Beer!, DIY, Bitcoin

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Of course, reviewing a money-making box presented a new ethical question: If you’re reviewing a machine that makes money, what do you do with the money?

Naturally, our first impulse was to use the Bitcoins to replenish our old pal, Beer Robot, (San Francisco’s Pacific Brewing Laboratory said they’d sell us a keg for BTC 1.5). But that didn’t pass the journalistic ethics sniff test.  In the end, the answer was obvious. The world’s most popular digital currency really is nothing more than an abstraction. So we’re destroying the private key used by our Bitcon wallet. That leaves our growing pile of Bitcoin lucre locked away in a digital vault for all eternity — or at least until someone cracks the SHA-256 encryption that secures it.

Forget Bitcoin, I wanna get a Beer Robot!

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/beerrobot/

Seriously, though, destroying money just seems wrong.

More on Beer Robot:

With a budget of $200, we quickly determined that the fridge would have to be free, because the cheapest conversion kit we could find was $192, on sale. Fortunately, there is a lot of free stuff on Craigslist, where we found a fridge that was just right: a homely, but working, almond-colored fridge that had been left on the sidewalk in Alameda to make way for a newer model.

It turns out converting a fridge to a kegerator is pretty easy. You only need a conversion kit and a few tools, and there’s really only one step you can mess up, which we discovered by messing it up. We were only on step five of 32 steps when we drilled a hole that was too big. But we managed to recover using only our wits and a broom handle.

A keg of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale materialized and… success! The beer was cold, and it flowed. Perfect pints, with lovely head, at the ready. Mmmm… beer.

My only question is, will it fit right here next to my couch if I move the end table?

Heck yes!

Beer robot

Beer robot Beer robot

Awesome, where do I order... Amazon??? Because at this moment, a certain someone is complaining for having to be my beer robot. Apparently I need a real one

So I have to build it myself? Geez...story of my life

If you're willing to pay more, someone else will build it for you:

http://www.wired.com/reviews/2009/09/pr_kegerators

Been down that road before, paid more...got less. Goes back to the old saying "If you want it done right..." or even better "If you build it..beer will come" Yay Beer!

That's true, the best way to make sure it's awesome is to DIY = Do It Yourself.

Huff...guess I have to figure it out. Wasn't that a TV show?

There's an entire Home Improvement series! Or do you mean Macguyver?

No it was Nickelodeon my son used to say "Figer it out" 

Figure It Out 

Figure It Out is a good use for life!

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