New Plug-and-Go Hardware and App Are All You Need to Cryptomine

(Image credit: Coinmine)

Cryptomining growth has always been hindered by the excessive hardware and power requirements it holds. And more recently, a discouraging crypto crash has left many questioning the future of cryptocurrency’s value. But Coinmine is seeking to bring back the cryptocurrency craze. It’s a plug-and-mining device paired with its own operating system and mobile app that are said to offer everything needed to mine Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Monero, Ravencoin and Zcash at home.

Coinmine is available today on its website for $799 (US only, it's not shipping to the UK). It includes the MineOS and Arch Linux, as well as an Android and iOS app, plus the hardware, Coinmine One, which is essentially a slim PC.

Coinmine One Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally
CPUIntel Celeron G3930 (2.4GHz)
GPUAMD RX 570 (4GB)
Hard Drive1TB SSD
RAM8GB DDR4
Ethernet100BASE-T Gigabit
Connectivity802.11ac
Power120 watts
Sound40dB

Through the Coinmine mobile app, miners can count their cryptocurrency, switch to a new type of cryptocurrency or add additional Coinmine One devices. 

(Image credit: Coinmine)

Coinmine is fighting against cryptomining’s barriers to entry, including the complexities, time and costs associated with getting started and staying up-to-date on the latest crypto networks and security patches. Plus, cryptomining systems tend to be bulky and gobble up a lot energy—some can consume more megajoules than mining copper, gold, platinum or rare earth oxides does—producing a lot of heat and noise.

But with Coinmine, miners won’t need to build their own mining system and can run different types of crypto networks on the same hardware. Additionally, there’s no need to manually update to the latest crypto currencies, since MineOS updates automatically.

“Just like mining Bitcoin or Ethereum in the early days, you earn the most crypto when the networks are new. If crypto prices return to or surpass their previous highs, you’ll be in a great position,” Farbood Nivi, co-founder and CEO of Coinmine, told Tom’s Hardware. “For existing crypto networks, it’s actually better to mine when prices aren’t so high because the mining difficulty probably won’t be rising, which in turn will earn you more crypto.”

With the current and future value of cryptocurrencies in question, Nivi believes that “crypto is just getting started,” so the earlier consumers can get in, the better.

“At Coinmine, we’re focused on the wider benefits of cryptocurrency and the blockchain—to decentralize information and money. I believe that millions of consumers still want to become involved in the crypto revolution, they just don’t know where to start,” Nivi said.

Coinmine plans to eventually add new protocols and currencies, including Lightning Bitcoin Lightning, DFINITY, Filecoin and Grin.

Scharon Harding

Scharon Harding has a special affinity for gaming peripherals (especially monitors), laptops and virtual reality. Previously, she covered business technology, including hardware, software, cyber security, cloud and other IT happenings, at Channelnomics, with bylines at CRN UK.

  • Dyseman
    Sooo, probably at today's prices, this thing will bring in .40 cents per day before electricity costs. (That's going off what my RX580 is doing right now under current best algo w/o CPU helping out)
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    21485280 said:
    Sooo, probably at today's prices, this thing will bring in .40 cents per day before electricity costs. (That's going off what my RX580 is doing right now under current best algo w/o CPU helping out)

    Basically not worth it. Probably wont be able to pay it off at all depending on electricity costs. If it was an ASIC then it might be a different story but GPU mining is iffy at best unless you mine a super easy and cheap coin and it sky rockets in value.
    Reply
  • takeshi7
    This seems like a horrible value. $800 for a single GPU. For just a little bit more you can get an ASIC miner with an order of magnitude better performance.
    Reply
  • Dyseman
    And, if this is a CLOSED system, how much do they leach for doing the honors of letting you use their system?

    My M3 ASICs have more than paid for themselves many times over for just $300 ebay. They each still bring $4 to $9 per day each. (I don't pay electric) As long as SHA-256 exists, these will purr right on along.
    Reply
  • Roland Of Gilead
    And of course with the DAG files increasing all the time and already above 3gbs for most coins, the 4gb 570 is a waste of time. It would have to be replaced. Of course this plays into the hands of the supplier. Easy money playing on some teen or newbie to sell this garbage and make a fast buck. Call me cynical or whatever!!....
    Reply
  • Corporate_goon
    So did you just re-print their press release?
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    21485784 said:
    And of course with the DAG files increasing all the time and already above 3gbs for most coins, the 4gb 570 is a waste of time. It would have to be replaced. Of course this plays into the hands of the supplier. Easy money playing on some teen or newbie to sell this garbage and make a fast buck. Call me cynical or whatever!!....
    Indeed, an 8GB Polaris doesn't cost much more and it would give you a ton of breathing room. That price is pretty bad when you consider the only expensive component is a single Polaris GPU, and they used the cheapest one possible.

    That said, I'm not even sure if there's any coins worth mining on a GPU anymore, unless electricity is free.
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    21485642 said:
    This seems like a horrible value. $800 for a single GPU.
    Yep, a $40 CPU with a $140 GPU. It's possible to build a system with the same specs for under $400, or one with multiple cards for $800. Or a more capable system with a proper CPU that can actually serve a purpose as a decent computer system once they discover that they'll be lucky to turn any real profit with it. Even if this system draws only 120 watts, at the current average price of electricity in the US, that would be somewhere around $140 worth of electricity used each year. Added to the initial cost of the system, one would need to recoup a fair amount of money before showing any profit.

    Also, as a correction to the article, on their site they describe it as having a "1TB Hardrive", not a "1TB SSD". I'm pretty sure a huge SSD wouldn't serve any useful purpose in a dedicated mining system.

    Plus, cryptomining systems tend to be bulky and gobble up a lot energy—some can consume more megajoules than mining copper, gold, platinum or rare earth oxides does—producing a lot of heat and noise.

    But with Coinmine, miners won’t need to build their own mining system and can run different types of crypto networks on the same hardware.
    Logically, a system with more graphics cards should require less power for a given amount of cryptocurrency mined, which is why they make those big, multi-card systems. A relatively weak, single-card mining system would probably be slightly less efficient, if anything. From an environmental standpoint, cryptocurrency-mining is not particularly good, either way.
    Reply