Razer wants you to turn your PC into a crypto mining bot

Razer invented its own currency called Razer Silver that can be used to buy gear, discount coupons, and other gaming related goodies. The users can acquire Razer Silver the same way they usually get cryptocurrency – by spending the computing power of their gaming machines.

If you own a PC that’s on Nvidia GTX 1050/AMD RX 460 or a better GPU, you can run Razer SoftMiner software and “mine earn 500 Razer Silver or more a day”. For a point of reference, Razer DeathAdder Essential gaming mouse which can be found at a price of $30 would cost you 51,000 Razer Silver.

Razer SoftMiner is supposed to load your CPU and GPU when it thinks that the PC is idle, and not used for anything by you. Essentially, the offer sounds very sweet, since you get nothing but free goods out of that deal. Let’s look at a couple of things that could be deal breakers.

Electricity bill could make Razer SoftMiner a net loss

One of the things cryptocurrency miners Razer Silver earners need to take into consideration is electricity cost. Unless you are on a set tariff, you might find that it’s cheaper to buy that gaming gear straight from a retail shop during a seasonal discount.

Are you sure the PC won’t overheat while you sleep?

Unless your PC was designed very well AND it’s new, it could have an overheating problem which you don’t know about. The best cooling system could be impaired by dust and other factors and it might not be designed to keep your PC in an overdrive mode for several hours at a time. With software like Razer SoftMiner your machine will be working literally without downtime and it’s not safe.

The software will have access to all the data on your PC

Razer promises that SoftMiner won’t access any of your personal files. You need to remember that any limitation the developers of the program made is solely artificial. There is no telling what kind of telemetry data the program will be regularly be siphoning out and who it will be shared with.

The bottom line

The bottom line is that Razer is giving a nice opportunity to put your PC to a good use. At the same time, you shouldn’t think that the things you get from that Razer Silver catalogue are “free”, because you are using up a lot of electricity, and putting your machine in a minor danger.