FutureBit is launching its Apollo III Full Node on Friday across four Micro Center locations, marking the very first time purchasers can walk into a physical storefront and acquire one of the Brooklyn manufacturer’s bitcoin mining devices.
According to a press release from FutureBit, the compact home miner, which additionally operates a complete bitcoin node, will be available in Brooklyn, Miami, Tustin (California), and Austin (Texas) as those branches open on Friday. This four-location rollout coincides with the grand opening of Micro Center’s new Austin branch, representing the retail chain’s 31st outlet in the U.S. and its third inside Texas.
The enterprise noted that buyers will also have the option to reserve a device online for in-store pickup. The announcement did not disclose how many units each branch holds in inventory, nor did it specify the retail pricing set by Micro Center.
Up until now, purchasers located in North America were required to place orders directly through FutureBit’s website, where the manufacturer reports that units remain in stock and dispatch within two to three days. Placing the hardware on computer-retail shelves allows buyers to inspect the physical equipment, inquire about its functionality, and take it home the exact same day.
“When we launched FutureBit, we made weekly visits to the DIY electronics aisle at the Brooklyn Micro Center to source components,” shared John Stefanopoulos, founder of FutureBit. “On Friday, a customer can walk into that exact same retail location, ask how Bitcoin mining operates, and bring home a mining rig we engineered just down the road. We are beyond thrilled to partner with Micro Center for our inaugural physical retail rollout.”
A 6-inch miner that also runs a full node
FutureBit’s official webshop prices the Apollo III Full Node at $1,099.99 absent a storage drive, $1,299.99 equipped with 1 terabyte of SSD capacity, and $1,399.99 equipped with 2 terabytes. A more affordable, miner-only “Standard” variant begins at $899.99 while omitting the full node capability.
The Full Node configuration delivers up to 18 terahashes per second when operating in Turbo mode, drawing roughly 325 watts. In Eco mode, performance is specified at approximately 12 TH/s alongside 150 watts, keeping operational noise below 35 decibels. A Super Eco setting is rated at roughly 8 TH/s and 80 watts. Power draw can be configured between 50 and 400 watts, and Turbo mode runs considerably louder at about 55 decibels. These power consumption metrics are measured directly at the board level and can fluctuate by 10%, according to the product documentation.
The hardware is built as a 6.5-by-6.5-by-6-inch cube weighing 6.5 pounds, backed by a one-year limited warranty and manufactured domestically in the United States. It incorporates advanced 3-nanometer chips designed in America, a proprietary controller, 8 gigabytes of memory, and an integrated solo mining pool. Purchasers can alternatively direct the miner toward any conventional bitcoin mining pool. FutureBit specifies that running the full node and solo-mining capabilities necessitates an SSD, which is excluded from the baseline $1,099.99 package.
Home mining is not a profit play
Bitcoin Magazine reported on the initial debut of the Apollo III back in February, when FutureBit introduced the hardware as a means for individual enthusiasts to operate both a miner and a node within a residential setting. The primary objective, the company has consistently emphasized, is not to rival industrial-scale mining facilities on efficiency.
An individual Apollo III operating at 18 TH/s represents a tiny fraction of the overall bitcoin network. A home-based setup of this magnitude still confronts projected intervals to discover a solo block spanning centuries given current network difficulty levels, as previously highlighted by Bitcoin Magazine. Even so, a miner operating via FutureBit’s Apollo Solo framework successfully discovered block 973,262 on October 26, securing the complete 3.154 bitcoin reward.
Headquartered in Brooklyn, FutureBit has been manufacturing consumer-grade mining equipment since 2015. Stefanopoulos has described retail storefronts as a pathway to place greater hash power and additional nodes inside residential living rooms. The enterprise did not specify whether this Micro Center trial will extend beyond the initial four locations that commenced sales of the Apollo III on Friday.
Originally published at https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/futurebit-apollo-iii-hits-micro-center-shelves.
