The name “mining” itself is rooted in the English word mining, which means mining of natural resources or natural resources. Therefore, often miners are also called miners. After the birth of the first digital virtual money - cryptocurrencies - the term "mining" began to be used in the context of the so-called blockchain.
Miners are, in fact, private owners of nodes, points or addresses, engaged in mining. Sometimes this is also called the equipment itself, which produces coins. The more such nodes in the system, the better it is protected from overloads and failures.
The nature of mining and the main points of crypto mining
Each new generated block of information obtained as a result of the activity of miners is assigned a unique signature obtained from the previous block. So all the calculated mathematical data are combined into interconnected links, as a result of which a single chain is formed. That branch, which received the support of the largest number of miners, goes through confirmation as a result. Thus, the entire system is automatically adjusted.
The procedure for searching for a digital signature of each block is the essence of mining itself. The one among the miners who contributed to the decryption of the signature of the last block receives a reward in the form of a certain amount of virtual tokens, which can later be withdrawn to a wallet and exchanged for real money. A block that carries information about all operations (transactions) in the network that occurred after the generation of the block preceding it, and is considered the last in the Bitcoin environment. On average, this is about the last 10-15 minutes.
Which mining method to choose
Depending on the computing equipment available to the miner, the most acceptable mining method is selected. So, it can be mining on a PC, on farms from video cards, or on ASIC (ASIC). It is undoubtedly considered that ASIC mining is the most effective, since ASICs are microprocessor equipment specially developed for cryptocurrency mining. It can no longer be used for any purpose. However, this is the most expensive equipment.
A farm from video cards, in principle, has many similarities with a conventional computer:
- Processor - if production is carried out using the Scrypt algorithm, then a powerful processor is not needed, a budget option is enough.
- The motherboard - it needs to be selected based on the number of proposed video cards - the number of PCI slots should be enough for all cards.
- Hard disk - it is not critical, but is needed only to install operating systems and electronic wallets.
- RAM - enough from 4 gigabytes.
- Power supply - the work of the entire future farm is tied to it, it needs a reserve of at least 200 watts. In addition, when choosing a unit, other components of the working complex consuming electricity should be taken into account.
- Video cards are the main part of the farm, it is it that performs all the mathematical calculations during mining and, accordingly, you need to purchase a video card as powerful as possible.
- The cooling system - it is better to mount it on a water basis, since then the problem with noise will disappear, although it is sometimes difficult to organize physically. In addition, the farm components should not be installed closer than eight centimeters to each other, for better cooling.
Before starting a mining farm or before acquiring ASIC devices, it makes sense to calculate future profits and make sure that the crypto mining venture does not result in losses. To do this, take into account indicators such as the amount of electricity consumed by the equipment, calculate the cost of all components, calculate the approximate daily income from mining, and then, putting everything together, to understand whether it makes sense to start.
To facilitate such calculations, there are many services in the form of online calculators, where, by entering data on computing equipment and the cost of one kilowatt of electricity, you can get the size of the estimated profit.
Mining on video cards
CGMiner is designed primarily for mining on GPUs from AMD. He does not know how to work under the CUDA algorithm. Therefore, for users using video cards from NVIDIA, setting up CGMiner is not of interest. They will have to turn to other similar programs.
In addition to overclocking the card and speeding up the coolers, this application:
- has the ability to work through a proxy,
- able to use balancing algorithms,
- without user intervention, detaches corrupted workers,
- allows you to make flexible settings CGminer,
- provides ample opportunity for diagnosis,
- allows the operator to choose the waiting time for the next connection,
- the size of vectors can be chosen independently,
- Artificial delay can be enabled for routers.
Features of the CGMiner program
CGMiner is a mining program that is considered one of the best among cryptocurrency miners using video cards. The application interface simplifies the process of mining various cryptocurrencies. Among the positive aspects of CGMiner is the possibility of changing a large number of subtle settings for pools, overclocking of the graphics card is supported, the chance to get a much higher hashrate relative to other similar programs.
The software runs on a special protocol NeoScrypt, which favors the increase in foreign currency production. Along with the undeniable advantages, the program has some disadvantages. The main one is the lack of a graphical shell, which makes working with CGMiner difficult for beginners, since CGminer settings must be entered into the configuration files manually.
Where to start mining
Before mining, you should download the CGMiner program for crypto mining. This is easier to do on the Bitcointalk website. Besides the fact that you can always find the latest version of the application on this web resource, you can also take part in the discussion of the program and ask questions of interest there.
Then the most suitable pool for mining coins is selected. On it you need to do the following:
- Register now.
- Create a wroker — in your personal account, identify your miner (computer) by giving it any convenient name. With the help of the worker, you can subsequently observe the statistics and see what rewards you can count on and when approximately this can happen.
- Unzip the downloaded miner program into a folder and create a file "* .bat" inside it - all CGminer settings necessary for work will be registered in it.
- After starting the file "* .bat" - a console window will open - mining will begin.
A few hours after the start of crypto mining, the first results will be visible in the account on the pool. Thus, the process of starting mining is not difficult even for beginners.
Basic console commands
In the console program, control is performed by writing special commands in its window. In order not to enter your data again after each start of the program, it is easier to write the CGminer settings to a separate file. This is done in a regular notepad or any other graphical editor.
Some commonly used commands:
- 0 - here you should enter the site address of the pool selected for mining,
- cgminer - here the detailed path to the executable file for launching the program is indicated, that is, the exact location of its location on the personal computer,
- scrypt is a mining protocol
- px is the password generated for the worker on the pool,
- u user.1 is the login (license number) on the pool and the name of the worker created by the user.
The main parameter that affects the efficiency of mining, in addition to setting CGminer, is Intensity - it can be from 1 to 20 and shows the set intensity. You should not set the value too high, because then the memory may simply end. But it is also impossible not to specify it at all, because in this case the system will begin to configure it itself, and this may not coincide with the desire of the user or the capabilities of the computer.
The Thread-concurrency command is responsible for achieving the optimal calculation. Initially, the highest possible value. But there is a rule - this figure must have a multiplicity of the number of shaders - video cards. Usually the best number is found empirically.
Mining on Eobot
The fairly well-known cloud mining service Eobot gives rise to the desire for many to “swing” the available GHS capacities as quickly as possible. The site offers for this purpose, in addition to financial investments, also the possibility of mining in its pool. At first glance, everything seems to be all right, but upon closer inspection it becomes clear that without special equipment, using a computer processor or video card, it is unlikely to make much money on this. Even the flexible settings of CGMiner will not help in this situation.
The Eobot service pool is designed more for the use of ASIC devices. After installing the program and starting mining, the Eobot pool “eats up” or leaves most of the facilities supposedly provided to the user. And this is neither more nor less, but about 90% of the GHS.
The mining speed in any case will be several tens of times lower than when mining on any other pool. If there is a desire to try, first you need to download for Eobot CGMiner, configure it by creating a batch file, and start the process.
In the file "* .bat" - "batch file" - for each algorithm used, you should register your data.
- for the SHA-256 algorithm:
cgminer -o stratum + tcp: //sha.eobot.com: 3333 --userpass eobot.220131: x.
- for the Scrypt algorithm:
cgminer --scrypt -o stratum + tcp: //scrypt.eobot.com: 4444 --userpass eobot.220131: x.
When working on the Eobot pool, it should be remembered that for each CGMiner algorithm used, the * .bat file is configured separately.
After starting the file, a console window will open in which the mining process is reflected. It is displayed with about a 10-minute lag, so in order to see the first results, you have to wait.
On the Eobot service, it is much more effective to achieve the desired result if you do not mine directly on its pool, but mine coins on another, with a good mining speed, and then transfer “mined” to Eobot. So power can be increased much faster.
Multipool mining pool
One of the oldest and rightfully considered reliable pools is the multipool.us service. This is a multifork pool with the ability to mine more than 20 different virtual coins. It is also convenient that the service provides such an opportunity as auto-determination of the most profitable currency for mining at the moment.
Multipool uses three hashing algorithms, each of which is involved in mining a particular cryptocurrency.
- DOGE, TIPS, AUR, DGC, ANC and others are mined using the SCRYPT algorithm.
- Bitcoin Classic, BTC, UNO, Peercoin, ZET - based on the SHA-256 algorithm.
- KARM, Dash, URO - on the X11 algorithm.
This list is not exhaustive; there are many other currencies for mining on the pool. But the most beneficial advantage is the Merged Mined Currencies feature provided by the pool - the ability to mine different tokens without losing power.
For mining on multipool.us, the CGMiner setting is similar, all data is available on the pool site.
In 2017, Multipool lost many miners due to technical problems observed on the site. Technical support announced its intention to restore the serviceability of the service as soon as possible. It’s worth paying attention to this resource and, despite the English-language interface, it’s quite easy to figure it out.
The interface is English-speaking, but quite simple. If you couldn’t figure it out, it’s easy to find information on numerous forums and in video reviews.