Best use of a Pi 3 B+?

What would be the best use of the Pi 3 B+ that I have? Should I make into a staking node? Should I try to use it as a micro-miner? I’m looking to deploy it in some fashion this weekend; so, I’d appreciate everyone’s thoughts. Thank you.

Making it the staking node (Cardano, NRG, Tezos) would be perfect, if you have enough coins to run a stake

If it is lying idle, just mine Monero will get around 160H/s for 5 V which is great if you electricity cost is around 0.05$/kWh

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Thank you for the reply. As new as I am to all of this, I probably don’t have the needed coin just yet to stake… unless I buy in. So, I’m going to work on figuring out how to set it up to mine Monero. I’m downloading the Raspberry Pi OS Lite as I type this. Then, I’ll figure out how to burn it to the SD card, and install it on my Pi. More when I get this much accomplished.

So, here’s a starting question. Which version of the Pi OS do I want/need? If I do the Lite, then I’ll have to do everything as a command line, yes? Whereas, if I do the version with the desktop - but not all of the other recommended software, then I could just download something like NiceHash or Cudo Miner. Correct?

Or, should I just download it as NOOBS?


Refer this, ask me your doubts

My favorite Raspberry Pi projects are not directly mining related, but can be useful for miners. My absolute favorite project is PiVPN, which allows you to host your own VPN server off of the Pi. You will need a dynamic DNS service to make it work reliably with residential Internet, but it’s a HUGE win for checking in on things while you are away from your rigs. You can dial into your home network and access everything as if it were local. If the 'Rona ever subsides and we are able to travel, again, it will be worth it!

Another great project is the Pi-Hole, which is the comical name of a full-network advertisement blocker that can run off the Pi. It’s easy to setup and maintain, and it has a handsome admin GUI you can use from your browser.

I have personally enjoyed both of these projects at multiple [small] mining locations on Raspberry Pi 3B and Raspberry Pi 3B+ boards.

In the past, I have been able to get small staking boxes and a couple of masternodes for now-defunct projects working on Raspberry Pi 3Bs, but it can be a pain cross-compiling to ARM or trying to get things working in Raspberry Pi Docker images, especially with the 1GB RAM limitation. If you pursue this, definitely use a “lite” OS, and shut off all auxiliary services you do not need like Bluetooth and WiFi, and definitely ratchet down VRAM reservations to free up RAM if you go this route.

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Admittedly, some of this goes over my head. :laughing:

Tech-wise, I’m on the newer side of things. I’m user friendly, and have a basic knowledge of how to assemble a computer. My programming knowledge is very BASIC, as in I once learned to program in BASIC on an old TRS-80 Model III, and did some on Apple 2e. Yeah. I’m older. :older_man:t2:

You could try and mine 0xMonero