Archive for the ‘Mining Hardware’ Category

Using Motorola Moto G Power (2021) and Moto G Pure (2021) for VRSC Mining

21, Nov 2023

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals right around the corner or already here you could be in for a good deal on Smartphones that can be used for mining VerusCoin (VRSC), so do look for sweet deals on Samsung Galaxy A03s as a popular option, that one can get you around 3.6 MH/s with a price as low as $30 USD when in promo (for an operator locked device). We are not going to be talking about Samsung here however, but about two smartphones from Motorola that you can get at a good price at the moment even without special deals – Motorola Moto G Power (2021) and Motorola Moto G Pure (2021) and we are going to see if they are good for VRSC mining and if so, what can you expect performance wise.

Starting up with the Motorola Moto G Pure (2021), a device that normally is in the $50 USD mark when operator locked or around $100 USD for an unlocked version, but you can currently get it as low as $24.99 USD from Amazon for a TracFone Moto g Pure (2021)(Locked/Renewed). This is a pretty sweet deal price wise and you essentially get a device that is like brand new with a data cable and a charger bundled as well, but the question here is if the smartphone is suitable for VRSC mining. An Android 11 device that features a Mediatek MT6762G Helio G25 (12 nm) chipset that utilizes an 8-core ARM CPU (4x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 and 4x 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53), so far so good, but unfortunately what you get is a bit disappointing if you want it for mining. The smartphone we got was with Android 12 installed and it felt kind of sluggish right out of the box, but the bad news here is regarding mining as this device is simply a no go as it features a 32-bit OS even though the processor is 64-bit capable. Simply said this smartphone will not be able to run 64-bit apps and thus the VRSC miners are not going to work. So, do not go for that Motorola if you are looking for a smartphone for crypto mining!

The other device from Motorola, namely the Moto G Power (2021), is more promising and just a slightly more expensive than the Pure. The $34.99 USD TracFone Moto G Power (2021) Locked/Renewed deal on Amazon gets you a device that can actually be used for VRSC mining and not only is the price good, but also the performance. The Moto G Power (2021) comes with a Qualcomm SM6115 Snapdragon 662 (11 nm) chipset that has an 8-core processor (4x 2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold and 4x 1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver) and Android 11, though it is upgradable to Android 12 (but you should not, why in a moment). The refurbished version from Amazon is pretty much as a brand-new device with a charger and a data cable bundled, but at half the price what a regular locked version of this model normally goes for and at a quarter or even more of the price of an unlocked device. The next question is if the Moto G Power (2021) is good for mining VRSC what performance to expect from it?

The hashrate you can expect for VerusCoin (VRSC) mining on the Motorola Moto G Power (2021) is in the range of around 4.2-4.4 MH/s with a power usage of about 3 Watts measured at the wall. We’ve mentioned that you should not upgrade the phone to Android 12 even though it is available as it will reduce the performance a bit, the image on the right above shows Android 12 with about 0.1 MH/s slower hashrate than the same device with Android 11 on the left… and the Android 11 looks and feels better than the 12 on that particular Motorola device. Still, even if you upgrade you can still use the Moto G Power for mining, just with a slight performance hit and a bit more annoying user interface. So, Motorola Moto G Power (2021) is definitely a good option for VRSC mining, especially if you manage to get a great deal like the Refurbished one (essentially like new) from Amazon currently available. At a regular price for a Locked device, it could still be quite good considering the good hashrate, but there is more competition in that price range as well.

2 GH/s PCI-E Lokotech Hashblade Scrypt ASICs Now Up for Pre-Order

10, Nov 2023

The next generation of Scrypt mining performance and efficiency comes from Lokotech, a Norwegian company, that has opened pre-orders for their Lokotech Hashblade Scrypt ASIC boards offering about 2 GH/s mining hashrate at just 145 Watts of power (about 0.0726 J/MH) and the mining boards come in the form of PCI-E cards. The device comes in the form of a PCI-E x1 board with 128 pieces of the S1 ASICs mounted on it, air or immersion cooled and powered by 2x 6/8-pin PCI-E power connectors, communication with the computer is done either over PCI-E x1 or USB cable. And now for the most important question – the price – it is currently set at $1999 USD per board for the just opened pre-orders with shipping expected in the second half of 2024. Lokotech is also offering for pre-order a complete mining system with 10 of their Hashblades inside giving you around 20 GH/s hashrate with around 1750 Watts of power usage, also shipping in the second half of 2024 with a price tag of $20199 USD.

We haven’t seen much of development from other already known manufacturers of Scrypt ASIC miners for a while now, so maybe Lokotech will help a bit in moving and shaking that space as well with their upcoming release that offers better hashrate and power efficiency. So, if you pre-order now it will be more than half a year before you get your mining hardware and you should have that in mind as a lot can and will probably happen next year in the crypto world. Some of you might know that earlier this year we’ve had another Litecoin (LTC) halving with the block reward going down from 12.5 LTC to 6.25 LTC and the next halving will be in 4 more years, so that is a while before mining profitability for LTC goes down significantly due to another halving. Then there is the merged mining of LTC and DOGE, so this is probably what most people will point their Scrypt miners at anyway, but then again you will also have the option to mine other alternative Scrypt-based crypto coins as well.

– For more information about the preorder of Lokotech’s Scrypt ASIC miners…

Using the Motorola Moto G Stylus (2021) Smartphone for Mining VerusCoin (VRSC)

30, Oct 2023

A quick look at the possible use of the Motorola Moto G Stylus (2021) smartphone for mining VerusCoin (VRSC) because of the great offer currently running on Amazon for Tracfone Motorola moto g Stylus (2020), 128GB, Gray – Prepaid Smartphone (Locked) available for just $49.99 USD. Do note that although the product page says 2020 model you are getting the slightly upgraded 2021 version instead (model XT2115DL). The Moto G Stylus is a large 6.8-inch smartphone powered by a Qualcomm SDM678 Snapdragon 678 (11 nm) chipset that has an 8-core processor (2x 2.2 GHz Kryo 460 Gold and 6x 1.7 GHz Kryo 460 Silver CPU cores), 128GB flash memory and 4GB RAM. It is a killer deal specifications wise for that price, so using the device for crypto mining (it is a locked phone!) does sound like a pretty reasonable idea, but the big question is what will be the performance it will offer for mining. It does even come with a charger in the package and not just a USB-C power cable.

The Motorola Moto G Stylus (2021) is a 64-bit hardware with 64-bit software, so good for mining. One thing to note on this model is that you need to have the SIM card inside the device during the initial phone initialization and then you can remove it, most other locked smartphones from Tracfone normally do not require the card to be in for the device initialization. The device itself does not have problems after the initial initialization and there is no need to have active Tracfone phone plan if you are going to use it for crypto mining. So, what about the hashrate that the Moto G Stylus 2021 can provide for mining VRSC? Well, it is very good at about 4 MH/s, slightly faster than what Samsung Galaxy A03s can provide. The drawback here from the larger display and the more powerful hardware – increased power usage compared to other smartphones we have tested such as the A03s for instance. Measuring the power consumption at the wall while the device is mining shows around 3.7 Watts, so efficiency wise not the greatest even though the performance itself is not bad.


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