As cryptocurrencies become more widespread and popular around the world, more people begin to consider trying to earn a profit from them, be it through investing on crypto exchanges or acquiring them through mining.
That said, prices for mining rigs can differ dramatically, with the best of miners reaching tens of thousands of dollars for an industry-level mining operation, making them too expensive for a beginner.
With this in mind, crypto YouTuber Drew Vosk decided to put to the test a cheaper option, publishing the 30-day review of the experiment’s profitability on his channel Voskcoin on April 26.
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The mining setup
Specifically, the miner he tested was Goldshell’s SC-Box Mini mining rig that allows the user to mine the Siacoin (SC) token. Vosk praised the machine as being efficient, quiet, and profitable, earning “three times more than it costs to run even on a residential electric grid.”
By comparison, the more expensive mining rigs consume thousands of watts, while the SC-Box Mini consumes as much as a regular gamin PC or laptop in a day. On top of that, “the fans don’t have to spin very fast which gives you a quiet mining rig which allows you to deploy [it] basically anywhere in your house.”
However, the best part is that it is very cheap. As Vosk stated, SC-Box Mini is available for purchase in various stores for about $599. The plug-and-play solution with the power supply goes for around $699.
According to Vosk, the power supply that comes with the machine is perfectly suitable for the job. There’s also a free version of the mining app you’ll need to download and set up, and you’re good to go.
The results
With this setup, Vosk says he mined about 150 or so Siacoin a day, which boils down to 4,650 Siacoin in 30 days. Converting this amount into USD means he earned about $50 per month. Meanwhile, 33% of this profit was going towards paying the bill for the electricity which in his area costs about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour.
After all of his calculations, Vosk was earning about $27.50 per month, which means that in 12-month’s time he would pool about $402 and in 24 months – $804 – breaking even on the price of the device.
That said, Vosk isn’t very bullish on the Siacoin currency itself, criticizing its team over its failure to adapt to the era of cryptocurrency and not spending any money on marketing in a market that is “more crowded than ever before”.
Watch the entire experiment here:
