Open-source Bitcoin miners have transformed desktop mining from a curiosity into a genuine movement. In 2026, dozens of community-designed boards let anyone mine Bitcoin at home with hardware they can audit, modify, and repair. This guide maps the entire ecosystem and helps you choose the right board for your goals.
What makes a Bitcoin miner open-source?
An open-source miner publishes its hardware schematics, PCB layout files, and firmware source code under a permissive licence. As a result, anyone can verify that the board does what it claims, build their own copy, or fix a broken one without waiting for manufacturer support. Closed-source miners, by contrast, lock down their firmware and designs, creating vendor dependency.
The practical benefits for miners are transparency, repairability, and community-driven improvement. When hundreds of developers and tinkerers contribute to the same design, firmware updates arrive faster and bugs get squashed in public. Furthermore, open hardware cannot be remotely bricked or force-updated with changes the owner does not want.
The Bitaxe family tree
The Bitaxe project by Skot is the most widely adopted open-source mining hardware. Five tiers currently exist, each building on the same AxeOS firmware:
- Bitaxe Ultra. The original board. One BM1366 chip at roughly 0.4 to 0.5 TH/s. Low cost, whisper quiet, perfect as a first miner.
- Bitaxe Supra. Steps up to the BM1368 chip for around 0.5 to 0.7 TH/s. Marginally more efficient per watt.
- Bitaxe Gamma. The community favourite. A BM1370 chip produces about 1 to 1.2 TH/s at 15 to 18 watts, offering the best single-chip efficiency. Read the Bitaxe solo mining guide.
- Bitaxe Gamma Turbo (GT). Two BM1370 chips pushing 2 to 2.4 TH/s at 35 to 42 watts. See our GT deep-dive.
- Bitaxe Hex. Six BM1366 chips on one board reach about 3 to 3.3 TH/s at 60 to 90 watts. The highest-hashrate single Bitaxe board.
All Bitaxes connect via WiFi, configure through a browser, and support standard Stratum V1 out of the box. Many also support Stratum V2 and TLS encryption.
The NerdMiner and NerdAxe family
The NerdMiner project started as an ESP32-based novelty miner and grew into a full ASIC family. Each step up adds real ASIC chips for dramatically more hashrate:
- NerdMiner. An ESP32 microcontroller hashing in tens of kilohashes per second. A desk toy and teaching tool, not a serious miner. Read the NerdMiner and NerdAxe guide.
- NerdAxe. A single BM1370 chip on a NerdMiner-style board, pushing about 1.0 TH/s. Often features a colour display for live stats.
- NerdQaxe++. Four ASIC chips producing roughly 4.8 to 6.1 TH/s at 60 to 80 watts. The best open-source hashrate-to-price ratio in the mid range.
- NerdOctaxe. Eight chips delivering upwards of 9.6 TH/s. The most powerful open-source desktop Bitcoin miner available today.
Every open-source miner compared
The master table below puts every current community board side by side. Figures are approximate and vary with firmware tuning and overclocking:
| Board | Family | Chips | Hashrate | Power | Price tier |
|---|
| NerdMiner | NerdMiner | ESP32 | ~50 KH/s | ~2 W | $ |
| Bitaxe Ultra | Bitaxe | 1× BM1366 | ~0.5 TH/s | ~12 W | $$ |
| Bitaxe Supra | Bitaxe | 1× BM1368 | ~0.7 TH/s | ~13 W | $$ |
| NerdAxe | NerdAxe | 1× BM1370 | ~1.0 TH/s | ~15 W | $$ |
| Bitaxe Gamma | Bitaxe | 1× BM1370 | ~1.2 TH/s | ~16 W | $$ |
| Bitaxe GT | Bitaxe | 2× BM1370 | ~2.4 TH/s | ~38 W | $$$ |
| Bitaxe Hex | Bitaxe | 6× BM1366 | ~3.3 TH/s | ~70 W | $$$ |
| NerdQaxe++ | NerdAxe | 4× BM1370 | ~5.5 TH/s | ~70 W | $$$ |
| NerdOctaxe | NerdAxe | 8× BM1370 | ~9.6 TH/s | ~160 to 210 W | $$$$ |
How to choose the right open-source miner
Picking a board comes down to three questions:
- What is your budget? A NerdMiner or Bitaxe Ultra costs very little and teaches you everything. A NerdOctaxe is the top of the line but demands a bigger wallet.
- How much noise can you tolerate? Single-chip boards are nearly silent. Multi-chip boards have louder fans. None come close to the roar of a commercial ASIC.
- Do you want maximum odds or maximum efficiency? For the highest desktop hashrate, choose the NerdOctaxe. For the best watts-per-terahash, the Bitaxe Gamma leads the pack. For a deep comparison, read our Bitaxe vs NerdAxe article.
Setting up any open-source miner on mkpool
Regardless of the board, the setup process is the same. All open-source miners speak standard Stratum, so the configuration is universal:
- Open the miner's web interface (AxeOS, NerdOS, or compatible firmware).
- Set the Stratum URL to
btc.mkpool.com and the port to 3333. - Enter your Bitcoin address as the username. Add a worker name after it, like
youraddress.gamma. - Set the password to
x. Save and restart.
For encrypted mining, use port 3334 (TLS) or port 3340 (Stratum V2). Check the connect page for all available ports and difficulty tiers. Because mkpool is non-custodial, a found block pays your address directly. Zero fees, no account, no withdrawal delays.
Why open-source mining matters for Bitcoin
Bitcoin's security model depends on hashrate being widely distributed. When a few manufacturers control both the hardware and the firmware, they hold a chokepoint that could theoretically be used for censorship, forced updates, or remote shutdown. Open-source miners remove that chokepoint entirely.
Every Bitaxe and NerdAxe running in a home is hashrate that no single entity controls. The movement has grown from a hobbyist niche into a meaningful share of Bitcoin's decentralisation story. By choosing open-source hardware and a transparent solo pool like mkpool, you contribute directly to the network's resilience.
Ready to start? Explore the home mining guide, check your odds with the solo mining chance calculator, or browse our best Bitcoin miners guide for a broader look at the hardware market.
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