Bitcoin Forum

Hi guys

I am considering testing out mining.  I have read a lot of mixed views. Many say you will never earn enough to pay for the power that is used. Some say differently.

I do not want to spend a thousand plus just to test and have some fun. So if I want to play and see, is there a guide for a raspberry setup running 5+ USB keys? 

What are the fastest USB keys for mining?

Any direction you can provide to get me started would be appreciated

this is the fastest usb stick

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1126705.0

the question if it pays electricity

Others questions are:
How much do you pay for electricity?
How much do you pay the usb miners?

It pays for electricity, unless you have crazy high electricity costs. But if you're trying to ROI, this is more or less a good pick. Its a great USB miner, but profiting in mining Bitcoin lies elsewhere.

Think about how many satoshis will you earn every day with an usb stick minner, i think that will be a very low number, the usb stick has low electricity costs, but needs your computer running (that has higher electricity costs). I don't see it as a good investment.

Thats true, but most people run USB sticks off a RasPI or other devices that are already running 24/7. philipma1957 has a very nice setup with big USB hubs. Its very fun stuff to play with, though at some point you may want to look into something like a S5 if what you want is raising your hashrate.

USB miners is like the dumbest decision you'll ever make... They profit you literally nothing, especially with the difficulty rising quickly.

Dunno, they make amazing lottery miners. They have a different purpose than let say a S5. They fill a different niche and just like any other hardware, some sticks are great (sidehack stick 8-23GH/s+) some sticks are horrible choices (nano, 400MH/s, etc whatever).

Some people just don't get it.  It's for the fun on this section of miners either fun or learning.  Chances of making money is slim off of them I think everyone know's that.   But you do it for the fun.

And yes I have much bigger miners that are for profit.  So I don't do all with no goal of profit.  But a few out there are fun especially with things like the compac group working together, we can run our compacs for very cheap for a long.. long time.  My U3's on other hand a little more costly but still fun.

If it's just for a hobby/fun a USB miner could be good for you. It'll never earn very much if you're in a pool and if you're solo mining you will probably never get any BTC.

If you don't pay for electricity it couldn't hurt to try! Just consider it a lottery ticket that you pay for once.

I'm interested in mining on the small scale too. If you're looking for profits you need to be the huge business with tons of miners at this point.

This link is a little old but explains it well https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/block-erupter-usb-beginners-guide/

isn't better at this point to try your luck with the best faucets freebtcio, which give you a lottery, which is far easy and it's almost free and no electricity cost?

The Compaq is probably the only miner on a USB stick with a prayer of actually being profitable for the medium term, but the probability of ANY USB-based SHA256 miner actually making enough back to pay for itself is pretty much zero at this point, unless you have FREE electric.

 ALL of them cost quite a bit more per GH (and most are still best measured as cost per MH!!!!) than same-generation larger miners using the same chips, which makes profitability on them quite harder to achieve.



 No, I don't get the "for fun" aspect some folks talk about. I can think of a LOT of things that are more fun than waiting on some low-performance miner to actually do something noticeable.

I don't know, do you stand to win 25BTC at one in a millions odd every day all year?

I kind of doubt some faucet operator would make enough money to come up with such a big prize, and if there is indeed such a prize that get accumulated, i would doubt it get handed off often.

That would also not teach you how mining BTC work. I think a USB stick is great to get the hang of it, since when you're getting your tiny payouts on the stick, going to real miners is actually a easier endeavor.

USB miner will be less efficient than a big miners such as S7. USB miner is just for fun, not for profitability.

So you buy a stick from sidehack or  a reseller  cost in the USA 30-40 dollars.

Just 1  your point it at this pool

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1283990.0

if we hit a block you get .24- .25 btc

if you are running a pc 24/7  the extra power is  5 watts  about 4 kwatts a month about 50 kwatts  a year.

at 12 cents a kwatt 6 dollars   so for 1 year maybe 45 dollars and  2 years 51 dollars.

the chances are we will hit a block if we play for 2 years.

Exactly what Phil said.


This was the website I used to setup my usb miners.
http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-raspberry-pi-bitcoin-miner--cms-20353 (http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-raspberry-pi-bitcoin-miner--cms-20353)

The only thing you need is a USB hub that will deliver enough power per port, unless you have a hub that you are using half the ports.
Something like this might give you enough power, but is pricey. amazon.com USB hub (http://www.amazon.com/Charging-Adapter-VL812-B2-Chipset-Firmware/dp/B005NGQWL2/?tag=lifehackeramzn-20&ascsubtag=0391b91d3f79169fa6742eb4b43cf974d1f7dacd&rawdata=%5Br%7Chttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F%5Bt%7Clink%5Bp%7C1414094277%5Ba%7CB005NGQWL2%5Bau%7C5716553178370339807)

I plan on running mine for year's most likely.  I might sell a compac or two to pay for electricity eventually.  But as of now I'm just enjoying using them.

And I think the long term Phil mentioned really is important.  Talking about year's of running not just a week or two.   We stand much better odd's then some think by running for so long.