# Any CPU mining worth the cost of electricity? What about Helium and Helium miners?



## PaulieG (May 24, 2021)

I'm pretty much a complete noob with anything crypto. I have no interest in GPU mining whatsoever for so many reasons I won't get into here. However, I am curious. Is there anything out there that is CPU only and profitable after electricity costs? Also, what about Helium and helium miners? Are the miner machines likely to be worth the investment? I have done some research, but much of this stuff still makes me dizzy.


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## Vya Domus (May 24, 2021)

XMR is the only coin that I know of which can technically be profitable by CPU mining. Actually, it can really be only mined by CPU. But unless you have a really high core count CPU with very high AES performance it's probably not worth it.


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## PaulieG (May 24, 2021)

Vya Domus said:


> XMR is the only coin that I know of which can technically be profitable by CPU mining. Actually, it can really be only mined by CPU. But unless you have a really high core count CPU with very high AES performance it's probably not worth it.


Currently have 3 i9 10850k's and a 5950x with another 5950x coming in 2 weeks. Would that suffice?


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## xkm1948 (May 24, 2021)

bitcointalk.org would be a good place to start your research. Go to the altcoin mining sub directory. Glancing over the first page shows someone also asked similar question. Look up "LuxCoin or Verus"


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## lexluthermiester (May 24, 2021)

PaulieG said:


> Is there anything out there that is CPU only and profitable after electricity costs?





Vya Domus said:


> XMR is the only coin that I know of which can technically be profitable by CPU mining. Actually, it can really be only mined by CPU. But unless you have a really high core count CPU with very high AES performance it's probably not worth it.


This. I'm fairly certain this is what GerKNG was giving his answer to.


xkm1948 said:


> bitcointalk.org would be a good place to start your research. Go to the altcoin mining sub directory. Glancing over the first page shows someone also asked similar question. Look up "LuxCoin or Verus"


This also.


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## GerKNG (May 24, 2021)

PaulieG said:


> I asked multiple questions here. This is pretty much a worthless answer.


i literally just answered all of them.

Edit:
Thanks for deleting my comment and flagging this here for no reason at all.


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## dark2099 (May 24, 2021)

@PaulieG To answer your question about CPU mining, not worth it. Each of those chips likely will pull ~130w, maybe more, but that's what my 5900x reads out in HWINFO when I've tried CPU mining, and will earn you probably maybe a quarter of GPU pulling the same power.


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## PaulieG (May 24, 2021)

So, what about Helium mining? Anyone familiar with helium and helium miner rigs?


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## R-T-B (May 24, 2021)

I'm afraid I've never heard of helium.  I'll read about it later today and give you my "years late hot take"


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## Toothless (May 24, 2021)

What if it was server chips to mine on cpu? I would think a 2680v2 could be profitable at 100w full load.


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## dark2099 (May 24, 2021)

Toothless said:


> What if it was server chips to mine on cpu? I would think a 2680v2 could be profitable at 100w full load.


Possibly better, but would need a crazy high core count for Intel. From what I've seen trying CPU mining on both AMD and Intel, AMD will use all the logical threads, Intel only physical cores, and when you set to run all logical threads on Intel, would reduce profits.


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## lexluthermiester (May 24, 2021)

PaulieG said:


> So, what about Helium mining? Anyone familiar with helium and helium miner rigs?


Are we talking about actual Helium, as in the element He? Or is this a new cryptocoin?


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## dark2099 (May 24, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> Are we talking about actual Helium, as in the element He? Or is this a new cryptocoin?


https://www.helium.com/mine


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## lexluthermiester (May 24, 2021)

dark2099 said:


> https://www.helium.com/mine


That's just crazy enough to be interesting...


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## Toothless (May 24, 2021)

dark2099 said:


> Possibly better, but would need a crazy high core count for Intel. From what I've seen trying CPU mining on both AMD and Intel, AMD will use all the logical threads, Intel only physical cores, and when you set to run all logical threads on Intel, would reduce profits.


Well. That would be 20 cores to sit on. Probably not worth it in the end.


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## PaulieG (May 24, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> That's just crazy enough to be interesting...


A local guy who recently bought a 3900XT told me about it. Thing is, the miner rigs are totally sold out with waiting lists of 3 months or more from the 3 companies that make the helium miners. The things that attract me to it is it's "green" mining and you can make more money up to a point if you partner with others as "witnesses" to grow the network.


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## R-T-B (May 24, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> That's just crazy enough to be interesting...


It's ideas like that that reassure me crypto still has some possible positive potential...

Certainly interesting.


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## lexluthermiester (May 24, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> It's ideas like that that reassure me crypto still has some possible positive potential...
> 
> Certainly interesting.


I'll agree with that.


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## R-T-B (May 24, 2021)

I invested ~$100.00 in helium today.  I'll say the following about it:

1.) The tech and ideas behind it are very cool, hence my investment.  The radio range too gives me hope it might actually work to create a sort of decentralized user-run internet, which would be super awesome.

2.)  The token itself (HNT Or Helium Token) is hard to get right now.  I had to setup a binance.us account as they are the only exchange that will trade it that I can find and that was...  not exactly a walk in the park.  Probably because of the recent SEC actions, they are being SUPER skeptical of American users right now.

It netted me around 8 HNT.  I could lose everything, but I am always willing to watch innovative tech with a small "high risk" investment.

Pretty cool all in all, but needs to make the coin more accessible (if to be used as a decentralized internet, they eventually need a simple credit-card to HNT bridge as an example). 

Do NOT take this as investment advice, obviously.  I'm a frog, for pete-sake.


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## lexluthermiester (May 24, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> Probably because of the recent SEC actions, they are being SUPER skeptical of American users right now.


And there a big part of the reason cryptocoin is crashing.


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## R-T-B (May 24, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> And there a big part of the reason cryptocoin is crashing.


Yeah.  It wasn't thrilling having to have an account with them at all frankly, but I wanted to see where Helium goes.  It's sort of a "one and done" account tbh.

What I had to do to get an account:

Take a photo of my state ID front and back.

Submit a selfie to ensure it matched ID.

Use my phones depth sensor to confirm it was a real face and not a photo (could not upload a simple image of myself, had to be a selfie from a phone with a depth sensor).

Submit a pdf bank statement with proof of residence (address on it, essentially).

By the time it was done I just wanted to go to sleep.

I trust them enough to know they are not going to sell my details but damn, where do I put my drop of blood?  I was ready at that point.


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## lexluthermiester (May 24, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> Yeah.  It wasn't thrilling having to have an account with them at all frankly, but I wanted to see where Helium goes.  It's sort of a "one and done" account tbh.
> 
> What I had to do to get an account:
> 
> ...


Yeah, I would have given them the two fingered salute rather than jump through all of those silly hoops..


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## R-T-B (May 24, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> Yeah, I would have given them the two fingered salute rather than jump through all of those silly hoops..


It was like a bad movie though, I just had to get through it to see the end...

I like the idea but accessibility right now for the token is piss-poor to say the least.

That's my hot-take.


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## Hemmingstamp (May 24, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> Yeah, I would have given them the two fingered salute rather than jump through all of those silly hoops..


What froggy was saying will be the norm in the very near future Lex. Mark my words.


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## lexluthermiester (May 24, 2021)

Hemmingstamp said:


> What froggy was saying will be the norm in the very near future Lex. Mark my words.


I'm sure it will. Doesn't mean I'm going to tolerate it..


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## Hemmingstamp (May 24, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> I'm sure it will. Doesn't mean I'm going to tolerate it..


I'm glad to hear it.


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## R-T-B (May 25, 2021)

If you do want to go the helium route they seem to be taking orders for that Bobcat radio relay/miner in crypto-stablecoins (USDC) form.  It claims to have a 10mi range.  I'd happily do the cash-> crypto-stablecoins part for you if you need it and probably buy one myself in the same order @PaulieG


There's a 10-12 week lead time to build it though.  That's icky.  But I will admit the techy in me is tickled by this idea.  Cool little thing I was not aware of.  Just don't...  you know, it should go without saying, but it doesn't.  Never spend money you can't afford to lose.  I'd just be in it for the fun.


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## Amite (May 25, 2021)

PaulieG said:


> I'm pretty much a complete noob with anything crypto. I have no interest in GPU mining whatsoever for so many reasons I won't get into here. However, I am curious. Is there anything out there that is CPU only and profitable after electricity costs? Also, what about Helium and helium miners? Are the miner machines likely to be worth the investment? I have done some research, but much of this stuff still makes me dizzy.


Try Chia
 game while mining


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## PaulieG (May 25, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> If you do want to go the helium route they seem to be taking orders for that Bobcat radio relay/miner in crypto-stablecoins (USDC) form.  It claims to have a 10mi range.  I'd happily do the cash-> crypto-stablecoins part for you if you need it and probably buy one myself in the same order @PaulieG
> 
> 
> There's a 10-12 week lead time to build it though.  That's icky.  But I will admit the techy in me is tickled by this idea.  Cool little thing I was not aware of.  Just don't...  you know, it should go without saying, but it doesn't.  Never spend money you can't afford to lose.  I'd just be in it for the fun.


The Bobcat appears to be the most cost efficient Helium miner. I think I would have bought 2 if they had took payment in something other than crypto. I'll send you a PM tonight or tomorrow regarding your offer. This is certainly just fun for me. If there is profit, it would just be a bonus. I'm just really curious.


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## R-T-B (May 25, 2021)

PaulieG said:


> The Bobcat appears to be the most cost efficient Helium miner. I think I would have bought 2 if they had took payment in something other than crypto. I'll send you a PM tonight or tomorrow regarding your offer. This is certainly just fun for me. If there is profit, it would just be a bonus. I'm just really curious.


Ditto.  Would be fun to form a TPU group to play with it at least.



Amite said:


> Try Chia
> game while mining


Chia is pretty much a non-earner without 16TB now or something I heard...  just sayin'


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## Space Lynx (May 25, 2021)

The telecommunications companies are notorious for 'donating' to congress. I really don't see Helium going anywhere, if it gets any traction at all, they will make sure it gets shut down, in USA anyway. I'm sure they will claim stuff like security risks, etc.


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## lexluthermiester (May 25, 2021)

lynx29 said:


> The telecommunications companies are notorious for 'donating' to congress. I really don't see Helium going anywhere, if it gets any traction at all, they will make sure it gets shut down, in USA anyway. I'm sure they will claim stuff like security risks, etc.


Actually that's possible... There's also the issues of degraded signal effect. The FCC might step in and put the clamp on it all...


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## R-T-B (May 25, 2021)

It's all possible, but my understanding is the FCC already approved the bands it uses, so kind of hard to walk back that approval.



lexluthermiester said:


> Actually that's possible... There's also the issues of degraded signal effect. The FCC might step in and put the clamp on it all...


Not much else operating in the 915Mhz spectrum that I know of...  open to being shown otherwise though.


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## MIRTAZAPINE (May 25, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> Ditto.  Would be fun to form a TPU group to play with it at least.
> 
> 
> Chia is pretty much a non-earner without 16TB now or something I heard...  just sayin'



I tried Chia out curiosity by using HDD to plot rather than ssd to do it as I don't wanna burned it up. I am keeping an eye on this coin as it affect my datahoarding hobby hdd collection. You are right it is a non-earner. It ok if you already have existing NAS to do this too.  Even then to get to fill up a 16TB would take ages without an SSD doing it or goup of rams and cpu threads. The network is at 10.441Eib now, the speed of growth is insane. It was only at 8EIB on last saturday few days back. You could not fight the rapidly increasing difficulty.  I just plotted 2.2TB worth of HDD estimated time to win a coin is 3 years lol.  By the looks of the exponential of growth for the Chia network. They would take a sizeable percentage of HDD shipment used the coming months. Better to just buy some WD or seagate shares, their sales are going up.


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## R-T-B (May 26, 2021)

PaulieG said:


> The Bobcat appears to be the most cost efficient Helium miner. I think I would have bought 2 if they had took payment in something other than crypto. I'll send you a PM tonight or tomorrow regarding your offer. This is certainly just fun for me. If there is profit, it would just be a bonus. I'm just really curious.


Any thoughts on this PaulieG?  Not to rush you but if doing a combined order I may just be jumping on my own soon.

I'd still happily convert the crypto for you of course, so no pressure.


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## PaulieG (May 26, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> Any thoughts on this PaulieG?  Not to rush you but if doing a combined order I may just be jumping on my own soon.
> 
> I'd still happily convert the crypto for you of course, so no pressure.


Everything hinges on whether I get some of this gym equipment sold tonight. A guy from Atlanta will be up to look at it this evening, so I'll know better then.


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## R-T-B (May 26, 2021)

PaulieG said:


> Everything hinges on whether I get some of this gym equipment sold tonight. A guy from Atlanta will be up to look at it this evening, so I'll know better then.


I'm still evaluating for a day or so what my plans are so sounds good.


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## MentalAcetylide (May 26, 2021)

I wouldn't expect it to crash any time soon unless something dramatic unexpectedly happens. There's a guy making over $300 per day mining "lone wolf" style with around 45 low end 4Gb NVidia cards in server racks running some kind of Linux OS specifically meant for mining. That's with the cost of electricity included. Altogether he spent close to $17k on the equipment over the past couple of years adding on to it.


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## R-T-B (May 26, 2021)

MentalAcetylide said:


> I wouldn't expect it to crash any time soon unless something dramatic unexpectedly happens. There's a guy making over $300 per day mining "lone wolf" style with around 45 low end 4Gb NVidia cards in server racks running some kind of Linux OS specifically meant for mining. That's with the cost of electricity included. Altogether he spent close to $17k on the equipment over the past couple of years adding on to it.


That's nice but this thread isn't about gpu mining.


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## lexluthermiester (May 26, 2021)

MentalAcetylide said:


> I wouldn't expect it to crash any time soon unless something dramatic unexpectedly happens. There's a guy making over $300 per day mining "lone wolf" style with around 45 low end 4Gb NVidia cards in server racks running some kind of Linux OS specifically meant for mining. That's with the cost of electricity included. Altogether he spent close to $17k on the equipment over the past couple of years adding on to it.





R-T-B said:


> That's nice but this thread isn't about gpu mining.


Not to mention that with the "Proof of Stake" change-over happening, GPU mining is going to be dead in the water...


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## ShiBDiB (May 26, 2021)

I actually did a semi deep dive on helium last week. As far as mining it's HEAVILY dependent on your location and the amount of people near you also mining. There's also a tipping point where a location gets oversaturated and becomes less profitable. 

There's posts by RF techs who are setting up crazy antenna setups to maximize profits (a few then saying it was NOT worth the investment outside of it being interesting to do).

It has the makings of being profitable for a few people in great locations, and being a pricey investment for those who get in late or don't research their location well enough.


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## R-T-B (May 26, 2021)

ShiBDiB said:


> I actually did a semi deep dive on helium last week. As far as mining it's HEAVILY dependent on your location and the amount of people near you also mining. There's also a tipping point where a location gets oversaturated and becomes less profitable.


I did a little homework on this too.  It's basically encouraging you to build in dead zones, but not in corn fields.  You still want nodes nearby (ie people live there).

I live in an ok spot for this, actually.  There are already 1-2 nodes near me.

BTW, I ordered mine @PaulieG, and the taxes (at least here in Washington) plus the shipping from Chinaland make its price rather more hefty.  Still willing to do the convert for you but keep this in mind:





Keep in mind there is also a ~$4 fee to send the payment.  It gets up there a bit above the $429 for the miner, as you can see.  I like the tech, but the costs are a bit out there.  We'll see how it goes.



ShiBDiB said:


> It has the makings of being profitable for a few people in great locations, and being a pricey investment for those who get in late or don't research their location well enough.


I'd say if money is your goal, buy the token now as it seems to be "hot."  But again, what do I know?  I'm a frog.


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## R-T-B (May 29, 2021)

$100 in Helium swelling nicely.  Keep in mind, most crypto is flopping right now...



			https://www.coinbase.com/price/helium


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## R-T-B (Sep 25, 2021)

I just wanted to update re my miner order, it still has not shipped.  They have a timeframe that suggests it will ship soon (1-2 months, next few batches), but I doubt I will make an RoI on the miner itself due to the incredible turn around it took.

@PaulieG if you want to mess with it I might sell my seat to you.  Lmk if you have any interest.  Bobcat miner that should be shipping within 1-2 months at tops.  You can also wait until I have it in hand, no issue on my end (and understandable).

I know you wouldn't pay full price,  Hit me.


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## R-T-B (Nov 8, 2021)

My miner arrived today.

I had a change of heart.  Despite no ROI in site, I am going to document the setup and earnings of this thing, review style.

It is the least I can do, given this is one of the few productive "Proof of " algorithms out there today.

Stay tuned.


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## lexluthermiester (Nov 8, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> My miner arrived today.
> 
> I had a change of heart.  Despite no ROI in site, I am going to document the setup and earnings of this thing, review style.
> 
> ...


No sarcasm intended: I'm interested in reading/viewing what you're talking about.


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## Deleted member 202104 (Nov 8, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> My miner arrived today.
> 
> I had a change of heart.  Despite no ROI in site, I am going to document the setup and earnings of this thing, review style.
> 
> ...



Will you post it here or somewhere else?  I'd enjoy reading through it.


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## R-T-B (Nov 8, 2021)

weekendgeek said:


> Will you post it here or somewhere else?  I'd enjoy reading through it.


In the crypto forum, most likely in a new thread.

No longer a news writer officially but still can show off some tech fun.


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## stinger608 (Nov 9, 2021)

All of the mining trends have sparked a serious interest in me, but man, what way does a person go? It's mind boggling how many different "mining" projects are out there and on the horizon. 

I just looked, and the helium is at $42.xx right now. I was thinking of, like @R-T-B , tossing a hundred at it and forget about it for awhile............But, finding how to buy this is also mind boggling!!!!!


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## R-T-B (Nov 9, 2021)

So no photos of the setup because that will come later, but fun fact:  new "curved screen" android phones seem to currently have an issue with the Helium app where you cannot press the button to tell the miner where to send your payout.  Pretty amazing.

Fortunately, I had an old Iphone SE and was able to complete setup with that.  But yeah, that was a serious rough edge that almost ended this before it began.


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## The red spirit (Nov 9, 2021)

Old Xeons or Opterons might be worth it since they cost next to nothing, but they guzzle power and in terms of hasrate/power ratio they might not be worth using.



R-T-B said:


> Yeah.  It wasn't thrilling having to have an account with them at all frankly, but I wanted to see where Helium goes.  It's sort of a "one and done" account tbh.
> 
> What I had to do to get an account:
> 
> ...


They are similar to bank so they have to know that. It's not really that much. If you ever cared to open stock broker or other investment account, it can be a lot worse. I never finished my Interactive Brokers account setup, because I was really confused and lacked blood to complete it. They won't ask for blood, they will ask you a million questions about your blood, when you are bleeding out.


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## lexluthermiester (Nov 9, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> So no photos of the setup because that will come later, but fun fact:  new "curved screen" android phones seem to currently have an issue with the Helium app where you cannot press the button to tell the miner where to send your payout.  Pretty amazing.
> 
> Fortunately, I had an old Iphone SE and was able to complete setup with that.  But yeah, that was a serious rough edge that almost ended this before it began.


Now THAT'S a weird glitch! Are the app devs aware of the problem?


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## R-T-B (Nov 9, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> Now THAT'S a weird glitch! Are the app devs aware of the problem?


I'm fairly certain they are.  Looking at play store reviews it apparently happened during the last UI overhaul.  I would not expect it to be a bug that floats around long, but still a disconcerting place to mess up.

They have to be aware because it's tanked their app rating bad (from a decent 4 to a 2.0).


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## lexluthermiester (Nov 9, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> They have to be aware because it's tanked their app rating bad (from a decent 4 to a 2.0).


Ouch!


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