Bitcoin Forum

Hey guys, I recently came across this USB ASIC Miner which is said to do 335 MHash and is in hand ready to ship.

https://www.bitmit.net/en/item/61085-usb-asic-miner-block-erupter-in-hand-ready-to-ship

"This USB devices mines Bitcoin at a confirmed ~335 MHash while using only USB spec power (2.5 Watt)."
"Heat reduction: 500-510mA (sapphire)."
Cost 0.2 BTC

I just wanted to know would it be worth buying? AND How much would I make if I let this run for 12 hours? AND When will I start making profit from the cost of 1 (0.2 BTC)?

Thanks, if I find an answer to this topic that I really like, I might just tip you some BTC! :)

If you are looking for a "profit" then these units are not the way to go.  

In my experience with these units my 10 little erupters make about 0.01 btc per day at current difficulty.  So 20 days for me?  yours would get 0.001 per day. Also bear in mind that difficulty continues to increase so it'll take a while to get a return (if at all)

Always worth it if you want to hash as a hobby and protect the network.   8)

i am selling them for cheaper, see my signature sales thread

pumpkin, are you also ppumkin?

How long in hours, would it take to mine 0.01 BTC?

With one usb and increasing difficulty, I couldn't say, but I would estimate upwards of 14 days.

Which by complete coincidence is 336 hours.

Especially with exponentially increasing difficulty, it probably won't be very profitable a short time from now.

BTC Guild sells them (in hand, ships within 24 hours) for 0.15 for repeat customers, 0.17 for new customers.  That *includes* the cost of shipping.  So no, the one you linked isn't worth it at all.


However, they are unlikely to ever produce a return compared to the value of just buying that much BTC and holding onto it.  These days they're more of a gift item/novelty.  They're very good as a replacement for noisy GPUs if you want to keep mining.  Get rid of the heat/noise/power consumption that a graphics card uses for a fraction of the cost.

last week the in hand price was .125 off the forums word is it comes down more tomorrow

Why not try to buy the blue fury?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=296953

It's only around .83 - .90 BTC

I'm running six of these and I earn 0.01 BTC every 24 hours give or take.

7x the hashrate, 7x the price, 1/7th the ports.

Still wont make more then 0.4-0.6BTC by the time difficulty makes them obsolete

Difficulty jumped 32% today. So they are worth even less.

 Amusingly, the heatsinks on the BF1's are so large that I'm not able to use more than 5 ports on the Anker 9+1's.

 We're going to need to start considering spacing distance on hubs depending on which USB miner you are using.

So, what is the lifespan of USB Block Eruptors? When are they expected to fail, die, overheat or otherwise stop working?

What if you are going long on BTC and are hoping to mine as much as possible and sit on them for the value to build (hopefully all the while still slowly upgrading and adding more hardware)

In theory if you keep them cool they should last many years.
But I don't think anyone will know for sure until enough time goes by that people start to see them fail.

When bitcoins were at $15 a lot of people were saying GPU mining was dead because the cost of electricity made it unprofitable.
Then the value jumped and it was profitable again for a while...

Perhaps the same thing will happen again.
Sure, its easier to just buy coins and sit on them but its a lot less fun than tinkering with hardware.

i bought some, i hope so

They only include the cost of shipping in the USA. To other countries it costs a flat 0.08 BTC + 0.02 BTC per unit to my understanding.

I have 2 USB miner's and i hit around 660mhash/s give or take. I've made about 0.02361080 in 2 weeks of almost 24/7 mining (got kicked off the internet) with BTC guild. I paid around $18 each and I really don't expect to make my money back. If you're looking for a quick ROI or even a ROI then avoid these. If you just want a novelty item and to claim you're a 'member' of the network then they're worth every penny.

The same sort of calculations apply to all new hardware don't they? Most people seem to labour under the delusion their shiny new piece of next generation hardware will be the only one in existence. Over time the magical ROI number will stretch further away into the future and an investment break even point impossible, all the while running costs increase as a percentage of returns and also compounded as, in absolute terms, energy prices rise over time.

For a hobby yes, anything else I'd have to say forget it you're on a hiding to nothing.