Top reviews from the United States
5 out of 5 stars
Guide for anybody that's late to the bitcoin mining party and the most widely available ASIC USB miner.
Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2015
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Wonderful piece of bitcoin history and they work perfectly as designed and advertized. It is a shame I was not paying attention to this in 2012 but then again maybe it has saved me some money. Bottom line is do some homework. I am going to assume only a beginner would be looking here so let's get on with the beginner review.
These ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) USB devices do one thing. Generate SHA-256 hashes at a rate of 336,000,000 a second. So it is a little faster than the 330 MH/s in the spec. As a comparison you can go to www.bitminter.com IMHO the easiest mining place to start with any version 7 or higher java. Using a Lumia windows phone gives me 900,000 to 1,000,000 hashes per second. 990 kH/s - 1.0 MH/s.
On a 64bit core i3 it jumps up to 12 - 14 MH/s. Run this specifically on a GPU (graphics card) that has lots of cores you can jump this up to 30 MH/s up to 290 MH/s which seems awesome compared to the phone right, but check your system and you see it's sucking 80 watts of power and needing to run the fan at 95%
All this elementary introduction aside lets get back to the ASIC here. It will run 336 MH/s and only use 2 to 2.5 watts of power.
This would have been a mint in 2012. To bring this up to 2015 you need to jump up to GH/s, yeah a giga hash. 1,000,000,000. You would need 3 of these to average around that number.
Time to wrap this up and not drag you into any more math which will only disappoint you. This calculation is my opinion based on what I have read in the last month and what I have actually done with my own hardware. A 1 GH/s seems to be the lowest rate to be able to calculate and this does not include SCRYPT this is for SHA-256. (still working on my scrypt testing)
I estimate 1 GH/s running 24/7 would average 7 or 8 cents worth of bitcoin a month. But with pooled mining you have fees and there are transaction fees and like I said you need to do your homework. There are other crypto coins that may be more profitable. There is one other thing you need to take into consideration. How much does your power cost? For me even a small 20 watts costs $1.22 a month.
So if you get free power or if you need some extra heat because these things do run very hot. (any small fan or air flow will cool them or add a small heatsink) go right ahead and buy these up and get a powered USB hub and with 10 or 20 of them mining a multi pool you will get some coin.
VJ
54 people found this helpful
5 out of 5 stars
ALL IN GOOD FUN
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2013
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These Asic miners work perfectly. I personally own six of them! all run 333 mh/s.
Pros:
Great entry bit coin miner
Very cheap considering what others pay for hardware
you will actually receive your order ( unlike BFL)
Really a lot of fun to be hard with these little miners!
Cons:
NO ROI, you will not make your money back, not enough horse power in these little things!
mainly used for ALT COINS. Yes mining bitcoin with these will not get your far unless you own 100 of them
mining a sha-256 is your BEST options
RUN VERY HOT
*NOTE* YOU NEED a fan over there for them to run at full speed. If they get to hot, you will start geting hardware error rates above 1% ( NOT GOOD)
HOWEVER, I never have had one of these burn out. and there hot as hell, they should withstand a beating.
OVER, IF you want to take up bitcoin mining as a hobby buy these! and have some fun!
if you buy 100 of them.. your not making your money back.... Maby...
2 people found this helpful
4 out of 5 stars
Performs exactly as advertised.
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2014
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Considering that the only way to mine Bitcoin these days with an hope of return on any investment can only be done with ASIC miners, these little guys are a great starting point for the newbie bitcoin miner. However, truth be told, the power required to mine these days is so large that you will need many of these to get anywhere. I have 20 running and mining is very slow.
Many miners are selling these used so that they can trade up to multi GH/s devices (I have ordered one myself, 10GH/s). There are now Red Fury and Antminer devices running in the 1.6GH/s range, but are much more expensive then these 330MH/s devices.
The good news, out of all the used ones I have purchased, most of them work flawlessly, a few have non-zero error rates; but of those with errors, the rates are very small (the worst being 12K+ accepted hashes with 121 errors over 72 hours) none so far have come in as unacceptable. So I am quite pleased.
The price of these fluctuates with the price of Bitcoin. Initially I picked up a pair at $60 and $70. I will only buy them now when @ $30 or lower. Especially since you will need many of them to get anywhere.
The other minor downside with these, considering that you will need many, its tough to find a decently priced USB hub to run them all. Many of the 5+ port hubs are under powered and cheap hubs are utterly useless. Surprisingly, the Amazon Basics 7Port USB hub that isn't being sold anymore worked fine. Even so, if you buy a 10 port USB hub, expect to only run between 6 to 8 at any given time unless you spend mucho $$$ on the Block Erupter 48 port hub.
4 people found this helpful
3 out of 5 stars
Was great for its day
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2013
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Excellent tool for learning about cryptocurrency, and bitminter is less hassle than other options.
Now, these are still great devices for learning about crypto, and for mining other altcoins (DVC,MNC,IXC,etc) - some can even be mined at the same time as BC with no overhead - definitely a bonus. They are also an OK way to on-ramp a few pennies per day into a wallet. I still use my Sapphire, and even do some meager GPU mining (75Khs GTx560 - AMD is better for this)
In the few months I've had one, I've mined BC 0.01 (about $10 @ BC 1 = $100). I had stopped mining for a while, as other projects grabbed my attention. My loss. By the time I'd noticed BC again, here we are at BC 1 = $1000!! I moved my crypto to a cloud mining operation where I traded it for 2.27 Ghs. Cost per Cloud-Ghs is about BC 0.07131382 (do the math). Still a bit more costly, hash wise, than a BFL 5Ghs rig, but easier to upgrade over time, and on a budget.
Great toy or learning tool; don't expect to pay itself off, let alone generate a useable profit unless (until?) we see BC hit $10,000 or other crypto take off.
5 out of 5 stars
Product Works Great for Hobbyists, DO NOT Buy This As An Investment
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2013
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I bought nine of these through Jones Gear (great seller, great price) along with an Anker® USB 3.0 9-Port Hub + 5V 2.1A Charging Port with 12V 5A Power Adapter [VIA VL812-B2 Chipset and updated Firmware 9801], the ARCTIC Breeze Mobile USB-Powered 92mm Portable Fan, Portable Cooling Solution, Quiet Fan - White and Cosmos ® 8 PCS Aluminum VGA video gaming card RAM Cooling Heatsinks heat sink cooler + Cosmos Cable Tie as the Block Erupters can run hot.
I got this product because I wanted to learn more about Bitcoin, and I thought it would be a fun hobby. I have not been disappointed. They're great conversation pieces and it's fun to watch the green lights go off when one delivers a Proof of Work. I run these through the BitMinter mining application and I think after installing the drivers it took me all of 30 seconds to get hooked up and hashing in the pool. They typically hash 333-335 MH/s when they're running at full capacity, so better than the advertised 330 MH/s which is great.
I should state, however, that if you're looking to buy these as an investment in Bitcoin then you should just buy XBT directly. With the recent difficulty increases (typically ~30% every ~14 days), you will likely never make your money back on these. Even buyers of the heavy-duty ASIC mining devices (200-400+ GH/s) are looking at zero to negative profits by the time of delivery.
Almost all of the mining calculators I have seen assume that the difficulty will remain constant for more than 14 days. This is flat out wishful thinking. Assume your XBT generation will go down by 30% every 14 or so days and you have a more approximate estimation.
So in conclusion: if you want to learn more about Bitcoin, have something interesting to talk about with people and support the network, this is a great product. If you're trying to make money, I'd encourage you to stay out of mining entirely.
75 people found this helpful
1 out of 5 stars
Not worth any money at this point
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2014
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These things served their purpose when the difficulty and network hashrate were lower but don't bother spending anything for them now. They are very outdated and won't ROI. They are cool if you just want to play around before you jump into the game with more powerful and expensive equipment, but don't expect to get a return on your investment, 330MH is NOTHING anymore.
One person found this helpful
2 out of 5 stars
Performs as advertised; WILL NEVER PAY FOR ITSELF. Interesting piece of history.
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2013
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This thing gets very hot, be sure to have some air moving across it.
It does perform SHA-2 hashes at 330 mega hashes per second. However, I'm skeptical of its 2.5 watt power claims. This thing is very hot.
IT WILL NEVER PAY FOR ITSELF. Bitcoin difficulty is continuing to climb. Difficulty just hit 510,929,738 and is forecast to hit 657,648,393 in 13 days. Difficulty == bad news for mining hardware.
If you have a USB Block Erupter right now, it is expected to produce ~0.008 BTC this month (about $2 worth of bitcoin) if run 24/7 in a mining pool. It's bitcoin production will continue to decline in ~30% increments as the bitcoin difficulty rises every 12 to 15 days. I suspect this USB Block Erupter could produce around 0.04 BTC during it's useful life (~6 months). The only hope for recovering your investment is if bitcoin's price rises dramatically.
I bought one simply as a coffee-table/conversation item. This device appears to be at End-of-Life; the cost of manufacturing it is probably in excess of its current retail price. I just really wanted to have a strange ASIC chip; a custom designed SHA-2 monster (this one is labeled BE100) seems to qualify. They probably commissioned a End-of-Life process from TMSC or similar. It's hard to tell.
You could wait for the fire sale to continue. They sold for a lot more earlier this year (they were a lot more productive too). These USB Block Erupters will be that much more obsolete 14 days from now. Just be sure to get one before they are fully down stocked.
---Update as of November 20th---
Well, as I said... your only hope to recover your investment is if bitcoin's price rises dramatically. I bought my ASiC block eruptor for $9+shipping in late October when BTC was around $190. BTC has tripled since then and my device has produced .0038 BTC in a mining pool the last 15 days. Supposedly I can exchange it for about $2.20. Even in this windfall of a "runaway to the moon" bullish BTC market, IT STILL PROBABLY WON'T PAY FOR ITSELF! With the most recent bitcoin mania, the retail price of these ASiC Block Eruptors has rebounded significantly, but their productivity has not. I cannot recommend buying this device anymore (not even as a novelty). Save your money and buy something else. If you want to speculate, buy BTC outright. Mining BTC is history.
85 people found this helpful
5 out of 5 stars
Excelente producto
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2026
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