This is more my speed than the LCD display, for now. If you need an intro to getting a Raspberry Pi setup with a distro, there’s a good quick start guide from the Raspberry Pi foundation.Īlso, I’m using this forum tutorial from the Raspberry Pi forums, which instructs you how to install and use an SSH application called “screen” to view cgminer status in lieu of the Adafruit Industries LCD display. If you can get the Pi up and running, the Adafruit tutorial makes the whole cgminer install and setup thing as simple as copying and pasting, but be warned. And if you don’t know what SSH means…well…this will be extra hard. The whole software setup process is pretty terminal intensive, so if you’re not comfortable in a UNIX environment it may be intimidating. The tutorial walks you through installing cgminer on Raspbian. I am closely following the wonderful Adafruit Learning Tutorial on how to Configure a Raspberry Pi to Mine Bitcoin. I’m not kidding, there’s a reason this guy is using a fan in his setup. I’ve also ordered a powered D-link USB hub, and a USB fan to cool the ASICMINER Block Erupter Sticks, which I’ve learned (firsthand) get incredibly hot from a few minutes of use. But, if you’re looking to use BTC you already have to purchase hardware, use BitMit. Don’t be alarmed, you don’t need to use BitMit to find/buy ASICMINER sticks (like many discussions on the web would lead you to believe), there are plenty of sellers on Amazon. The ASICMINER Block Erupter Sticks I found on Amazon for $100-$130 a piece. The Raspberry Pi (model B) I’ve had laying around for awhile, haven’t done much with it beyond trying to create a media center that can rival the setup I have currently. The current plan is to utilize 4 ASICMINER Block Erupter Sticks and a Raspberry Pi as the primary hardware. The sooner you get mining, the more you’ll make…the difficulty is only going up. (NOTE: I still think learning CAD is now and always will be more profitable than learning how to mine Bitcoin properly) Now that I have the time and the means, I thought I’d give it another try. I had downloaded the Bitcoin wallet software several years ago, but it wasn’t plug-and-play enough then and I was getting my second degree, so I figured I’d rather spend more time learning CAD than learning how to join a mining pool. I’ve been saying I wanted to get into this whole “Bitcoin thing” since I first heard about it in 2010, and never did much. Also, the industrial designer in me has wanted to design a specialty case for the Raspberry Pi for quite some time, and configuring a Pi to mine bitcoin seems like a great opportunity. Since the competition ended, I’ve stayed on up research and news regarding Bitcoin and two weeks ago I saw this imgur gallery tweeted from This sparked my interest into finding the ASICMINER Block Erupter Sticks for sale and seeing if I could replicate this operation on a smaller scale. Watch the video, I’m still quite proud of the concept. The project combined anonymous routing, cryptographic currency, and crowdfuding to create a platform, called BigShot, where deviant activity can be funded in complete anonymity. This whole endeavor is fueled by my continuing interest in crypto-graphic currencies, stemming from my participation in a project which won the 2013 Future of Money Award. I’m in the process of setting up my own Bitcoin mining operation, so I thought I’d share out what I’ve attempted and learned thus far, as well as some thoughts about the nature of Bitcoin in general.
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