Bitcoin mining at home has become nearly impossible these days. Not only are these devices expensive, but they also generate a ton of noise and heat. Moreover, electricity costs are going up in nearly every country, making mining unprofitable. Bitmain has unveiled their R4 miner, which is designed for home usage.
Bitmain Wants To Reboot Bitcoin Mining At Home
Although the official R4 Bitcoin miner listing has been pulled from the Antminer website right now, some of the details were recorded by different news outlets. As it turns out, the Asian Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer may have cracked the code to reboot Bitcoin mining at home with their new silent device.
Do keep in mind this miner will still cost plenty of money, as it is currently estimated to set investors back by about US$1,000. In exchange for this prices, users will receive 8.6TH/s of Bitcoin mining power. That is not a way to get rich overnight, but it is a decent amount of hashpower for a device that can be used in someone’s living room.
As one would come to expect the power consumption for this dominant Bitcoin miner is relatively small. With just 845 Watts drawn from the wall, the Antminer R4 is a lot more energy efficient than devices manufactured a year or two ago. Powering this beast of a machine are 126 Bitmain BM1387 16nm ASIC chips.
A separate power supply will need to be purchased to power the Antminer R4, which can be found in Antminer’s online shop. The PSU will cost an additional US$300, but it guarantees there will no electricity issues along the way. Noise-wise, the R4 is expected to produce a maximum of 52 decibels, thanks to its centrifugal fan design. Compared to other devices, this is a lot quieter than what one would expect.
This brings the total cost of this miner to US$1,300, with an expected ROI of close to one full year. That is, assuming your electricity cost is reasonable and does not surpass 10 cents per KwH. Depending on how the Bitcoin mining situation evolves, those numbers may be different. Additionally, a Bitcoin price boost would shorten the ROI period as well.
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