Modder Uses Nintendo Game Boy For Bitcoin Mining

A YouTube user called stacksmashing modified his Nintendo Game Boy to mine Bitcoins. For this, the modder uses a Raspberry Pi Pico and a Link cable. This achieves a hash rate of approximately 0.8 hashes per second.

Stacksmashing explains his project in a YouTube video. The modder uses a separate USB cartridge with the necessary ROMs installed. Stacksmashing also uses a modified Game Boy Link cable to connect the handheld to a breadboard. A Raspberry Pi Pico is used as a connector between the Game Boy and a host computer. To make the Link cable and Raspberry Pi work together, stacksmashing uses a logic shifter to convert the voltage from 5V to 3.3V.

Stacksmashing also explains how it works. The connected computer sends instructions to the handheld, after which the Game Boy starts mining. The results are eventually sent back to the PC. The process uses custom mining software, Raspberry Pi Pico firmware, and Game Boy code, among other things.

The modder says that the Sharp LR35902 processor in the Game Boy, which runs at a clock speed of 4.19MHz, achieves a hash rate of about 0.8 hashes per second. To illustrate, current ASICs, which are specifically designed for Bitcoin mining, reach 100 terahashes per second. This makes the Game Boy about 125 trillion times slower than modern mining devices. Stacksmashing managed to set up its own block with a low difficulty, which was successfully solved by the Game Boy.

While mining on the Game Boy isn’t profitable, stacksmashing has made its code, mining software, and Raspberry Pi Pico firmware public on GitHub. This allows owners of the classic handheld to recreate the project, provided they have the necessary additional hardware.