Samsung shows ‘bitcoin miner’ consisting of 40 Galaxy S5 devices

At its developer conference in San Francisco, Samsung unveiled a bitcoin mining cluster consisting of 40 Galaxy S5 devices. This will most likely yield nothing, but should be an example of reuse.

Motherboard has published some images of the cluster. It shows a wooden construction, with ten smartphones sticking out on the sides. In addition, there is a map on which Samsung compares the energy efficiency of its creation with that of an already older Intel Core i7 2600. Not that this is a very telling comparison, because bitcoin mining with desktops has not been useful for a while.

According to Samsung, the construction is an example of a way in which old devices can be reused. The South Korean manufacturer tells Motherboard that it plans to release software that allows users to provide their Galaxy devices with software other than Android. IFixit is also involved in this. CEO Kyle Wiens explains to Motherboard that Android can be completely removed with the software.

Subsequently, the companies want to offer all kinds of software on a still virtually empty Github page that can run on the emptied devices. Samsung has not announced when it plans to release the software.

Photo taken by Kyle Wiens, via Motherboard