Mining on Next Generation Consoles?

[Stunna]

Will mining be possible on next gen consoles (PS4, 720, etc.)

It is my understanding that PS4/720 will be using an AMD APU, will mining with consoles be profitable at all if possible?

[HerrDoktor]

Probably hard to answer, since both are not on the market yet   but even if its possible, by the time of November it will only make sense to mine with an ASIC because the Diff will be through the roof.

Cheers

[BBQKorv]

They could be reasonable for maybe scrypt, I don't know if there is yet enough details about the hardware to tell exactly.

[spirale]

I remember reading PS4 got about the same GFLOPS as 6870. So maybe you could get something around 300Kh/s with it. Just a guess.

[computerparts]

Is this a joke? It's not possible. Maybe if you were able to install linux but I doubt they're going to allow that this time around.

[jaywaka2713]

Is this a joke? It's not possible. Maybe if you were able to install linux but I doubt they're going to allow that this time around.

Hackers love the phrase "That's not allowed", so they find a way to do it. OpenOS was removed from the ps3, so hackers put it back on. I think because the future ps4/xbox720 will have pretty much PC hardware it will be possible with a low level of modification. I am almost certain that the Xbox 720 will be able to run such code without needing Linux, as its OS will be derived from Windows 8 basic, which can already run CGMiner.

[Stunna]

Is this a joke? It's not possible. Maybe if you were able to install linux but I doubt they're going to allow that this time around.

Hackers love the phrase "That's not allowed", so they find a way to do it. OpenOS was removed from the ps3, so hackers put it back on. I think because the future ps4/xbox720 will have pretty much PC hardware it will be possible with a low level of modification. I am almost certain that the Xbox 720 will be able to run such code without needing Linux, as its OS will be derived from Windows 8 basic, which can already run CGMiner.

If it is possible/effective I wonder what effect this will have on mining difficulty.

[jaywaka2713]

Is this a joke? It's not possible. Maybe if you were able to install linux but I doubt they're going to allow that this time around.

Hackers love the phrase "That's not allowed", so they find a way to do it. OpenOS was removed from the ps3, so hackers put it back on. I think because the future ps4/xbox720 will have pretty much PC hardware it will be possible with a low level of modification. I am almost certain that the Xbox 720 will be able to run such code without needing Linux, as its OS will be derived from Windows 8 basic, which can already run CGMiner.

If it is possible/effective I wonder what effect this will have on mining difficulty.

If anything it will have a low effect, as people will have to understand that mining degrades your cards after a while (more intensively than gaming will). Also, you won't be able to game with the miner running, but during idle time it could be profitable. It wouldn't be power efficient at all though. It would be an excellent way of bringing popularity to Bitcoin and other alt currencies via the Gaming community. Alt coin mining on such consoles would be worth it though. When I get my ps4, I am going to look into hacking clients, figure out how its done, and maybe team up with some ps3 devs and work on it.

[KS]

For BTC/SHA256, a 274 USD Jalapeno would do rather better than a 500 USD console. I'm rather inclined to say that BFL will eventually ship or someone else will. I think they have their pricing tiers down pat. I expect the same serious miners to convert their GPUs/FPGAs in ASICs and so the difficulty will be bumped by a factor of 10-20 and flatten out (I think they will keep the same level of investment). Even now the next gen consoles aren't very interesting to mine with though.

For LTC/scrypt, it might be a fun project to have a live distro or sth to mine the coins. Depending on how much electricity they consume it might be a viable project too. Otherwise, it's GPUs as usual for now.

[computerparts]

Is this a joke? It's not possible. Maybe if you were able to install linux but I doubt they're going to allow that this time around.

Hackers love the phrase "That's not allowed", so they find a way to do it. OpenOS was removed from the ps3, so hackers put it back on. I think because the future ps4/xbox720 will have pretty much PC hardware it will be possible with a low level of modification. I am almost certain that the Xbox 720 will be able to run such code without needing Linux, as its OS will be derived from Windows 8 basic, which can already run CGMiner.

But isn't the nextbox supposed to be always online? I would think that would prevent any form of hacking. Or at the very least make it extremely difficult. I can't remember if the ps4 will always be online as well. As far the ps4 hardware goes, I'm pretty sure that's going to be a thin line between pc hardware and console hardware. While it's x86, it will be capable of doing things modern pc's cannot. I think low level gpu access falls into that category.

[mgio]

Mining on gaming consoles will NOT be profitable.

You won't even be able to make up the cost of the electricity to runt he console!

It's a complete waste of time, don't even bother.


Let's look at the math:

When next generation gaming consoles come, let's say sometime in the fall, mining difficulty should be around 150 million. It could be much more, I'm being conservative with my estimate.

Let's assume that bitcoins are worth $200. Right now they are barely above $100 so I'm assuming they will double in value (a big assumption).

Let's say your gaming console is in range of the best GPUs currently available and can perform 800 megahashes/second (most likely it will be much much less).

Finally, let's say your console draws 250W and your electricity is 0.15 cents/KWH.

Let's plug it into the mining calculator...

You will make 0.0027 BTC per day or 0.54 cents a day. Power will cost you 0.90 cents a day, so you will lose 0.36 cents a day.

Not a good deal at all!

[jaywaka2713]

Is this a joke? It's not possible. Maybe if you were able to install linux but I doubt they're going to allow that this time around.

Hackers love the phrase "That's not allowed", so they find a way to do it. OpenOS was removed from the ps3, so hackers put it back on. I think because the future ps4/xbox720 will have pretty much PC hardware it will be possible with a low level of modification. I am almost certain that the Xbox 720 will be able to run such code without needing Linux, as its OS will be derived from Windows 8 basic, which can already run CGMiner.

But isn't the nextbox supposed to be always online? I would think that would prevent any form of hacking. Or at the very least make it extremely difficult. I can't remember if the ps4 will always be online as well. As far the ps4 hardware goes, I'm pretty sure that's going to be a thin line between pc hardware and console hardware. While it's x86, it will be capable of doing things modern pc's cannot. I think low level gpu access falls into that category.

the always on feature is some anti-piracy method I heard. and forced auto-update

[KS]

Mining on GPUs won't be profitable. Will you dump them or switch to another currency?

[cdog]

You will be able to mod the firmware to mine scrypt with it.

But it wont ever be usable as a gaming console then...

[KS]

You will be able to mod the firmware to mine scrypt with it.

But it wont ever be usable as a gaming console then...

USB bootdrive with Linux on it, I say!

[jaywaka2713]

You will be able to mod the firmware to mine scrypt with it.

But it wont ever be usable as a gaming console then...

USB bootdrive with Linux on it, I say!

Look into hacking the ps3 and xbox 360 and their security measures. It isn't that easy. Nobody has hijacked the USB boot verification that the xbox uses, and neither have they bypassed the failsafe for the ps3 update usb file either. However, OpenOS has been hacked to be on the newer ps3 firmwares, and you can install Linux over that, so the ps3 could be a standing candidate currenctly, just with horrible speeds. Alt coin mining on the next gen consoles should be profitable though.

[KS]

You will be able to mod the firmware to mine scrypt with it.

But it wont ever be usable as a gaming console then...

USB bootdrive with Linux on it, I say!

Look into hacking the ps3 and xbox 360 and their security measures. It isn't that easy. Nobody has hijacked the USB boot verification that the xbox uses, and neither have they bypassed the failsafe for the ps3 update usb file either. However, OpenOS has been hacked to be on the newer ps3 firmwares, and you can install Linux over that, so the ps3 could be a standing candidate currenctly, just with horrible speeds. Alt coin mining on the next gen consoles should be profitable though.

I was being a bit cheeky, but I'm sure ppl will find a way to hack it. It will be ugly, of course, otherwise it won't be a real hack

I believe in "when there is a will, there is a way". I also believe it will be even more "niche" than BTC mining at night on your boss' PC.

Of course, I'm pulling these predictions right from my backside

[jaywaka2713]

You will be able to mod the firmware to mine scrypt with it.

But it wont ever be usable as a gaming console then...

USB bootdrive with Linux on it, I say!

Look into hacking the ps3 and xbox 360 and their security measures. It isn't that easy. Nobody has hijacked the USB boot verification that the xbox uses, and neither have they bypassed the failsafe for the ps3 update usb file either. However, OpenOS has been hacked to be on the newer ps3 firmwares, and you can install Linux over that, so the ps3 could be a standing candidate currenctly, just with horrible speeds. Alt coin mining on the next gen consoles should be profitable though.

I was being a bit cheeky, but I'm sure ppl will find a way to hack it. It will be ugly, of course, otherwise it won't be a real hack

I believe in "when there is a will, there is a way". I also believe it will be even more "niche" than BTC mining at night on your boss' PC.

Of course, I'm pulling these predictions right from my backside

I think there will be get a way to get a Linux environment on the ps3 somehow, to the degree to get cgminer up. On the xbox I think once a kernel exploit in windows 8 is found, we can hijack it to run executable files.

[KS]

You will be able to mod the firmware to mine scrypt with it.

But it wont ever be usable as a gaming console then...

USB bootdrive with Linux on it, I say!

Look into hacking the ps3 and xbox 360 and their security measures. It isn't that easy. Nobody has hijacked the USB boot verification that the xbox uses, and neither have they bypassed the failsafe for the ps3 update usb file either. However, OpenOS has been hacked to be on the newer ps3 firmwares, and you can install Linux over that, so the ps3 could be a standing candidate currenctly, just with horrible speeds. Alt coin mining on the next gen consoles should be profitable though.

I was being a bit cheeky, but I'm sure ppl will find a way to hack it. It will be ugly, of course, otherwise it won't be a real hack

I believe in "when there is a will, there is a way". I also believe it will be even more "niche" than BTC mining at night on your boss' PC.

Of course, I'm pulling these predictions right from my backside

I think there will be get a way to get a Linux environment on the ps3 somehow, to the degree to get cgminer up. On the xbox I think once a kernel exploit in windows 8 is found, we can hijack it to run executable files.

Whatever happened to the good ole' modchips? Flip a switch: PS3, flip it again: CGMiner

I'm so not into console hacking right now, but why not "elegantly" bypass the console's OS altogether and install Linux on a separate HDD/USB key ghetto style? They's supposed to be very PC-like no (ignorance talking...) ?

I remember some issue with the first XBOX and the special firmware of HDDs, but it's been modded so I suppose the current ones could be too. (again, ignorance...)

[crazyates]

I thought the PS4 was going to use an AMD APU, which we already have an idea of what those will be mining at.