More than a few of us know how it feels to have missed the Bitcoin boat. There it is, right now on the horizon, slowly getting further and further away as the sunlight hits its gold-plated sails. Fare thee well, o golden boat of currency!
Ahem, sorry about that. For many of us, there’s now little to no chance of even getting a sniff of a Bitcoin, and that means we should move on and be happy for what we can get a sniff off. Like a tiny, tiny percentage of cryptocurrency obtained with only the natural power of that big hot ball in the sky. Yes, it’s a solar-powered cryptocurrency miner, and yes, you can make one yourself with a Raspberry Pi.
Pick yourself up a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B as well as the other stuff listed here on the project page, and you can get started building this sneaky lil gold digger. While it won’t raise vast sums of money (or even any usable amount of money) it will raise awareness with regards to one of the least talked about aspects of cryptocurrency mining – its environmental impact.
The New Yorker recently published a piece where it referenced the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, saying global bitcoin-mining operations actually use the electricity consumption of Sweden every year. An entire Sweden. Fair to say that’s a pretty sizable contribution to the future destruction of the planet, but those Dogecoins aren’t going to mine themselves.
Obviously, by using the little solar-powered miner here you won’t be adding to the enormous blob of CO2 getting pumped into our atmosphere each year, but you also won’t be adding much to your wallet either. According to Rob Lauer, the maker behind this project, a whopping $0.00007 was earned. Not even enough for a entry-level Rolex. Or a milkshake. Sigh.
Still, priorities and all that. Is it a fun Raspberry Pi project you want, or a get rich quick scheme? If it’s the former, then you’ll probably have a lot of fun here.
If it’s more fun and interesting Raspberry Pi projects you’re after, we’ve popped in a link below for you to go and check more out. We’ve 50 of the things! As for us, we’ll now get back to gazing mournfully at our own missed opportunities. Or writing about 3D printers.
License: The text of "(Don’t) Get Rich with this Raspberry Pi Solar-Powered Cryptocurrency Miner" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.