Bitcoin Forum

I just purchased a cheap usb miner to help me better understand how the cryptocurrency systems work. I realize this is not the best option for mining but i am not worried about making money right now. Is it possible to mine both btc and ltc with a usb miner? If so is there anything I need to do to mine ltc? the one i purchased is an asic miner block erupter

No. LTC and BTC use two different mining algorithms. ASICs are application specific and this application is the sha256d hash only, which is not the one the litecoin uses.

there were actually gridseed that could mine both litecoin and bitcoin, by using scyrpt and sha256 you can switch between the two, but it go without saying that it is not profitable

I used to have a gc3355, but i only mined scrypt coins with it, the power consumption when mining sha256 was to much...
That being said, the OP never said which miner he bought... If i'm not mistaking, there are also scrypt-only usb block eruptors, albeit they seem less abundantly available than sha256 usbsticks (but i do remember seeing them on alixpress once)

I think antminer or whatever it's called, can mine ltc and btc at the same time. I remember seeing it. It's a block erupter like you spoke of and uses usb. I know back in the day people collected a whole lot of them and connected them all together.

Most USB miners are so slow compared to newer miners they won't even be able to get a share for payout on a pool.  It can be done and yes there were specific miners that could mine both.  There are also some pools that will let you mine sha256 or scrypt and get paid in the coin of your choice.   This is what I do with my old sha256 USB sticks.  Currently have them mining btc and getting paid in doge.

Depends if they support both Scrypt and Sha based mining, there are multi-functional miners out there

I dont think so, but try and see ...

I guess it depends on what means by usb miner.  Assuming he means like usb stick miners there was one long ago that could do either.  - https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/dualminer-sha-256-scrypt-usb-miner/  It is very much outdated at this point though.

Most pick one or other though. Just is easier to pick one and excel at it vs trying to do two mediocre.  And less dev cost to do one, and most end up as SHA256 miners due to bigger market.  

Hello,

No,you need a scrypt usb miner to mine litecoin and a sha256 usb to mine bitcoin.

the gridseed orb miners can do both scrypt and sha256, otherwise the ASIC can only do whatever algorithm is was intended for

Look up one post this would be wrong.  "I guess it depends on what means by usb miner.  Assuming he means like usb stick miners there was one long ago that could do either.  - https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/dualminer-sha-256-scrypt-usb-miner/  It is very much outdated at this point though."

So there are stickminers that can do it.  But they are pretty dated at this point.  But I do agree almost all don't but a few do.

if you purcashed asic miner,so you can only mine bitcoin,but if you have dualminer,we know dualminer is it can mine both BitCoin SHA-256 and Scrypt coins (such as LiteCoins) at the same time if desired. With an easy dip switch setting, it will mine Scrypt at nearly double the dual rate making it simple to configure.