How is it not helping the network?

S9 at least heats a room.

Mine is chugging away. I just have the one. It's value to me is as a decoration and provider of some weird "ape strong together" mindset.

Point it to ocean mining pool, get some sats

Uh… nope. GFY. Keep studying….

Hint: decentralization.

The hash rate heaters are more interesting to me. A small flow of sats alongside heating your office or bedroom. Probably pays for itself over a few years.

my s9 provides great heat at least.

At least a little skin in the game 😇

So, I guess you don't understand efficiency dynamics? It is one of the only machines you can run 24/7 on solar alone. Plus, the point is the decentralization not the odds. What are the odds that you get rugged by coinbase? Bet you don't hold your coins there.

Well, if you're not mining through Foundry or any of the pools that rely on Ant Pool's templates, then you're helping keep mining decentralized and bitcoin censorship resistant .

Buying one or two for fun? Sure. It's a fun hobby and worth a little bit of money for some geeky fun. You didn't buy more than that, right? 😂😂😂

Investing in a dream seems pretty cool

I only had 1. It randomly stopped mining one day (about a month ago) and now slowly but surely more and more people experience the same issue. For some a power cycle works, for some it doesn't (it doesn't for me). To top it off my psu broke as well all of a sudden. Thought about replacing it but i think i'll just cut my losses here.

It's a novelty item

Feel free to donate them to me. I could 9 or 10 to run labs in the Bitcoin class I'm teaching this semester.

I don't totally disagree, but I think they are a cool learning device given that basically no one can be a competitive Bitcoin miner without access to cheap electricity, top of the line ASICs and the ability to maintain them for at least 4 years.

They are approximately the price of a hardware wallet, are easy to setup and gives individuals some better hands on knowledge about what it actually means to be a sovereign Bitcoin miner.

I think they should be solely viewed as a tool for learning and fun. In that context they’re great. If you buy expecting to make profits, they’re a horrible idea.

What about the learning experience for someone that’s never mined?

Don’t they all add up and do their little bit to distribute/decentralise the hash rate?

I’m looking forward to more like these - actually useful, just need to get the cost down https://www.canaan.io/avalonhome

Is this the new "lost it all in a boating accident" excuse? Did you win a non-kyc block and are just trying to deny it? Then, I, too, regret my Bitaxe... I regret having it on a shelf and teaching my son about the network. I (this is true) regret not going to the conference in Montreal last year where we actually built our own and could teach my son some applied soldering skills. Oh well maybe later this year?

What pool setup are you using?

fun tho!

Get an s9 and live happy

Bitaxe is the new Block Erupter. ROI never comes. Just buy sats.

Yeah, it's good for learning the basics, but for almost the same cost you can get something with more hash (s9) and it could help heat your house.

Sad you don’t see the big picture. Open source mining development is crucial. People can learn with a bitaxe. When we started we had to import a crazy expensive machine to be able to test some mining with significant problems with regards to information about and maintenance of. Now everything is open source everyone can build maintain and steer these devices. Larger machines will follow where you actually control the hash. That is not the case with any of the proprietary stuff. Even the after market firmware sucks with massive devfee and “calling home”.

The centralization of pools is now laid bare in the open and many bitcoiners through bitaxe are ramping mining efforts to decentralize and take control over their hash.

Your hash chance is low. But millions will make it hit a block rather often. And already there are tens of thousands spread across the globe. It’s just a matter of time before millions are hashing.

The global lottery will have an approximate winner at least once a week. It’s a lottery that helps the network.

It makes people learn about bitcoin.

It will decentralize and open the proprietary bitcoin mining shitshow.

Blockstream Mining Note is a good way to get hash exposure. The notes are traded on the aftermarket over Liquid.

Mine never hashed haha

They pushed out a lot of propaganda that you could make a lot of money using bitaxes and that you would be helping the network.

I thought it was pretty obvious that the machines were a scam. Many propagandists blocked me when I called them out on their scam.

You can also drop the information & specs into chatgpt and chatgpt will tell you itself the company and people promoting them are being dishonest.

The majority of people fell for it and there was a tiny amount of people who bought it just to learn and play around with them but even so the machines are way to expensive.

I tried warning people. Fun toy tho

same vibes from 2014 USB miners hahahaha

I bought 3 of them, on initial setup 2 of the 3 kept overheating, no matter the settings or updates etc right out of the box. To e supplier took them back under warranty and did repairs and then sent them back to me. Same damn thing again, I’m trying to get a full refund for thread 2 units now. The other one unit has been running pretty solidly for like 4 mths now non stop with 700-900 /h rate. Not sure why those 2 other units just won’t work but I’m done messing around with them. I’ll keep the one unit running though.

The point is to be ready when corporate mining inevitably goes belly up!

My home miners have never been profitable. Neither are my other hobbies lol

I have 3. An ultra and gamma hashing and a supra kit that I bought to test my soldering skills. So far I have failed that test but I'm still working on it.

I'm happy with them but I had realistic expectations.

You know that people mine future blocks on testnet right? So you are basically mining against the past hoping to win a race that already ended.

Yeah surprised so many bitcoiners fell for it

I’ve loved mine. It’s a great learning exercise and a meaningful piece of decor for me.

Plus, I’m doing my part to decentralize mining— some are understandably concerned that mining is too centralized into a handful of pools…

I was deciding between a Bitaxe and a Avalon Nano 3, same price but the Avalon actually works as a little home heater and has 4-5 times the hashrate. Still unprofitable but it helps warm the house now while generating some clean sats in Ocean's pool...

It's all ewaste.

Are you selling them ?

I actually just bought one for my teenage daughter. She’s fascinated about BTC, and I see it as a learning tool more than a lottery ticket. I think it helps to really understand the roles in the network.

Mining is a gamble. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Don't cry about it, build something.

How about you point them to Ocean, connect to a lightning node and get the payouts to your lightning wallet?