Repurposing Pi's and Bobcats

Good morning/evening
 
Now that I have collected Helium miners from friends houses (all of them turned off now) I am looking at a pile of miners, antennas and cables wondering what to do with it all, so I thought I would look at some other things I could mine with them after a bit of flashing and jiggery pokery.
 
Sensecaps
Fry
The network in question is a decentralized network of decentralized networks, built on the Algorand ecosystem, to mine the FRY token I would need to spend $100 on a licence so it is just not worth it for a sub 1 cent token!
Mysterium
This is a peer to peer, decentralized VPN and web scraping network. Instead of relying on centralized data centers like traditional VPNs, Mysterium allows everyday internet users to rent out their unused internet bandwidth and residential IP, this is not something I am keen on doing and the whole reason I did not do Grass. It is also another sub 1 cent token although only down 96% lol. I do remember on the old Helium map, a huge cluster of miners making the Mysterium logo which was amusing at the time. 
Honeygain
A passive income application that allows you to earn rewards by sharing your unused internet bandwidth, you can use the jump task partner to earn JMPT
Grass 
Another DePIN operating on the Solana blockchain. Similar to Honeygain, it functions as a passive income platform where you install a browser extension or app to share your unused internet bandwidth. Some people had good airdrops from this but as with the above, I do not want to share my unused bandwidth.
Titan
Much the same as the above you rent out storage and bandwidth.
Presearch
 A decentralized, privacy focused search engine that rewards users with its token PRE, it has been around for a long time, I remember trying it in the early days, again another sub 1 cent token although since writing this it looks as though Presearch has shut down.
 
Ok so looking at these options there is nothing there that is either, worth the effort in flashing the Sensecaps or worth using electricity to plug them in for.
 

 
Bobcats
 
Crankk
I am sure I wrote about this years ago, you need a to buy a license for over $100 and you can dual mine Crankk tokens or HNT and as the new HIP means I earn no HNT using the Helium network itself, then I would earn less or nothing using Crankk, and again it is not worth the effort of flashing the Bobcats which is more difficult than with the Sensecaps!
 
There are not a lot of options with these other than to strip the device down to standard Debian/Ubuntu configurations. I have one old miner running Wingbits but that was as an OG when you were allowed to bring your own device, which is now no longer an option.
 
So the long and the short of it is I have a load of devices that are not worth using for anything much lol. I have a lot of antennas and a lot of expensive cable that will serve no purpose whatsoever. But it was worth checking out what options there are. Some people may like the options listed above but I remember having a long chat with a blockchain security guy about Grass and he did explain to me why my thoughts about not running it were right (sometimes it is nice to get a bit of confirmation from someone you trust).
One thing this little exercise has reminded me of is just how quickly the DePIN space moves. A few years ago everyone seemed to be launching the next big mining project. There were wireless networks, weather stations, storage networks, VPNs, bandwidth sharing, AI projects and just about anything else you could think of. Every week there seemed to be another project promising passive income from hardware sitting quietly in the corner of your house.
The reality has turned out to be rather different. Most of these projects rely on the value of their token staying high enough to reward participants. Once the token price falls, the economics stop making sense. Spending electricity to earn fractions of a cent simply isn't something that interests me. Add in the cost of licences, flashing devices, maintaining the hardware and the time involved, and the numbers just don't stack up.
I suppose that is one of the biggest lessons I have learned over the years. Just because you already own the hardware does not automatically mean it is worth putting back into service. There is always the temptation to think, "Well, it's already paid for itself, so anything I earn is a bonus." In reality, your time has value as well. If I have to spend hours flashing firmware, troubleshooting problems and climbing up ladders to fit antennas again, I would rather spend that time researching real investments or stocks.
It is also a little sad seeing what was once cutting edge technology reduced to gathering dust. These miners were once difficult to get hold of, selling for inflated prices and surrounded by huge excitement. People were queueing to buy them, waiting months for deliveries and discussing antenna upgrades on Discord all day long. Fast forward a few years and they are sitting in boxes with very little practical use.
I am still glad I was part of the Helium journey though. It introduced me to DePIN long before it became the latest crypto buzzword, I met some great people along the way and, despite all the frustrations, I learned a huge amount about networking, antennas, radio signals and blockchain technology. ROI and some profit was made so at the end of the day, it was fun whilst it lasted.
For now though, I think these miners will stay exactly where they are. Unless another genuinely worthwhile project appears that can make good use of them, they are probably destined to remain a pile of expensive memories in the corner of the room. At least I can say I looked into the alternatives before finally admitting that sometimes the best passive income strategy is simply knowing when not to plug something back in!
 
As always, thank you for reading and please feel free to comment, and if you want to buy some antennas............ lol, only joking