Is it worth mining cryptocurrency now? Why I wrote that mining is not profitable

What awaits miners in the second half of 2018 and early 2019? After all, making money with little or no effort is a pretty attractive prospect. But how much these investments justify themselves now, because the rate for cryptocurrencies is in no hurry to grow, and the cost of electricity and the complexity of mining continue to grow.

As the prices of digital currencies soar in 2017 and their coverage in the headlines in the mainstream media, many people have not only become interested in the cryptocurrency space, but also become directly involved in it. So, the mining of cryptocurrencies in the past year has reached an unprecedented scale. Companies engaged in the production of mining equipment simply could not cope with the demand, which in the summer led to a shortage of mining equipment in the markets of not only the CIS countries, but throughout Europe, and subsequently to a rise in prices for the devices themselves.

Since the beginning of 2018, many cryptocurrencies have lost more than 70% of their value, but interest in cryptocurrency mining has not subsided. Due to the fact that the profitability from mining fell following the prices, and the procedure itself continues to become more complicated and more expensive, what should those who have purchased the equipment or are going to do? How profitable is mining today and does it generate income?

Commentary from HotAsic.ru specialists

The gold rush has passed, Bitcoin has stopped growing at a wild pace and the mining market has become a more understandable and stable investment tool. You will not receive 700-1000% per annum, as before, BUT compared to other tools - mining on Asic shows good profitability and will continue to exist. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the new products in our online store and purchase several devices for the test!

Factors affecting mining income

First of all, it should be noted that the profitability of mining depends on energy consumption. Therefore, the cheaper the cost of a kilowatt of energy, the more profit the miner can get. If you have access to "free" electricity (of course, this way of using electricity is illegal) and access to the Internet - then go ahead, the main point will be the return on investment in mining equipment.

There are a number of factors that will help you make a decision: is it worth mining or not, one of them is the increase in the difficulty of mining.

So, as you can see from the graph, the difficulty of Bitcoin mining continues to grow. The same scenario accompanies the mining of many well-known cryptocurrencies. But there are an infinite number of other little-known low difficulty coins on the market, the number of which continues to grow every day. When deciding to mine coins that have not yet earned the proper reputation in the market, no one will give you any guarantees that the income from mining these coins will justify itself, not to mention that such an activity can be unprofitable.

After all, the equipment costs a lot of money. The price of one video card fluctuates around $ 650 and above, while an ASIC suitable for mining costs from $ 1,500 to $ 10,000. The best option for mining bitcoins today is Bitmain's AntMiner S9.

It is unlikely that it will be possible to take new equipment directly from the supplier, of course, if you are not his dealer. But even if you make a purchase by pre-order, there is a possibility that new, more powerful equipment will be released during its delivery time, which can take up to 2-6 months. At the same time, it makes no sense at all to take video cards and ASICs in the secondary market, since it does not guarantee sufficient power and full-fledged work.

If at one time the payback period for mining equipment was a couple of months, then with today's level of complexity and rates for cryptocurrencies, this value fluctuates for about a year, if not more. The latest ASIC models, despite their high performance, also do not keep pace with the increasing complexity.

Even after purchasing the equipment, one should not hope that no more investments will have to be made, because time will pass and it will not be able to meet the high standards required by the network, the complexity of which, as mentioned earlier, is constantly growing.

Cloud mining

At this point, people begin to resort to a cheaper option that does not require the purchase, installation and maintenance of equipment, but requires a certain investment - cloud mining. Unfortunately, no one gives guarantees that the service will not evaporate tomorrow with your money, and, accordingly, the risks of losing your savings are very high.

Today, billions of dollars are spinning in cloud mining. And the hype around cryptocurrencies continues to grow, as many famous personalities from the world of finance and politics argue that cryptocurrencies are our future.

When deciding in favor of cryptocurrency mining, you should pay attention to the legal aspects. Many countries are still developing a legal framework to regulate this industry, so the authorities can impose a ban on mining at any time.

So to mine or not?

In order to independently calculate the profitability of mining on the Internet, there are many services. Such services allow you to calculate the approximate profitability of various digital currencies when using a certain type of equipment.

It is impossible to predict what awaits us in the future, since the cryptocurrency market is still unpredictable. If you have "free" money, then you can try, but in no case should you go into debt and take loans for this business. Once again, it must be repeated that investing in cryptocurrency mining is very risky today. If the mined coins are preserved and the value of cryptocurrencies grows, you will still be able to receive significant material benefits from this activity. Well, today, the only ones who make fortunes on mining are the manufacturers of video cards and ASICs.

Tebeneva Victoria

Perhaps only the lazy does not know what "mining" is. For those in the tank, this is the process of mining cryptocurrency using special equipment. Over the past few years, blockchain technology and electronic money in general have hit the masses. Cryptocurrency capitalization is growing at an inconceivable rate, astonishing many financial analysts. This suggests that there is money in the market, which means that someone can earn it.

Blockchain technology is difficult to understand, but if you briefly consider one of the technical and commercial aspects - mining, everything happens in a similar way: the miner buys equipment, the work of which is required to solve problems. Each time the process becomes more complicated, which means more capacities are needed. This makes it difficult to self-mine large cryptocurrencies. Everything is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. It is better to take a closer look at the question: is it profitable to mine cryptocurrency now?

What you need to consider when choosing a cryptocurrency for mining

In 2018 year, the issue of mining must be approached carefully, having studied the materiel in advance. To be clear, it all depends on the amount of investment in the project. The very profitability of mining depends on a number of variables, for example, on the capacity and quality of equipment. For each individual cryptocurrency, the technique is selected individually.

Special profit calculators can facilitate the task of a novice miner. They are able to take into account several important aspects at once:

• cost of equipment;
• energy costs and others.

This helps to get an idea of ​​the profitability of the proposed enterprise.

How to find the most profitable cryptocurrency for mining?

You need to look for the most profitable cryptocurrency "in the moment", that is, right before the start of the process, since the situation is constantly changing, the rates are jumping. For convenience, enthusiasts have developed special services like Whattomine.com. Having entered the website or chat to the telegram bot, the user can enter the characteristics of his equipment, hash rates and other indicators. In response, he will receive a list of coins that will bring him the greatest profit at the moment. The service greatly simplifies the life of an ordinary miner, as it allows you to compare the income from each individual cryptocurrency on the spot.

Important! The profitability of the enterprise depends not only on the market value of the mined coin. Nobody forbids the development of a whole strategy that takes into account the possibility of a sharp rise in a particular currency. It is usually not profitable to mine coins and then immediately sell them on the market, since the enterprise may suffer losses. It happens that the miner calculates the profit from the extraction of the currency not on the basis of its current value, but on the prospect of development, the growth of the exchange rate. You can draw up a whole investment plan and go deeper into the topic. One of the strategies is exchange. The user directs most of his resources to mining the currency that is most profitable to mine at the moment. After making a profit, he converts it into those coins that are waiting for their jump in the near future or are interesting in the long term.

The combination of the technical side of production and a competent investment strategy will lead to the best result. It looks more like a full-fledged business and promises big profits. The entrepreneur must be able to correctly calculate the risks and predict the result. Although the market tendency to surges cannot be ruled out. The chosen currency may not grow, therefore it is better to use whole portfolios of several promising coins at once.... Such a strategy will save you from surprises and will allow you to place multiple bets at once.

Is mining on video cards alive?

At the beginning of the mining boom, most users were using video cards. It was the first vehicle to mine digital currency. But time goes on, and more and more power is needed to calculate. Today it is not clear whether it is worth mining on video cards? Here you need to build on several factors. The main one is the mined currency. For example, having several even the most powerful video cards, the miner will not be able to mine bitcoin, but can cash in on other cryptocurrencies.

Installing hardware improves PC performance. The technician can calculate the algorithms faster. Thanks to video cards, the total computing power is increased, which means that crypto problems are solved faster.

According to experts in the field, mining is available to every user today. With the right approach, it becomes simple, straightforward and effective. However, the result is more dependent on the performance of the equipment. To implement a mining farm, you will need to purchase video cards of the latest models with high performance... The equipment is not cheap, so a significant investment cannot be avoided. Moreover, it is impossible to save money on technology, since buying weak video cards will not pay for itself (they will not solve the problem, but will work in vain).

What to mine on video cards now? The profitability of the project can be calculated using a special calculator (for example, WhatToMine and others). These are interesting services that will relatively accurately calculate the benefits of mining on a specific video card. The result reflects the amount of earnings. Approximate exactly - 85-95%. The columns describe the equipment model and the cost of electricity in the region.

Production methods

Due to the popularity of mining, there are now several ways to mine cryptocurrency, and not all of them require equipment. For instance, " Cloud mining"Is one of the industry terms. It describes the process of renting computing power from a company, where a fee is issued for a specific volume. On the one hand, the idea sounds interesting, since the user does not have to order and wait for expensive equipment, equip a farm, a cooling system, etc.

But even after superficial calculations, it becomes clear that cloud mining is not so promising in the long term. Some companies do work in a pyramid scheme without any computing equipment in their hands. Profit is paid from funds contributed by new users.

Another method of extraction is equipment, the so-called "Asiki"... It is a special purpose integrated circuit. If you do not delve into the definition and technology, it is on ASIC bitcoins and other "complex" cryptocurrencies. One cannot argue about the benefits of a particular project, since the extraction of the "cue ball" is getting more complicated every day.

An ordinary ASIC is a chip. It does not withstand flashing, but it gives out more performance than any other technique for a similar purpose. If we talk about an average quality model, then it is equipped with several chip processors, a cooling system and a power supply unit.

The advantages of the method:

• Easy to use - just start operation and service;
• Big profit;
• Fast payback, usually up to six months.

Again, you can evaluate the performance and relevance of a particular equipment using special calculators.

The profitability of the project and the speed of mining a specific coin depend on the method of mining cryptocurrencies.

What cryptocurrencies are better to mine

The crypto industry has grown so much that new currencies appear almost every day. Of course, you shouldn't mine them right away, as they disappear just as quickly. It is because of the large selection and danger that you need to choose the right coins. It is recommended to focus on the following parameters:

• Currency capitalization on the market - the total number of coins “thrown” into the market multiplied by the market value;
• Liquidity - in another way, popularity, that is, an indicator of the rate of implementation of a coin;
• Popularity - how many users generally know about a particular cryptocurrency and are interested in it;
• Volatility is the stability of the exchange rate, the tendency to surges, etc.

Before mining, it is better to compile a summary table of the most profitable cryptocurrencies, compare the benefits and resolve the issue. Usually, users ask the question: which is better to mine Bitcoin or Ethereum?

At the moment, the main world cryptocurrency is bitcoin, but the profitability of its production is a controversial issue. What currencies can be mined:

• Ethereum - was created in 2015 on the basis of the second generation blockchain using some unique features. At the moment, this cryptocurrency is the second in the world after Bitcoin.
• Litecoin is a great crypto for mining. This fork of Bitcoin has long been on the market and, of course, many miners know about it. Low cost attracts investors, mining is more profitable on processors.
• NEM - the currency is based on the POI algorithm. It is profitable to mine, because with the help of a special mechanism, the distribution of rewards is fair, based on the user's activity in the network. As a result, the power of computing equipment is not the main thing.
• Dash - the difficulty of mining depends on the work of the DarkGravityWave algorithm. He is responsible for the smoothness of changes. The profitability of mining a coin is calculated using a special formula: 2222222 / ((Difficulty + 2600) / 9) 2). Extraction occurs in all ways, distribution does not play a special role.
• Monero - Based on the custom CryptoNight algorithm. Mining mainly takes place on a video card or processor. The mining time depends on the capacity of the equipment, but with the right choice of the pool, you can save a lot.

How much can you earn

It is difficult to assess whether it is profitable to mine cryptocurrency now. The amount of earnings should only be calculated using the example of a specific currency, as the results may vary. Take the ZCash coin, which uses video cards to mine. Calculations:

• GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 graphics cards cost around $ 500-900. The first model, when mining the selected currency, brings income up to $ 100 per month, the second up to $ 130 (depending on the current exchange rate). When running a farm of six video cards, you can get up to $ 400-800.
• Excluding the cost of graphics cards, an additional $ 350 will have to be spent on farm hardware. Payback of the project - up to 9 months.
• A farm with cheaper equipment (GTX 1050 and GTX 1060 cards - $ 200-300 each) will bring in about $ 250 monthly at the current ZCash rate. The ROI is not much different from the previous option.

Is it profitable to mine Ethereum? At the moment, the profitability of other popular coins (Ethereum, Monero and Ethereum Classic) will be similar in volume, differing by no more than $ 5-50 per month.

A critical look at mining

Experts say that today it is too late to get involved in mining Bitcoin and other major currencies. Users on the forums support this opinion. Causes:

• High cost of equipment and low payback under current conditions. Moreover, no one excludes equipment breakdown.
• Technical problems and equipment markdown. Technology becomes obsolete too quickly, and it is often not designed for the imposed load.
• Electricity costs - depends on the region, in ordinary localities the costs are too high.
• Competition - newcomers or owners of weak farms "perish" under the onslaught of other miners. At the same time, the number of earners is growing daily.

It is not profitable to mine bitcoins at home due to the above factors, but this does not exclude the production of other cryptocurrencies.

What else needs to be considered when making money on mining

Before starting mining, you need to remember to take into account a number of additional factors:

• Current cryptocurrency rate;
• Pool commission - approximately 2-3% of the profit volume;
• Cost of electricity - farms are recommended to be located in areas with cheap utility bills.

Mining is a revolutionary phenomenon that allows you to make good money. The main thing is to approach the process correctly and not forget to stock up on a reliable wallet so that no one can steal your wealth.

Among potential owners of cryptocurrency, the same question arises: is cloud mining profitable in 2018 and how to make money? Until recently, miners bought video cards and created their own farms. Now it is more efficient to rent powerful equipment from large companies.

Is it possible to mine cryptocurrency right now and how to extract income from concluded contracts? Promising coins are entering the market, cloud mining conditions allow you to quickly grab the cream. At the same time, the threshold for entering mining is available for everyone. Time to make money!

What is mining?

Mining is the process of mining crypto money using a farm from video cards or ASIC controllers (specially created for mining equipment). Depending on the cost of cryptocurrencies, the power of the connected equipment and other factors, everything will begin to pay off in about three months. Conditions allow you to quickly make a profit without much effort

Do not even try to extract money with one video card: the hardware is loaded at 100%, which makes it impossible to perform basic tasks on a PC. In addition, overheating is possible, which leads to complete inoperability. The difficulty in such mining is added by the fact that the cost of electricity regularly rises, reducing the possibility of making a profit in the near future. Algorithms for mining coins are becoming more complicated, and today you can only earn a penny at home.

Home mining requires constant monitoring of the cooling. You can't just take and in cold weather take the entire frame with fixed video cards to the balcony or to the basement. It is possible for condensation to form and short circuits, resulting in loss of equipment functionality.

Cloud mining has become an alternative, which eliminates several factors unpleasant for the user at once. There is no need to monitor, configure and install equipment. The cloud mining service takes full responsibility for the computing power. And whether it is profitable or not, the user himself decides. In the case of renting, you get a number of advantages:

• Noise - you don't have to install miners and take care of them. All companies that provide services for the extraction of currency on their equipment look after the equipment themselves. You only rent capacities for your own purposes.
• Experts set up all mining equipment themselves without the need for your intervention.
• Legality - taxes and other formalities are respected.
• Most importantly, there are no power outages.

If you plan to start mining bitcoins for which the power of video cards is too small, then there is an option with ASIC farms, which are many times higher than the performance of the GPU. The cost of new models can reach $ 10,000 per unit, but cloud mining (rent) opens up opportunities for dozens and even hundreds of similar asic devices. Consequently, profitability increases significantly.

Why cloud mining?

Because it is available. You can enter a niche with 10 $. I would recommend starting with $ 1000. This will allow you to earn something. But testing the scheme and service can be done with minimal investment. An absolute plus in minimizing risks. The benefits of cloud mining have several key points:

• High income without large investments in equipment and its maintenance.
• Receiving cryptocurrencies without limits in 24/7 mode.
• The earned cryptocurrency is transferred to the wallet you specified.
• The ability to bring your friends and acquaintances in order to receive bonuses for referrals.

When calculating the profitability of cloud mining, I recommend using the online profitability calculator, where you can choose the miner model and the cost of kW of electricity. Analyze the prospect of mining different cryptocurrencies. To avoid unpleasant situations, you do not need to trust dubious services. The company must have experience and feedback on miner forums.

Skip sentences with sky-high numbers that are significantly different from others. In cloud mining, you can earn money if you work with market leaders, who are already on everyone's lips. They do not hide their addresses, so you can come and look at the equipment.

Among the disadvantages, one can single out only a sharp decrease in profitability in case of major accidents leading to server shutdowns. The company's management under the terms of the user agreement may well offset the cost of repairing and refurbishing the equipment. Be sure to go to the official website of the mining service provider, and then make a decision.

Optimal coins for mining

In fact, any kind of cryptocurrency can be mined. The only question is the equipment offered by the cloud mining service. Do their ASICs work with the algorithms with which you go to mine cryptocurrency? If yes, then nothing stops for the conclusion of the contract and the choice of capacities. Among the most popular monetary units for mining (except for Bitcoin) are the following currencies:

1. Litecoin: at the moment the rate is relatively low (about 160 USD), which allows you to invest in Litecoin painlessly. The mining process itself does not require too much farm costs, and in the cloud everything is especially fast.
2. Monero: the currency is mined according to the CryptoNight principle, which allows you to do everything both with a video card and with a central processor. For cloud mining, the speed depends on the selected pool, set by the user or operator.
3. Dash: Optimized for retrieval with all available options. The calculation of the potential profit is carried out according to the formula “2222222 / ((difficulty + 2600) / 9) 2)”, which makes life easier for those who are interested in getting quick money and multiplying it on the respective exchanges.
4. NEM: this money is based on the POI principle, which allows all participants to fairly distribute the resulting mining.
5. Ethereum: The main alternative to Bitcoin, which is much easier to obtain due to its lower popularity so far. Unique capabilities and blockchain of the second generation will make transactions very simple and fast.

If we talk about what is more profitable to mine with cloud mining of cryptocurrencies, then everything depends on 4 factors. The first is the speed of selling at the market rate (liquidity); the second is the volatility (variability) of the exchange rate. The third is the popularity of the currency. The latter is capitalization (the total number of issued currency). You can check all the parameters and profitability of mining on the CoinMarketCap website. The data is updated regularly so that you can assess all risks. Due to the great popularity of Bitcoin, it is best to mine it with the help of cloud computing, which will give income much faster.

Popular cloud services

One of the popular service providers is Genesis Mining, which provides a wide selection of cryptocurrencies for mining, convenient functionality along with maximum client protection from all kinds of hacks. Having a real office allows you to settle controversial issues personally with your superiors. Also, such openness gives the right to conclude that the owners of the service care about their customers.

To get started, you need a minimum of 26 USD, allowing you to get a capacity of 10Gh / s. Ease of use is supported by a built-in calculator that helps you calculate the likely profit from mining. Draw up an agreement, start a profile, in the settings of which it is impossible to get confused, and start earning cryptocurrency. By attracting new users, you can get separate benefits for yourself, which depend on the contribution of those you brought in, as well as on the overall rating.

An excellent alternative can be considered the HashFlare service, where the main convenience for a user from the CIS is the ability to withdraw money and replenish an account using WebMoney. The microscopic commission for such transactions (3/10000 Bitcoin) allows you to mine without special costs.

Features of HashFlare include: the ability to receive income after the start of using the resource, the choice of a tariff (which determines the power of the leased hardware), high-quality technical support and distribution of resources by resource pools independently. This is one of the leaders with thousands of reviews.

Hashing24 is a resource with large capacities and new technologies that make it possible to accelerate the process of mining crypto-money, as well as to receive income in the amount of 170 percent. On the other hand, there are drawbacks, which include having to pay a daily hardware maintenance fee. There is also an affiliate program that gives you the opportunity to get 10% from each client you refer. You will be able to receive income directly to your bitcoin wallet, bank card and services like OKPay or BankTransfer.

I do not recommend for beginners to start with Bitcoin mining. Many features, it becomes difficult to mine. There are plenty of alternative coins with great potential. Common to all users is the need to study the dynamics of cryptocurrencies. If you predict the growth of the coin, you can recoup investments in the contract many times faster.

conclusions

What is more profitable in 2018: build your own farm and expand or go into cloud mining? Today, one can give an unequivocal answer that cloud mining is more advantageous. They do not require the installation of expensive equipment. All capacities are available immediately for a small (relative to the price of farms and video cards) fee.

If you have sufficient start-up capital and a premise with an optimal regime, choose mining with the help of farms. After a payback period of several months, you are provided with unlimited opportunities for making real money. Maintenance of equipment is more a matter of free time and attentiveness. Equipment breaks down in cloud services too.

Attracted in cloud mining by the ability to work remotely. Complete silence and no responsibility for the equipment. The money is automatically withdrawn to the specified wallet. The cooperation scheme has been worked out: millions of miners from all over the world have long since switched to making money in the clouds. This is the future.

People in the post-Soviet space have too vivid memories of MMM and the famous Lena Golubkov, so cryptocurrency for a larger percentage of the population is a soap bubble that is about to burst. The population of African countries (Zimbabwe, Kenya), Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Israel and the USA are much more optimistic in this regard. These states are experiencing a real boom and cryptomania, not afraid to invest digital money in "farms". In America, a sociological survey was even conducted among 1000 people aged 26 to 40. It turned out that 11.5% of respondents are going to invest in mining in 2018, and 21% are holders of part of the funds in cryptocurrency. Why is it profitable for the population of these countries to invest in mining equipment?

Investing in a "farm" for Bitcoin mining

On December 10, 2017, the Chicago Stock Exchange, which is the second in the exchange market in terms of daily turnover of funds, begins trading Bitcoin futures. This news influenced the cryptocurrency market and raised the price for BTC by almost 20% in a week. Following her, the Tokyo exchange announced its desire to launch its futures product on Bitcoin, the same intentions were previously announced by the Swiss exchange tycoon. Based on the above, a picture emerges that BTC has come to the cryptocurrency market for a long time. Which is a positive signal and an answer to the question of investing in a mining farm based on miners.

Add a fly in the ointment to a barrel of honey, the price of BTC mining devices and the payback period. The profitability is affected by the complexity of Bitcoin mining, which depends on the number of network users, and it grows exponentially. But do not forget about the increase in the price for BTC, which has reached 1100% since the beginning of 2017.

Now for BTC mining, Antminer S9 and S7 miners with different hash rates are mainly used. On average, they bring in about $ 20 per day, the payback period is 6-7 months. For a long-term investment, this period is short, usually during the development of a business, the return on recoupment starts from 1-5 years.

Dash mining farm investment in 2018

The advantage of the Dash network is the constant work of developers on it. Relatively recently, an update was launched that increased the block to 2 MB, and became seven times faster, in addition, the prices for transactions were reduced. This suggests that the cryptocurrency will develop and is confirmed by the slow but steady rise in the price of Dash. The disadvantage of a crypto coin is that it is unstable, the cost jumps, after which a correction occurs, which rolls back the price by 15-18%. Dash's profit on ASIC is about $ 16, but the numbers may change if the Dash network makes a new qualitative leap.

Investment in a farm on video cards in 2018

Cloud mining on video cards is trending again due to the growth of major currencies in the ratio of equipment price to profit. For example, ETC grew 4000% over the year over 2017 and continues to grow. The reason for this is the support of the Ethereum platform by large companies. Other Altcoins are showing good growth, so investing in a mining "farm" on video cards in 2018 will also be profitable, as long as there are no trends suggesting otherwise.

Asking the question about the return on investment in mining in 2018, you still will not hear a definite answer and will not receive a 100% guarantee. In many countries, the process of legalizing cryptocoins as securities has begun, so digital money, like any product on exchanges, can go through the process of price collapse and rise.

Mining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies seems to many network users a very simple way of passive income. According to newcomers in the field of mining, there is nothing easier than, having figured out how farms for mining cryptocurrencies are arranged, collect one at home, install a specialized miner program on a PC and receive digital coins. And this opinion is confirmed by numerous videos where it is told that a mining farm is what it is in simple words and how to quickly assemble it at home. However, for those who plan to engage in classic mining, before buying specialized equipment, you first need to calculate the amount of investments required, and how much you can earn on mining. For this, a profitability calculator is used - an online program with which it is very easy to determine whether creating a mining farm is profitable or not.

Cryptocurrency mining farm: what is it in simple words and how to build it

Several years ago, when cryptocurrencies had just appeared and they could be mined even on a home PC, few users were involved in mining. But as the popularity of bitcoin grew, more and more people from all over the world began to install miner programs on their computers in order to provide themselves with passive income. And since the amount of both bitcoins and other coins that can be mined over a certain period of time is limited by the system, the process of creating new coins became more and more difficult.

Very quickly, the computing power of home PCs was not enough to generate blocks, and each miner had a choice: to abandon this source of income or increase the power of his PC using additional equipment - powerful video cards. Computers equipped with additional video cards are called mining farms among miners. Therefore, the answer to the question, what is a mining farm in simple words, will be as follows: is it a high-performance computer or several computers connected into a single network at once, all of whose capacities are used to create new blocks in the cryptocurrency system.

Mining farm equipment

The first mining farms were a computer, to the motherboard of which 2 to 6 video cards were connected, since they were the ones who could provide the highest power at that time. Now, along with gaming and highly specialized video cards for mining cryptocurrency, ASIC miners are used - microcircuits designed exclusively for calculating hash sums. Moreover, more and more miners of digital coins, specializing in the creation of bitcoin and ethereum, prefer ASICs to video cards, since the capabilities of this equipment are many times higher.

The most important characteristic that you need to pay attention to when choosing a video card or ASIC is the hash rate - the number of hashing operations that can be performed by the equipment in one second. The higher the hashrate of the ASIC / card, the faster the miner installed on the PC will be able to find a suitable combination by enumerating numbers and create a new block in the cryptocurrency system. The data on this block will immediately be reflected in the blockchain, and the one who created it will receive a certain number of coins as a reward.

Since mining has become a very popular way to make money online in 2017, it is not surprising that manufacturers of specialized hardware for mining farms charge very high prices for it. For example, an ASIC, on which Bitcoin can actually be mined, now costs at least $ 1,500. The price of powerful specialized video cards from manufacturers AMD and Nvidia is at least $ 200. Moreover, to equip a mining farm that will make a profit, you need to purchase 1-2 ASICs at once, or at least 3 video cards.

In addition to powerful video cards, to create a mining farm you will also need:

• PC with 24/7 Internet access
• Motherboard with as many graphics card slots as possible
• A power supply unit with a capacity of at least 1000 watts, or better - more, since video cards consume a lot of electricity
• Cable for connecting video cards to the power supply
• Risers and racks for a farm - equipment that allows you to "take out" video cards at a distance of about 20 cm from the motherboard to prevent them from overheating
• Coolers or water cooling system to prevent overheating of video cards.

Using ASICs is much easier. This highly specialized hardware connects directly to the computer and does not need additional cooling.

Which is better: video cards or ASIC

A mining farm, assembled from several powerful video cards, in 2017 will be suitable for mining Litecoin, Ethereum and other less popular cryptocurrencies. Unfortunately, Bitcoin will no longer work on video cards - the total power of even 6 cards is too small for mining to be profitable. That is, in simple terms, a mining farm on video cards will be able to extract a certain amount of bitcoin, but this amount will not be enough to "recoup" the cost of equipment and the electricity spent on computing operations.

In terms of electricity consumption, a powerful ASIC is practically comparable to 5-6 gaming video cards, but its hash rate is much higher. Therefore, those who want to mine exactly bitcoin will have to spend money on such highly specialized equipment. Considering that the btc rate is currently growing steadily, the miner will most likely be able to recoup the cost of the ASIC in a few months, and then make a profit.

Video: how farms are arranged for mining cryptocurrencies bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin

A mining farm can represent both one PC with 3-6 video cards connected to it, and a whole room where dozens of computers connected into one network create new blocks for the cryptocurrency system. And in order to clearly show how exactly the mining of coins takes place, we have selected video materials. After watching a video of how farms for mining cryptocurrencies are arranged, even those far from computer technology, network users will get an idea of ​​what equipment is required for mining.

Mining farms in different countries

Most of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies are mined in the People's Republic of China. And although in this communist state the use of virtual currencies is prohibited by law, today China can be called the leader in the extraction of digital money. And the reason for this is the fact that it is on the territory of China that most of the huge mining farms owned by the companies that own the largest Bitcoin mining pools are located.

But there are large farms for mining cryptocurrency not only in China, but also in the USA, Iceland, Switzerland, India, Georgia, Australia and many other countries. As a rule, miners from different countries strive to equip mining farms on the territory of those settlements where there is high-speed uninterrupted Internet access, and electricity tariffs are the lowest in the country. In the Russian Federation today there are several fairly large farms, as well as thousands of users from Russia are engaged in mining on home computers, equipping mini-farms.

Mining farm: how much you can earn on mining cryptocurrency

Considering how much income a mining farm will bring, how much you can earn from mining cryptocurrency and how long the equipment will pay for itself, many factors should be taken into account, and the main ones are the following:

• The total cost of all equipment purchased to organize a mining farm
• The power of the "iron" used to extract horses
• The rate of the cryptocurrency that is mined on the farm, and the prospects for its growth
• Energy costs and troubleshooting current equipment problems.

In 2017, according to experienced miners, it is possible to independently mine ethereum, ripple and lesser known cryptocurrencies, the rate of which is increasing, or at least - it stably stays at the same level for 3-6 months. To find out the rate of any cryptocurrency and study its dynamics over the past six months, just go to the cryptocurrency exchange.

What's more profitable: assembling a mining farm for self-mining or mining in a pool

For many novice miners, self-mining of cryptocurrency seems more attractive, since in this case there is no need to share the earned with other users. However, solo mining of any popular digital currency in 2017 can only be profitable if the miner has the funds to buy powerful highly specialized equipment and is willing to pay huge electricity bills.

If there is no opportunity to buy several powerful video cards or an ASIC released no later than 2016, and the hashrate of the mining farm is low, independent mining will be unprofitable. In this case, it is better for a miner to join a pool that produces ether, litecoin or another promising cryptocurrency. By combining power with other users, he will get more chances to make money from mining digital money.

Mining farm: how to calculate income using the profitability calculator

It will help to determine how much income a mining farm will bring, a profitability calculator. This online calculator is on many mining sites, and to find it, you just need to type in the corresponding query in the Google or Yandex search box. Using the calculator is very simple: you just need to fill in all the proposed fields and see the result - how much money the farm will bring in per hour, per day, per week and per month.

Most calculators calculate profit based on the following data:

• Hashrate mining farm
• Farm electricity consumption
• Electricity tariffs.

The calculation results reflect the profit that will be generated by mining different cryptocurrencies. Therefore, these programs are also useful in that they will help a novice miner decide which currency is most profitable to mine.

However, the profitability calculator does not take into account the initial hardware costs, or possible failures in the mining farm. Therefore, the "digger" of coins needs to independently calculate how many months the equipment will pay for itself and start generating income.

A way to minimize equipment and energy costs

In order for a mining farm to bring as large a net profit as possible, it is necessary that the equipment has a high power and at the same time consumes as little electricity as possible. Of course, any powerful "hardware" will consume a lot of energy resources, but there are ways to reduce costs. These methods are as follows:

1. When choosing "hardware" for mining, give preference to the most powerful and new video cards or ASICs
2. Avoid overheating of equipment using effective cooling methods
3. Choose high-quality and reliable power supplies that exclude the slightest power outages.

Mining farm in Russia - is it profitable or not?

According to experts, the answer to the question whether a mining farm is profitable or not is unambiguous: today, cryptocurrency mining is a promising way to make money on the network. Moreover, Russia is not the worst country for mining coins, since in the Far Eastern regions electricity tariffs are quite low, and providers provide uninterrupted high-speed Internet connections.

But at the same time, we must not forget that the profitability of the farm directly depends on two main factors: the performance of the equipment and the dynamics of the rate of the chosen cryptocurrency. So, before assembling a mining farm, you need to carefully study the reviews of experienced miners about different video cards and ASICs, and expert opinions on the prospects for cryptocurrencies.

Secrets that will guarantee you a profit

In fact, there are no special secrets on how to make a mining farm bring a lot of income. There are only two general rules: before buying equipment, figure out how farms are arranged and what advantages and disadvantages different models of specialized hardware have, and also not to choose a cryptocurrency at random, but use a profitability calculator and data on the dynamics of the exchange rate. Moreover, for those users whose knowledge of cryptocurrency mining is superficial, first you need to watch a video or read articles to understand, mining - what is it in simple words from a technical point of view, and only then calculate how much you can earn from the extraction of electronic money. Therefore, a novice "digger" of coins needs to look in the network not for an answer to the question whether a mining farm is profitable or not, but for technical solutions that will make the mining of digital coins a stable source of income.