How do the Bitaxe, NerdMiner and Lucky Miner compare?
These three are the most common first miners. They look similar on a desk, all have a small screen and all connect over 2.4 GHz WiFi. Inside they are very different.
| NerdMiner v2 | Lucky Miner LV06 | Bitaxe Gamma | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hashrate | about 250 kH/s | about 500 GH/s | about 1.2 TH/s |
| Chip | ESP32-S3 (not an ASIC) | 1x BM1366 | 1x BM1370 |
| Power | about 1 W | about 14 W | about 18 W |
| Supply | USB-C, 5 V | 5 V 6 A adapter | 5 V 6 A supply |
| Noise | silent | 35 to 38 dB | quiet hum |
| Typical price | $25 to $70 | $40 to $130 | $110 to $230 |
| Sats per day, average | under 1 | 24 | 57 |
| Solo chance per year | 1 in 72,000,000,000 | 1 in 36,000 | 1 in 15,000 |
| Electricity per year at $0.15/kWh | $1.31 | $18.41 | $23.67 |
Sats per day and odds use the network difficulty on 2026-10-05. The average is what a pool paying fairly would give before fees; real payouts come in lumps when blocks are found.
What is the real difference between them?
The Bitaxe and the Lucky Miner use ASIC chips made by Bitmain, built for one job: running the SHA-256 hash that Bitcoin mining needs. The NerdMiner uses an ESP32, a general-purpose microcontroller that also runs smart plugs and weather stations. It does the same calculation in software and hardware helpers, but about 4.8 million times slower than a Bitaxe Gamma.
That gap decides everything else. A NerdMiner is a teaching tool and a desk toy. The Bitaxe and Lucky Miner are small but real miners that send meaningful work to a pool.
Bitaxe Gamma or Lucky Miner LV06: which should you buy?
The Lucky Miner LV06 is cheaper and comes in a case. It is based on the open Bitaxe design and uses the BM1366, the chip from the older Bitaxe Ultra. The Bitaxe Gamma uses the newer BM1370.
- Hashrate: the Gamma makes about 2.4 times as much.
- Efficiency: the Gamma uses about 15 J/TH against roughly 28 J/TH, so each terahash costs about half the electricity.
- Firmware: the Gamma runs official open-source AxeOS with regular releases. The Lucky Miner runs a vendor build that updates less often.
- Support: Bitaxe sellers usually test units and give a warranty; Lucky Miner quality depends on the marketplace seller.
If the price gap is small, buy the Gamma. If you want the cheapest real ASIC to learn on, the LV06 does that job. Setup for both is covered in the Bitaxe setup guide and the Lucky Miner setup guide.
When does a NerdMiner make sense?
Buy a NerdMiner v2 if you want to learn how mining works, show a friend, or have a silent screen on your desk that shows Bitcoin stats. It uses about 1 W, so it costs almost nothing to run. Set your expectations by the numbers: its yearly chance of a block is about one in tens of billions, and on a pool it would earn far less than one sat a day. See how to set up a NerdMiner.
Be careful with listings for a NerdMiner "Pro" or similar names claiming much higher speeds. An ESP32 board cannot hash meaningfully faster than about 300 kH/s, so a listing promising GH/s from one is either a different device or not true.
Which one is best for each goal?
- Best overall: Bitaxe Gamma. Most hashrate, best efficiency, open firmware.
- Lowest price for a real ASIC: Lucky Miner LV06.
- Learning and fun, no running cost: NerdMiner v2.
- More hashrate than all three: step up to the Bitaxe Gamma Turbo (about 2.15 TH/s) or the NerdQAxe++ (about 4.8 TH/s).
For a wider list including heaters and full-size ASICs, read the best home Bitcoin miners in 2026, or put any two models side by side on the compare page.
Which one is easiest to set up?
All three take about ten minutes, but the steps differ:
| Step | Bitaxe Gamma | Lucky Miner LV06 | NerdMiner v2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firmware | preinstalled | preinstalled | often flashed by you in a browser over USB |
| Setup hotspot | Bitaxe_ plus characters | Lucky_ plus characters | NerdMinerAP |
| Pool fields | host and port separate | Stratum URL and port separate | pool URL and port |
| Dashboard afterwards | AxeOS in a browser | AxeOS-based, in a browser | stats on its screen only |
The Bitaxe and the Lucky Miner give you a full browser dashboard after setup, with hashrate, temperature, power and share counts, plus the option to tune frequency and voltage. The NerdMiner shows its stats on its own screen, and changing settings means going back into the setup portal. If you buy a bare NerdMiner board without firmware, you also need a desktop browser that supports Web Serial, such as Chrome or Edge, to flash it.
Do all three work on DirectPool?
Yes. The Bitaxe and Lucky Miner use the AxeOS layout with host and port in separate fields; the NerdMiner setup portal asks for pool URL and port. All three use your Bitcoin address as the user name. DirectPool's minimum share difficulty is 1, so even a NerdMiner's shares are accepted and shown.
On DirectPool, rewards are paid inside each block the pool finds, split by shares over the last 7 days, and balances under 10,000 sats are carried forward. DirectPool is a small pool, so its blocks are irregular, and a NerdMiner's share of a block would be close to zero. You can check how payouts are built on the verify page, and compare your own odds on the odds calculator.
Which one holds its value?
Bitaxe models sell well second-hand because the firmware keeps improving and buyers know the brand. Older Bitaxe models drop in price when a new chip arrives, as the Ultra did after the Gamma. Lucky Miners resell for less because new units are cheap. NerdMiners cost little to begin with. None of them should be bought as an investment.