[syhprum (OP)]

Can anyone buy time on a super computer or does it have to be for a good cause such as climate control or curing cancer ?

[evan_au]

Google and Amazon (among others) will be happy to rent you time on their cloud infrastructure, which is like a distributed supercomputer.
- But they charge a lot more than the number of Bitcoins you will mine (otherwise they would already be doing it)

Most of the cost in Bitcoin mining is:
- Electricity: You need low-cost electricity
- Air conditioning: A cold climate is an advantage
- Processing power: Special-purpose Bitcoin mining chips have a significant advantage over a general-purpose processor

University/Government-funded supercomputers can be accessed "for free", but:
- They accessed via a competitive process where you make application, justifying the compute costs and research outcomes
- They are assessed for their scientific, technical and economic merits
- A limited number of grants are approved (unlike the unlimited demands of Bitcoin mining)

[syhprum (OP)]

It was rather the answer I expected ,if it was a good Idea some one would already be doing it.
I wonder if the technicians who have their hands on these things sneak in a bit of processing for unworthy causes ?

[Bored chemist]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-43003740
I doubt they were the only ones.