OsherPlug – Plug And Mine For The Masses

With cryptocurrencies all the rage, lots of people are looking for ways to mine various coins in order to take advantage of the current volatility that can see some people make monitor profits very quickly. OsherCoin is an entrant to that market that wants to make that process easier for the masses. They have a bespoke appliance that can mine currency that doesn’t require a pile of tech expertise to build a cluster of devices to get into the cryptocurrency market.

The OsherPlug is a device that plugs into a regular power outlet and connects to your wireless network. All the configuration is done via an app on your smartphone. It uses its internal GPU to mine for crytocurrency.

OsherCoin‘s CEO David Avital has had lots of experience in the semi-conductor business at Marvell and said the idea started in a different place.

“Seven years ago, we started with the concept of an always-on computer that plugged into the outlet. We were always for the killer app and with cryptocurrency market, we found the killer app. It’s a device for the masses. My passion is to make it easier for people to mine or anywhere”.

Avital said the OsherPlug can mine for non-ASIC coins, such as Ethereum but it can mine other coins, which are selectable from the app. It’s possible to have some plugs working in one place and others elsewhere and you can use them together to mine. A single unit will be capable of generating between 15-25 megahashes per second according to Avital.

“It’s really about the experience,” said Avital. “In five minutes you can plug, put in a wallet address and start mining”.

Each device will cost USD$129 said Avital with the resale starting on February 26. It will consume around 36kW per month, requiring less than 50 watts, so you’ll need to do some maths to figure out whether the operating cost will justify the potential windfalls – or losses given the volatility of crypto-currency markets at the moment. However, Avital expects OsherPlug and OsherCoin to become a billion dollar business.

Interestingly, the OsherPlug is really a general purpose system that has been customised for a specific application – much like the Intel NUC and MorroData. For example, Avital said he can see the device being used to generate encryption keys and encrypting data via a USB port that could be included on future iterations of the OsherPlug.

Initial presales of the product are expected in the middle of the year with the company planning to issue 200,000 devices initially and 300 million OsherCoins.