Do you have the resources to mine at home? Initiate yourself.
If you can allocate all the power of your desk computer or laptop to the legitimization and calculations emitted by a cryptocoin, you can safely mine from home.
All of this to get the rewards that joining the groups of people who find new blocks in this virtual coin system grants you.
Becoming a micro-entrepreneur on these times in which the crypto-currency is gaining power, just as in value as in variety and quantity, is a tempting choice.
To get your own earnings through this virtual coin system you must posses the basic technology
If what you want is to mine an specific kind of coin, you must take into consideration that the difficulty changes, and that you might need specific hardware with a higher power or created specifically for mining.
And because mining from home is a good option to create crypto-coins as a personal investment, the beginning of this task requires of a software as well, this last one you can find it on the web.
Let us remember that each virtual network of coins gives an incentive when making effective processes if you’re part of it. Thus creating another block in this great chain or blockchain.
The first thing we need then is a hardware, just like the one we have at home. If it has great capabilities even better.
This has an influence on how rentable it could be, you must first prepare emergency funds in case you need to upgrade your hardware to improve its capabilities.
Costs and earnings of mining will be calculated taking in consideration different conditions such as: Electricity expenses, inversion on components to upgrade your hardware and the duration.
Calculating energy consumption.
As we’ve said before, we mustn’t forget to take into consideration the energy expenses as a fundamental.
In some countries the low prices on electricity help but they’re still something to consider.
If a home computer, integrated by a CPU and a monitor without any special cards, working for 24 consumes more than 12 KW/h, then the cost must be calculated in a generic manner taking into consideration the prices of energy of the area.
If specialized equipment were to be used, you should input more details. For this it is recommended to check a rentability calculator as the one nice hash leaves to disposition, where you’ll choose the hardware you’re using, the currency of the country and the kW/h consumption standard.
What happens with the bitcoins?
Bitcoin mining could be done from a home computer, but its proficiency would be difficult. It requires by far of better graphic cards and specific equipment.These hardwares have the necessary requirements for crypto-coin mining and are also known as rigs.
We must take into consideration that, since a few ago, Bitcoin has increased due to the inclusion of investors and big miners around the world. Who have been developing and producing equipments as well as components such as graphic cards, GPUs and motherboards with great capabilities. Resulting in an almost impossible market to compete with just a home computer.
The difficulty comes from the has rate. Each hash is acquired from a previous number after making some mathematical calculations. When finding this new number (the hash) you get the reward. The faster you find it, the harder the process becomes and vice versa.
The amount of calculations that can be handled in the least amount of time, for example hash per second, will have a direct influence on how fast the target can be accomplished, resulting in benefits.
All of this ends up with the hash rate going up, and the manufacturers of specialized equipment stopping at this on these concepts to improve their power and rentability.
If you wish to know which are the best equipments in the marked we recommend you to follow our related works and you’ll be able to inform yourself about the subject.
Just like when we talk about the ASIC, which manage to multiply the mining capabilities of your computer by 100 in their systems.
Our recommendation would be for you to read more about how to “mount” a specialized computer for mining.
Also you could create or get into a root community. These communities are formed by groups of rigs, who wish to quickly decypher new blocks in the blockchain.
Bitcoin watch will help you visualize the movements of the block, in other words, it’ll help you track down the amount of blocks being created at that specific time.
By accessing Bitcoin talks you can also know about the rewards, groups, statistic data and methods. To be up to date with the mining groups, daa and wallets you can access slushpool, antpool, BTCC, or Bixin.
Some say that mining Bitcoin from home is no longer profitable, but this opens an opportunity to mine other crypto-coins.
Start mining.
Before mining you must choose the equipment. There are no conditions to be analyzed from the point of view of a minimum or a maximum to mining. The capacity that the computer has will determine more or less the amount of crypto-coins that will be acquired.
The specialist Alexis Lanetti, Artech Digital’s Blockchain Developer, tells us about the conditions that, from his experience, should be taken into consideration.
“You could use a Intel Core i3 de 2,5 Ghz processor or a AMD Phenom X3. Usually for mining AMD is recommended, even when Intel is more popular”
When you talk about mining from home for long periods of time, “AMD is more efficient because it consumes less energy, generates less heat and has a longer lifespan”. Intel has more processing power, resulting in a faster mining speed, but the lifespan of the equipment would be shorter.
Working with the system you have at home you must first of all take into account that it must be located in a fresh area, without any environmental moisture, this way you will avoid any condensation. Also you would have to make it maintenance every five months as to avoid any decrease in its functionality.
Incorporate an air dispenser (a fan) that works in excellent condition and free of dust. Which would also be compensated with an extractor that would help with the cooling of the system.
What should you install on your computer?
Depending on the intended purpose, the computer can be used by installing an operative system (to be further addressed as OS) that accommodates the needed functions.
Lanetti recommends the use of Linux if the devise will only be used for mining, “due to its light computing environment that doesn’t occupy as many resources”, and thus the system will provide its full potential to the mining. Instead, if the purpose is to both use programs or search the web and mining, the recommended OS is Windows.
Something you have to keep in mind is that the device must be working day and night for the mining to be effective and profitable. Turning of the mining, which is to disconnect temporarily from the process, won’t make you lose what has already been mined but will stop the production of virtual coins and will affect the profits.
Another of the intervening factors is the usage of the internet. The connection must be stable, albeit the capability won’t be influential. As Lanetti says “mining actually consists on sending and receiving text, and this is why a high bandwidth is not required”.
Pick an algorithm
Before choosing the coin you are going to mine, you must pick an algorithm. “The algorithm is the base on which the computer takes the information, encrypts it, and gives the result”.
Bitcoin uses SHA256, a robust encrypting that needs too much processing to get a hash result.
Other available algorithms are those such as X9, X11, and X15, which are evolutions of the X algorithms.
Nowadays the friendliest algorithm to CPUs is the X11 “because their processing is much faster”, even the hash result encrypted in the X11 is shorter than that of SHA256.
Choose a coin
There are many coins, but not of them can be mined, such as “tokens”. You could even simultaneously mine several coins, “what happens is that your potential will divide among the coins you mine at the same time”.
The important thing is that once you have the algorithm, you mine the corresponding coin, taking in account that the existing coins in the market that work under the same structure don’t have the same degree of hardship to mine.
Among these we can name the Dash, the Oxicoin and Bolivarcoin, that work with X11.
About the first of the latter, Lanetti tells us “the Dash, being so popular worldwide, has a very high difficulty, hence the data process that as a miner will arrive for you to ‘hash’ and return will be much slower than with other coins due to the amount of the devices online waiting for the same result”.
Oxicoin has a very low difficulty and so is its value compared to the Dash. Between these two is placed Bolivarcoin.
“The hardship is the competence you have to solve hashes. The more people, the more rivalry there is on getting a solvable algorithm, and there is where the mining pools come into the picture”.
In order to aim for a mining pool, enter the web and check in detail the amount there is, study and analyze their functioning. “The one fit for the better capacity isn’t always the best option”, that translates to “bigger amount of users, which itself means more inside competition”.
On the pools, one of Artech Digital’s Blockchain developer says “It is advisable to choose the second best pool; there is a little less rivalry, and your money will increase faster even if you earn the same”.
The wallet is also important
When you find yourself in your coin’s website, it is recommended to download the indicated wallet because this file will go to your device and hence turn it into another Blockchain node.
“Thus the direction given by this node will not change, it will always be yours” says Lanetti.
And now, how do we mine?
Mining doesn’t need advanced software; it requires an online file of commands –in the case of Windows, a “CMD”; and for Linux a “Basch” or a binary file.
This software usually includes three or four files: executables such as CMD or binary and configuration files.
In the configuration files you will write “mine this pool, and deposit the money in this wallet”, then you save and execute it. For Windows you have to double click, and Linux is to be executed through command lines, and that’s it.
Some the programs we can mention are: “ccminer; ethminer, optimized for Etherum but works with other coins; geminer, although it is optimized for GPU, it can be used with some CPU. Others for Windows are much simpler such as Minergate”.
This example shows how you would configure the program ccminer from a pool as “zpool.ca”
-o stratum + tcp: // <algo> .mine.zpool.ca: <PORT> -u <WALLET_ADDRESS> [-pc = <SYMBOL>, <OPTIONS>]
You must also know that in the coin’s website, the links to the different mining programs are also available.
Not to forget
If you have a device for mining at home, you are ready to begin. Connect the device to your computer and run the mining program. Click on your user and password and, as you have already chosen a group for mining, you will be mining.
You will be working as a member searching for a new block, and you will get your benefits in correlation to the selected group.
The mining pool, the mining network in which each user sets the capacity of their device to work together and be able to mine.
How are its benefits? They will not be equally distributed but given according to the power that the users provide.
The negative side? Expenses can exceed the profits by much, especially in energy. Calculated for long term it is left to be as a last result and even annihilates it as a business.
Specialists assure that it is better to invest buying coins than to mine. Those who refute those facts are the ones who calculate the profit after calculating the exchange in currency, such as the dollar or euro, which leads to the conclusion that the increase lays in the fluctuation market for the mined crypto-coin.
This is why you should not leave behind the analysis of the movements and price of the virtual coin, so you will know that what you mine has a value –and what it is-, and thus after the investment and working costs, what you are really left with.