<p>I use mine in "lottery mode" as I call it. </p>

<p>They don't really consume too much energy, so I just let them solo mine. Big chance will turn out to be nothing, but with some luck they will ever find a block and cash in 25 BTC.</p>

<p>How low the chance may be, it's still a lot higher than winning the ordinary lottery and way cooler :)</p>

<p><strong>EDIT</strong>: A quick calculation of your odds.</p>

<p>The current (2014/01/24 23:07) chance of a hash to be a winning hash is <a href="https://blockexplorer.com/q/probability" rel="nofollow">0.0000000000000000001061272725905534506860017351925762341</a>. Then the odds of winning each day are for one block erupter USB of 330MH/s</p>

<p><code>0.0000000000000000001061272725905534506860017351925762341 * 330*10^6 * 60*60*24 = 1 / 330480.1</code></p>

<p>So one chance in 330,480 each day or one chance in 905 a year (of course, changing difficulty has to be taken into account).</p>

<p>Let's take the Powerball lottery as a reference as Earlz mentions, it has odds of one in 648,975.96 to win $10,000 one in 5,153,632.65 to win $1,000,000.</p>

<p>So, every day you have double the chance to win 25 BTC than you have to win $10k, which is less and costs you probably a dollar or two to enter.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-24T21:47:42.690Z
I computed the probability on something like this once and it is ridiculously low. I used CPU mining as the bitcoin lotto though. Basically, you have a significantly better chance at winning the powerball lottery than mining a single block with less than a few ghash/s
Earlz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-24T22:06:29.803Z
Well, I believe you don't. I'll update the anwer shortly.
Steven Roose
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-21T22:14:06.950Z
2014-01-24T22:13:09.297Z
2014-01-24T22:13:09.297Z
Steven Roose
<p>Unfortunately these small asics will eventually be useless unless you want to keep one or two around on the off-chance that you will want to start your own crypto-currency.</p>

<p>However, if you have a pile of 10-20 of them setting around, you could use them as an opportunity to teach people about Bitcoins and how the system operates.  </p>

<p>Handing out erupters that you no longer need could be a good way to pique the interest of people who have heard of bitcoin, but have never taken a good look at it.</p>

<p>Other than educational purposes, or seeding new cryptos, I see no <em>long-term</em> use for these low hash power ASICs.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-31T11:44:42.487Z
This is good for really getting to know the bitcoin ecosystem, to experience all aspects. They could be passed from newbie to newbie. Maybe for a small fee :-)
Jonas Oestman
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-31T11:33:45.713Z
2013-10-31T11:52:11.947Z
2013-10-31T11:52:11.947Z
RLH
<p>There's piles of different coins to mine.  Figure out which one is most profitable to mine: <a href="http://www.coinwarz.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.coinwarz.com</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-31T09:35:13.393Z
2013-10-31T09:35:13.393Z
Hooters
<p><strong>You really should start to mine new alt-coin !!!</strong></p>

<p>Look at my experience. I've mine ppcoin in merge pool for long period in 2012. I've got around 100k ppcoins. And I've sold it for month after mining. Not a big deal, 1-2 BTC for that time. </p>

<p>Now look at the price of ppcoin: 0.005 BTC, I may get 500 BTC today.</p>

<p>There are 100 alt-coins with the same algo <code>sha256</code>.</p>

<p>Another example, from current state: There was price 1 Satoshi 0.0000 0001 for the MOON coin ( scrypt ). It has been added to cryptsy, and now its price is 28 Satoshi. You can buy alt-coin before it will be added to cryptsy and in 100% get profit. In MOON scenario it is 2800 %. It is rocket! </p>

<p>You better take your hands and start to lurking for new potential good alt-coins with <code>sha256</code> algo.</p>

<p>E.g. You can't get luck in solo with current <code>sha256</code> alt-coins, check the pools, there is already great amount of asics. 99% of <code>sha256</code> coins very rapidly come to the market. Because it is very easy to add similar coin to one bin.</p>

<ul>
<li>github.com/zetacoin/zetacoin.git </li>
<li>github.com/bryan-mills/bytecoin.git</li>
<li>github.com/terracoin/terracoin.git</li>
<li>github.com/freicoin/freicoin/ </li>
<li>github.com/asiccoin/asiccoin.git </li>
<li>github.com/Nameshar/Noirbits.git </li>
<li>github.com/tigercoin/tigercoin.git </li>
<li>github.com/Unthinkingbit/groupcoin</li>
<li>github.com/r3wt/OSC</li>
<li>github.com/joulecoin/joulecoin.git </li>
<li>github.com/maxxine/Tekcoin </li>
<li>github.com/thegreatoldone/Unobtanium.git</li>
<li>github.com/emarkproject/DEM.git</li>
<li>github.com/jmsanto123/NaanaYaM.git</li>
<li>github.com/chronokings/huntercoin </li>
<li>github.com/snowcoin/snowcoin </li>
<li>github.com/Sphere2013/GlobeCrypto</li>
<li>github.com/NKAKoin/IncaKoin </li>
<li>github.com/chicoin/chicoin </li>
</ul>

<p>Every this coin you might start to mine with your block erupter.</p>

<p>But! Better, start to lurking for newest one, that have great Idea in the ground:</p>

<ul>
<li>Fast block ( e.g. 30 seconds )</li>
<li>Dynamical difficulty ( unkillable alt-coins )</li>
<li>Cool name ( e.g. MOON, see like it flew )</li>
<li>Not yet added to the crypty ( ! ! ! ) ( it is optional )</li>
</ul>

<p>Look at this super new alt-coin: <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=423523.msg4608890#msg4608890" rel="nofollow">Titcoin [TIT]</a>  </p>

<p>When you can hold your portfolio for the long period, e.g. half of year, you might meet the same situation that I observe with ppcoin, now. ( 500 BTC ~ half of million USD, just for merge mining. I didn't aim to this alt-coin ever, just mine this alt-coin by the way and sell, and lose this game... )</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-24T19:50:41.897Z
2014-01-24T19:50:41.897Z
Anomalous Awe
<p>Sell them to someone who wants the experience of mining but doesn't have much of a budget for the hardware.   These are easy to package up and cheap to ship so this is a valid and worthy endeavor.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-11T16:43:10.557Z
2013-11-11T16:43:10.557Z
Stephen Gornick
<p>I'm making like nothing off these guys and am looking to use them for something else.  I guess these ASICs are designed for SHA-256 hash function based cryptocurrencies.</p>

<p>Try to mine Terracoin?</p>

<p>cryptocurrency list:
<a href="http://dustcoin.com/" rel="nofollow">http://dustcoin.com/</a></p>

<mining-profitability><altcoin><asic>
What do I do with all my old block erupters?
tarabyte
# What do I do with all my old block erupters?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-10-30)

I'm making like nothing off these guys and am looking to use them for something else. I guess these ASICs are designed for SHA-256 hash function based cryptocurrencies.

Try to mine Terracoin?

cryptocurrency list:
<http://dustcoin.com/>

**Tags:** mining-profitability, altcoin, asic


---

## 5 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-01-21. Score: 4

I use mine in "lottery mode" as I call it.

They don't really consume too much energy, so I just let them solo mine. Big chance will turn out to be nothing, but with some luck they will ever find a block and cash in 25 BTC.

How low the chance may be, it's still a lot higher than winning the ordinary lottery and way cooler :)

**EDIT**: A quick calculation of your odds.

The current (2014/01/24 23:07) chance of a hash to be a winning hash is [0.0000000000000000001061272725905534506860017351925762341](https://blockexplorer.com/q/probability). Then the odds of winning each day are for one block erupter USB of 330MH/s

`0.0000000000000000001061272725905534506860017351925762341 * 330*10^6 * 60*60*24 = 1 / 330480.1`

So one chance in 330,480 each day or one chance in 905 a year (of course, changing difficulty has to be taken into account).

Let's take the Powerball lottery as a reference as username_2 mentions, it has odds of one in 648,975.96 to win $10,000 one in 5,153,632.65 to win $1,000,000.

So, every day you have double the chance to win 25 BTC than you have to win $10k, which is less and costs you probably a dollar or two to enter.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: I computed the probability on something like this once and it is ridiculously low. I used CPU mining as the bitcoin lotto though. Basically, you have a significantly better chance at winning the powerball lottery than mining a single block with less than a few ghash/s  
> **username_1**: Well, I believe you don't. I'll update the anwer shortly.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2013-10-31. Score: 2

Unfortunately these small asics will eventually be useless unless you want to keep one or two around on the off-chance that you will want to start your own crypto-currency.

However, if you have a pile of 10-20 of them setting around, you could use them as an opportunity to teach people about Bitcoins and how the system operates.

Handing out erupters that you no longer need could be a good way to pique the interest of people who have heard of bitcoin, but have never taken a good look at it.

Other than educational purposes, or seeding new cryptos, I see no *long-term* use for these low hash power ASICs.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: This is good for really getting to know the bitcoin ecosystem, to experience all aspects. They could be passed from newbie to newbie. Maybe for a small fee :-)  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2013-10-31. Score: 1

There's piles of different coins to mine. Figure out which one is most profitable to mine: <http://www.coinwarz.com>


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2014-01-24. Score: 0

**You really should start to mine new alt-coin !!!**

Look at my experience. I've mine ppcoin in merge pool for long period in 2012. I've got around 100k ppcoins. And I've sold it for month after mining. Not a big deal, 1-2 BTC for that time.

Now look at the price of ppcoin: 0.005 BTC, I may get 500 BTC today.

There are 100 alt-coins with the same algo `sha256`.

Another example, from current state: There was price 1 Satoshi 0.0000 0001 for the MOON coin ( scrypt ). It has been added to cryptsy, and now its price is 28 Satoshi. You can buy alt-coin before it will be added to cryptsy and in 100% get profit. In MOON scenario it is 2800 %. It is rocket!

You better take your hands and start to lurking for new potential good alt-coins with `sha256` algo.

E.g. You can't get luck in solo with current `sha256` alt-coins, check the pools, there is already great amount of asics. 99% of `sha256` coins very rapidly come to the market. Because it is very easy to add similar coin to one bin.

* github.com/zetacoin/zetacoin.git
* github.com/bryan-mills/bytecoin.git
* github.com/terracoin/terracoin.git
* github.com/freicoin/freicoin/
* github.com/asiccoin/asiccoin.git
* github.com/Nameshar/Noirbits.git
* github.com/tigercoin/tigercoin.git
* github.com/Unthinkingbit/groupcoin
* github.com/r3wt/OSC
* github.com/joulecoin/joulecoin.git
* github.com/maxxine/Tekcoin
* github.com/thegreatoldone/Unobtanium.git
* github.com/emarkproject/DEM.git
* github.com/jmsanto123/NaanaYaM.git
* github.com/chronokings/huntercoin
* github.com/snowcoin/snowcoin
* github.com/Sphere2013/GlobeCrypto
* github.com/NKAKoin/IncaKoin
* github.com/chicoin/chicoin

Every this coin you might start to mine with your block erupter.

But! Better, start to lurking for newest one, that have great Idea in the ground:

* Fast block ( e.g. 30 seconds )
* Dynamical difficulty ( unkillable alt-coins )
* Cool name ( e.g. MOON, see like it flew )
* Not yet added to the crypty ( ! ! ! ) ( it is optional )

Look at this super new alt-coin: [Titcoin [TIT]](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=423523.msg4608890#msg4608890)

When you can hold your portfolio for the long period, e.g. half of year, you might meet the same situation that I observe with ppcoin, now. ( 500 BTC ~ half of million USD, just for merge mining. I didn't aim to this alt-coin ever, just mine this alt-coin by the way and sell, and lose this game... )


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2013-11-11. Score: 0

Sell them to someone who wants the experience of mining but doesn't have much of a budget for the hardware. These are easy to package up and cheap to ship so this is a valid and worthy endeavor.


---

