Originally Posted by gir

given the fact that solving the blocks is used to ensure security of the the system, that would be the only practical use and considering you're paid 4x more than the power consumed it aint that bad either.

note that computing power at current difficulty lies at about 3.5 petaflops (5TFlop/5970 gives 1Ghash, the network is currently about 700ghash strong). incredible computing power is completely "wasted" for little e-currency already....