Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips for its 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models offer significant performance improvements over the base M1 chip. This raises the question of whether or not the last-gen Apple Silicon can accommodate cryptocurrency mining?
Cryptocurrency mining on the M1 Pro MacBook Pro is profitable but ultimately not worth it
Some users who took to Reddit to determine if the new laptops are suited for the task arrived at the following conclusions.
Redditor u/MrPandaPotato said, “Facts to consider: It’s the most efficient SoC, it will consume much much much less power than a dedicated GPU. MacBooks’ resale value is basically the best in the market […] The SoC has multiple dedicated processors for specific things like screen output, super-fast video encoding, encryption, and an extremely powerful neural engine. If some world-class apple and crypto mining programmer put his hands on it, magical things would happen. It’s basically both the most efficient generalized CPU and the most efficient programmable ASIC too.”
Redditor u/basitmustafa added, “I have the 64GB M1 Max 16″, running in high power mode, I am getting ~10.25MH/s with stock ethminer-m1 binary. Not blazing fast by any means, but it is pretty damn efficient, and the per W hash rate is probably really good.”
In a new video about cryptocurrency mining on the M1 Pro chip, YouTuber UFD Tech noted that precompiled binaries for the M1 Mac already exist. The video also shows how to install and run one, specifically for mining Ethereum.
The YouTuber revealed that the M1 Pro chip was generating just over 5Mh/s (Mega hash per second) which is impressive when taking into account the MacBook Pro’s total power draw of 17W. According to a crypto calculator, the net profit is just $12.82 per month after reducing the cost of electricity. This means that you would earn $0.42 per day.
Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook recently shot down the possibility of the Cupertino tech giant accepting cryptocurrency as payment for its product, within Apple Pay, or the company buying Bitcoin as a corporate investment any time soon. However, Cook did reveal that he owns cryptocurrency as part of a “diversified portfolio.”
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