Have you ever been curious about Bitcoin mining, but not sure where to start? Perhaps you want a chance to get into the digital gold rush but don't know where to begin. What if there were a tiny plug 'n play device that was easy to setup and gave you a chance at mining a block and thus earning the current 3.125 BTC reward? No, I'm not trying to sell anything...just setting up this blog post.

Now, all that sounds very exciting. And such a device does in fact exist. The Nerdminer V2 can be purchased online through various websites such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Aliexpress, Bitcoin Merch, etc. for anywhere from $20 to $50, depending on the model and vendor. Again, I promise I'm not trying to sell anything! Notice how there are no referral links...ha!

I think of it as a "perpetual lottery ticket" because it gives you a chance of hitting a block, albeit a very small one. Just how small?

It's really all about the novelty. I consider it a nice clock for my stand that has essentially no chance in hell of hitting a block. But, it is a nice introduction to Bitcoin mining to those who are curious.

The setup is fairly simple: connect it to your wi-fi, join a solo mining pool, input a Bitcoin wallet address, and you're all set.

What I liked about the one I ordered is that it came with a very clear and informative insert:

If you want to upgrade your solo mining game, and have a much more realistic shot at confirming a block, these miners pack a little more hashing power (but won't grossly surge your electric bill):

• Bitaxe Gamma
• NerdQaxe++
• Canaan Avalon Nano 3S

Better equipment, better odds. There have been six reports of solo miners confirming blocks in 2025:

What the Nerdminer V2 does for me, in reality, is give me a false sense of hope every morning when I wake up. I peek at that "VALID BLOCKS" box on the screen and am perpetually disappointed: it's always 0. Perhaps one day I'll see a 1; maybe in an alternate reality. Anyways, fingers crossed!

The original Bitcoin faucet is long gone, but there are still ways to collect some free crypto if you invest some of your free time:

• Sign up here on Publish0x, if you haven't already, to earn free crypto for reading & writing content

• Join Cointiply and roll the faucet every hour, view PTC ads, take surveys to earn free Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, or Dash

• Downoad the Bitcoin Cash Giveaway to collect some free BCH sats, paid out weekly

• Check out Yescoiner to easily collect some satoshis; no nonsense -- just solve a captcha. Low payout, slow drip here

• For rewards in XNO, DOGE and BTC, check out TipNano app

• Come to the Crypto Pizza Party on Zora and you can earn $ETH and $ZORA by posting content and trading; every creator gets their own coin and every post is a coin!

• Visit Stacker.news and earn some sats by posting interesting content and commenting what others share