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This is a quick post. The title of this blog says it all. I want to provide a fast and straightforward way to determine how much power your Mac uses when mining on it. From that, you could decide if CPU mining is at all profitable or not. By profitable, I don't mean it can make you rich. Instead, you earn more from mining than you pay for electricity, even just 1cent.
The Experiment
on two Mac laptops: a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7 (Mid 2014) and a 2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 (2019). Here is the summary of my result:
Mid 2014 Laptop
Max hashrate: 1500 H/s
Power consumption: 60.8W
Earnings per day: $0.06
Electricity cost per day: $0.16
Net Loss of $0.10 a day
2019 Laptop
Max hashrate: 2500 H/s
Power consumption: 70W
Earnings per day: $0.11
Electricity cost per day: $0.19
Net Loss of $0.07 a day.
How to Calculate Your Earnings
If you want to try your computer, do the following steps:
1. Setup (or any other miner of your choice)
2. Download https://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/ to determine the power usage of your Mac when running your miner
3. Run the miner for 1hr and then use the iStat widget to calculate your average power consumption
4. Calculate your electricity bill. Most electricity providers have an online calculator service. I live in Vancouver, and I used BC Hydro Cost Calculator
5. Calculate your earnings. If you are using unMineable, then you can try https://unmineablesbest.com/
Conclusion
Is CPU mining profitable? Probably not with your existing laptop. It might be profitable if you have a more powerful computer or low electricity bill.
Macbook Pros M1 Pro seems to be on another level, though. According to that article, it can generate 5 MH/s at just 17W. That means it can cause $0.30 while only costing $0.05 in electricity cost.
In the comment section, let me know what your hashrates and electricity costs were!
