PS3 Mining - Does it work?

[jack107]

Hi,

I'm aware there have been posts about this but none seemed to answer my question and also now more and more people would have PS4, there would be a lot of PS3 just sitting around.

How many people have successfully got this working? If so is their a guide I can follow or can someone give me instructions on how to set it up.

Does the PS3 need to be jailbroken? I don't really mind what type of returns I get as I have free electricity and any return is better than none.

Thanks for the help! 

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[Mt. Gox]

I'd be interested in this as well. Except instead of mining Bitcoin which is dominated by ASICs, I wonder if it is possible to mine CPU coins with the Cell processor. Wikipedia says that the Cell processor can reach 230 GFLOPS while the PS4's CPU and even a recent i7 can only reach about 100.

Edit: In order to mine with a PS4, I'm guessing you would need to run Linux on it. Newer PS3s and older ones that have had their firmware updated don't allow this, so you will need to jailbreak it and run something like AsbestOS:

Hector Martin aka marcan42 has just posted to his blog the launch of AsbestOS, a way to run Linux on your jailbroken PS3 without OtherOS. Martin has been working on AsbestOS for over a month.

"Other OS" was disabled by firmware version 3.21, and the latest Sony firmware update is version 3.50. Therefore, only owners of "fat" PS3 consoles running firmwares 3.15 or under can still use the OtherOS feature of their console.

Users running firmware 3.41 or under can "jailbreak" their console using a USB Development Board or a number of items like the DualShock 3 controller, TI-84 calculators, an iPod or other media players.

Link to a Bitcoin miner for the Cell processor:

http://github.com/verement/cellminer

Using the above, you can expect a hash rate of about 25 Mhash/s:

http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#Other

[ALToids]

Somebody an old SNES to mine Bitcoin, so I'm would assume it's possible.  But why, it's an exercise in futility. Other than people who like challenges and tinkerers there is no point in such an endeavor... other than to say "For Science"

[FlyForFun]

Yes it work, but why would you want to waste a nice gaming machine..

[jack107]

Yes it work, but why would you want to waste a nice gaming machine..

I have a PS4 these days so my PS3 just sits in my cupboard!

[phillipsjk]

Sony disabled Other OS in the 3.21 firmware update

I would advise against buying a PS4 until Sony restores that function as a sign of good faith.

The PS3 would probably fare no better than a GPU mining. If you want to mine, you essentially need to invest in ASICs. If Sony still had other OS, you could probably use it to control the actual hashing machines. The 256MB of RAM would be limiting though. (For using P2Pool you essentially need 2GB to run P2Pool and Bitcoind at the same time).

[Baitty]

Yeah the Ps3 would probably use more electric than the money its producing.

[drmadison]

Trying to use a PS3 would be horribly inefficient. I have a Dev kit on my desk and I wouldn't even use it to control USB miners never mind mine itself.

Get a Raspberry Pi and use that to control miners. Save energy and the earth

[phillipsjk]

Get a Raspberry Pi and use that to control miners. Save energy and the earth

The Pi has only 512MB of RAM

[drmadison]

Get a Raspberry Pi and use that to control miners. Save energy and the earth

The Pi has only 512MB of RAM

And?
That's more than enough to run cgminer.
OP never said anything about p2pool...especially not his own node.

And FYI, the PS3 doesn't have more RAM than the Pi

[jonnybravo0311]

Why not sell that PS3 for some BTC?  You'll make more that way than you would by setting it up to mine.  Of course, it would be a pretty interesting experiment to see if you actually could hack it just to see it work

[Bitsaurus]

Yes it work, but why would you want to waste a nice gaming machine..

I have a PS4 these days so my PS3 just sits in my cupboard!

1) Sell PS3 on Craiglist/eBay for $100
2) Move $100 to exchange
3) Buy 0.17 BTC with the $100
4) Start playing on your PS4 and not worrying about how to hack it

[phillipsjk]

Yes it work, but why would you want to waste a nice gaming machine..

I have a PS4 these days so my PS3 just sits in my cupboard!

1) Sell PS3 on Craiglist/eBay for $100
2) Move $100 to exchange
3) Buy 0.17 BTC with the $100
4) Start playing on your PS4 and not worrying about how to hack it

You are missing the part where hacking stuff is fun. AFAIK, the PS3 was broken wide open within a year of the OtherOS feature removal. This, after lasting about 3 years in the market with no public exploits. Sony pissed off the very people with the skill to break the system by removing that feature.

[valvalis]

even if it is work i won't to do that, i think the hash power will be low if using PS3. PS3 is to gaming not to mining

[DjPxH]

It's interesting how every new generation of some next-generation computing device people assume it would revolutionize bitcoin mining. People have to realize that those processors are multi-purpose processors. Processors specifically designed to perform a certain task (ASICs) are already far far far superior to any multi-purpose CPU that's available and will be available in the next 10 years...

[Elmer Fud]

Sony disabled Other OS in the 3.21 firmware update

I would advise against buying a PS4 until Sony restores that function as a sign of good faith.

The PS3 would probably fare no better than a GPU mining. If you want to mine, you essentially need to invest in ASICs. If Sony still had other OS, you could probably use it to control the actual hashing machines. The 256MB of RAM would be limiting though. (For using P2Pool you essentially need 2GB to run P2Pool and Bitcoind at the same time).

That link is 4 years old and can be ignored. You can customize your firmware with https://github.com/aldostools/webMAN-MOD

There are a few important points to remember:

1. It'll get super hot and will destroy your ps3 in a short time by desoldering pretty much everything attached to the motherboard.
2. Costs 100x more in electricity than it makes in mining profit per day.
3. A Pain in the ass to set up if you can find the software mod files without malware.
4. Totally worth it for bragging rights.

[ALToids]

Sony disabled Other OS in the 3.21 firmware update

I would advise against buying a PS4 until Sony restores that function as a sign of good faith.

The PS3 would probably fare no better than a GPU mining. If you want to mine, you essentially need to invest in ASICs. If Sony still had other OS, you could probably use it to control the actual hashing machines. The 256MB of RAM would be limiting though. (For using P2Pool you essentially need 2GB to run P2Pool and Bitcoind at the same time).

That link is 4 years old and can be ignored. You can customize your firmware with https://github.com/aldostools/webMAN-MOD

There are a few important points to remember:

1. It'll get super hot and will destroy your ps3 in a short time by desoldering pretty much everything attached to the motherboard.
2. Costs 100x more in electricity than it makes in mining profit per day.
3. A Pain in the ass to set up if you can find the software mod files without malware.
4. Totally worth it for bragging rights.

Those bragging rights passed away a long time ago.  In a head to head between somebody running 50 Neptunes with Novec 7100 or a PS3 mining Bitcoin - I would be more interested in the Novec setup.  As noted above it's been done on a SNES and nobody even remembers him.

[oceans]

I would sell the PS3 and buy some bitcoin. If you want to try and make some more money from that, you can loan those coins out for a percentage, just like a regular loan. There are some websites setup for this kind of thing. It is risky and you don't want to loan everything you have to one person. I look at it like "I've wasted $100 on worse things". Good luck

[hibr3d]

Try selling your console and try hedging.

[TheDragonSlayer]

Even if PS3 mining do work the efficient would be really bad in term of electricity.