Creation of a bitcoin farm. Comparison of types of mining

Even those who do not have access to the Internet know about the digital cryptocurrency - bitcoin. The rapid stable growth of this asset has made it an attractive investment tool. Bitcoin farm is the most efficient and safest way to make money on cryptocurrency. This is a specialized hardware and software complex that allows you to earn (mine) bitcoins.

With the growth of the cryptocurrency exchange rate, the complexity of its production and the demand for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), which are highly efficient in bitcoin mining, are growing. If at the dawn of the popularity of bitcoin it could be mined using a central processor or a video card, today farms work only on ASICs. This allows you to minimize the cost of both equipment and electricity. The last factor has a great influence on the profitability (profitability) of mining.

Let's figure out together whether it is profitable to invest in mining and what is needed for the farm.

What is a bitcoin farm in simple terms

The term "bitcoin farm" was first used by American miners, who began to jokingly call computers with rows of video cards connected to them for bitcoin mining. As a result, the designation has taken root all over the world as a designation of a complex of computing equipment connected to the Internet and involved in earning digital cryptocurrency.

The principle of operation of the bitcoin farm is based on the features of the algorithm of the system. To protect the registry with transaction records (blockchain) from hacking, computed keys (hashes) are used that take into account previous transactions, time, and other parameters. The calculations are complex and require high computer performance. The servers on which the blockchain is stored are not able to cope with the calculations. Therefore, system participants are involved for this. For calculating hashes, they receive emitted bitcoins. Today their number is 12.5 coins per hash. In the future, it will be gradually reduced by half. At the same time, the complexity of computing is growing and bitcoin mining farms require devices with ever higher hashrate to “grow” coins.

There is no clear answer to the question of how much a bitcoin farm costs. The minimum price is equal to the price of a simple ASIC - about $500. The maximum depends only on investment opportunities. Large farms consist of hundreds of devices and cost several hundred thousand dollars.

How does a bitcoin farm work and function?

The task of a bitcoin farm is to calculate (guess) new hashes for signing data in the blockchain. The algorithm works in such a way that of all the participants in the calculations, only the one who guesses the number first receives a reward. Therefore, ASICs work 24/7, which gives more chances for success. In addition, miners are combined into pools that optimize the production of cryptocoins. The pool members jointly select a hash based on distributed computing. As soon as the pool receives a reward, all participants, regardless of whose ASIC guessed the password, receive their share corresponding to the computing power spent.

The more power of the video card or ASIC processors, the more money the farm receives for mining bitcoins. It looks like this: a lot of devices connected to the Internet and power supplies are constantly working, doing hash calculations. Given that the power of one ASIC often exceeds a kilowatt, the cooling efficiency of the room is of great importance. If you put a large farm in an apartment, you will have to solve related problems: provide air conditioning and electricity. One device consumes about as much as an iron or kettle. Such power is quite acceptable in a residential area. If you try to install a lot of devices, the wiring may simply not withstand.

Therefore, large farms operate in separate specialized premises with their own power supply system.

How to make a farm for mining BTC with your own hands

Before you create a farm yourself, you should decide on your own investment opportunities and willingness to take risks. Currently, there are two types of farms for earning cryptocurrencies:

For Bitcoin mining, it is preferable to use only ASIC. However, there are other cryptocurrencies, so you can make good money on both types of farms.

Therefore, instructions on how will be useful not only in the extraction of bitcoins.

A home farm on video cards includes a system unit with video cards connected to it. To improve cooling, they are taken out of the unit and connected to the motherboard with special cables. So, to create your own GPU farm, you need to:

• Purchase PC components, including a motherboard with multiple PCI-E slots, RAM, processor, cooler, hard drive, and power supply;
• buy several powerful video cards (preferably at least four) with high-quality cooling;
• purchase power supplies for video cards, based on power consumption of at least 300 watts per unit;
• make a frame of wooden bars or metal corners for mounting video cards;
• attach a plywood bottom to the frame;
• attach the motherboard and HDD to the bottom so that there is a gap between them and the plywood for ventilation;
• install and connect the power button;
• connect the components (motherboard and hard drive) with cables;
• fix on the frame of the video card and connect to the PCI-E ports using extension cables.

The assembly process of the farm is completed. For initial setup, you need to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor. This will install the OS, necessary drivers and software. The miner program must be set to autoload, in which case the farm will start working immediately after being turned on and will not require manual start.

Creating a farm on ASIC does not require much effort. It is enough to buy the required number of integrated computing circuits, their corresponding power supplies and connect them.

A mining farm requires a reliable internet connection. Any failures in the network connection are serious financial losses. Therefore, when buying equipment, you should not save on a router.

Installation and setup

Before setting up the farm, there are two things you need to do:

• create a bitcoin wallet on a cryptocurrency website;
• register an account on the mining pool.

A feature of a bitcoin wallet is a unique key that is generated after running the program on a PC. If the key is lost, access to the contents of the wallet will be impossible. Therefore, you need to take care of its safety by making backup copies of the file. However, storing it on your own computer is also not safe - if the key is stolen using Trojans or other hacking methods, the attackers will be able to transfer the coins to themselves.

A home mining farm cannot work independently without participation in the pool. Its power is not enough to calculate the hash before other users of the system do it. Therefore, obtaining a login and password to work in a mining pool is a mandatory step before you start earning bitcoins.

Before setting up the miner, you need to ensure a reliable Internet connection and make sure that the equipment is working.

Beginning farmers will benefit from step-by-step instructions for setting up programs and equipment:

• run the miner on the GPU farm or open the ASIC web interface;
• in the pool settings, enter the login and password received in the personal account;
• save settings (ASIC will reboot in this case);
• to start mining on a PC, press the "start" button in the program (ASIC starts automatically after being turned on).

Do not forget to control the work of the farm. For ASICs, control is carried out through a web interface. To monitor the GPU farm, you can use Remote Desktop or programs like TeamViewer that allow you to remotely connect to a PC.

The use of powerful cooling systems is a prerequisite for the operation of the farm. In the event of problems with the operation of coolers or insufficient ventilation of the room, electronic components may fail due to overheating. To prevent this, you need to configure the ASIC or PC auto-shutdown in the software settings.

How much does a bitcoin farm bring

The cost of a bitcoin farm depends on the performance of the equipment. It is not economically feasible to use a GPU for bitcoin mining. There are other cryptocurrencies whose mining algorithms require a large amount of RAM. In this case, to earn money, you need to use a PC with video cards, and not integrated circuits. Speed ​​is important for calculating bitcoin hashes, so you can only make a profit using ASICs.

Farm payback is best calculated using online mining calculators. These resources allow you to quickly estimate the profitability based on the ASIC hashrate and power consumption, as well as the current bitcoin exchange rate. Given that the price of bitcoin is constantly growing. Some calculators allow these changes to be included in the calculation.

A standard resource for calculation requires the input of a hashrate, device power and the price of a kilowatt-hour of electricity. As a result, with one click of a button, you can calculate how many bitcoins a farm earns per month with specific parameters. Here you can see how many dollars a month you can get at the current rate and how much money you have to pay for electricity.
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Typically, ASIC payback does not exceed 6 months. It will take so much for the device to generate income equal to its cost and the amount of electricity costs.

For example, Antmainer S9 at a cost of less than $2000 brings about $15 in profit daily. under such conditions, it will pay off in less than 133 days. Less productive devices bring less income, but also cost less. Profitability decreases when buying a device from outbids.

When choosing a device, you should pay attention to its energy efficiency. Electricity costs "eat up" a significant share of the income from the production of cryptocoins, so ASICs with a poor ratio of performance to power consumption are already operating on the verge of breakeven today. A further increase in the complexity of mining will make their use unprofitable.

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In this article, I will cover topics such as:

• The principle of operation of a cryptocurrency farm in the blockchain network.
• Mining equipment.
• Cryptocurrency mining farms 2018 profitability (payback).

You can read more about the principle of Bitcoin mining, about the risks and methods in this article.

Updated article, see below.

Mining farm for cryptocurrency mining. Blockchain. Hashrate. Pools.

A farm is a collection of devices that are connected to a network. blockchain for information processing, in order to receive digital coins - income. A blockchain network is a chain of transaction blocks built according to certain rules from the generated blocks. Roughly speaking, this is a distributed database. The very first such network is used in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

Block of transactions - grouped transactions in the network system. Such blocks and try to find (process) the miners. The extraction of a block is a kind of roulette, it can take several minutes or several days to search for it.

For found blocks, miners are rewarded with cryptocurrency. Why such a spread? - you ask. Because there are several factors that affect the speed of finding a block:

• The power of your equipment - the larger it is, the greater the likelihood of finding a block in a short period of time.
• Network complexity - from how old any blockchain network is, its complexity (the number of miners and their power) is growing, from this the reward for the found block may decrease or it will become more and more difficult to find it.

You can mine cryptocurrency both alone - SOLO, and together with someone on mining pools. A pool is a network to which individual miners connect their farms in order to mine a block in the blockchain network with their total power, and the reward is divided among all, of course, not equally, depending on the share of power in the pool. So it is easier to mine cryptocurrency when you are a beginner in this business, and have not yet accumulated enough equipment to increase the hash rate. Hashrate is the mining speed. Solo mining is for those who have enough power to mine blocks, relying only on themselves. The benefit can be checked as follows: mine one week on the pool, the other week - solo. I repeat once again that SOLO mining is like roulette, but even with small capacities, many manage to overtake people who mine on pools with more power. This already applies to luck - a happy coincidence. The more successful you are in mining, the higher the profitability indicators.

Mining equipment. Bitcoin and Altcoins.

Today, there are a lot of different cryptocurrencies, each running on its own blockchain network, which uses a specific data processing algorithm. For some, the complexity of the network is still very small, for others, like BITCOIN , LiteCoin or more. Although the latter is not yet so high. Due to a certain algorithm, the extraction of a particular cryptocurrency occurs in different ways.

Bitcoin is currently mined with the help of ASICs, it used to be mined on both processors and video cards. With the increasing complexity of the blockchain network, Bitcoin mining on processors and video cards has become simply unprofitable. Energy consumption grew, and there were almost no blocks of information, due to the low hash rate by those standards. Now more than one generation of asics has already changed, differing in power and price, respectively. Now you can invest in mining purely Bitcoins if you have a large initial capital, because ASICs are expensive, the payback period is about a year, if the ASIC is up-to-date and powerful. But what to do with it if a new one comes out, which will be more powerful and less energy-intensive, in relation to its production rate? Sell? If only there is a fool. The Chinese, who have succeeded in Bitcoin mining, are constantly updating their equipment on farms, and their farms are huge ventilated hangars, with enormous power consumption, hashrate and, accordingly, revenue.

So if you can’t afford to immediately start mining bitcoin on such a scale, the only way out and the most common among all novice miners, and even seasoned in the business of “digging” cryptocurrency is to mine Altcoins.

Altcoins- these are relatively young cryptocurrencies that work in their blockchains, the essence of which is: to develop new information technologies (like Ethereum - smart contracts) and, of course, it is less costly to receive bitcoin by exchanging easily mined alternative cryptocurrencies.

Modern mining is based on this principle. It is easier to buy several video cards, collect farms from them and mine a young cryptocurrency that is profitable than to spend money on a powerful ASIC. After all, if one of the video cards breaks down, you can return it to the store under warranty or replace it with a new one. And the price tag is very nice. Moreover, if some cryptocurrency falls in price or its network complexity rises, and its mining becomes unprofitable for exchange for bitcoin, then you can always switch to mining another cryptocurrency that has become profitable.

How to increase mining income and properly distribute reinvestment, read this article.

Is it profitable to mine in 2018.

It is always profitable to mine. Cryptocurrency is coming to the masses. A research center was built in Skolkovo near Moscow and a national blockchain network was launched. The largest corporations in the world have become interested in many block chain technologies. In mining, you don’t need to rack your brains like in business - there is no such thing as supply and demand, only profit and an approximate payback period. And the Bitcoin exchange rate is already approaching $ 3,000. In the summer of 2016, the cost of one Bitcoin was equal to $450.

So feel free to buy equipment, change the wiring and start mining cryptocurrency. How to build a mining farm in 2017

If it is not possible to maintain a mining farm, then read.

Due to the disappearance of video cards from the market, cloud mining services are now gaining popularity. The most reliable of them is Hashing24. They will not burst like bubbles of HYIP projects that work for several months, collect the required amount of money, and collapse, and we lose this money. During the year, I invested about 10,000 rubles in the two cloud mining services that I mentioned above, in one and the other, and now it comes out to 18,000 per year according to the calculator. It turns out that the services do not cheat on the account of 180% per annum, and a good bonus from the referral system also pleased.

If you decide to start investing in mining now, when you can get horseradish video cards, and if you get it, then at hellish prices, the easiest and most effective way to benefit from investing in cryptocurrency mining is cloud mining. Agree, buying video cards at an exorbitant price is stupid. Of course, if you have extra money, and you can afford to buy rx570 or rx580 in the amount of 20 pieces for 30,000 rubles, then this is very good, but do not forget that the payback period for this equipment will be longer, not only because of the price, but also due to the difficulty of mining ETH and Zcash.

Those people who started mining even half a year ago, with tasty prices for video cards, with a relatively low complexity of the Ethereum network, without draining the cryptocurrency, have won. Now Ethereum is many times more expensive than half a year ago (December 2016 - July 2017), the complexity of the network has risen very much, that is, the profitability has fallen sharply, making it very difficult to enter mining on video cards. In May 2017, my personal ROI was 2.6. If we recalculate the profitability at current prices for video cards, then the figure will be 3 times less.

So, I advise beginners to start their journey with proven cloud mining services, and then wait for the good times when video cards appear at reasonable prices.

The rate of Bitcoin and Ethereum has jumped, check out several articles: Business plan for mining, how cryptocurrency works (how best to mine, on ASICs or video cards).

A mining farm in 2018 is an upgrade of a conventional computer with connected equipment, thanks to which the computed power is returned in favor of cryptocurrency mining.

Cryptocurrency, in particular, aroused high interest among users. Many users are looking for information on independent bitcoin mining (mining), and whether it is possible to create a farm for mining at home.

An installation for mining bitcoin coins can be assembled even by an inexperienced PC user. All microcircuits and components are created according to a modular algorithm, detailed instructions for use and connection are also attached to them, so there will be no connection problems.

Operating principle

All calculation is done with the help of a powerful video card. The main problem of mining is the constant overheating of the computer, and especially video cards, some can operate at temperatures above 100 Cº.

The process of mining cryptocurrency must be continuous, that is, the computer is constantly on, and the calculation process requires a lot of power.

In order for the working modules not to melt and catch fire, it is necessary to make high-quality cooling. To reduce the stagnation of hot air between video cards, you have to install additional coolers.

Good cooling of the truss will increase its service life and efficiency. Semiconductors on memory boards quickly degrade without cooling. Otherwise, the farm can turn into a pile of chips and wires.

How to build and run a mining farm (video instruction)

A cryptocurrency mining farm is an advanced computer with a central processor, RAM, a hard drive and coolers on racks and inside the system unit, plus a frame with video cards and other mining peripherals placed on it.

Purchase of equipment and components

Assembling the frame (rack) for video cards and the farm itself

First you need to assemble a frame for the farm according to the drawing - a rack for a video card.

Cooling coolers are mounted on all sides of the installation.

Setting up equipment and programs, preparing for mining

The primary problem of mining is the high cost of electricity.

How much electricity does a mining farm consume

Running graphics cards consume a lot of electricity. Keep in mind that you will have to pay gigantic electricity bills.

The minimum energy consumption in the weakest farms is at least 50 watts per hour. The most advanced farms consume about 100 watts per hour, with six video cards running, 600 watts per hour are spent!

In addition, the remaining components of the computer consume energy, approximately 400 watts per hour. 24 kilowatts of electricity are consumed per day.

Farm of ASIC controllers

This is a simple replacement for video cards, it is a mechanism created solely for the purpose of mining cryptocurrency. So doing a do-it-yourself installation for mining using video cards is a bygone day.

It's easier to buy ready-made, computing power, which is three times higher than in a similar installation created on the basis of video cards.

Building farms based on controllers is much easier than those based on summed video cards. But nevertheless, the cost of a powerful high-quality farm costs about one and a half thousand dollars, and sometimes more, for this reason, not everyone can afford such a luxury, and given the very vague prospects for the bitcoin rate in the future, it is unreasonable to make such expenses.

For this reason, most miners still use homemade farms on video cards.

What does the ASIC of a microcircuit (Miner) look like for calculating hash sums - mining.

What is better mining farm from video cards or ASIC controllers

Below is a comparison of the performance of a farm based on video cards and a farm based on controllers (miner) using the example of the Radeon RX 550 and Antminer S9 - the most relevant solutions:

Farm for 6 video cards, power supply: electricity consumption - 0.5 kilowatts per hour (without a computer), Calculation power - 210 Mhash / s., Cost - $ 900.

Miner: electricity consumption - 1.5 kilowatts per hour (without a system unit), calculation power - 13000-14000 Mhash / s., Cost - $ 1900.

So the savings with the purchase of an expensive farm, operating on the basis of special controllers, is comparable to "savings on matches."

As a result, Miner has 70 times more processing power than a farm on video cards. Therefore, the payback and profitability of such a farm is much higher.

To date, the most profitable ASIC controller for Bitcoin mining, in terms of price-quality-payback ratio, is .

Farm for mining relevance and payback in 2018

An unsolvable dilemma arose before bitcoin miners, whether it makes sense to invest in the purchase of “hardware” for mining cryptocurrency or purchase it on the exchange. Huge financial companies use equipment for mining BTC.

Increasing the labor intensity of the mining process contributes to a decrease in the efficiency of iron. The profitability of mining is the amount of received bitcoins for a certain time, minus the costs of operation and acquisition, adding the cost of iron, at which it can be sold after it stops mining cryptocurrency.

All these parameters determine the market value of a cryptocurrency unit, but the main factor is the current USD/BTC rate.

The dynamics in its change will sharply affect the profitability of an enterprise for growing crypto coins. With an increase in the USD / BTC rate, the profitability of production increases, and when it falls, it decreases.

The payback of cryptocurrency mining with large financial investments is practically non-existent. Even a homemade farm for 6 video cards will not bring much income due to poor forecasts for 2017-2018.

In principle, you can slowly grow bitcoin coins on your computer, but the profit in comparison with investments will be much lower.

Today, the DASH (Darcoin) cryptocurrency is more promising. She has positive growth trends, and the higher her rate grows, the faster the miner will be able to recoup their investments and make a profit.

Bitcoin price 2018

In order to realistically assess whether it is worth starting mining and building a farm, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the change at the current time and over the years.

In a situation where the word "Bitcoin" now and then flashes on the pages of Internet publications and is increasingly heard from the TV screen, even small children know what it means. This is a cryptocurrency that requires a mining farm to earn money - an open frame on which computer hardware is installed. Very often, the main part of such a miner is a block of several video cards, with the help of which mining is performed.

What is a mining farm

Structurally, a mining farm is a computer designed to solve certain computational problems. A powerful processor and a capacious hard drive are not required here, the emphasis is on a large number of powerful video cards (there can be up to 6 pieces) and several power supplies that provide the system with the necessary energy. Good computing power of a home farm allows you to start mining cryptocurrency, and in essence represent an alternative (or even main) form of income with a quick payback period.

How does it work

From a software point of view, a mining farm is nothing more than a computing device in a distributed database using algorithms and programs. The essence of the mining process is to track and process new blocks of transactions in a specialized blockchain network - this is exactly what is called “mining”. Each discovered block will be profitable, eventually giving the opportunity to earn bitcoins or other cryptocurrency. The search for one block takes different times - from several minutes to several days, and this is influenced by two main factors:

• Equipment performance. The more powerful your mining farm, the faster your cryptocurrency mining speed will be.
• Network complexity. The more miners ensure the activity of the blockchain, the lower the cost of the found block will be and the more difficult it is to search for it. Having gone through an extraordinary boom in popularity at the turn of the 2010s, the mining industry attracted many ordinary users who, attracted by the simplicity of making money, began to purchase equipment in huge quantities.

Payback

The power of the computer plays a leading role in generating cryptocurrency, so only owners of very productive equipment, for which you need to pay with real money, will be able to get good earnings in digital currencies. Computer firms produce ready-made versions, but it is not necessary to pay a high price: with a minimum of knowledge and skills, you can assemble equipment for bitcoin mining with your own hands.

However, the main obstacle to profitability is not the expensive components for mining cryptocurrency, but the high costs of operating the equipment. The graphics card unit of a mining farm consumes a lot of energy, so electricity bills will be astronomically large, and with these costs, projects pay off much more slowly.

Types of mining farms for cryptocurrency mining

Currently existing mining farms for the extraction of cryptocurrency can be divided into three types:

1. Based on graphics processing units (GPUs). At the first steps in the formation of the Bitcoin system, AMD video cards combined into blocks of several pieces made it possible to achieve an excellent mining result. Today, large GPU farms are no longer as efficient due to high energy costs and fast depreciation, but they may well be suitable for a beginner.
2. Using FPGA modules. Such logic arrays are not inferior to GPUs in mining performance, but they do not require a powerful cooling system, which makes them more reliable and compact.
3. Based on ASIC processors, which are designed specifically for bitcoin mining. To date, such computer systems are considered the best devices, making it possible to achieve a 25-fold increase in speed, but at the same time, such equipment will cost much more.

Bitcoin farm

The ability to profitably mine bitcoins led to a rapid increase in the number of mining farms and an unprecedented expansion of the blockchain network, so the emergence of the second generation of cryptocurrencies was a predictable process. Today, there are many options available to miners for mining - from the increasingly popular Ethereum cryptocurrency to Ark and Xaurum, which are not known to many.

The equipment used also imposes its own restrictions on production. If a mining farm based on a block of video cards can easily switch to mining another cryptocurrency, then FPGA modules will already require manual reprogramming, and ASIC chips are initially configured for only one option. Under such conditions, calculating the optimal configuration of farms for mining becomes a difficult task for the owner, who seeks to make a profitable investment in mining.

Ethereum mining

Although in half a year since the beginning of 2019, the bitcoin rate has grown by 160% and reached $ 3,000 in June, there are other examples in the cryptocurrency market that show steady growth. Ethereum can be attributed to their number - since the beginning of the year, the ether exchange rate has increased by 4485%, amounting to $ 375.5. The advantage of the new cryptocurrency was appreciated not only by miners, but also by large companies with a worldwide reputation. In February 2019, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance was created, a non-profit block that includes such monsters as Microsoft and Intel, which makes the position of this cryptocurrency even more stable.

Cryptocurrency farm for mining altcoins

Given the great popularity of bitcoin and the increasing complexity of mining, in recent years, alternative cryptocurrencies (they are also called altcoins) are increasingly being created, and their mining is recommended to novice miners. In the first steps, you need to get a small farm based on GPU or FPGA modules in order to independently try out how Litecoin or Monero is mined and understand how to make a profit in this business.

Buy a farm for mining

If you decide to stay on ready-made equipment, then the Internet will offer you many options for assembling farms for mining cryptocurrencies. The price range is in the range of 96,000 - 240,000 rubles, depending on the type of construction and power (prices here and below are as of July 2017). At the same time, assembly according to individual parameters is possible, which can reduce the price of the finished block for sale.

Equipment power

The more powerful block you have, the higher the performance of the mining farm. There are a few simple rules that you need to consider if you like a mining farm in the store:

1. The advantage of a ready-made farm is that all the work of selecting the necessary components for the block has already been done for you - you get a turnkey solution that just needs to be plugged into the outlet and start mining.
2. Be sure to include in your budget the cost of bitcoin mining, and electricity fees. Even not the most powerful farm on ASIC-panels consumes more than 20 kilowatt-hours per day. There are devices with much higher consumption, the seller will tell you the exact figure for the purchased unit.
3. You should not get hung up only on indicators of computing power (hash rate), but evaluate the system comprehensively. The high performance of the block implies an increased price and greater risks that the owner bears with such an investment in cryptocurrency mining.

The complexity of the blockchain network

Given the rapidly increasing complexity of the blockchain network, here are some tips for the novice user:

1. Choose only modern equipment. No second-hand special devices, even at a very attractive price - at the current pace of work, wear rates will be very high.
2. Opt for more functionality. For example, by switching a video card, you can mine another cryptocurrency (or even find a use for the card that is not related to crypto mining), this is impossible for ASIC processors.
3. Never take out a loan to buy equipment, given the high risks of mining. The situation may change, and if today the generation of cryptocurrency provides a stable income, then tomorrow this money can hardly be enough to pay for electricity.

What determines the hashrate of a mining farm

One of the basic characteristics that determine the power of your mining farm is hashrate - the number of calculations performed per second. The higher this indicator, the more productive your mining farm will be. As of mid-2019, 600 kH/s is considered good for video cards, while there are the latest AMD 7990 series models using two cores, with speeds up to 1,500 kH/s.

Although the miner on ASIC processors significantly outperforms GPU models in terms of hashrate, having indicators of 14,000 kH / s, the high cost (from $ 2,500) can stretch the payback period of such a block for mining. In the face of sharp fluctuations in cryptocurrency rates and the rapidly increasing complexity of the blockchain network, this option is not suitable for all users.

How to build a mining farm

In many cases, building your own mining block will take precedence over buying a ready-made mining farm. Benefits include:

• lower costs, especially if you already have some of the parts;
• the possibility of more flexible selection of components;
• enjoyment of the assembly process.

Among the disadvantages:

• the time spent on searching for the necessary components and the lack of individual components (due to the great popularity of cryptomining, it can be difficult to buy powerful video cards);
• the need for at least minimal knowledge about the operation of the equipment, but this gap is easily filled with information on the Internet, which provides assembly diagrams and photos of crypto farms;
• no warranty or service.

Mining farm framework

If an ordinary home PC has a closed case to protect the “stuffing” from dust, then a mining farm has an open frame for easy cooling of the block. In fact, this is a rack of metal corners, adjusted to the dimensions of video cards or other mining farm equipment. It is not difficult to find such a frame for sale - they are made according to standard sizes (600x400x300 mm, 600x400x400 mm, 700x400x400 mm, etc.), which makes it possible to reliably install blocks on top of each other.

Video card selection

A maximum of 6 video cards can be connected to the motherboard, this indicator should be used when calculating how much computing power your farm has for mining. When choosing the necessary model, compare the ratio of power and energy consumption with each other - this will allow you to save both when buying and when operating a mining farm:

	Power, kH/s	Power consumption, W	price, rub.

Even without a calculator, you can see that at the same price, the 6990 video cards differ significantly from other cards in the 6900 series in terms of higher power with an insignificant difference in power consumption. Similarly, by analyzing these three indicators, you can find the best option to buy video cards for a mining farm.

Power supply for installation

Choosing a farm power supply is not as simple a process as it might seem at first glance. For a normal power supply for a mining farm for six video cards, even 1000 watts may not be enough. Additional power is required for other coin generation equipment, which is why you should always choose power with a margin of 150-200 watts. Equally important will be the presence on the farm block of the required number of PCI-E slots in order to be able to directly connect all video cards for mining.

Cooling and air circulation systems

Given the large heat generation, mining farms need additional cooling. This should be taken into account when installing video cards, between which there should be 8-10 cm of space for air circulation. The easiest option is to use floor fans and a special room with an extractor fan, especially if you have more than one mining farm.

Mining farm assembly

The configuration of the rest of the components of the mining farm will not be difficult: everything is the same as for a regular computer. You will need a hard drive, a motherboard with the ability to connect six video cards (for example, Biostar H81S2) and a RAM slot. The general assembly of your mining farm involves the installation of all components, and the connection of individual components into a single unit using cables and extension cords.

Launch of cryptocurrency mining

Setting up a farm involves installing special software with which you can interact with the crypto mining industry. The choice of a program depends not only on which cryptocurrency you are interested in, but also on the mining method, because it can be:

• Single (solo) - when the development of the block is carried out alone, and all the income goes to the owner of the mining farm, but this type of mining requires powerful equipment.
• Through special pools in the network, where many miners are engaged in mining and the income is divided in proportion to the contribution of each.

Is it profitable to mine cryptocurrency using farms

Before you buy or start collecting your first farm, rarely does anyone not wonder how this project provides a stable income. Progress in the field of mining solutions does not stand still, and if back in 2013-14. 6 months were enough to “go to zero” and start making profit, today such a period can be considered very lucky even for a large company with several dozen crypto farms.

Equipment and maintenance costs

If we summarize all of the above, we can come to the following approximate cost estimate for an entry-level crypto farm, where the payback period will directly depend on the chosen cryptocurrency and exchange rate fluctuations:

• the cost of equipment is 150,000 rubles.
• power - 600 kH / s.
• electricity - 2,100 rubles.

Profitability of leading cryptocurrencies

If you compile the top 5 most profitable cryptocurrencies at the end of June 2019, then it will look like this:

Cryptocurrency name	Capitalization, dollars	Coin price, dollars
	More than 40.5 billion

Profitability of farming

If we compare the income from one coin with the time it takes to mine it, then the position of the Ethereum cryptocurrency looks very tempting. At such a cost of a coin, equipment for which 150,000 rubles were spent will pay off in 11-12 months. This figure may seem attractive to an investor, but its disadvantage is that it provides a long-term forecast in the field of cryptocurrency trading, where the situation can change, literally, tomorrow.

For those who do not like to take big risks, but want to try their hand at a new business, instead of trying to create new mining farms, it makes sense to go into cloud mining. This technology harnesses the power of network storage without the need to purchase special equipment, and the minimum investment is only $1.

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The whole world is crazy about cryptocurrencies. And it all started with the triumphant march of bitcoins, the cost of which soared from $30 to $2,500 in 5 years. Cryptocurrency is not just a new monetary unit, but a whole philosophy. Its basis is the lack of control of the currency by the state.

Any person can produce cryptocurrency with the appropriate equipment. The complex for cryptocurrency mining has a name in the IT environment - cryptocurrency mining farms(Crypto Mining Farm). Today we will try to explain in simple terms the principle of its operation and the necessary components for assembling a farm.

What is a mining farm?

The term "mining" comes from the English word "mine" ("mine"). A mining farm is a platform for mining cryptocurrency. There is a well-known analogy: the farm owner, like an underground mine worker, extracts virtual money like minerals. A farm is a collection of powerful computers needed for computing.

How does a mining farm work?

The main function of the mining farm is the extraction of cryptocurrency. Virtual money is produced as a result of the most complex calculations. To do this, a set of computing equipment is connected to the blockchain network. Blockchain is a chain of blocks of transactions that are made according to certain rules.

As a result of data processing, miners receive new blocks. Time costs for receiving cryptocurrency can be different: from 1-2 minutes to several days.

What does it depend on? Let's take Bitcoin as an example. The volume of this cryptocurrency is limited. The more units mined, the more powerful the computing power must be to obtain new blocks.
Let's take a look at the step by step process:

1. Mining programs are installed on the PC.
2. Programs are synchronized with the cryptocurrency wallet.
3. PCs work in single mode around the clock.

Miners can work together to pool power. This is needed to increase performance. The extracted units are distributed in proportion to the invested capacities.

How to build a mining farm?

There are different ways to create a farm. The easiest for a beginner is mining with video cards. That is, the first step is to purchase a powerful video card and install it. The maximum number of video cards is 6 pieces. But that is not all. Productive devices are characterized by high heat dissipation.

It can reach 120 degrees Celsius. For this reason, proper cooling must be provided to prevent overheating. The way out is the installation of additional ventilation equipment, which allows to achieve a number of advantages:

• Overheat warning.
• Extending the life of your computer.
• Improved mining performance.

Ignoring the need for cooling leads to rapid deformation of the semiconductors on the boards. Miners are advised to install the video card on a rack and secure ventilation equipment around the perimeter.

IMPORTANT! The owner must be aware of the power consumption. Powerful equipment consumes large amounts of energy, resulting in large payments.

What to choose: self-assembly of the farm or its turnkey purchase?

Demand creates supply, and the demand for mining farms is now very high. Companies have appeared that offer to buy a turnkey complex of equipment for receiving cryptocurrency. What to choose?

Consider the benefits of a turnkey farm:

• Saving time. When assembling a farm, time will have to be spent not only on the purchase of equipment, but also on studying the fullness of information about its choice. Ignoring the need to study all the information will lead to the fact that the performance of the mining farm will be low.
• Technical support. For any questions, you can contact the consultants. A person who assembles on his own has only the help of forum participants at his disposal.
• High power guaranteed. People who have been assembling for a long time will help to maximize productivity.

This option is not without its downsides. There are many companies selling turnkey farms, but their reliability is in question. Consider the advantages of self-assembly:

• Relatively lower costs. A person does not have to pay for the services of third-party companies. The costs are only for the purchase of equipment.
• Acquisition of new experience. If a person wants to become a professional miner, he needs to know all the details of the assembly.
• Assembly according to your own wishes. You can independently assemble just such a farm that meets all the needs of the miner.

The disadvantages of independent work are obvious: spending a lot of time, the risk of low productivity.

What to choose? It all depends on the initial needs. If a person has a lot of time and a limited amount of funds, it is recommended to assemble it yourself. If there is no time at all, it is better to contact a specialized company.

What do you need to build a mining farm?

To assemble the farm, you will need the following equipment:

• Motherboard with multiple video card slots.
• Hard drive 60-160 gigabytes.
• Processor (average power allowed).
• RAM (4 GB is enough).
• Video cards at least 2 gigabytes.
• Power supply 750 W.
• Adapters (it is preferable to purchase devices with additional power).
• Button to start.
• Cooler for additional cooling.

Also, the miner will need a tool: a riveter, a drill, metal shears for cutting aluminum corners, a tape measure.

Frame and housing for mining farms

When assembling mining farms, it is not the case in the usual representation (closed box) that is used, but the frame. This need is associated with the requirement to ensure high-quality air circulation. The frame contributes to cooling, which prolongs the life of the equipment. You can make it yourself from the following materials:

• Wood. Advantages: low cost and ease of implementation.
• Aluminum. Advantages: durability and high-quality cooling.

The frame must be spacious. It can be used as a standard open stand.

You can buy a suitable frame on Avito.

IMPORTANT! A novice miner should take care of reliable wiring in the apartment, as it is under a huge load. Otherwise, it may simply melt.

Choosing a video card for a mining farm

In theory, any video card can be used for mining, but in practice it is not so simple. For good performance, you need to select modern equipment. Consider examples of video cards that can be used for mining in 2017:

• Radeon RX 470. Memory is 4-7 gigabytes. The approximate cost is 15,000 rubles. The approximate payback period is 105-125 days.
• Radeon RX 480. This is a more expensive model with similar memory. The frequency is 1320 Mhz, the hash rate is 26 Mh/s. The approximate cost is 22,000-25,000 rubles, the payback period is 105-140 days.
• Geforce GTX 1 060. The amount of memory is 3-6 GB, which negatively affects performance. The hash rate is only 20 Mh/s. The frequency is 1800 Mhz. The cost of the model starts from 15,000 rubles. The device pays for itself within 120 days.
• Geforce GTX 1 070. The memory is 8 gigabytes, the power is the highest of the listed models - 28 Mh / s. The approximate cost is 27,000-30,000 rubles. The model pays off within 150 days.

When choosing, you need to focus on the ratio of power and cost.

How much can you earn on a mining farm?

Earnings from a mining farm depend on the following factors:

• Graphics card chip manufacturer. Various video cards are tailored for the extraction of a particular cryptocurrency. For example, on Nvidia models it is convenient to mine Zcash, on AMD - Ethereum. Incorrect selection of a video card leads to a decrease in performance, which negatively affects the income of the miner.
• Number of video cards. The more graphics cards, the higher the power. The best option is to buy a lot of devices with average performance.
• Mined cryptocurrency. The most famous is Bitcoin, but not the only cryptocurrency. Different currencies are sold at different prices.

Earnings are determined, first of all, by the capacity of the farm.

When mining ether, for example, you can get a monthly income of 25,000-30,000 rubles.

However, the profit will be less, since considerable electricity costs must be deducted from the income.

Mining Farm Calculator

You can find mining farm calculators on the net. They display the miner's income per day, week, month. The calculation is based on the following parameters:

• Type of cryptocurrency.
• Hashrate.
• Power consumption in Wh.
• The cost of electricity.
• The complexity of the calculations (entered automatically).

The result obtained is converted into various currencies according to the current exchange rate: rubles, euros, dollars. Consider the list of the most popular calculators:

• Crypto Kurs. Allows you to analyze a wide variety of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero.
• 99Bitcoins. This calculator only calculates farms for the production of bitcoins. The parameters are set manually.
• Bits Media. Also analyzes only bitcoins. The calculation takes into account such indicators as the contribution to the farm, the cost of electricity, the exchange rate.
• ASICTRADE. The calculator supports the calculation of a number of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash or Monero.

Different calculators take into account a different number of parameters. The more these parameters, the more accurate the result will be.

Are mining farms relevant today?

Disputes about the profitability of cryptocurrency production do not subside even now.

It is impossible to unambiguously answer the question about the relevance of mining farms.

Focus on objective facts. The most popular cryptocurrency right now is bitcoin.

It is he who wants to be mined, with rare exceptions, by novice miners. However, as already mentioned, the number of bitcoins is limited, and the smaller they are, the more difficult it is to mine them.