Image credit – Kyle Wiens/iFixit
The Samsung Galaxy S5 was launched back in 2014, which by today’s mobile standards makes it practically “ancient”. However it seems that despite it being considered old, it looks like there could still be a ton of use left for the phone, especially for bitcoin mining in which you can see in the photo above.
As part of Samsung’s “Upcycling” initiative, the company has thrown together a bitcoin mining rig that repurposes 40 old Galaxy S5 handsets that is powered by a new custom operating system designed for their initiative. Clearly this isn’t really something that Samsung plans to sell or encourage users to do, but it is more of Samsung showing that not all our old devices have to sit in our drawers collecting dust, nor do they have to be thrown away or disposed of when you can find a new use for them.
Unfortunately details about the rig are scarce as according to Motherboard, Samsung declined to answer specific questions about the rig. However they do note that it seems that eight Galaxy S5 handsets are capable of mining at a greater power efficiency than a standard desktop computer.
However like we said, the goal of this demonstration is to prove that your old devices don’t necessarily have to turn to junk. Speaking to Motherboard, Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit said, “The best thing for the planet is for your old devices to be worth as much as possible. There’s a direct correlation between secondary market value and environmental longevity. [Samsung] wants to maintain the value of their devices long term. If they know they’re going to justify a new price of a thousand dollars for a new Note, it’s easier to get people to spend that thousand dollars if they can resell it for five hundred.”
