In 2018, the urgency of mining, and, in general, the topic of crypto-currency, is growing every day. In a separate article, we already told you in detail about what is mining, and in this we tell you where to start and how to choose the most profitable way of mining for yourself.
How to start mining in 2018?
To put it very briefly, the mining is that the miner, with the help of special equipment, needs to perform a number of mathematical tasks and calculations to find a suitable hash and close the transaction block. And for this he receives a fee in the form of a crypto currency.
At the present stage, in order for the funds invested in mining to pay off and begin to make a profit, you need to calculate your opportunities taking into account the following factors:
- tariffs for electricity
- availability and capacity of necessary equipment;
- the course of crypto currency
- system settings
- participation in the pool or solo-minining
Back in 2010-11, the payback was easy to achieve in 2-3 weeks. Mining of crypto currency in 2018 pays off not less than half a year, and this is when using very powerful and expensive equipment. Therefore, it is logical that before you begin to mine, you need to choose a way to extract the crypto currency.
Choice of method for obtaining crypto currency
The most common now are solo minining (completely independent) on GPU farms or using integrated ASIC microcircuits, mining in pools with their equipment and cloud mining. The choice of method is purely individual, but largely depends on how much you are willing to invest in mining. If you are ready to spend 3-4 thousand dollars (to start) on equipment, then you can create your own mining farm.
Regarding the choice of equipment, you should understand that ASICs are programmed to produce a specific crypto currency and their cost is several times higher than the cost of a video card. But the performance of one ASIC is equal to several video cards (depending on the power), so it is logical that the power consumption from the GPU-farm will be many times greater.
Also, in connection with the increasing complexity of calculations for the formation of the bloc and the receipt of compensation, many solo-miners have become quite difficult and unprofitable to mine the crypto currency alone. With complexity, the reward (in monetary terms) for the found block also increased, and the miners decided to join forces – to create pools of joint mining. Many beginner miners will be much easier and more profitable to mine in the pool.
In the event that you do not have enough money to buy equipment or if in your neighborhood expensive electricity – a good option for you will be cloud mining. Its essence lies in the fact that the user buys the power of special equipment installed in remote data centers, and the process of extracting crypto currency is conducted in the cloud.
In simple words, this is a simplified mining that relieves you of electricity costs, round-the-clock monitoring, software configuration and other complexities associated with the classic production option on your equipment. But here you also need to be very cautious, because cloud mining carries certain risks associated with fraud and hacking services hacking.
Choice of crypto currency
Beginners in mining often wonder about what kind of crypto currency is now profitable to mine. This question is related to the fact that more and more people are starting to use Bitcoin, Litecoin and other traditional currencies, so making money on such a currency becomes more difficult. When choosing the following factors should be considered:
- necessary amount of time for coin mining
- complexity of mining
- the exchange value of the currency and the trend towards its growth
- requests for equipment (equipment capacity, how much RAM, power supplies, etc.)
- the ability to quickly set up and produce crypto currency.
One of the main criteria is the complexity of mining. For example, the speed of the Ethereum network is about 1,332 teraxes per second, and for Expanse the indicator is much smaller – 27 gigawatches per second. The more complexity of extraction, the higher the requirements for equipment, and therefore the crypto currency has a high price, and the number of those who want to extract it growing. As a result, the complexity of the network increases, and the level of earnings of its participants falls.
Selection of the pool and the program of the miner
When studying the parameters of a particular service, it is necessary to take into account several important components of successful mining in order to determine which pool is more suitable for you, namely:
- pool popularity
- reviews about the pool
- to assess the power of your equipment
- familiarize yourself with the conditions for issuing remuneration and currency withdrawal
Mining pools exist very much, but the most common and known are:
F2Pool (about 0.5 TH / s) – has almost 20% of the world’s hashrate. It was the first service that fully implemented the principles of decentralization in the work of the pool, thus securing users against the theft of rewards and other unfair actions on the part of the interested parties. Recommends immediately withdraw money from the accounts, since everything that remains there after 90 days, goes to the development of the pool.
AntPool (about 0.32 TH / s) – this Chinese pool has about 18% of the world hash. Particularly noteworthy is the total absence of a commission for withdrawal of funds. There is a choice of the Russian-speaking interface.
BTC China (about 0.23 TH / s) – is significantly weaker than the said competitors (about 10% hashtrait), but still very good. Limited to the interface in Chinese and English, therefore not so popular among those users who do not speak these languages sufficiently.
The programs for mining make it possible to make maximum use of the equipment’s power. Therefore, the correct choice of the program depends on the effectiveness of the work. Mining on video cards, processors and asics, as a rule, uses different programs. There are also universal programs, but most of them are released separately for GPU-, CPU- or ASIC-mining. The most popular programs are CG Miner, GUI Miner, Nheqminer, Miner Gate, Claymore’s Dual Miner and others.
The next step is choosing the bitcoin-purse. Since bitcoins are crypto currency, you will need to store your money somewhere. Having started a wallet, it is very important to make sure there is a purse address.
Earnings on mining
The main task of mining is to understand which currency is most profitable. The yield of crypto currency depends on a variety of variables, from the cost of equipment and ending with market conditions. All source data can be analyzed automatically on specially created calculator sites.
The yield of the miner largely depends on the demand for the produced currency. For example, there is a new cheap currency with a high cost. It attracts more and more miners, and, over time, resources for its extraction will equal the cost of mining another currency.
The cost of a crypto currency is approximately the same. The extraction of one coin costs the miner about 30% of its market value without reference to a specific crypto currency, and the profitability of farms is 5-15% of the cost of equipment per month. Costs can be repaid on average for six months or a year. Then farms bring passive income to the owner.
Also, the profit on energy is greatly affected by the expenditure on electricity. The longer the cryptographic task needs to be calculated, the more electricity the device consumes.
To increase profitability, the miners are engaged not only in raw material production of coins, but also in the game on the exchange – they produce one currency, and then they buy more attractive on the exchange.
Summarizing, we can say that mining is a promising occupation with the possibility of a good income. But whether to start mine specifically for you, this is a question of how much you are willing to invest and whether you are willing to risk them.
