How to mine bitcoins. How to mine bitcoins on your computer

Content

The only way to issue the cryptocurrency bitcoin (btc) is bitcoin mining, which is the creation of new blocks by performing a certain mathematical task using a specialized program installed on a computer. There are several ways to obtain popular digital currency, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages.

What is mining

The process of creating virtual coins got its name because of its labor intensity, comparable to mining. The essence of mining is to perform mathematical calculations in order to find a certain value. The purpose of such operations is to obtain a hash - a bit string of a fixed length. After the code is decrypted, the next block of Bitcoin appears, including a cryptographic signature. This signature is formed based on the hashes of previous blocks.

The sequence of bitcoin blocks appearing one after another forms a block chain. The selection of numbers that form the basis of the hash is carried out automatically. Bitcoin mining involves a reward in the form of btc coins, which go to the first miner to guess the hash. The amount of virtual rewards is halved every four years. At the time the system launched in 2009, miners could count on 50 btc for a decrypted hash; now the reward is already 12.5 bitcoins.

Basic principles

The Bitcoin mining process must follow certain principles to maintain the validity of the cryptocurrency and the security of the network. The main principles of production are:

• the difficulty of creating a currency;
• the established average time for calculating one block;
• lack of a single inlet center;
• automatic increase in difficulty level as the number of miners grows;
• the amount of remuneration is established by the system and provides for a gradual reduction;
• mandatory confirmation by miners of a transaction between participants in the bitcoin network by including it in a block;
• autonomous self-regulation of the network.

Difficulty of mining cryptocurrency

Due to the constant increase in the number of electronic coin miners and the steady increase in computing power, a mechanism is needed to compensate for this growth. As such a mechanism, a complexity parameter was provided, on which the amount of cryptocurrency mined per unit of time depends. The technical side of the concept of "computational complexity" is described as the number of attempts required to generate a hash.

Types of mining

Earning bitcoins can be done in several ways, which involve using specialized devices or paying for the rental of someone else’s capacity. There are also shareware types of mining. The methods differ from each other in the size of the required investments and the expected income from production. The most popular types of Bitcoin mining are:

• using a personal computer or laptop;
• using GPU;
• using FPGA modules and ASIC chips;
• creation of mining farms;
• cloud mining;
• bitcoin faucets, bitcoin games.

Bitcoin mining on your home computer

Mining cryptocurrencies using a video card

The time when it was profitable to mine bitcoins using a regular video card has already passed, since the mining process has become significantly more complicated and more power is required to carry out calculations. With increasing interest in Bitcoin due to its increasing value, manufacturers of graphics accelerators and processors began developing powerful video cards.

Mining farms

A large number of computers involved in the mining process are the so-called bitcoin mining farms. The principle of their operation is to continuously perform calculations. Hash generation occurs using:

1. A large number of video cards is the most energy-consuming type of farm.
2. FPGA modules - economical in terms of power consumption.
3. ASIC processors - the ASIC device (specialized processors) is the most expensive, but at the same time its operating speed is maximum.

Cloud mining without investment

The principle of obtaining bitcoins using cloud mining is identical to the usual mining of electronic coins, except that they do not use their own capacities, but third-party ones, rented. The amount of cryptocurrency mined depends on the rent charged. There are also free services that offer their mining equipment.

How to start mining

In order to start mining your first coins, you first need to decide on the mining method. The size of the initial investment will depend on the method chosen. The general step-by-step algorithm for mining bitcoins looks like this:

1. Purchase the necessary equipment.
2. Install the selected program for mining bitcoins on your computer.
3. Select a pool site.
4. Register your wallet to withdraw rewards.
5. Launch the software.

What are pools

To increase the chances of receiving btc coins, specialized web services (pools) provide miners with their services, which consist of using maximum parallelization of calculations. This mining method involves pool participants searching for their own solution options without linking them with the decisions of others. Miners provide their computing power to the pool, and the pool acts as a solo miner to find a block. When choosing a pool, you need to know the rules for distributing rewards and the power of the pool.

Cryptocurrency mining programs

You should start mining bitcoins by installing the software. Mining programs are divided into two types: for processors and for video cards. It is necessary to select software based on the parameters of the existing equipment. The most popular programs among users are presented below:

• name: Bitminter;
• characteristics: the application, which is also a pool, runs on video cards, has ASIC support, is compatible with all operating systems;
• pros: suitable for both beginners and experienced miners, easy to install;
• cons: no
• earning opportunities: the cost of coins mined in 24 hours is equivalent to $0.5.

Console client that is easy to use for both beginners and professional miners:

• name: BFGMiner;
• characteristics: console client supporting video cards and FPGA devices, support for scrypt, RPC;
• pros: easy setup of pools, ability to control computer cooling elements;
• cons: high requirements for equipment;
• earning opportunities: an experienced miner receives 18 thousand satoshi per day.

For users who have knowledge of the MS Dos operating system and have equipment with a powerful processor and video card, the DiabloMiner program is suitable:

• name: DiabloMiner;
• characteristics: support for operating systems such as Windows, Linux, Mac, installation of video cards of different series is provided;
• pros: easy to configure pool parameters;
• cons: not suitable for beginner miners;
• earning opportunities: on a powerful computer you can get a reward of 20 thousand satoshi per day.

A console client that easily adapts to user requirements is the Ufasoft Miner program:

• name: Ufasoft Miner;
• characteristics: it is possible to change the pool address, suitable for mining cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ether, litecoin;
• pros: several operating modes depending on the user level;
• cons: requires a lot of RAM;
• earning opportunities: experienced miners receive remuneration from 18 thousand satoshi.

The CGminer program is more suitable for users who have extensive experience working in the MS Dos system:

• name: CGminer;
• characteristics: assumes installation on powerful processors; when overclocking the video card, it increases MH/s to the maximum;
• pros: reprogramming is possible, easy to set up;
• cons: not suitable for beginners;
• earning opportunities: from 18 thousand satoshi per day.

50 Miner is a graphical shell for several of the most popular miners, such as Cgminer, Phoenix, Diablo, Poclbm:

• name: 50 Miner;
• characteristic: it is possible to use without installation, while all settings are saved in the configuration file;
• advantages: ease of authorization, compactness;
• cons: unstable operation, requires a lot of RAM;
• earning opportunities: with minimal initial conditions you can earn 15 thousand satoshi per day.

Is bitcoin mining profitable at home?

To understand whether it is profitable to mine Bitcoins at home, you should calculate the size of the required investment and predict how quickly it will pay off. Considering that since the advent of the process, which today is called mining, the situation in the cryptocurrency market has changed significantly, it is worth knowing the main factors influencing the economic feasibility of mining now:

1. The complexity of production contributes to the constant growth of equipment capacity, which affects its cost. At home, it is difficult to achieve a competitive level of mining speed.
2. The growth of btc in relation to official currencies attracts new participants to the network. If the price of bitcoins falls, the profit from their sale may not cover the investment.

How much can you earn from mining?

Bitcoin mining has the goal of making a profit, so before you start mining cryptocurrency and wait for the computer to earn money on its own, without your participation, you should find out what level of earnings you can expect. There is no clear answer to this question, because the amount of income depends on many factors, such as:

• Bitcoin exchange rate fluctuations;
• relevance of the chosen production method;
• costs for purchasing equipment;
• number of miners in the network;
• cost of electricity.

You can calculate the approximate profit from mining using specialized calculators (for example, on the Russian information site btcsec), which take into account a set of parameters entered by the user. However, even in this case, it is worth taking into account that if the Bitcoin exchange rate changes on a cryptocurrency exchange, the calculation results will be irrelevant.

Bitcoin mining costs

In order for Bitcoin mining to be profitable, the income from it must cover all the costs associated with mining. The economic component of expenses includes costs for:

• purchase of special equipment;
• payment of bills for consumed electricity;
• repair and adjustment of capacities;
• payment for rental capacity.

Special equipment

The future Bitcoin miner must take into account that in order to make a profit, it is necessary to have competitive equipment. Given the technological race caused by high demand, the cost of specialized equipment has increased significantly. In addition to the basic elements (video card, chip, module), you will need software for monitoring equipment temperature and a cooling system.

Electricity costs

Bitcoin mining involves operating equipment for a long time, which leads to high energy consumption. The higher the power of the processor and video card, the more impressive the electricity bills will be. In addition, the need to use cooling elements also leads to an increase in power consumption.

Depletion of home PC capacity

If you plan to mine bitcoin on home computers, you should take into account the fact that the load on the main elements of the machine will increase. Constant overheating of the processor and video card leads to a deterioration in their performance and faster failure. The miner will have to frequently repair his computer and buy new parts, which will lead to additional costs, and downtime will negatively affect the profit received.

Pros and cons of mining

Before you mine bitcoins, you should familiarize yourself with the positive and negative aspects that you will encounter during the mining process. The advantages of Bitcoin mining include:

• Stable passive income. Bitcoins are mined without your participation. By installing a special program, you can go about your business.
• To mine btc, it is not necessary to invest funds. If you don’t want to take risks when investing your money, there are free mining methods, but you can’t count on big profits in this case.
• Mined bitcoins can be easily withdrawn from the system (sold, exchanged, paid for purchases).

Miners who mine virtual coins note the following disadvantages of bitcoin mining:

• Equipment failure. Using a home computer for mining leads to rapid heating of the video card.
• High energy consumption. Increasing the level of mining complexity requires increasing the mining speed, which became possible with the advent of new technologies. Powerful devices are energy-consuming, so Bitcoin miners have to pay large bills for the electricity they consume.
• High risk. Investing money and time in Bitcoin mining is a high-risk investment, due to the fact that the price of the cryptocurrency is unstable, and the Bitcoin exchange rate may fall at any time.

Discuss

How to mine bitcoins - the essence of the process and where to start, types and profitability of earnings

Last update: 01/08/2020

Hello, readers of the online magazine “RichPro.ru”! Today we will talk about Bitcoin mining , how you can mine bitcoins on your home computer, what programs and equipment exist for bitcoin mining.

From the article you will learn:

• What is the Bitcoin mining process?
• How to mine bitcoins on your home computer;
• What equipment and software (software) to choose for bitcoin mining.

The answers to these and some other questions will certainly be of interest to all those who are in search of effective and affordable earnings on a home computer.

You will learn about what Bitcoin mining is, how to start mining Bitcoin and what equipment and software to choose for Bitcoin mining in this issue.

1. What is Bitcoin mining and how does it work - an overview of the concept 📋

In recent years, investing in Bitcoin (BTC) has turned into a real goldmine. In the last year alone, the value of the world’s most successful cryptocurrency has increased more than 5 times .

Investing in electronic money today is regarded by experts as one of the most profitable investment options. There's just one thing, It is becoming more and more difficult to mine bitcoins every day.

Before we start looking at ways to mine cryptocurrency at home, we should define the basic terms and understand what it means to mine Bitcoins.

Bitcoin mining is the process of performing a certain sequence of actions by miners aimed at ensuring stable operation of the system for a reward.

This activity is voluntary, and the ability to operate the entire Bitcoin network depends on it.

Mining is designed to solve the following problems:

• Cryptocurrency production— involves the creation of digital blocks that are the basis of the entire system;
• Ensuring the operation of the system– checking the authenticity of transaction scripts.

Based on the results of successful work, miners receive issue fee. The system pays it for each new block created by users. Today, Bitcoin mining is the only way to produce and put this cryptocurrency into circulation.

Table of changes in the size of miners' remuneration in the period from 2009 to 2016:

Year	Reward amount
year 2009	50 BTC
year 2012	25 BTC
Summer 2016	12.5 BTC

As can be seen from the table above, the size of the miners' remuneration gradually falls↓ .

However, given the fact that cryptocurrency quotes over the past few years grew up practically 1,000 times , not a single “Internet earner” regretted his chosen field of activity.

The military-technical cooperation system today unites several hundred million participants from all over the world. Of these, the percentage of miners is no more 20 % .

Those who become miners who is ready to use a computer to collect, verify and confirm the authenticity of new transactions with the subsequent creation of new blocks from them and entering them into the user registry.

For a number of reasons, not every PC user can make money from cryptocurrency mining.

The difficulty of mining bitcoins is as follows:

• Creating each new block is a labor-intensive task that requires significant computing power;
• On average per production 1 block the entire bitcoin network is spending near 10 minutes. This time does not depend on the number of miners and the PCs they use;
• Often, it is simply unprofitable to mine cryptocurrency at home, since the power of one computer is not enough to carry out the necessary calculations.

Just a few years ago Even the simplest laptop or desktop PC was enough to mine cryptocurrency. But that golden time has sunk into oblivion.

Today, artisanal (independent) mining no longer brings serious profits. The reason for this was the arrival on the market of special equipment designed for mining bitcoins. In particular, we are talking about ASIC brand products.

It is important to understand that nowadays mining is a serious profession that requires Not only training, but also serious investments in the purchase of expensive equipment.

The greatest income comes from the so-called ones, which are real computer centers created specifically for the extraction of cryptocurrency. In China, entire mining enterprises with a staff of qualified workers and managers have even been created.

In order to compete with large miners and eliminate the factor of chance in the production of bitcoins, single programmers unite in pools – communities engaged in joint mining of cryptocurrency.

2. Why are miners needed in the Bitcoin network - 4 main reasons 📄

According to rough estimates by energy experts, in the process of mining digital money, miners spend an amount of electricity per year that is comparable to the consumption of a small country from Central Asia. However, all costs are more than compensated.

At present, it is no longer possible to stop the mining process. Every day the demand for electronic money is increasing, and there is no other way to issue bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.

Experts highlight 4 key reasons the needs of miners when mining cryptocurrencies.

Reason #1. Mandatory confirmation of each transaction

Absolutely all user transactions must be verified for authenticity before being entered into the block.

To make coins available for use, the miner must accept the transaction and enclose it in a block.

Reason #2. Protecting the network from entering false information

If hackers attempt to conduct a false transaction on the network, the system will be able to block it at the stage of block formation.

Purely theoretically, it is possible to deceive the system, but for this it will be necessary to introduce a whole fake block into it. This will require availability cryptographic signature, which is generated using the data from the old block.

Of course, you can calculate it yourself by performing complex calculations. But why waste time, effort and power on deceiving the network if you can use it for completely legal mining?

Reason #3. Protecting the Bitcoin network from malicious attacks

Using their own cryptographic algorithms, miners protect the system from hacker attacks. The greatest threat to the network is the so-called "Attack51" , at which, in theory, attackers get 51 % all the computing capabilities of Bitcoin.

However, even in this case, hackers will only be able to carry out transactions with or slow down other transactions. These actions will not bring any particular harm to anyone.

Reason #4. Support for decentralization of the Bitcoin network

Main advantage cryptocurrency is her decentralization. Due to the lack of a single information repository, cryptocurrency transactions cannot be controlled by anyone, except the system itself.

You need to understand! Miners, dispersed throughout the world, only assist in conducting transactions. And even turning off most of the computers will not be able to stop the operations, since the information is simultaneously stored on all devices connected to the network.

Step-by-step instructions on how to mine bitcoins - 5 simple steps before you start mining

3. How to start mining (extracting) bitcoins - a step-by-step guide to mining bitcoins for beginners 📝

A few years ago, to produce cryptocurrency it was enough to have 4 -8 nuclear processor, later there was a need for video cards.

Special farms, assembled from several video cards, made it possible to mine cryptocurrency and fulfill the task of decentralization. However, every day even they become more and more useless.

Today, it is increasingly used for mining Bitcoins. professional ASIC equipment – computing chips created specifically for the extraction of digital money and characterized by high levels of power and performance. However, even such chips require enormous energy and time expenditures.

For those who decide to make money from mining, you should carefully weigh the pros and cons, calculate planned expenses and profits.

It is likely that the costs of electricity and the purchase of equipment will not be recouped. In this case, experts recommend considering alternative options for mining cryptocurrencies.

So, For example , most of yesterday's miners have already switched to making money using cloud mining , in which the extraction of digital money is carried out remotely (not on your own, but on rented equipment). But cloud mining is fraught with a lot of difficulties.

The main problem is the fact is that there is a high risk of running into scammers. Currently, there are a huge number of projects on the network that are not mining farms or pools, but are just intermediaries or investment funds that have a limited lifespan.

Compiled by us step-by-step instruction This will allow novice miners to avoid mistakes.

Step #1. Choosing a suitable service for mining bitcoins and registering on it

The success of the entire event largely depends on how wisely the choice is made.

When selecting a service, you should pay attention to the following indicators:

• Project lifespan;
• The amount of commission for withdrawing mined bitcoins;
• Availability of feedback;
• Participation in the project of famous pools;
• Service status;
• Reviews about the project on professional forums.

After the choice is made, you must go through the registration procedure on the site.

Step #2. Choosing a pool for bitcoin mining

When choosing a pool, you should focus on the size of the commission used to mine the program, as well as the methods of calculating rewards.

It is worth considering that some cloud mining sites provide their users with a limited list of pools with which they cooperate. The miner can either agree with this choice or go in search of another service.

Step #3. Choosing a program for mining bitcoin

Most cloud mining services themselves provide their participants with up-to-date software. However, experienced miners recommend that beginners additionally use special software to monitor the performance of the PC processor.

The most popular mining programs are CCMiner, CGMiner, 50Miner, DiabloMiner.

Step #4. Setting up and launching the program

Specialized services provide their participants with detailed and clear instructions on setting up, launching and working with the software.

In case of problems with the program Users should not try to fix them themselves - they should seek help from project consultants.

Step #5. Bitcoin mining and withdrawal into electronic or fiat money

Cryptocurrency mining is carried out automatically; for this, the PC must work around the clock. The speed at which digital money is credited to your account will depend on the computing power of the equipment used.

For every miner, converting BTC into real money is a serious issue. For these purposes they are used special exchangers , of which there are several hundred working on the Internet today. But not all of them are reliable..

In order to choose the most profitable one from the many currently existing cryptocurrency exchangers, experts recommend take advantage exchanger monitoring services .

One of the best cryptocurrency quote comparison sites is bestсhange.ru . The site independently searches for the most profitable cryptocurrency rate at the moment, and also shows the available reserves of exchangers and provides calculator services.

For ease of perception, a comparison of traditional and cloud mining is presented below in table form.

Table of comparative analysis of cloud and classic mining (farms for cryptocurrency mining):

4. What is a Bitcoin mining pool and how to choose it + TOP 9 popular mining pools 🗒

It would not be amiss to repeat once again the meaning of the concept of “mining pool”.

Mining pool is a specialized community of miners who jointly mine digital money. In this case, the reward is distributed among its participants according to the provided hashing power of each of them.

Each miner can use any pool. The choice of one community or another depends solely on the user and the tasks that he sets for himself.

The most popular mining pools are:

1. AntPool is a community of miners created in China. Supported by the manufacturer of equipment and software for miners BitMain. Production relative to all new blocks is 15 % ;
2. DiscusFish/F2Pool – the community base is also located in China. Over the last six months alone, the production of this pool amounted to 12 %;
3. BitFury Pool – the community was created by the largest manufacturer of equipment for bitcoin mining – the company BitFury. Today this private pool produces about 12 % all bitcoins;
4. BTCC is the third largest mining community in China. The mining percentage of this pool is near 7 %;
5. ViaBTC – the pool dates back to 2014, its base is also located in China. The community's production currently stands at 8 % of the total number of all new blocks;
6. Top – a new and rapidly gaining popularity pool. Considered a private community that does not have its own website;
7. Slush Pool – is officially the first pool in the world. Its base is in the Czech Republic. The community has near 6 % mined bitcoins all over the planet. Considered one of the most proven and reliable pools in the world;
8. Network – the largest pool in the world specializing in the production of various cryptocurrencies;
9. GBMiners – a fairly good pool from India, it accounts for 5 % mined digital funds.

In case you are not satisfied with the pools, and you are determined to mine on your own, we recommend that you try the official client BitcoinCore (BitCore) . It is easy to use, making it ideal for solo miners.

3 Reliable Bitcoin Cloud Mining Sites

5. Cloud mining of bitcoins: 3 most reliable sites for mining bitcoins via the cloud ⛏

Experts highlight 3 cloud services for mining , which are considered the most reliable and time-tested.

1) Hashflare

A modern and convenient cloud mining service with full support for the Russian language and instant connection. The service pleases users with the prompt withdrawal of extracted funds, as well as detailed statistics.

There are no hidden fees in the project, power is distributed across various pools, and technical support specialists answer questions without delay. The minimum withdrawal amount to the wallet is 0.0004 BTC . In addition to Bitcoin, the service mines the following cryptocurrencies: DASH, ZCASH And ether .

2) Hashing24

Over the past months, this service has been in the TOP of cloud mining leaders. The project is an ideal option for professional and experienced miners.

The Hashing24 service has the following pros (+):

• many different ways to replenish your account balance;
• regular withdrawal of funds;
• prompt technical support.

TO cons (−) The project can be attributed to the lack of a Russian-language version of the service, as well as the ability to mine only bitcoins.

3) Genesis Mining

It is rightfully considered the oldest cloud mining service, located in Iceland 3 company data center.

The project is designed to provide users with mining capacity Bitcoin , as well as other cryptocurrencies (Zcash, Ethereum, Monero) . The user-friendly control panel interface will be useful for novice miners.

The absence of problems with the accrual and withdrawal of funds determines the large number of users of this service and positive reviews about it on various thematic forums.

The most popular programs for mining bitcoins are BFGMiner, 50Miner, Ufasoft Miner, CGMiner, DiabloMiner

6. How to mine bitcoins on a home computer - review of the TOP 5 programs for mining bitcoins on a home PC 💻

Before you start mining bitcoins on your computer, you need to select the appropriate programs. The choice of one or another software should be made in accordance with the capabilities of the system and the power used.

It is best to download programs for bitcoin mining from official sources. So, below is a list of the most convenient and popular programs for mining digital coins.

1) BFGMiner

1. Bitcoin mining program - BFGMiner

The software is an excellent solution for both beginners and professional miners.

TO pluses (+) This program includes:

• ability to work with video cards and FPGA devices;
• the ability to control the rotation speed of PC coolers (fans);
• convenient setup of pools;
• RPC, scrypt support.

2) 50Miner

2. Bitcoin mining program - 50miner

This Bitcoin mining software is one of the most popular Bitcoin mining software. It allows you to work with such cryptocurrencies as Litecoin And Bitcoin.

Benefits programs are:

• simple and fast registration and authorization;
• the ability to use the program without installing it on a computer (using a portable storage device);
• ability to work with several miners - Cgminer, Phoenix, Diablo, Poclbm;
• The program settings made are saved in the configuration file.

3) Ufasoft Miner

3. BTC mining program - Ufasoft Miner

Using the Ufasoft Miner program does not cause users any difficulties with its installation and configuration.

The advantages of the program include:

• support TeneBrix, Roll-NTime, BitFORCE and SolidCoin ;
• the ability to independently configure the parameters of the PC video card;
• Pool address change function;
• User login and password information, as well as the number of threads and cores involved, can be easily changed if desired.

4) CGMiner

4. Bitcoin mining program - CGMiner

The software is designed for installation on powerful PCs and is intended for experienced users.

Among pluses (+) The following programs can be distinguished:

• PC video card overclocking support;
• easy setup of the system and pools;
• possibility of obtaining the maximum MH/S value.

5) Diablo Miner

5. Program for mining bitcoins on a computer - DiabloMiner

This bitcoin mining program is intended for experienced users who use a powerful PC to mine cryptocurrency.

The advantages of the software include:

• the ability to independently configure pools;
• video card support (AMD, Nvidia) and operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux) ;
• the presence of a function for switching the operation of the processor (CPU) and video card (GPU).

In the section below we will look at what equipment for bitcoin mining exists and how they differ from each other.

Types of equipment for bitcoin mining - review of ASIC miners, video cards and USB miners

7. What equipment to choose for Bitcoin mining - review of the best ASIC miners, video cards and USB miners 🔌🎛

As already written above, the miner’s reward is directly proportional to the computing power that the user can provide to the network.

Important! For this reason, we can say with confidence that the quality of the equipment and software used is the basis of the future wealth of the crypto miner.

At first, miners used central processing units (CPU). However, as the network grew, they could no longer cope with the mining of bitcoins and became obsolete equipment.

Gradually, the mining industry switched to graphic processing units (GPU) – computer video cards.

Mining farm on GeForce video cards

With their help, it was possible to speed up the hashing process almost 100 times and at the same time slightly reduce↓ the amount of electricity consumed.

Today, they are increasingly used for mining user programmable gate arrays (FPGA) And specialized integrated circuits (ASIC) .

Farm for mining bitcoins from Antminer s9

However, despite the appearance of more modern equipment on the market, cryptocurrency mining using video cards is still carried out all over the world (particularly due to the possibility of mining other cryptocurrencies).

The best ASIC miners are:

No.	ASIC model	Price
1.	AntMiner S7	from 450$
2.	AntMiner S9	from $2,250
3.	Avalon6	from 450$
4.	CoinTerra TerraMiner IV	from $1,500

The best ASIC miners for Bitcoin are:

No.	ASIC model	Price
1.	AntMiner S5	from 130$
2.	AntMiner U3	from 80$
3.	ASICMiner BE Tube	from 280$
4.	ASICMiner BE Prisma	from 550$
5.	Avalon 2/3	from $2,950
6.	BTC Garden AM-V1	from 320$
7.	VMC Platinum 6 Module	from $8,940

In addition, now on the mining equipment market you can buy USB miners for bitcoins that are affordable, compact in size, and quiet. True, the productivity of such devices is very small.

The most popular USB miners are:

No.	USB miner model	Price
1.	AntMiner U2	from 50$
2.	BPMC Red Fury USB	from 40$
3.	GekkoScience	from 50$
4.	Avalon Nano 3	from 50$

Some of the best video cards for cryptocurrency mining include:

No.	Video card model	Price
1.	Gigabyte Radeon RX 560 (4 GB)	From 13,000 rubles
2.	ASUS Radeon RX 580 (4/8 GB)	From 20,000 rubles
3.	Gigabyte Radeon RX 570 (4 GB)	From 20,000 rubles
4.	ASUS Radeon RX 570 (4 GB)	From 21,000 rubles
5.	Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB)	From 39,000 rubles
6.	ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB)	From 34,000 rubles
7.	Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB)	From 35,000 rubles
8.	MSI GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB)	From 50,000 rubles

* note , that the cost of the equipment is indicated at the time of writing this article. Check prices with sellers of this equipment.

Over the past few years, Russian miners have faced a serious problem - shortage of video cards. Large chain stores of computer equipment and the media immediately blamed the miners for the situation.

It is quite obvious that there is some truth in this, since our compatriots are increasingly interested in the process of cryptocurrency mining.

8. How to choose the right equipment for bitcoin mining - 4 tips from experts 💎

So, is it profitable to mine Bitcoins using a computer? Experts believe that it is impossible to give a clear answer to this question. impossible .

However, undoubtedly, this method of mining bitcoins can be profitable for those network participants who have unlimited access to software hardware and free electricity.

• students, as well as schoolchildren;
• computer center specialists;
• avid gamers who have powerful equipment at their disposal;
• organizations in one way or another related to cryptocurrencies.

Tip #1. The amount of internal memory must be sufficient

According to experts, The amount of internal memory should be at least 4 GB , and better 6 -8 GB . This amount of memory is sufficient for successful mining of any currently existing cryptocurrency.

Ideally, a home computer should be used exclusively for mining. This will avoid problems such as PC virus infection or low memory for fast and error-free operation of mining programs.

Tip #2. It is worth considering such a parameter as RAM size

To successfully mine cryptocurrency in the coming years, you need to have the amount of RAM ( RAM) at least 4 GB .

This indicator should be sufficient for the correct and fast operation of the operating system and mining program.

Tip #3. Equipment must be purchased only with a warranty period and certificates

In the event that a video card or processor for some reason cannot provide the power declared by the seller or fails, they can always be exchanged for a new one or the money spent will be returned.

Tip #4. Pay attention to the cooling system

For the mining process to be profitable, equipment operation is required ( PC, video cards, microcircuits) to the limit of the manufacturer's capabilities. This requires additional energy consumption from him, and as a result - equipment overheats.

In turn, exceeding the maximum permissible temperature can lead to work stoppage and premature wear of parts. Therefore, the issue of cooling is very important for any miner.

There are several options for solving the issue of additional cooling:

• oil cooling;
• water cooling (water blocks);
• use of fans, coolers, risers;
• timely replacement of thermal paste;
• indoor air conditioning;
• forced hot air extraction and system purging.

We should also not forget that, that the room should not be cluttered with anything unnecessary, and cleaning it from dust should be regular and of high quality.

9. Frequently asked questions (FAQ) 🔔

Question 1. How to mine Bitcoin on a GPU and is Bitcoin mining carried out on a video card?

More in the middle 2016 of the year many miners complained that mining bitcoins on video cards had become almost impossible, there simply wasn’t enough capacity to solve new blocks.

Moreover, even specially assembled farms for conducting operations on the network spent an prohibitive amount of time and electricity, thereby completely not recouping the costs of their acquisition and operation.

Good to know! Problems with Bitcoin mining have worsened following the sharp rise in BTC prices in recent years. This accordingly caused increase number of miners who want to earn what they consider “easy” money at home.

The situation that arose led to difficulties in the extraction of digital money and, as a result, Bitcoin mining on a video card has become absolutely hopeless class.

However, those who want to make money from cryptocurrency mining should not despair ahead of time.

There is an opportunity to start mine BTC in a pool. Solving problems related to solving new blocks in the pool is distributed among all miners and does not require enormous power from each participant.

Moreover, Bitcoin is not the only digital currency on the network. In addition to BTK, there are other highly liquid cryptocurrencies on the market . Due to their lower popularity, they are mined by a much smaller number of miners, and they do not require enormous power to perform computational operations.

Experts advise owners of powerful video cards who have decided to master the profession of a miner should pay attention to such cryptocurrencies (digital money) as - Monero, Dash, Ripple, Litecoin, ZCash .

Question 2. What is the difference between classic Bitcoin mining and Bitcoin Gold mining?

Standard cryptocurrency is “mined,” as already mentioned, on ASIC miners, and bitcoin gold mining is carried out through video cards.

Question 3. What is browser-based bitcoin mining and why is it needed?

To begin with, let's define What is the concept of “browser mining”?

Browser mining is the process of mining cryptocurrency using a special code (script) that is embedded on a website.

Visitors to such a resource, when launching the site, simultaneously launch a program that mines cryptocurrency, using the power of remote computers of unwary users.

Most experts evaluate browser mining exclusively as malware , which is embedded by hackers in installation files on many dubious resources.

Currently, against the background of the constant growth of cryptocurrency quotes, many unscrupulous webmasters are actively looking for ways to make money from visitors to their own sites.

However, not a single owner of an Internet resource who values ​​his own reputation won't add similar functionality to your website. After all, most of the users of the resource, having learned that they are simply making money from them and do not ask permission, will simply stop visiting it.

It is quite possible to protect yourself from the actions of unscrupulous miners. Below are possible options for action that will protect the PC owner from mining bitcoins in the browser.

Some ways to protect against mining in a web browser include:

• Editing the hosts file. This method requires certain administration skills;
• Disabling JavaScript in the browser and enabling it only on trusted resources;
• Installing special software or adding a filter to uBlock and AdBlock.

Given the fact that hackers regularly improve malware, it is best to update your web mining protection periodically.

Protection should be taken care of not only by website visitors, but also by their owners. For an experienced hacker, it costs nothing to inject foreign code into an Internet resource.

Despite the fact that miner scripts allow you to use only part of the capacity of a remote computer, attackers do not miss even this opportunity to make money.

Question 4. Why do you need a bitcoin mining profitability calculator and how is the return on mining costs calculated?

Bitcoin mining profitability calculator

To calculate the profitability of mining on ASIC equipment, you can use a special calculator.

Bitcoin mining calculator is a tool with which you can not only calculate the most accurate profitability at a specific point in time, but also predict the size of the profit for several months in advance, since the increasing complexity of the network is taken into account when making the forecast.

The profitability calculator interface includes access to all popular ASIC hardware models with a full list of their technical parameters.

The user can only select the one he is interested in ASIC miner, enter device hashrate, energy consumption data and set in a special field estimated cost of electricity(for each region of the Russian Federation this indicator will be different). After this, you need to press the key "Calculation" .

This is what the Bitcoin mining calculator from the bitmakler resource looks like - to calculate profitability you need to enter all the data in the fields and click the button - Make calculation

The calculator will instantly provide complete information on current profitability and electricity costs ( per day, week, month) in the form of a table, and also automatically converts digital money into dollars, rubles or euros .

Essentially, a calculator for calculating earnings on cryptocurrencies is a convenient software that makes it as easy as possible to select equipment for mining bitcoins and other electronic money. Now you don’t need to carry out complex calculations - the program will do everything for you.

Question 5. What is the difficulty of mining Bitcoin?

Mining difficulty is a special cryptocurrency parameter designed to regulate the speed of finding a new block in the Blockchain network. This indicator is automatically recalculated after a certain period of time, which is different for each cryptocurrency.

The difficulty indicator performs the following functions:

• prevents the possibility of quickly finding a large number of new blocks by one miner;
• reduces the speed of issuing digital money;
• eliminate the possibility of concentration of a significant amount of cryptocurrency in the wallet of one network participant.

Feature of Bitcoin , like any other cryptocurrency, is that the total number of mined coins is limited to a certain number specified by the program code.

So, maximum amount of BTC – 21,000,000 coins, and the last Bitcoin will only be mined V 2140 year. Today the emission fee for each new block is 12,5 BTC.

Moreover, according to the program code, searching for a new block should take about 10 minutes. Every 2016 blocks found (which takes approximately 2 weeks), the difficulty indicator for bitcoin mining is recalculated.

Example: Acceleration of creation 2016 new blocks ( less 2 -x weeks) means that there has been an increase total computing power Bitcoin mining devices. This is a signal to automatically increase difficulty indicator.

Slowing down solving 2016 blocks ( more 2 -x weeks), on the contrary, indicates a decrease ↓ total computing power devices and leads to a decrease ↓ difficulties Bitcoin mining.

Thus, There is strict regulation of the process of mining new coins.

After Bitcoin is created in the system 210 000 new blocks (this will require near 4 -x years), the size of the miner's emission remuneration for new blocks is decreasing approximately 2 times.

The increase every year in the number of people wishing to mine BTC inevitably leads to growth ⇑ competition between miners for a reward, the size of which, as is known, is not only limited, but also decreases every year ⇓ .

However, despite the high difficulty of mining, the BTC mining process is very in an attractive way . This is due to the strong increase in the Bitcoin exchange rate against fiat money.

10. Conclusion + video on the topic 🎥

To summarize all of the above, it should be noted that classic bitcoin mining on video cards today it is almost completely a thing of the past. However, you should not rush and put up expensive equipment for sale, since with its help you can actively mine other types of cryptocurrency.

Of course, mining the same litecoins It is unlikely to bring big profits, but at the same time it can be quite a good help as a means.

The least expensive way to make money on bitcoins is cloud mining , which is the rental and mining of currency on remote PCs.

This method of obtaining digital funds cannot be considered highly profitable, and there is always a risk of running into scammers And unscrupulous services , who profit from gullible users.

The choice of a service for cloud mining should be done without haste, thoughtfully, based on reviews posted on professional forums.

The site team hopes that this material was useful to you. Good luck with your Bitcoin mining!

Don’t forget to leave comments and remarks on the topic, and also share the material on social networks. See you again!

The topic of mining is currently being highlighted online. People are interested in the incredible growth of Bitcoin and the mining process of the super popular Bitcoin. To become a miner, you need to approach the issue thoroughly and prepare thoroughly. This material from Treshbox is aimed at just that. In the latest article, you will learn what mining is, how to start mining bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, whether to mine collectively or alone, and what hardware is best suited for this matter.

What is mining

Mining (from the English “mining” - mining) is a decentralized computing process that serves two main purposes:

• Confirms transactions in a trusted way, using the computing power of the miner to process data.
• Creates (issues) new bitcoins in each block.

The principle of mining consists of several sequential processes: checking the validity of transactions → a set of operations in a block → selecting a hash header for a new block → proof of work done → adding a new block to the local blockchain → distributing cryptocurrency in the network.

Noteworthy Information: that there is proof of work. In the Bitcoin system, there is a part of the data that requires a certain amount of resources (computing power). Proof of work is one of the consensus algorithms (universal agreement), providing confirmation of the complex and lengthy work described above. In most cases, it occurs randomly and does not require any action from the user.

Software and Wallets

The whole point of mining bitcoins is to earn them. But what software should you use for this? Moreover, once a certain number of bitcoins are earned, where to store them safe and sound? The editors of Trashbox provide answers to these questions with recommendations for the best and safest mining software.

Among the mining software, there are several good and feature-rich options. Most of the programs presented are available for leading desktop operating systems: Windows, macOS and Linux.

• Mine Peon. A simple open source miner, which may require an additional utility, WinDisk32Imager, to write disk images to USB drives, SD/CF cards.
• EasyMiner. Cross-platform (available on Windows, Linux and Android) miner with a convenient graphical interface. Automatically configures work for Bitcoin and provides activity schedules for its mining.
• BFGMiner. Modular miner. Supports operation on gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), graphics cards (GPUs) and central processing units (CPUs). Available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
• CGMiner. Powerful miner with support for multi-threaded multi-pulse GPUs, FPGAs and ASICs. In addition, it offers monitoring of ATI (AMD) video cards, overclocking and computer fan speed settings for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency derivatives.
• NiceHash Miner. Multi-user miner based on CGMiner. Supports more than 20 algorithms and uses cloud mining technology, thanks to which there is no need to search for pools.

And now about wallet programs. For Bitcoin, we strongly recommend only using wallets where you can store and use your own (private) keys. For example, the most suitable, simple and safe options are, first of all, official Blockchain wallet, as well as third-party solutions Breadwallet, Copay And Armory. We do not recommend using various hosted (server) wallets (for example, Coinbase or Circle), since in them the entire database is stored on the provider’s servers. In this case, the provider can have full control not only over public, but also over private personal keys.

All Bitcoins mined become real currency that can be purchased, used for transactions, or even traded on the Bitcoin trading platform.

Which pool to choose

Mining pools are cooperative groups of miners who agree to distribute rewards for closing new blocks in proportion to the hashing power provided. Simply put, pools are designed for collaborative mining. The miner can use any pool where it is convenient for him.

If you do not plan to mine solo (alone), then mining pools are recommended for use. The list below shows the largest mining pools for Bitcoin and more.

• AntPool. Chinese mining pool supported by BitMain. Production relative to all new blocks is 15%.
• DiscusFish/F2Pool. A mining pool called DiscusFish, also known as F2Pool, is also based in China. Over the past six months, the production of this pool has become 12%.
• BitFury Pool. BitFury is one of the largest manufacturers of Bitcoin hardware and chips. This private mining pool currently mines about 12% of all bitcoins in three processing centers throughout Georgia.
• BTCC. The third largest Bitcoin mining pool in China. Today he owns about 7% of all bitcoins.
• ViaBTC. This mining pool was created in 2014 and is also based in China. ViaBTC mining accounts for 8% of all new blocks.
• BTC.Top. One of the newest mining pools. It doesn't have its own website, so it could be a private pool.
• Slush Pool. Officially, Slush is the first Bitcoin mining pool. Based in the Czech Republic. Currently it produces about 6% of all bitcoins. Considered one of the best and most popular mining pools in the world.
• Bitclub.Network. Huge mining pool for mining various cryptocurrencies.
• GBMiners. Competitive mining pool from India with a share of 5%.

If you do not want to mine in pools and share the output with other miners, then for solo you can try the official BitcoinCore client (BitCore). It is easy to use and functional enough for solo mining.

The best hardware for mining

As you know, earnings from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are directly proportional to the computing power that the miner provides to the network. The more powerful your computer, the faster and more you can earn. Therefore, we have also compiled a review of the best hardware available in the market today.

At first, miners used central processing units (CPUs), but as the cryptocurrency network strengthened, they stopped “pulling” mining and became insufficiently productive. Then there was a rapid transition to graphics processing units (GPUs) in the form of computer video cards, since they were able to speed up the hashing process by 50-100 times and consume much less energy. Soon after, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) began to be used for mining. To this day, most of the listed equipment is suitable for mining.

AntMiner S9

Best ASIC miners:

• AntMiner S7, price: $480.
• AntMiner S9, price: $2,280.
• Avalon6, price: $500.
• CoinTerra TerraMiner IV, price: $1,500.

ASICMiner BE Tube

Best ASIC miners for Bitcoin:

• AntMiner S5, price: from $150.
• AntMiner U3, price: $90.
• ASICMiner BE Tube, price: $320.
• ASICMiner BE Prisma, price: from $600.
• Avalon 2/3, price: $3,075.
• BTC Garden AM-V1, price: $350.
• VMC Platinum 6 Module, price: $9040.

BPMC Red Fury USB

There are also USB miners for Bitcoin. Thanks to USB miners, you can save a lot. Among them, the most popular offers are:

• AntMiner U2, price: $50.
• BPMC Red Fury USB, price: $45.
• GekkoScience, price: $50.
• Avalon Nano 3, price: $55.

MSI GeForce GTX 1080

The best video cards for mining various cryptocurrencies:

• Gigabyte Radeon RX 560 (4 GB), price: 23,500 rubles.
• ASUS Radeon RX 580 (4/8 GB), price: from 35,000 rubles.
• Gigabyte Radeon RX 570 (4 GB), price: 38,000 rubles.
• ASUS Radeon RX 570 (4 GB), price: 41,990 rubles.
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB), price: from 49,500 rubles.
• ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB), price: 54,990 rubles.
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB), price: from 56,280 rubles.
• MSI GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB), price: 67,190 rubles.
• GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (8 to 11 GB)- not available for sale.

The only problem with purchasing video cards is that they may not be available. For example, quite recently in Russia there was already a shortage of video cards throughout the country. All major media outlets and computer store salespeople immediately announced the “obvious” - mining is to blame. The growing demand for components is associated with the interest of Russians in cryptocurrency mining.

Bottom line

At the end of this article, I will answer as clearly as possible the main question that is probably of interest to all miners - what is better: mining or buying bitcoins?

If you look at mining as a long-term investment, then in the future you can actually earn a certain amount of bitcoins or other cryptocurrency. However, this comes with its own share of risk. First of all, miners can simply break down - accidents happen. Also, you cannot know for sure how much virtual money you will earn - regardless of mining activity. The numbers may vary significantly. A more profitable and promising choice in this case would be to buy bitcoins. Especially considering that now its price is at $3 thousand and, with minor changes, basically continues to grow.

You can find out how profitable it is to mine a particular cryptocurrency at the moment on the What to Mine website. This service analyzes the dynamics of exchange rates and, based on the data obtained, predicts the profitability of mining.

Write in the comments which pool you want to use and what hardware you preferred to use for mining. Of course, if you still decide for yourself that you will definitely do it.

Many reputable economists recognize that the emergence of cryptocurrencies could become the starting point for radical transformations of the entire global financial system. But financial technology is not the only area where it has created an incentive for development and improvement. Another direction is the extraction of bitcoins, known to us as mining.

Indeed, the evolution of devices in just a few years is astounding. In fact, in just three years, the coin industry has created a new class of computing machines and gone from the long-obsolete 130 nm process technology to the cutting edge of modern electronics.

In the first part of the article, we will talk about the development of mining technologies from the launch of the Bitcoin system to the start of mass production of specialized devices.

Despite the fact that more than half of the existence of Bitcoin, mining took place on general-purpose computers, we will not dwell on a detailed description of this process. It is unlikely that you will be interested in reviews of the most ordinary processors and video cards.

But the history of the rapid development of ASIC miners, fierce competition, the rapid enrichment and ruin of manufacturers, the development of enthusiasts and squeezing out all the possibilities from new and old hardware is actually fascinating, even for those who once took part in it and now, in the noise of the fans or the murmur of the cooler, continues to mine new coins.

Start. Mining on processors

It’s easy to guess who became the very first miner in the history of Bitcoin. Of course, this was the creator (or creators) of cryptocurrency - Satoshi (Satoshi) Nakamoto. It is widely believed in the community that Satoshi has been mining alone for a long time and has more than a million BTC in his wallets.

However, it is very difficult to substantiate this opinion with facts. The only evidence given is that all these coins have not yet begun to move. But there may be reasons for this.

We will operate only with known facts. Between the creation of the genesis block on January 3, 2009 and the publication of the first client of the Bitcoin v0.1 network, only 15 blocks were mined - from 0 to 14. Thus, “guaranteed” premine Satoshi is only 750 BTC. Then other miners could compete with him.

Now these people are called “early adopters”. Most of them are unknown to the community. The first transaction on the Bitcoin network occurred 3 days later - January 12, 2009 between Satoshi and Hal Finney in the amount of 10 BTC. A total of 5 transactions were made from this address, undoubtedly belonging to Satoshi, on the same day, totaling 32 BTC.

From a technical point of view, Bitcoin mining on processors is not of interest - this is a common operation of calculating hashes using the SHA256 algorithm, which is also performed in many other cases not related to cryptocurrency.

Satoshi probably did not imagine how quickly the mining industry would begin to develop. It was mining on PC processors, the most widely used chips in the world, that was supposed to make Bitcoin truly decentralized. There is only one vulnerability here - to botnets, which can force the computers of tens of thousands of users to mine with one wallet.

While cryptocurrency remained a hobby for geeks, CPU mining was not very popular. The first change in Bitcoin difficulty, which showed that several hundred processors were already mining, happened almost a year after the creation of the genesis block - on December 30, 2009.

The largest increase in difficulty in one recalculation - 4 times - happened on July 16, 2010 in block 68544. This happened as a result of a publication about Bitcoin on July 11 on the site Slashdot, popular among geeks. In just a few days, the number of Bitcoin users, and therefore miners, has grown many times over.

Farmers' competition. Mining on video cards

By the summer of 2010, the popularity and exchange rate of Bitcoin had grown so much that its mining began to generate real income, albeit modest. In July, 1 BTC was worth about 10 cents, that is, mining one block brought about $5. Mining began to move onto a commercial basis, which means that competition could not but lead to a technological race.

On July 18, someone named ArtForz launched a GPU mining rig for the first time and mined the first block using parallel computing implemented in the OpenCL driver. Thus began the era of industrial mining.

The transition to video cards was a huge leap compared to the “classic” processor - not only does one video card count several tens of times more hashes than the processor, but even then it was possible to install up to 4 video cards on one cheap motherboard, and later – up to 6 , with a limit of 8 GPUs (one dual-processor card counts as two GPUs). A computer even with two processors in a minimal configuration costs almost the same as a farm of several top-end video cards. Thus, video cards immediately take second place.

But for some time, GPU mining programs remained unavailable for mass use. Only in September 2010, a CUDA-based miner was published for nVidia cards, and in October - for ATI Radeon based on OpenCL.

On September 18, the first in the history of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.cz, known as Slush's pool, opened. It still operates today, and its creator, Czech programmer Marek Palatinus, is still an active member of the community. In early January 2011, the pool gained capacity at 10 GHz/s, which now seems ridiculous, but then the difficulty of mining Bitcoin barely exceeded 10,000 - only 5 million times less than now!

On February 9, 2011, the Bitcoin rate on MtGox was equal to the dollar, and in several months without stopping it surpassed the $20 level. Mining one block now brought in $1,000, and almost $150,000 was mined per day.

Feeling the easy money, miners around the world rushed to buy video cards. Competition grew, difficulty continued to rise, reaching 1,000,000 by mid-June. However, the hack of MtGox, and then several other services, caused an outflow of Bitcoin users and a decrease in mining capacity, which continued until the fall.

On August 23, 2011, the first block was mined by a decentralized pool - P2Pool. Unfortunately, due to the complex setup and instability of mining, most miners still prefer centralized services, and p2pool drags out a miserable existence, very rarely mining more than 1 block per day.

On October 7, 2011, Litecoin was launched - the first to use an alternative hashing algorithm. It was intended to stop the dominance of video cards and give a chance to CPU mining. Ironically, 2 years later it was LTC that became a refuge for video card miners fleeing the ASIC invasion. We will talk about this in another article.

For almost three years, video cards reigned supreme in mining. On November 28, 2012, the first halving of the block reward took place - from 50 to 25 BTC. But it did not stop the gradual increase in complexity. At the beginning of 2013, despite a slight correction, it fluctuated around 3,000,000. However... this was only preparation for a new jump.

Smaller, cooler, more powerful. FPGAs come and go

Back in 2011, some enthusiasts began to realize that video card farms consumed too much electricity, required constant attention and additional costs. They began looking for a solution that could cut costs.

At that time, the most obvious was the use of FPGA chips - less versatile than CPUs, but more energy efficient. It was much easier to parallelize them on one board, and the requirements for power lines and cooling were noticeably reduced. The final device was quite expensive, but much more compact and stable than a video card farm. And the gain in energy consumption was thousands of percent.

And yet, video cards remained the most widespread solution, cheap and accessible. There weren't many people back then willing to pay several thousand dollars for a device with very limited use. FPGA miners did not last long and remained a niche product that did not play a significant role in mass mining. But these developments were later useful to manufacturers of ASIC miners, since the board layout, device layout and software were very similar.

Among the manufacturers of FPGA miners, two companies can be noted that later took a much more prominent place in history:

• Swedish KnC Miner, founded in September 2012, with its 6 GHz/s KnC Mars
• American Butterfly Labs with two devices: with a hashrate of 832 MH/s and a Mini Rig with a hashrate of 25 GH/s.

For that time, this was very powerful equipment, consuming only 20 W per 1 GHz/s - 20-30 times less than a similar farm of video cards. But it cost accordingly: they asked for $6,000 for Mars, and $15,000 for Mini Rig. The number of devices released was not published.

All other manufacturers were unable to recoup the costs, much less the development of new chips. Over time, they all closed. The payback of FPGA miners raised many questions, but those who received them before the beginning of 2013 had every chance, if not of excess income, then of a decent profit.

Advent. The first ASIC miners

Unlike FPGAs, which are mass-produced and used for a wide variety of tasks, ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) chips can perform only one task for which they were designed. But they perform it much better than any general-purpose processor - the difference in performance of devices similar in other parameters can differ tens of times.

There is also a downside - just designing and producing a prototype ASIC chip using modern technologies costs several million dollars. This is a long and labor-intensive process, the positive result of which is not guaranteed by anyone. In addition to the chip itself, the developer has to do everything - from the motherboard, the “piping” and the cooling system to the software, and then carry out all stages of testing.

The most far-sighted manufacturers began developing specialized chips as soon as the first FPGAs went into production - that is, in the summer-autumn of 2012. And the most enterprising decided that there was no need to take all the risk on themselves - buyers could easily pay for it. This is how pre-orders for ASIC miners appeared.

The first well-known trio of ASIC creators were two Chinese companies - ASICminer and Avalon and one American - BFL (Butterfly Labs).

The creators of the first ASICs, from left to right: Sam Cole (KnC Miner), Josh Zerlan (Butterfly Labs), FriedCat (ASICminer) [allegedly] and Yifu Guo (Avalon)

In the photo you can see four people - probably the most famous during the "ASIC revolution". It was made in Singapore in August 2013, and is truly unique - this company has never come together again. Remember these names and faces. Hundreds, if not thousands of buyers of ASIC miners dreamed of having a heart-to-heart talk with these people wholesale and retail.

But let's talk about each of the manufacturers in order.

ASICminer

This company with a self-explanatory name was founded on July 18, 2012 by three Chinese citizens. She collected investments through public forums, but not from the first people she met.

ASICminer's approach to customers was completely different from that of other manufacturers. For a long time they did not trade retail, but focused on large investors who received their share of shares. These shares began to be traded on the open market only after the main investors received their share of the profits. Company representatives answered absolutely all questions, including those related to deeply technical issues.

The identity of the main founder and inspirer of ASICminer still remains unknown - in the community he is known only by the nickname “FriedCat”. Perhaps he is not Chinese, although he managed to settle down and build a business in this country. Company employees do not betray their boss.

At the beginning of 2013, ASICminer developed a chip using the 130 nm process technology, which has long been outdated in consumer electronics. It was chosen due to its relatively low costs - a total of $150,000 was spent on the development of a completely new ASIC.

The first generation miners from ASICminer were implemented in the form of Blade Block Erupter boards with good characteristics at that time: a hashrate of 10 GHz/s and power consumption of about 100 W. The energy efficiency indicator, despite the crude process technology, was twice as good as the most modern FPGAs.

Block Erupter boards could be installed several times in one case, compatible with standard 19" server racks. It was ASICminer that became the first company to open a special data center for mining.

In the spring of 2013, the first batch of devices were installed in it, which were sold out in 1 hour at a price of $12,500 by the company’s shareholders. Their total performance was up to 40 Th/s, while on January 1, 2013, the hashrate of the entire Bitcoin network was about 25 Th/s. This data center held the absolute leadership in Bitcoin mining for several months, ahead of the largest pools.

Blade Block Erupter v.2 was sold in April for $7,500 on the open market. The miner turned out to be successful, so the company decided to improve the ASIC and in the summer began large-scale sales of the ASICminer Cube at a price of $7,000. Its characteristics: 30-37 Gh/s and 430 W.

Simultaneously with Blade Block Erupter, a portable version was released - USB Block Erupter with one chip, in a case similar to a flash drive. A key fob with a capacity of 330 MHz/s was first sold for 1 BTC and at first the demand was frantic - they were bought in dozens and connected via USB hubs in whole bunches. However, the idea was unsuccessful, miners rapidly became cheaper - in a few months their price collapsed 30-40 times. Now such an interesting device can be bought on Ebay for a few dollars. This souvenir is also suitable for studying the operation of ASIC chips and the design of the circuit.

By the end of the summer of 2013, ASICminer was forced to retreat under the pressure of competitors - its chips quickly became outdated, and the development of new ones was slow. Stocks were falling. The company was able to return to the market only a year later, but soon closed completely after the mysterious disappearance of “Fried Cat” with a large sum of money. He was never found.

Avalon Project

Avalon sounds dignified, doesn't it? That's right, this company has a lot to be proud of. It was founded by Yifu Guo in September 2012.

Despite the fact that Yifu is a purebred Chinese, the association of his company with the fabulous city of King Arthur suggests that he is well acquainted with European culture and was counting primarily on European and American buyers.

The Avalon team began developing chips at the same time as competitors, but produced only limited quantities at a high price. The so-called "butches" from Avalon stirred up rumors and legends in the community. The first ASIC miners were released using the 110 nm process technology, with a default hashrate of 60-65 GH/s (82-88 GH/s overclocked) and power consumption of about 700 W.

The release of the first generation took place in three stages:

• The first batch of 300 devices was sold at the very start - in 2012 for $1,300, when the idea seemed too bold and the start of pre-sales did not cause much excitement. Buyers received the miners in February-March 2013. They paid for themselves literally in a matter of days and began to generate net profit. The owners of the first batch from Avalon really got rich, and their example became a bait for buyers of subsequent batches. But they were much less fortunate.
• The second batch, already consisting of 600 miners, went on sale in mid-February for $1,500 (at the exchange rate in bitcoins - about 50 BTC at that time) and was sold out in a few days, despite the generally accepted skepticism about ASICs at that time. Here, buyers were much less fortunate - the devices arrived with a long delay and had already been used. However, they turned out to be a good purchase. Read a detailed review of one of them.
• But the third batch, also of 600 pieces, greatly tarnished the manufacturer’s reputation. Firstly, the price has risen almost 5 times – 75 BTC at an average rate of about $100. And secondly, the delay in deliveries turned out to be even greater - many buyers received their devices in July and even in August, when the complexity increased many times and second-generation ASICs entered the market. Most owners of third-party Avalons lost money and, not without reason, blamed the manufacturer for this.

Miners from Avalon work stably, but unfortunately the manufacturer uses an unsuccessful TP-Link controller, which is distinguished by its imperfections and constant freezes. This drawback has accompanied Avalon devices for many years. However, the company did not slow down and is still in business after its transformation into Canaan Creative, although it has lost the advantages accumulated at the beginning - now Avalon is just one of many manufacturers.

BFL – Butterfly Labs

The BFL company, also known as “Butterfly” and “Granny Labs”, is one of the most controversial in the history of mining; its name has become a household name to describe an unreliable supplier that does not fulfill its obligations. It has undoubtedly and by a significant margin secured its place as the best manufacturer of pre-orders for ASIC miners. But getting ready-made devices turned out to be much more difficult.

Butterfly Labs became the first manufacturer to begin pre-sales of ASICs. Confidence in success was inspired by previous developments in the field of FPGA miners, which were delivered on time and performed well. In June 2012, the company offered customers the following model range:

1. Jalapeno for $149 and 4.5 GHz/s performance
2. SC Single for $1299 and 60 GHz/s performance
3. SC MiniRig for $30,000 and 1,500 GHz/s performance

On the very first day, pre-orders worth $250,000 were purchased, and in the future the interest of “investors” did not fade away for a long time. The chips were promised with a 65 nm process technology, energy efficiency of 0.9 W at 1 GHz/s and in a QFN package.

But when we got down to business, it turned out that creating an advanced ASIC was much more difficult than collecting pre-orders. Shipping dates were postponed many times, energy efficiency changed to 5.5 W at 1 GHz/s, the package changed from QFN to BGA, and the power of SC MiniRigs decreased to 500 GHz/s - instead of one “box”, customers were promised 3!

The Internet was full of angry reviews, because the company did not always communicate the reasons for the next missed deadline, and very few lucky ones managed to receive compensation. The phrase “just two weeks”, with which BFL PR director Josh Zerlan tried to reassure clients, became popular among miners.

The first Jalapeno devices appeared in reviews at the end of April and began to arrive to customers only in May 2013, and mass shipments began in June - July. In August, the increase in complexity reduced the profitability of BFL devices to the breakeven point. And those who stood at the end of the line received orders in the last months of 2013, when miners from BFL, compared to competitors, were suitable only as electric heaters.

In August 2013, the company announced a unique 28 nm ASIC - Monarch, made in the format of a video card, inserted into a regular PCI-e slot of a personal computer, but with an external power supply. The second delivery option was with a USB connection. Monarchs were sold at the following prices: 300 GH/s for $1,497 and 600 GH/s for $2,196.

Unlucky customers who were still waiting for Single and MiniRig ordered a year ago were offered to convert their orders to Monarchs with an additional payment and wait another N*"just two weeks". There are already few such people. In March 2014, deliveries of Monarchs did begin, but in very limited quantities. Butterfly Labs no longer had the funds for mass production.

The company faced several lawsuits from customers for delays and refusal of returns, and at the end of 2014 it was closed for several months by the FTC - the US Federal Trade Commission. But in January 2015, she even issued a certain amount of compensation.

The future prospects of Butterfly Labs did not inspire optimism - the trust of the community was completely lost, except for small improvements to the Monarch, there were no new developments. BitSafe has not left the testing stage. Soon, the “grandmother” of cryptocurrency mining quietly died.

But the mining story doesn't end there. To be continued…

How to start mining cryptocurrency? This question will be of interest to beginners who have decided to start mining bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies from scratch. After reading the article, those who want to earn extra income will learn how to start mining with a minimum of investment at home.

When choosing coins, the algorithm of the system is important. SHA-256, on which Bitcoin and its analogues are based, has attracted the attention of ASIC farm owners. It will not be profitable to mine such currencies on your home PC. The Scrypt algorithm has increased RAM requirements. Therefore, integrated circuit designers do not design ASICs for it. Therefore, this niche is in demand by owners of farms based on PCs and video cards.

To accurately calculate the profitability of coins on existing equipment, you should use mining calculators, of which there are quite a few on the network.

When a coin is selected, you need to register a wallet (if one has not already been created).

Pool selection

A pool is a resource that unites miners. It provides joint calculation of hashes and distributes rewards depending on the computing power expended by the participant. When choosing a pool, you need to pay attention to the size of the commission for withdrawing funds and the ability to monitor work and view statistics.

To work in the pool, you need to register and receive a login and password used in the connection settings of the miner program. When making money on several computers, you can register one login, then the results will be summed up. But it is better to make a separate account for each machine. This will make it easier to analyze statistics for each device and promptly detect a problem if one occurs.

Miner's choice

The specific miner program and instructions for its installation and configuration can be found directly on the pool website. They are usually located in the “Get started” section.

Launching and setting up the miner

This procedure varies depending on the operating system and the specific software. For example, CGMiner, developed for Linux, does not even have a GUI. It is launched from the command line, where in addition to the executable file you need to enter the pool address, login and password.

More advanced programs have a graphical interface and a special settings window for working with the pool.

It is optimal if the pool supports the standard Stratum protocol. This significantly expands the choice of miner programs.

If, in addition to the video card, you want to use the capabilities of the processor, you need to launch another miner with the appropriate settings. This won’t bring you a lot of money, but you shouldn’t give up additional earning opportunities either.

Withdrawal to your own wallet

To withdraw, you need to download cryptocurrencies from the website and install the wallet application. The key generated by the program is the only way to get to your coins. Therefore, you need to protect it from intruders and under no circumstances lose it. It is impossible to recover the key and its loss means the loss of all funds in the wallet.

Some pools allow payments not to a wallet, but directly to the account of a cryptocurrency exchange. Then you will have to register there first and register the address for payments in your pool account.

How to start mining

Now that you know how to mine cryptocurrency on a PC, you can put your acquired knowledge into practice. If you are installing equipment in your own apartment, it is advisable to invest in upgrading the cooling system. Otherwise, the constant noise of running fans can cause serious discomfort. Ideally, it is worth installing a water cooling system. However, given its cost, not many people do this. Usually it is enough to replace standard fans with high-quality, low-noise ones.

Make sure you have an uninterrupted Internet connection. Any network failures mean lost profits. Therefore, you should not try to save money by installing a cheap router that will freeze periodically. It is better to ensure that the system works reliably and does not require intervention in the process.

In case of power failures, it is worth setting up the PC to automatically turn on, and register the miner program in startup.

When you have everything you need to start mining, all you have to do is turn on your PC, launch the configured miner and click the “Start” button. From this moment on, your wallet or account on the exchange will begin to be replenished as the computer works in the pool.

How to start mining cryptocurrency

You can mine cryptocurrency not only by mining on your home computer. Especially if you want to mine bitcoins.

If you don’t have a suitable PC with a powerful video card at home, you can start mining with virtually no investment using the cloud mining service. The owners of such services rent out their equipment for cryptocurrency mining. Those who wish can invest money in renting computing power and receive bitcoins mined with their help. To do this, there is no need to take a training course on cryptocurrency mining or buy expensive hardware. It is enough to register on the service, top up your account and receive income corresponding to your contribution. The more power you buy on the service, the higher the income received from mining will be. In the event of unforeseen circumstances, for example, a fall in the rate of cryptocurrency against the dollar, you can simply stop paying rent. This makes mining possible without large investments and risk.

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