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Crypto Mining Beginner

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  • 04-05-2019 11:08am
    #1
    theroomisonfire
    Registered Users Posts: 474 ✭✭


    Hi,

    I am interested in mining some cryptocurrency mainly to get a better understand for how it works and to earned some cryptocurrency passively.

    I am a complete beginner in this regarded and I have a few questions and would appreciate if people could share their thoughts/comments:

    - What cryptocurrencies would it make sense to mine. Particularly bearing in mind that I will not be investing in powerful mining equipment.

    - What return rate (if any) I could reasonably expected given the electricity costs

    - Whether there is any basic mining equipment/setup that you could recommend to a beginner.

    Also, if you are aware of any useful guides or resources for more research, please let me know.

    Thanks and regards,


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    #2
    unkel
    Registered Users Posts: 64,762 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    Welcome to hell :D

    Cryptomining at larger scales is not easy and you will not make money passively without substantial effort and a big investment of your time in research & development. It's great fun though, I've done it as a hobby for nearly 2 years now. I've made a small profit, but getting into it now is unlikely to make you any money unless the whole crypto world goes up in value. Which some people say it will

    Over the last few years mining good old Ethereum has been the most profitable consistently. If you want to have a go at mining, start simple. If you already have a half decent graphics card in your Windows PC, use that. Run a miner like Phoenixminer which is very efficient and very cheap and see your crypto balance grow :)

    If you want to go bigger, you will have to build yourself a rig

    About electricity costs, it depends on the values of the cryptocurrencies and on the rates you pay for electricity. I have solar panels and I have a night rate meter, so a lot of the time my electricity is cheap or free. I also used my rigs for heating the house so I saved on my gas bills

    I'm actually winding down my own mining, finishing altogether this summer. Going to concentrate more on masternoding (POS rather than POW) which I got into a bit over a year ago. If you are interested in mining rig frame, riser cards, gpus, etc. I will do you a good deal, PM me.


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    #3
    Tinder Surprise
    Registered Users Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭Tinder Surprise


    unkel wrote: »
    Welcome to hell :D

    Cryptomining at larger scales is not easy and you will not make money passively without substantial effort and a big investment of your time in research & development. It's great fun though, I've done it as a hobby for nearly 2 years now. I've made a small profit, but getting into it now is unlikely to make you any money unless the whole crypto world goes up in value. Which some people say it will

    Over the last few years mining good old Ethereum has been the most profitable consistently. If you want to have a go at mining, start simple. If you already have a half decent graphics card in your Windows PC, use that. Run a miner like Phoenixminer which is very efficient and very cheap and see your crypto balance grow :)

    If you want to go bigger, you will have to build yourself a rig

    About electricity costs, it depends on the values of the cryptocurrencies and on the rates you pay for electricity. I have solar panels and I have a night rate meter, so a lot of the time my electricity is cheap or free. I also used my rigs for heating the house so I saved on my gas bills

    I'm actually winding down my own mining, finishing altogether this summer. Going to concentrate more on masternoding (POS rather than POW) which I got into a bit over a year ago. If you are interested in mining rig frame, riser cards, gpus, etc. I will do you a good deal, PM me.

    Unkel,
    Would love to pick your brain and current preferences on POS coins/pools

    Was thinking of giving it a whirl and NULS has my ears pricked

    Ta


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    #4
    unkel
    Registered Users Posts: 64,762 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    That looks like an interesting project. A quick google suggest you need 20k coins for a masternode though, so that would set you back USD14k, a serious commitment :)

    All the nodes I have are for coins even further down the pecking order by market cap


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    #5
    Evd-Burner
    Registered Users Posts: 1,456 ✭✭✭Evd-Burner


    Unkel I think I have far too much in common with you.

    Thinking of buying the below. I worked out that if I went with energia it would cost 12.8c per kWh using a mix of day/night meter. Haven't decided which coin to mine yet but I'd be restricted to sha-256 coins. Wouldn't have the miner until September, I actually got thinking of this in order to increase the payback of solar if I install some, that and I've already invested into crypto.

    https://noordminers.eu/antminer/antminer-s17p-53

    What do you think?


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    #6
    unkel
    Registered Users Posts: 64,762 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    I don't know anything about that specific miner, but in general ASIC miners an extremely risky business. It might pay for itself in 3 months or you might never get your investment back. If you're looking to get into mining, using a GPU based rig is a far safer bet. Also more fun.

    I used my crypto mining as an excuse to create an ever larger solar PV setup at home :)

    I have only one rig left and I have it provisionally sold a few days ago, pending collection / payment


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    #7
    Evd-Burner
    Registered Users Posts: 1,456 ✭✭✭Evd-Burner


    Yeah that's the fear. If the price goes down I'd never make the money back. The only way to get it work would be with cheap electricity!


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    #8
    unkel
    Registered Users Posts: 64,762 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    I wouldn't spend a lot of money on an ASIC miner myself. I would go gpu, maybe start small to see if it is for you. You can mine with just a €100 second hand GPU in any PC. If you still are really keen on going ASIC, buy a dirt cheap old one to play around with it. ASIC miners are loud too, too loud for having it in the house unless you have a cellar or something

    I have a November 2017 Antminer D3 19.3GH/s model myself. They were USD1500 back 1.5 years ago. I bought it cheap to play with it. Will let it go for cheap.

    Linky


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    #9
    Maxiiiiii
    Registered Users Posts: 8 ✭Maxiiiiii


    What is the best way of earning on cryptomarket?


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    #10
    unkel
    Registered Users Posts: 64,762 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    Maxiiiiii wrote: »
    What is the best way of earning on cryptomarket?

    It sure isn't mining.

    How about high risk betting - as in buying and selling? ;)


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    #11
    Pintman Paddy Losty
    Registered Users Posts: 1,913 ✭✭✭Pintman Paddy Losty


    A lot of people mention having access to free electricity when mining?

    I know a lot of miners would be techy types. Is that a kind of code for running it in an employers server room?


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    #12
    unkel
    Registered Users Posts: 64,762 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »
    Is that a kind of code for running it in an employers server room?

    I'm sure there would be a rig or two running in server rooms in this country :p

    There are also people in rented accomodation who pay a fixed monthly rent, including any utility costs. For them they use free electricity for mining.

    In my own case, I signed up with Just Energy (a Canadian multinational electricity provider that had just entered the Irish market), they offered a fixed price deal, which meant for my first year of mining, it cost me nothing, free electricity.

    I have installed quite a bit of solar PV and because the cost is now sunk, it means a lot of the time during daylight hours my one remaining rig runs partly to fully on solar PV. So at times also running on free electricity.


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    #13
    Maxiiiiii
    Registered Users Posts: 8 ✭Maxiiiiii


    unkel wrote: »
    It sure isn't mining.

    How about high risk betting - as in buying and selling? ;)

    Do you mean forex trading by using cryptocurrencies?


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    #14
    grindle
    Registered Users Posts: 6,026 ✭✭✭grindle


    Maxiiiiii wrote: »
    Do you mean forex trading by using cryptocurrencies?

    He means forex-style swing-trades, yes. You can either guess when a crypto will hit a certain fiat price and trade that way or bet vs other cryptos.
    Main difference being forex will generally be little and often with the ticks up and down and in crypto it'll be violent moves upwards and downwards, so on good days you feel like you've gotten a free bag of coke and on bad days you want to deep-throat a whiskey bottle bottom-end first.


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    #15
    Maxiiiiii
    Registered Users Posts: 8 ✭Maxiiiiii


    grindle wrote: »
    He means forex-style swing-trades, yes. You can either guess when a crypto will hit a certain fiat price and trade that way or bet vs other cryptos.
    Main difference being forex will generally be little and often with the ticks up and down and in crypto it'll be violent moves upwards and downwards, so on good days you feel like you've gotten a free bag of coke and on bad days you want to deep-throat a whiskey bottle bottom-end first.

    I hope that it will be more good days on my forex trading way, because i do not like whiskey)))))


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    #16
    studdlymurphy
    Registered Users Posts: 827 ✭✭✭studdlymurphy


    Can anyone recommend a few good sites to buy purpose built miners that ship to Ireland and UK?

    Thank you.



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    #17
    unkel
    Registered Users Posts: 64,762 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    https://www.bitmain.com/


    is the biggest player. I wouldn't do it though. Very risky. Too noisy to have in your house too.



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