How and where to get cryptocurrency? What is the difficulty of mining the Ethereum cryptocurrency? What are the ways to earn cryptocurrency at home?

Do you follow the course of the most popular cryptocurrencies? If so, then you probably know that bitcoins have risen in price by 4.5 times in 2017, and ethers have increased in value by 295% in a few months. What does it say? That investing in cryptocurrency is promising and profitable. Some of the most effective ways to make money with digital money include mining cryptocurrencies.

This is Denis Kuderin, an expert of the HeatherBober magazine on financial topics. I will tell you what it is cryptocurrency mining at home, what types of mining exist, and which digital coins are the easiest to mine.

You will also learn which cloud mining services are the most reliable and secure, and get expert advice on how to improve the efficiency of your crypto mining enterprise.

1. Cryptocurrency mining at home - earn money while sitting on the couch

Experts unanimously argue that cryptocurrency is the money of the future. True, experts disagree on when this golden time will come. Some believe that in 10-20 years, others voice more distant terms.

So far, the cryptocurrency is not recognized at the official level, at least in Russia. Operations with bitcoins, litecoins, ethers are not prohibited, but not legalized either.

Meanwhile, on the Internet, digital money are widely accepted as payment for goods and services. With this money (if, of course, you have it), you can even buy a plane.

Why is cryptocurrency so popular? The main feature is decentralization. No one controls bitcoins and other digital money.

All calculations are based on the principle Peer 2peer– from user to user. In practice, this means that you do not need to pay commission to banks and payment systems.

Other advantages of cryptocurrency:

• no one can freeze accounts;
• there are no limits on amounts;
• accepted anywhere in the world;
• cannot be faked;
• steadily increasing in price.

Cryptocurrency is not issued by anyone, it is generated by itself - more precisely, it is mined by computers by calculating the cryptographic code underlying digital money. Physically, this currency does not exist, but there are special registers that reflect the amount of crypto-money and all transactions made with them.

8 years have passed since the emergence of the world's first cryptocurrency, bitcoin. The price of BTK has increased thousands of times during this time. Dozens of other types of digital money have appeared, which, although inferior to bitcoins in popularity, are no less promising in terms of investment.

The Internet offers many ways to earn crypto coins - exchange trading, selling goods for bitcoins, etc. Cryptocurrency mining stands apart - the extraction of digital coins using computer calculations.

A few years ago, the power of an ordinary computer was enough to mine bitcoins, but now the situation has changed. Because the amountBTC on the network is limited(it is known in advance how many of them will be mined in general), it is more and more difficult to calculate the code. Requires powerful equipment that not everyone can afford.

Bitcoin mining now requires more powerful hardware

With other cryptocurrencies, too, not everything is simple. Not all digital coins have commercial potential. That is, there is no guarantee that they will add value as steadily as bitcoins.

There are other problems - for example, the mining of ethers is difficult due to the deliberate complication of the algorithm of this currency by its creators. Miners have to use more and more productive equipment - namely, expensive video cards.

Unlike bitcoins, special ASIC chips have not yet been invented for ether to save energy costs and capacities. And apparently there will be no such equipment in the foreseeable future.

And yet, it is still possible to mine digital money at home. But I warn you right away: the equipment is expensive, the electricity consumption is colossal, and the efficiency of the farm is low. It is difficult for an ordinary user to compete with super-powerful Chinese mining clusters that are created on the basis of power plants.

However, professional miners still receive their income. Another thing is that some of them begin to gradually get rid of the equipment and switch to other ways of making digital money - in particular, to.

Another alternative - cloud mining. This is the extraction of crypto-money using rented, not own equipment. Participants connect to industrial enterprises for the extraction of cryptocurrency, download special programs to their computer and receive deductions from the common boiler.

For beginning cloud miners, there is another danger: among the huge number of services on the Internet, there are many fraudulent sites or intermediary services that have nothing to do with cryptocurrency mining.

At its core, these are financial pyramids with a limited lifespan. It will be possible to deposit money here without problems, but it is unlikely to withdraw it.

2. TOP 4 ways to mine cryptocurrency

With the advent of cryptocurrency, thousands of computer users around the world have a fundamentally new remote work.

And although some economic and financial analysts still consider digital money based on blockchain a global experiment with unpredictable consequences, this does not prevent miners and traders from receiving daily profits from their operations.

Consider in detail the most popular ways to make money on cryptocurrency.

Method 1. Cloud mining

Join already working bitcoin farms and get a percentage for participating in a common cause. An ordinary desktop computer or laptop (if possible, the most modern one) will be enough. You have the right to rent any amount hashrate(power units) – the more power, the higher the earnings.

You will be required to register on the cloud mining service, install the software on your computer and configure it. Mining is carried out in automatic or semi-automatic mode. Most cloud mining services work with bitcoins, but recently there are sites for the extraction of other digital coins - Dash, lightcoins, ethers.

I recommend withdraw the earned cryptocurrency to your wallet more often. Firstly, to check the reliability of the service, and secondly, to evaluate the result of their work. It is not advisable to spend bitcoins immediately. Now it is not so much a means of calculation as an investment tool.

Method 2. Earnings on a video card

I will immediately warn you that professional farmers do not manage with a single card. They have at least a dozen of these cards.

In addition to the card, you will need other equipment:

• powerful power supply;
• cooling system;
• RAM;
• adapters for connecting video cards.

Video cards are best connected outside the computer. If you are not an iron specialist, entrust the collection of the farm to a professional - there is a high risk of burning equipment worth tens or hundreds of thousands of rubles.

Method 3.

This is the simplest option that does not require any special knowledge or training.

4. Where to mine cryptocurrency - a list of cloud mining services with a good reputation

Especially for the readers of our magazine, we have prepared an overview of the top three reliable sites for cloud mining.

Read the terms and conditions and register.

A platform with support for the Russian language with a minimum withdrawal amount 0,0004 BTC and equivalent amounts in another cryptocurrency. To get started, you need to purchase at least one hashrate - a unit of power, but the equipment starts working immediately after payment.

You will receive the first accruals to your account within a day. No hidden fees, instant withdrawal, the ability to distribute power between several pools.

2) Crypto Mining Farm

The service leases production facilities for the mining of any cryptocurrencies. An authoritative resource for professional miners.

Minimum withdrawal amount 0,01 BTC. output program 0,01 BTC. Forecast profitability of the service - 80% per year. Designed for long-term investments (up to 15 years). There is no Russian version.

3) Hashing24

One of the leaders in the international mining industry. The main cryptocurrency is bitcoin. Minimum withdrawal amount - 0.001 BTK. Many methods of replenishment, including payment by Visa and MasterCard bank cards. Payouts regularly. There is a round-the-clock support service, but there is no Russian version.

5. How NOT to mine cryptocurrency - 3 main mistakes of a novice miner

Cryptocurrency mining is a promising but risky undertaking, like any business related to making money online.

Knowing about the typical mistakes of beginners, you can easily avoid them.

Mistake 1. Buying video cards of insufficient power

Savings on video cards turn against the miner. It even happens that such “mining” does not bring any tangible income - on the contrary, you only get incredible electricity bills.

Mistake 2. Wrong choice of cryptocurrency

Not all cryptocurrencies are equally useful. It happens that digital coins, after several months of "resembling" promising ones, lose popularity. And if the currency is not bought, it begins to decline in value.

To be in trend, keep track of the latest information on thematic forums and professional sites.

Mistake 3. Desire to earn everything at once

Lack of patience gets in the way of anything. Mining is no exception. You can’t earn a lot at once, even with colossal capacities.

The promise of fast and sky-high profits is a sure sign of a fraudulent site.

A brief educational program and the real history of mining in this video:

6. Is it possible to mine cryptocurrency for free and without own equipment

It will not work without equipment at all - you will need a more or less powerful computer in any case. At the very least, it should be able to handle the software provided by the cloud service.

Another thing is if you contacted not a real cryptocurrency mining farm, but an investment company of dubious quality or a financial pyramid. Here you really don't need any equipment. But the profitability of such an enterprise for participants is an indicator that cannot be calculated by any means.

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Since 2011, countless so-called “experts” have been increasingly predicting the death of Bitcoin. There is even a site that counts how many times Bitcoin has survived and continued to evolve when “experts” said it should have disappeared.

Because the bitcoin, apparently not going to retire anytime soon, then you can safely plan on buying an ASIC device to earn some (or a lot) of BTC.

In this article, we have compiled a list best systems and services for cryptocurrency mining. Here are described 6 Best ASICs for BTC Mining, as well as two cloud resources personally verified by us.

How to mine bitcoin

If you are not involved in trading and speculating cryptocurrencies, then you are probably thinking about mining. This process allows you to support the industry and get good money.

What is good about mining is the ability to receive regular passive income. By using ASIC, you will always have money in your wallet and you don't have to think about successful trades.

Cryptocurrency trading is potentially profitable, but it requires you to immerse yourself in this world 24/7. The more involved you are, the more likely you are to profit from speculation.

Mining is another matter. Personally, we see it as a way to get a steady flow of bitcoin into our wallet, not a way to get rich quick.

However, there are hundreds of people who have made millions of dollars from Bitcoin. Many users replenish their accounts by signing large contracts with Genesis Mining or running their own mining farms.

Although more than a thousand people have proven that it is possible to make a living by mining cryptocurrencies, we would recommend that you do not place high expectations on this. The cryptocurrency market is complex and, despite its general growth trend, quite unpredictable in private terms.

It's also a good idea to start small and only invest the amount you could potentially lose. Bitcoin mining requires a lot of investment and only then will it be able to provide you with a noticeable monthly income, so some beginners are tempted to invest in mining more than they should.

This situation creates unnecessary expectations and defeats the purpose of mining - it's just a passive income, not a way to earn a million dollars a month.

Based on the above, we have created a list based on the idea that mining is a medium to long term investment. When we considered equipment, our main criteria were durability and hashrate/power efficiency.

So how do you mine Bitcoin?

There are two ways to mine bitcoins. The first one is with the help mining equipment: in this article we will talk about the best, in our opinion, bitcoin miner and five other worthy candidates for this title.

Another way - purchasing a cloud mining contract and transferring mining responsibilities to another company. Some users have a bad attitude towards cloud services, as there have been cases when fraudulent companies engaged in this type of mining deceived their customers.

We know about the risks and will tell you about two organizations that are completely legal and trustworthy.

best bitcoin miner

Here is our list of the best mining devices. Now you know the criteria that we used to evaluate the participants in our TOP, so you probably won't be surprised by our favorite.

The benefit of this list is that if one of the miners is sold out, you can purchase others.

Some are for home use, while others are too noisy or too large and should only be purchased for specialized farms (which must be clean and properly cooled areas such as a garage or basement).

6) ANTMINER S7 - 4.73 TH

AntMiner S7 was released in mid 2015. In the day when bitcoin was valued at $225 and its difficulty was several times lower than it is today, AntMiner S7 was considered one of the best miners for the coin.

It showed very promising ROI. Also, the device was one of the game changers in the bitcoin development community.

It's been two years and many feel that the AntMiner S7 is no longer mineable. The reason is simple: if we calculate profit based on hash power, electricity costs, and pool fees, this ASIC model often produces either negative or near zero profit.

Today, with Bitcoin valued at $3,836.95, this ASIC only generates $1 per day, including all costs.

Then the question arises - why is this device on our list? Answer: if we consider mining as a way to convert fiat currencies into BTC, then Antminer S7 might be a great option.

Although you probably won't get any additional passive income from this miner with the rate BTC at $3836.95, but you can still use this equipment to convert USD to BTC safely and stable.

The main advantage of this ASIC is durability. Many S7s have been running for two years now and they continue to hash the same as before. This reliability makes the S7 a good choice for those who are not in a hurry and want to play safely.

AntMiner S7 is equipped with a durable metal case and two fans for constant cooling. It can operate in ambient temperatures between 7 and 40 degrees, making it suitable for home mining as long as you don't mind the noise it makes.

The device is really loud, tests show a noise level of about 63 dB.

• Hash rate: 4.73 TH/s ± 5%.
• Chips: 162x BM1385.
• Power consumption: 1293 W ± 10%.
• Energy Efficiency: 0.25 W/GH ± 10%.
• Operating temperature: 7°C to 40°C.
• Net weight: – kg.

This model does not have the best energy efficiency, now you can find more powerful ones. But as we said, the main advantage of the S7 is its durability, and nothing else.

5) AVALONMINER 721 - 6TH

The next bitcoin ASIC on our list is Avalon Miner 721, a Canaan miner released in 2016.

Avalon 721 is smaller and lighter than Bitmain miners, it weighs 2 times less than Antminer S7. However, for some reason, the 721 manages to produce a good hash rate, and a year after its release, it is still considered a decent device.

Canaan Interactive is a Chinese company focused exclusively on the production of ASICs for bitcoins. The Avalon 721 is based on 16nm chips, which offer better power efficiency than the aforementioned Antminer S7.

16-nm technology is still considered cutting-edge, so this ASIC should not be written off.

The ROI on the AvalonMiner 721 is quite interesting. Device now pays off in 8-12 months depending on the price you pay. In December 2016, when the miner first appeared, its ROI was 24 months.

The energy efficiency and durability of the 721 allows the model to stand the test of time and in fact make it more profitable every day.

To date, ASIC generates approximately $123.41 per month, including costs.

• Hashrate: 6 TH/s.
• 16nm chips: 72x A3212.
• Power consumption: 850 W - 1000 W.
• Energy Efficiency:
• Operating temperature: -5°C to 40°C.
• Net weight: 4.3 kg.

4) AVALONMINER 741 - 7.3TH

If you liked the AvalonMiner 721, you might also like its successor - Avalon Miner 741. This miner is also based on 16nm chips, however, due to updated software and design optimization, the latest model has an even higher hashrate.

The efficiency of the Avalon 741 is still the same 0.15W/Gh, but thanks to optimization, its base price is about 20% lower than its predecessor. The AvalonMiner 741 looks really solid, with an aluminum chassis and a personal heatsink with air conversion technology.

All this makes us believe that the miner will not break anytime soon. Reliability is also confirmed by the fact that Canaan has a reputation for producing quality products.

Noise. Avalon 741 can be home miner in the event that you live alone or your neighbors do not mind 50-60 dB. Otherwise, it would be nice to store it in a specialized mining farm (be it an office or a properly equipped garage).

If you need a miner designed specifically for home use, then you will find one just below.

• Hashrate: 7.3 TH/s.
• 16nm chips: 88 x A3212.
• Power consumption: 1150 W.
• Energy efficiency: 0.16 J/GH.
• Operating temperature: -5°C to 40°C.
• Net weight: 4.3 kg.

3) ANTMINER R4 - 8.6TH

Antminer R4 can be considered the world's most popular ASIC for bitcoin mining. Although the device is large and heavy, it the noise level is only 51 dB. According to the volume scales, this indicator can be compared with the noise level in a quiet office or in a refrigerator.

Today, ASIC miners bring in Ƀ 0.07031/month or about 0.85554 per year. Given the upward trend of Bitcoin, it is possible profit of $208 USD/month. That is why few people want to sell their R4.

New miners are also not available for purchase. The last time we checked, the cheapest R4 cost around $3,200 each. Even then, it had an 18-month ROI, which is actually not bad for a bitcoin-ASIC.

• Hashrate: 8.6 TH/s.
• 16nm chips: 126 x BM1387.
• Power consumption: 845 W.
• Energy efficiency: 0.1 J/GH.
• Operating temperature: 10°C to 40°C.
• Net weight: 9 kg.

2) ANTMINER T9 - 11.5 TH

AntMiner T9 still remains one of most demanded ASICs for bitcoin. It has high energy efficiency, a durable metal shell and a good cooling system.

T9 is one of Bitmain's newest additions to the ASIC market. It contains 171 16nm chips that output 11.5TH/s-12.5TH/s depending on the party.

The main feature of this bitcoin miner is its availability on the market. Although the demand for ASICs changes overnight, and tomorrow the situation may be different, AntMiner T9 is now sold at a reasonable price on several sites. With an average cost of $1,600, T9 pays for itself in 7 months.

• Hashrate: 11.5 TH/s – 12.5 TH/s.
• 16nm chips: 171 x BM1387.
• Power consumption: 1450 W - 1576 W.
• Energy Efficiency: 0.126J/GH.
• Net weight: -

1) ANTMINER S9 - 13.5 TH

Now AntMiner S9 recognized best bitcoin miner. We fully share the general opinion about this model.

The S9 has better power efficiency than the T9, making it even more of a choice for long-term bitcoin mining. But we are still looking for models with more energy efficiency than the Antminer S9.

This ASIC is easy to manage and only takes a couple of minutes to set up. You don't have to be a mining guru to profit from a device.

• Hashrate: 13.5 TH/s - 14 TH/s.
• 16nm chips: 189 x BM1387.
• Power Consumption: 1323W ± 7%W.
• Energy efficiency: 0.098 J/GH ± 7%.
• Operating temperature: 0°C to 40°C.
• Net weight: -

Cloud Mining Bitcoin

We agree that few people can afford their own ASIC at home for various reasons.

For example, your roommates are against it because they are disturbed by constant noise from the device. Or there is no place for a miner in your apartment. Maybe, depending on where you live, electricity is too expensive, making mining unprofitable.

There are many reasons why not everyone can organize a farm outside the home. Luckily, there is a way to enjoy the benefits of mining without having to buy your own rig.

We mean bitcoin cloud mining. There are firms that rent hashrate. Investing in cloud mining contracts can be compared to investing in a company - you pay a fixed amount in advance, and your income depends on how the value of the organization changes (in our case, the cryptocurrency exchange rate).

There are two main factors that affect the profit from a Bitcoin mining contract:

1. Bitcoin price.
2. Difficulty of bitcoin mining.

Electricity and maintenance fees are usually included in the price if the terms of the contract are limited.

Usually cloud mining contracts involve ROI in 18 months. Depending on the fluctuations in the price/difficulty of bitcoin mining, the payback may go up or down. Here we mean legal companies.

Fraudsters often lure unsuspecting victims by offering them contracts with a 5-7 month ROI. These are really unrealistic numbers that can only attract beginners.

Both of the companies we are about to talk about have stood the test of time. But there will always be a person who will underestimate the rating of good and honest organizations. So don't take our word for it and do your own research.

GENESIS MINING - Bitcoin Cloud Mining

Genesis Mining owns farms in Bosnia, China, and now in Iceland. The company was founded at the end of 2013 and has since proven itself. It runs into some technical difficulties from time to time, causing payout delays, but at the end of the day, people still get their money.

Beginners sometimes start to panic when they do not receive bitcoins for the first month after buying a contract. Most of the negative reviews about Genesis Mining based on this.

So it is worth mentioning the rule of this company: the service always holds the bitcoins that you earned in the first 30 days after purchasing the contract. You will receive BTC 31 days after purchase.

The reason is simple: credit cards have a 30-day return policy, so anyone can use this loophole to get hashrate on GM for free. So Genesis Mining freezes your income for the first month, thus avoiding deception from customers.

People who buy contracts with bitcoin start making profits the same day. However, the minimum payout is 150 000 sat. Funds will accumulate until your balance is more than 150,000 sat. Therefore, users who have purchased small contracts will not receive a daily payout.

Bitcoin contracts from Genesis Mining are not available at this time, but you will be able to get even more hashrate soon as the company improves its farm.

HASHFLARE - Bitcoin Cloud Mining

The next company on the list is HashFlare. This organization is younger than Genesis Mining, but it managed to quickly become popular due to low prices.

For this reason, some users initially considered the service to be “fraudulent”. Luckily for those who bought contracts from HashFlare, the company never stopped paying customers.

Initially, the service offered unlimited Bitcoin mining contracts. However, a few days ago, Hashflare unexpectedly announced that no longer provides such services. Customers who have paid for a lifetime contract will be able to make a profit within a year from the date of announcement of the news.

The community did not like this innovation. So now you will find a lot of angry reviews that Hashflare is still a scammer.

While what the company did may not be an ethical act, it was not a scam. If only because it was stated in the User Agreement that the terms of the service will be changed in the future.

Therefore, now contracts for SHA-256 have a validity period of 1 year, and according to mining calculators, the return on investment is about a year. This means that those who invest in HashFlare contracts are signing up for a slow dollar-to-bitcoin conversion rather than passive income.

The cryptocurrency market is developing rapidly, so do not think that our review on HashFlare is the ultimate truth. Today may not be the best day to invest in this cloud company, but in the future they will definitely offer something interesting.

Now the cost for 10 GH/s for a year is $2.40. You will also have to pay service charges plus $1.27. With the current difficulty and prices of Bitcoin, you can expect a return of $3.55 per 10 GH/s, excluding fees. If we include the fee in the price, we will get an income of $2.28 per year or a loss of $0.12 per year, taking into account the price of the plan.

Finally

We end by answering the question: is it worth investing in bitcoin mining?

And the answer is up to you. Depending on your ambitions, expectations, and willingness to take risks, bitcoin mining may or may not be your core business.

Based on our experience, buying an ASIC always pays off if you have taken a model that is not too old and cannot cover electricity costs. Cloud mining is plan B for us as we can mine at home. However, we know several people who have been using Genesis Mining for many years and do not complain about it.

Alexey Russkikh

If you are stuck in 2010, when mining at home was still relevant, then this article is especially for you. Now we will talk about whether it is possible to mine digital currency at home, how to do it, and whether mining cryptocurrency on a home PC is profitable at all.

How to start mining on your home computer in 2019

If you are a beginner and do not know how to approach cryptocurrency mining, what to do and, in general, why it is needed, then mining at home is a great way to learn all this.

Briefly about how to start mining:

1. Choose a cryptocurrency.
2. Open wallet.
3. Select a service.
4. Download program.
5. Start mining currency.

Since it will not be possible to mine cryptocurrency alone without large capacities, home miners are often combined into pools. These are several machines that combine their efforts to find the required block. After this block is found, the reward is distributed according to the power.

Read more in our article:

For those who do not understand anything about mining, there is a Kryptex service. It allows you to download a program that will mine cryptocurrency in the background and exchange it at the current rate. On a powerful PC, you can earn up to 4 thousand rubles a month.

Mining on a home computer only makes sense if you don't understand it at all. For beginners, this will be an opportunity to explore the kitchen of cryptocurrency mining first hand.

How much can you earn

Now to the question of possible earnings with a conventional computer. Modern cryptocurrencies require power that only one part of a computer can produce - a video card. You can forget about cryptocurrency mining and a hard drive. And therefore, how much you get per day directly depends on the power of your video card.

Best for mining now (August 2019) are Geforce RTX. For example, a 2080 Ti graphics card. An overclocked card brings in about $1 per day. If you overclock and connect normal equipment, then the figure will be about $ 1.7 / day with due luck. And this is if the computer will work 24/7. Agree, not the most impressive figure.

If you want to see how much this or that video card will bring, use ours. Choose your card and see the score for each algorithm.

Having determined the hashrate, you can calculate the full payback period of your card on the Whattomine service - http://whattomine.com/calculators. Additionally, you must specify the price for electricity and the power of the device. The service periodically updates the information (including increasing the level of complexity, reducing the fee for decrypting blocks), so you don’t have to worry about the relevance of the data.

Ravencoin mining payback example (June 2019):

Why you shouldn't mine on laptops

Now a little about mining on laptops. In 2010-2011, it was possible to mine cryptocurrency on almost everything. Probably, somewhere there would be craftsmen who could make a farm out of toasters. But now everything has changed a lot. There are a lot of miners, the algorithms have become more complicated, and now, in order to mine 1 bitcoin a day, a computer of crazy power is required.

Mining on a laptop is unprofitable. From the word at all. Especially in Russia. With the surge in the dollar, technology has become very expensive indeed.

The price of a laptop that is minimally suitable for mining starts from 60-80 thousand rubles. Moreover, such models will most likely have to connect additional video cards in order to receive at least some income.

PC or farm - which is more profitable

Mining at home is an extremely unprofitable undertaking. And this is due to two factors at once:

• home PCs and laptops have extremely low power for full-fledged mining;
• home electricity is quite expensive.

As mentioned above, only a video card is needed to mine cryptocurrency. That is, if you buy a full-fledged gaming, powerful computer, the cost efficiency will be 30-40%. And this is a very unprofitable investment.

And if we add to these costs the increasing costs of software, electricity and a cooling system, it turns out that cryptocurrency mining on a home PC is 3-4 times more expensive than a regular farm.

Few numbers. In order to assemble a PC that will support 2 GeForce RTX 2080 video cards, you will need about 150 thousand rubles. A full-fledged farm on 4 RTX 2080 cards costs about 200 thousand rubles. That is, 2 times stronger mining power costs only 25% more. And the worse the PC, the greater the difference.

That is why it is simply unprofitable to mine bitcoins, ether, lightcoins and other expensive currencies on a home PC. Let's look at alternatives to mining cryptocurrency on a home PC.

Home PC Alternative

There is also another option - . It works according to the following principle:

1. A large company buys equipment.
2. Configures it specifically for mining.
3. Sells power to ordinary users.

In fact, this is renting the power of a mining farm at no additional cost. You just buy a certain % of the performance of the equipment along with other people, paying for its work. This is beneficial for those who do not have money to buy a full-fledged mining farm.

You can use the services:

1. Genesis is one of the leading providers of remote mining power.
2. HashFlare is a cloud mining service that allows you to remotely complete the process of mining digital currency. You can choose from several coins: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash.
3. IQmining is an online power market that appeared in 2016. The equipment is set up to extract the most profitable altcoins with subsequent exchange for bitcoin.

Cloud mining generates an income of about 1% of the costs per day. That is, the payback period is about the same as that of full-fledged farms - 100-120 days. The only difference is that cloud mining requires from 2 to 200 dollars, and the farm will take 3-4 thousand.

Related video (NiceHash Miner):

Conclusion

Purely technically, now you can do mining at home. The only problem is that due to the large number of miners, more and more powerful equipment is needed, and already ordinary computers are not able to cope with such loads normally.

After getting acquainted with digital currency, many users have a question, what kind of electronic money is the most profitable to mine, as well as where and in what way. In this material, the most profitable option to date is considered.

Let's start with the fact that every couple of months the profitability of mining decreases due to the fact that more and more people learn about it. Recently, the bitcoin exchange rate, which has sagged more than twice, has also made its contribution. For comparison, in winter, the most profitable video cards in terms of mining could be recouped in two months, and now this process takes 6 or more months.

Does this mean that the train has finally left? We will not speculate on this topic, but in 2009 bitcoin mining was also absolutely unprofitable, and just a couple of years later, people who spent several weeks mining coins earned quite a lot of money on the jumped value. It is possible that the prices of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies expect several more jumps in the future, and a small number of coins by current standards can pay off handsomely. But again, no one can give any guarantee that this will bring its dividends.

Everything written below will be devoted to the most effective way to get coins and answers to questions: what to mine, where to mine, how to mine, and to some extent what to mine. A more profitable way of mining within an error of a few percent does not currently exist.

So let's start with question number one.

It is very difficult to answer this question. And no matter how trite it may sound, bitcoin is probably the best thing to mine, primarily in terms of reliability. On the other hand, ceteris paribus, its price increase ratio is likely to be lower than that of one or more altcoins, which are currently worth literally a penny. Of the alternative digital currencies, at the moment it is worth taking a closer look at Litecoin, Dogecoin and, possibly, Blackcoin. This is a subjective point of view, but it is these three digital currencies that currently have the best prospects.

You can find the list of cryptocurrencies on your own in these lists: coinmarketcap.com, www.cryptmarketcap.com.

What to mine?

Since this material is intended primarily for ordinary owners of home computers, mining will be considered solely in terms of the use of video cards. ASIC boards for sha256 (bitcoin) are bypassed immediately due to their high cost. ASIC boards for scrypt with decent performance have not yet appeared on sale, and it is unlikely that an ordinary user will immediately want to invest in them an amount in the region of $1000 (for an average board in terms of price / performance ratio). Nevertheless, just in case, we leave a link to the websites of manufacturers of the most promising ASIC boards for scrypt: zeusminer.com , www.kncminer.com/categories/litecoin-mining-hardware .

These boards are much more profitable in terms of performance per kilowatt and require on average 20 times less electricity than a video card of comparable performance.

But back to video cards. The most profitable video card in terms of khash/$ or khash/watt can be found in this table.

At the moment, in the performance/cost category, oddly enough, the leaders are not the latest models, but veterans represented by Radeons 7870, 5970, 5870, R9 270X. True, it is worth noting that the absolute performance of these video cards is relatively low, and if you plan to install more than one board in a computer, the additional costs for a PSU, PCI-E risers, possibly a new motherboard with several PCI-e slots, can be significant. and in this case it is better to immediately take something more productive - for example, R9 280x.

PCI-E riser is a cable 20-30 cm long that allows you to take out a video card, which improves its cooling, and connect PCI-E 16x video cards to a PCI-E 1x slot. Performance does not drop, since mining does not require intensive data exchange over the bus. Attention, connect PCI-E 1x adapters only to the corresponding connector and do not use it with a 16x slot, because the motherboard will try to supply additional power to a full-fledged slot through a limited number of pins and, most likely, will burn both the slot itself and the riser.

Where to mine?

Let's start with the fact that it is unprofitable to mine bitcoins using video cards. The easiest way to explain this is with an example. If you mine the most profitable altcoins at the moment and then exchange them for bitcoins, then on average you will get 50 times more bitcoins than when mining directly.

What altcoins should be mined for this? Fortunately, you don't need to know the answer to this question. There are so-called Profitable Pools that automatically track the rate of altcoins and mine the most profitable ones at the moment, often switching between them literally every few minutes.

Recently, the number of such pools has been constantly growing, but only a few of them show good profitability, which can be found on the PoolPicker website.

As you can see, the situation changes almost every day, and it is possible that the most profitable pool today will be the least profitable tomorrow. However, there is a simple answer. The recently launched NiceHash pool is on average showing the best performance over several days. This is explained very simply. NiceHash is not just a pool, in the usual sense of the word, but a site where you can rent out the power of your computer, so the profit here is a little higher.

Lease does not in any way mean the use of your computer at any time required by the tenant. You start mining yourself at your convenience and can turn it off at any time, so there is no question of performing incomprehensible calculations on your computer. In fact, just like in traditional pools, you mine coins for the server, which is an intermediary for transferring them to the tenant.

The advantages of NiceHash include payments that occur 4 times a day, while other pools do this, as a rule, once a day, and then only if there is a certain amount on the balance.

If, out of interest, you want to find out and calculate the profitability of coins yourself, then this can be done using the sites: www.coinchoose.com/litecoin.php , www.coinwarz.com/miningprofitability/litecoin

How to mine?

Consider mining on the example of NiceHash. Setting up another pool is fundamentally no different.

First you need the Sgminer program, since Cgminer with NiceHash does not work and gives a Rejected error. On the official website of Sgminer, only the source code of the client is available, which you can compile yourself if you have the required knowledge, and the finished version of Sgminer for Windows can be downloaded from sgminerwindows .

You will also need a bitcoin wallet, such as MultiBit, to work.

Registration on the NiceHash pool is not required, since the username is the bitcoin wallet address, which can be viewed in MultiBit.

To start mining, you need to create a bat file with any name near the sgminer.exe executable file, for example, NiceHash.bat. The contents of the bat file should be something like this (on one line):

Sgminer -o stratum+tcp://stratum.nicehash.com:3333 -u 1FL7DA4QUTjuiMNeix2P3TDHvefnyw3Ek2 -p x --temp-target 80 --auto-fan

-o stratum+tcp://stratum.nicehash.com:3333 — pool address

-u 1FL7DA4QUTjuiMNeix2P3TDHvefnyw3Ek2- username, and in this case, the address of the bitcoin wallet

-p x- password, which can be anything

--temp-target 80 --auto-fan -- sgminer will take over the control of the cooler and keep the GPU temperature below 80 degrees

To improve performance, you can add an activation of the experimental kernelzuikkis to the string. This can speed up the graphics card by an additional 2.5%.

-k zuikkis

This core does not work well with all video cards, so before using it, compare the number of hashes with and without it.

Also, the bat-file should contain performance settings that are unique for each specific video card. You can see them. It is even better to read the material to understand this issue in a little more detail.

It is advisable, although not required, to add a spare pool to the string. If NiceHash runs out of orders, then the miner will be idle, so it is recommended to register any other Profitable Pool as a backup.

After saving and running the bat file, the Sgminer window should look something like this:

Results

Buying altcoins instead of mining them involves a mechanism known as buying pressure. The presence of demand leads to the fact that offers with the lowest price are quickly sold out on the exchanges, and the price begins to creep up. This results in slow growth in the short term and orders of magnitude higher prices in the long term.

If some points in the text raised additional questions, read also the materials and.

The essence of mining (from the word mining - mining) is the creation of crypto coins according to a special algorithm. A unique data set (or block) is generated on the computer, which confirms the validity of payment transactions. A block consists of the hash of the previous block's header, the transaction hash, and a random number. The chain containing all transactions is called a blockchain.

For each block found, a reward is due. It is different for different currencies. For example, for the oldest and most expensive cryptocurrency - (Bitcoin, BTC) - it is halved every four years. Since 2016, the reward has been 12.5 BTC (about 32 thousand dollars), in 2020 there will be its next decrease.

Ethereum block reward (Ethereum, ETH) - 5 ETH (approximately $1,540).

The success of mining depends on the computing power of the computer that the miner has. The more, the higher the chance of getting a reward.

What do you need for mining

1. We collect equipment

• Video card (GPU) - modern, not budget. And not just one, but several.
• A computer (farm) with an efficient cooling system, a motherboard with the maximum possible number of slots for installing video cards. The processor can be any, stably working. Recommended RAM - from 4 GB.
• The most commonly used operating system is Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. There are also OSes specifically designed to mine certain currencies. For example, ethOS for Ethereum.
• Internet with good ping.

2. Decide on a cryptocurrency

The choice depends on the graphics card you have. The most popular cryptocurrencies among miners are Ethereum, Zcash, Monero. Bitcoin and Litecoin are no longer mined using video cards: there are specialized devices for this, such as ASIC (Application-specific Integrated Circuit).

Examples of video cards used for mining:

• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/1050, as well as 1060, 1070, 1080 Ti/1080;
• AMD Radeon RX 470/480 and 570/580.

4. Choose an exchange or wallet where the mined cryptocurrency will be accumulated

There is only one advice here: use only proven services, for which you need to study the reviews.

What is cloud mining

This is an investment in the purchase or rental of equipment necessary for the production of cryptocurrency. Physically, it will not be in your home. Setting up, connection and maintenance is carried out by a specially created service.

The income from cloud mining is proportional to the equipment purchased or rented.

Pros:

1. At home, installing not one, but several farms, most likely, will not work, since the mining equipment is very hot. Remotely, you can use any number of farms. Or get by with very small investments (minimum contracts for some services cost a little more than a dollar).
2. This method is recommended for those who are not technically savvy: it will be difficult for them to assemble and configure the equipment on their own. Or those who do not want to spend time on this and be tied to the house or room where the farm is located.
3. Higher power compared to a home device.
4. The ability to mine bitcoins, as well as to mine several cryptocurrencies at once.

Minuses:

1. The risk of running into scammers.
2. The commission that is taken from the mining reward (it usually includes all costs, including possible equipment breakdown, etc.).
3. The risk of hacker attacks on the server, as a result of which you can be left with nothing.
4. Strong similarity with the financial pyramid. Logically, it is more profitable for services with their capacities to mine the cryptocurrency themselves, and not to give it to the side, albeit with a commission. Referral programs speak in favor of this statement: many cloud mining services promise rewards for attracting new customers.

Is mining worth it?

The attitude towards cryptocurrencies is still ambiguous, although their liquidity (ease of conversion into "live" money - rubles, dollars, and so on) is now very high.

The other day, the head of VTB Andrey Kostin said that bitcoin is a "speculative currency." Although representatives of the Central Bank have already voiced their desire to create a national cryptocurrency.

It is very difficult to find out how much the costs of creating your own farm will pay off.

It depends on the rate of cryptocurrencies, the growing complexity of their mining, the number of miners, which is constantly changing.

In general, the calculations made to date show that equipment worth about a thousand dollars can pay off in six months or a year. If you invest $3,000–$5,000 in building farms, you could potentially earn $50 or more a day. But this data can change dramatically (especially given the increase in the number of scammers).

To calculate the profitability of mining, you can use the online calculator.

Some experts believe that mining can be seen as an opportunity to earn a small additional income, but not as a way to quickly and surely get rich. Think of it as collecting gold dust, not gold nuggets.

Thus, to take risks or not, everyone decides for himself.