Ask HN: Should I recycle my Bitcoin miners or save them as collectibles?
I have a mass of boards, some with some pretty cool and totally unique circuitry. The cointerra's are the heaviest PCBs I've ever wielded. The butterfly labs boards are surprising, why? Because they delivered! And also it's good circuitry.
As a general enquiry: what should be done with old hardware? Electronics shops in the EU are obliged to take electronics handed in by anybody (in consumer amounts) and take care of proper, environment friendly disposal of the e-junk. Just hand those in. In a few years nobody will care for outdated bitcoin mining hardware. I'm in the US, and we have recycling programs too. OK. I have collected old e-junk for a while, now in the process of getting rid of them. They take up a whole lot of space, especially in intended to be preserved in a usable state. I have more often than not failed to keep them operational. I'm not a museum, and don't have the resources. You should also consider this. Now if you don't want it to be usable, live demoable, then just take a few pictures and videos of it working. That will be enough to remind you of the olden times, and to recall some nice memories and anecdotes. edit:
Also consider: it is not worth preserving anything if it is not used in any way: economically or educationally useful. You just to have them around, it is a waste of space. If you intend to showcase to people it is worth the effort. I appreciate your response.
Sometimes it's difficult to part from things, especially with the concept that they are valuable.
However, the hippy dippy idea that nothing has value isn't effectual in "this day and age". If we're going to accomplish Elon Musk level relevancy, then we can't ignore the significance of past technology.
edit: I basically agree with your comment, and thanks for it. I don't suggest to ignore the past, just say that it may not be practical/feasible to keep every bit of it around. We still remember the importance of many now defunct technologies: Roman pilum, ancient oil-lamps, the crop cycle, the Ford T-model. These were important steps on your journey to our present word, and we still remember, but have only a few items preserved in museums. About the difficulty of parting from things: I know, that is why i mentioned to create digital reminders, to help you remember the important parts of the past. And what is also important: if you do not keep stuff, be responsible about the disposal. I do not presume you would not be, just repeating it should anybody else read our discussion, may this help him/her in making an informed decision. edit:
In Hungary, where I live, we have some nice collections about computer history. I know of 2 noteworthy ones, one is in Szeged, in a former military base, the other is at a university in Budapest. Both are public, the first being a museum, the second being a free exhibit. If the stuff I had was anything special, I'd consider donating it to them, if they needed it. You should also check around to see if some institutions would take the responsibility of preserving it, write some short letter about the things you wish to donate, their importance in technology, you know, the stuff that is hung out in museums to educate the technologically not-so-informed, and ask them if they'd take care of them. I believe you could find some places where it would be a nice item in a public collection. I'm sure they'd also give credit to you. May it help, sure, I agree. And yes, responsible reuse, and recycling are worthy of promotion and ideals to strive for, tho being a responsible human according to ones individual interpretation isn't very satisfying. Responsible disposal is not the end all and be all