1st Mining Rig https://1stminingrig.com Just Another Mining Blog Mon, 01 Sep 2025 16:47:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://i0.wp.com/1stminingrig.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/fav2.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 1st Mining Rig https://1stminingrig.com 32 32 109402913 How to Plot and Replot Chia – Full Chia Plotting Guide https://1stminingrig.com/how-to-plot-and-replot-chia/ Thu, 15 Jul 2021 15:27:11 +0000 https://1stminingrig.com/?p=14433

This article is a continuation to my Chia plotting & farming guide. If you haven’t already, check out part 2 where I talk about the best hardware for plotting, and next part 3 where I talk about the best farming hardware.   Now that your Chia plotting rig is ready, it’s time to set up […]

The post How to Plot and Replot Chia – Full Chia Plotting Guide appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

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This article is a continuation to my Chia plotting & farming guide. If you haven’t already, check out part 2 where I talk about the best hardware for plotting, and next part 3 where I talk about the best farming hardware.

 

Now that your Chia plotting rig is ready, it’s time to set up the plotter software and start earning your first Chia coins. If you have checked my previous guides, you will have an idea on what kind of results to expect.

Download Chia Wallet, Setup & Backup

First thing first let’s download & install Chia GUI from official website here: https://www.chia.net/download/ (always double check if you download from official sources), make sure you backup & save seed phrase in a safe location like:

Another recommendation to stay safe is to farm to a cold wallet directly. Create your plots and farm with one wallet/seed phrase but send the rewards to a different one (cold wallet) by changing your farming rewards target address in Chia GUI Wallet, here is how:

  • Open Chia GUI and go to “Farm” tab
  • Then click on the 3 dots from top right
  • Go to “Manage Farming Rewards“
  • There replace both address with the one where you want to receive the rewards
  • Done 🙂
chia farming tabchia farming tab
chia wallet farm tabchia wallet farm tab
chia wallet manage farming rewardschia wallet manage farming rewards
chia wallet manage farming rewards target addresseschia wallet manage farming rewards target addresses

 

Best Chia Plotter Software

Just like most users, I first started plotting with the currently popular SWAR plotter, plotting 8 in parallel with my current configuration from here. Later, I moved on to PSChiaPlotter. While PSChiaPlotter is a great piece of software, I soon discovered madMAx43v3r plotter, and I am now currently using it because it gives the best results by far. Here’s why.

The MadMAx43v3r Chia Plotter allows me to work on one plot at a time (serial plotting) at an incredible speed. If assign 16 threads to the plotter, I achieve a record breaking speed of 29 minutes per plot. If I open another instance of the plotter and split the threads and RAM between both instances, I am able to have two plots every 55 minutes (an average of 26 minutes per plot).

 

How to use the madMAx43v3r Chia Plotter:

If you are new to plotting and not reploting for pools then using madMax software is more than enough, check the tutorial below. For re-ploting skip this section.

Note: to replicate my results, you have to use two high-speed SSD drives with MLC NAND. This guide won’t give you the advertised results if you have a bottleneck in your plotting rig.

  • Download the plotter from here and unzip it on your desktop.
  • Right click on “plot_with_log.cmd” (is nice to have logs) and edit it.
  • Here is how my current commands looks like and i will explain each of them:

@ECHO OFF
SET hr=%time:~0,2%
IF "%hr:~0,1%" equ " " set hr=0%hr:~1,1%
SET DATETIME=Log_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%_%hr%%time:~3,2%%time:~6,2%
SET LOG_FILE=logs/%DATETIME%.log
IF NOT EXIST logs MKDIR logs
powershell ".\chia_plot.exe -t E:\ -2 G:\ -d D:\CHIA\ -r 16 -u 512 -v 128 -n 1 -c poolkey -f farmerkey | tee '%LOG_FILE%'"
PAUSE

  • From all that code we will focus on this line only:
    powershell ".\chia_plot.exe -t E:\ -2 G:\ -d D:\CHIA\ -r 16 -u 512 -v 128 -n 27 -c poolkey -f farmerkey | tee '%LOG_FILE%'"
  1. “-t E:\” is my first nvme ssd for temporary plotting which is WD_Black SN750 1TB (-t, –tmpdir arg Temporary directory, needs ~220 GiB (default = $PWD)) <tmpdir> needs about 220 GiB space, it will handle about 25% of all writes. (Examples: ‘./’, ‘/mnt/tmp/’)
  2. “-2 G:\” is my second nvme ssd for temporary plotting which is WD_Black SN750 1TB (-2, –tmpdir2 arg Temporary directory 2, needs ~110 GiB [RAM] (default = <tmpdir>)) <tmpdir2> needs about 110 GiB space and ideally is a RAM drive, it will handle about 75% of all writes. Combined (tmpdir + tmpdir2) peak disk usage is less than 256 GiB. I assigned each of my plotting SSD’s to each temporary directory: “-t E:\ -2 G:\”. This means that my fastest and most durable SSD is -tmpdir2, and it handles 75% of the writing. The second, cheaper SSD is assigned to –tempdir, and it’s mostly there to prevent write speed bottlenecks.
  3. “-d D:\CHIA\” i have the current active farming HDD like Seagate Exos or Western Digital under –finaldir. That’s where the completed plots are being saved to (-d, –finaldir arg Final directory (default = <tmpdir>))
  4. “-r 16” I assign up to 16 threads per plot, cpu which is a Ryzen 9 3950x. Do notice that –r simply limits the maximum amount of threads that can be used per plot. It does not lock those threads to that task alone. Any –r value higher than 16 proved to not change anything. At least on my rigs. (-r, –threads arg Number of threads (default = 4))
  5. “-u 512” pahse one buckets (P1) 512 (-u, –buckets arg Number of buckets (default = 256))
  6. “-v 128” phase tree + four 128 (P3+P4) (-v, –buckets3 arg Number of buckets for phase 3+4 (default = buckets)) this plotter allows you to increase the bucket amount past 128. I set mine to “-u 512 -v 128”. Combined with –r 16, this improved performance greatly.
  7. “-n 27” how many plots to create with the current run, in my case 27 plots to be created for a 3TB HDD  (-n, –count arg Number of plots to create (default = 1, -1 = infinite))
  8. “-c POOLKEY” here will be added your key for pools. Here is how yo get the pool key: Run PowerShell and write “chia plotnft show” then look for “P2 singleton address (pool contract address for plotting)” and copy it.
  9. “-f FARMERKEY” Here is how to get the farmer key: In the same PowerShell terminal write “chia keys show” and copy the key where it says “Farmer public key“.
  • We are ready to start creating the first plots, run “plot_with_log.cmd” and it will begin the plotting creation process
  • have fun! 🙂

 

My results with 16 threads:

Total plot creation time was 1699.33 sec (28.3221 min)

 

Plotting with two madMax instances

As I mentioned earlier, you can run two instances of this plotter in parallel with diminishing returns. On a rig with 32 CPU threads and 32GB RAM, the plot creation time goes from 28 minutes to 55 minutes per instance, per plot. This means that each plot takes an average of 25 minutes to create.

  • Plot 1: 3095.17 sec (51.5862 min)
  • Plot 2: 3114.45 sec (51.9075 min)
  • total time per plot: 25.8734 min

 

How to rePlot for Pools w/ PSChiaPlotter & MadMax

Now that official pools are live, we have to replot again for portable plots (also known as pool plots). If you already have quite a few plots being farmed on, re-plotting will be a hit to your performance until all of them are converted.
There’s a way to mitigate that, though. If you use the PSChiaPlotter in conjunction with the madMAx43v3r plotter, you can re-plot almost seamlessly.
Huge shootout to NotAnotherTech Channel for making this possible.

With this duo, you can still solo farm with all of your old plots, even those that are about to get deleted.
All you have to do is configure the Replot function in the PSChiaPlotter to use the madMax plotter.
Otherwise, you would have to delete a few plots to make room for the new ones, meaning that you’d have fewer plots farming during the re-plotting process.
Or, if you use the PSChiaPlotter alone, you’d lose on the extra speed madMAx43v3r can provide.

There is no need for me to make a step by step tutorial for this because NotAnotherTech Channel did it perfectly and i had nothing else to add, anyway if you have questions let me know. Here is how you should do it:

PSChiaPlotter RePlottingPSChiaPlotter RePlotting
PSChiaPlotter replotting with madmaxPSChiaPlotter replotting with madmax
pschiaplotter and madmax chia replotting final drivespschiaplotter and madmax chia replotting final drives
pschiaplotter and madmax chia replot configpschiaplotter and madmax chia replot config
Disclaimer: This is not financial advise, I am not a financial advisor, this is for educational purposes only. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency please do your own research and invest at your own risk, 1stMiningRig is never liable for any decisions you make. 1stMiningRig may receive donations or sponsorships in association with certain content creation. 1stMiningRig may receive compensation when affiliate/referral links are used.
Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. Subscribe and stay tuned for further updates!

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]]> 14433 Best Hardware for Chia Plotting – July 2021 – 30 Minutes per Plot?! https://1stminingrig.com/best-hardware-for-chia-plotting/ Sun, 11 Jul 2021 05:28:06 +0000 https://1stminingrig.com/?p=14311

There are a lot of misconceptions about Chia plotting and farming. If you’d like to start farming Chia but don’t have the time to dig through forums and guides, you’ve come to the right place. Hopefully, this guide will help you avoid the trial and error I had to go through. Today, we’ll be talking […]

The post Best Hardware for Chia Plotting – July 2021 – 30 Minutes per Plot?! appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

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There are a lot of misconceptions about Chia plotting and farming. If you’d like to start farming Chia but don’t have the time to dig through forums and guides, you’ve come to the right place. Hopefully, this guide will help you avoid the trial and error I had to go through.

Today, we’ll be talking about Chia plotting, and specifically, which hardware to use to get the best return on investment. In this guide, I will explore both budget and high-end setups. Choose which one suits you the best.

chia plotting pcchia plotting pc
chia plotting ssdschia plotting ssds

Why Using Separate Hardware for Chia Plotting?

Most Chia guides will tell you to simply grab a hard drive, launch the Chia plotter and call it a day. While this approach works, it’s far from being efficient.

Why should you care about efficiency, though? According to official sources, we reached a total of one million active plots. That’s a lot of competition, and if you want to earn any profit of Chia farming, you have to get a good rig for the least money possible. It’s all about knowing which corners to cut, and which ones to not.

Plotting and farming are two different processes that put load on different parts of your Chia hardware:

  • Plotting is very CPU- and RAM-intensive, especially if you want to do parallel plotting (and you DO want to do it so you don’t lag behind). It also is very taxing on the drive you are using – we have discussed this in my Chia review but in brief, plotting on a consumer-grade SSD is a very bad idea.
  • Farming, on the other hand, is a passive process that can be done on virtually any low-end PC with any kind of modern HDD or SSD.
swar chia plotingswar chia ploting
chia farming guichia farming gui

Optimal Chia Plotting Rig Setup

Based on my own experience, as well as on what the community says, the best setup is to have one PC dedicated to Chia plotting, and another one (or more) for Chia farming. This way, you get good plotting speed while avoiding over-investing on several high-end PCs. However, it’s still possible to combine both plotting and farming on the same PC, as long as you have the proper storage setup, below you will find the best cases i could found to store lots of HDDs depending of how much you would like to invest.

Now, most people I know use the SWAR plotter, and try to run as many plots in parallel as possible. The average speed for most people seems to be 8 plots every 7-12 hours. I personally now use the MadMAx43v3r Chia Plotter instead that does serial plotting. With it, I can achieve speeds between to 25 and 30 minutes per plot. This guide will show you the hardware I’m using for that.

For plotting, you’d ideally want to have a:

  • CPU with 16 to 32 threads and cores,
  • At least 32GB of RAM,
  • At least two m.2 NVME SSD with both good writing speed (MLC NAND) and endurance (High TBW or Terabytes Write value)
madmax chia plotting 28 minutesmadmax chia plotting 28 minutes
chia plotting pc gaming and miningchia plotting pc gaming and mining

Here is my plotting PC. I already had it built for another project (LINK#1, LINK#2)

phanteks case chia plotting pcphanteks case chia plotting pc
noctua chia pc build casenoctua chia pc build case
ryzen 9 3950x chia plotting buildryzen 9 3950x chia plotting build
gen4 ssd chia plotting hardwaregen4 ssd chia plotting hardware
wd black sn750 chia plotting ssdwd black sn750 chia plotting ssd
ssd m2 heatsinkssd m2 heatsink
wd black sn750 custom heatsinkwd black sn750 custom heatsink
wd black sn750 chia plotting heatsinkwd black sn750 chia plotting heatsink
m.2 nvme pcie adapterm.2 nvme pcie adapter
wd black pcie m.2 adapterwd black pcie m.2 adapter
chia plotting pcie m.2 adapterchia plotting pcie m.2 adapter
2x wd black sn750 for chia plotting2x wd black sn750 for chia plotting
chia plotting pcchia plotting pc
chia plotting ssdschia plotting ssds

Below, you will notice that the only two things that change between the budget and high-end versions are the CPU and RAM specifications. The PSU, motherboard and system SSD are the exact same for both lists, which means that there is always the option to upgrade your rig afterwards if you start with the budget version.

What also varies besides the CPU and RAM is the amount and type of plotting SSDs to use in the rig. I will be detailing which model and capacity to pick, too.

Best Chia Plotting Hardware

Part 1/3: Choosing the hardware
Optimal BUDGET Chia Plotting Hardware

This setup is both affordable and upgradeable. It’s a good way to getting started in Chia plotting without over investing.

As a rule of thumb, more threads let your rig work on more plots in parallel for the SWAR plotter. Since we will be running the madMAx43v3r plotter instead, the AMD Ryzen 3700X lets us run one instance of it at a time for an average of 50 minutes per plot.

For the SWAR plotter, you’d need to have at least 3400MB of RAM per plot. For the madMAx43v3r plotter, you’ll be calculating your RAM based on the amount of threads used rather than based on the amount of active plots. 32GB RAM is more than enough for 16 active threads.

The ASRock X570 is a great all-around motherboard that works for both plotting and farming. Here are the reasons I picked it over any other. The ASRock X570 has:

    1. 8 sata III ports that will allow us to connect 8 farming HDDs later on.
    2. 8 USB 3.2 ports to connect external HDDs as well
    3. 2 PCIe 16x lanes that let us install two m.2 nvme adapters, and add more plotting SSDs. This is crucial in case you’d like to upgrade your CPU and RAM later down the road.
    4. 2 m.2 NVME ports

For the money, you are getting a gold certified PSU that has great quality and efficiency. The gold rating is especially important when you have the rig running 24/7. Another important feature is that this model comes with 6 SATA power connectors, as well as three MOLEX that can be connected to two extra SSD’s with the right adapters.

This humble consumer-grade 250GB SSD is meant to run the system and host the plotting software. When it comes to plotter SSDs, there are plenty of options, and I detail them below.

 

Optimal MID-HIGH End Chia Plotting Hardware

This is arguably the best setup you can get at home. What’s nice is that it’s still a consumer-grade PC, meaning you can later use it for purposes other than mining Chia.

The AMD Ryzen 3950X lets a rig run up to 8 plots in parallel with the SWAR plotter, or two instances of the madMAx43v3r plotter at a time to achieve around 30 minutes per plot goal.

Part 2/3: Choosing the SSD for plotting
Best SSD’s for Chia Plotting

The drives you will be using for Chia plotting will depend on what kind of CPU do you go for. Obviously, you want the SSD speed to match that of the CPU to avoid any bottlenecking.

This model maintains its writing speed thorough the entire plotting process thanks to its MLC NAND. Because of this, it is the fastest drive on this list. It also features an over the top 1200 TBW, which should be enough to create at least 900 plots. Use this drive for the second temporary folder (as detailed below).

This model is about cheaper 30% than the previous one. It features 600 TBW, and a slightly slower writing speed, though it still ranks among one of the fastest SSDs for Chia plotting.

This model still features the same 600 TBW, and write speeds that hover around 1400 MB/s when plotting. This gives you plenty of headroom without breaking the bank.

The slowest of the list, the SN750 is also the cheapest. Coming at 600 TBW, it is probably the best budget option for Chia plotting you can find.

Last but not least, this Sabrent SSD is a quality drive with solid 1,400 TBW endurance, as well as great performance. It’s also the most expensive drive on this list. You might have heard people complain about it but I personally had no issues with these drives so far.

Sabrent Plotripper

The Plotripper is an upcoming model announced by Sabrent designed specifically for Chia plotting. Its selling points are insane TBW capacity, as well as allegedly reasonable pricing. We still have to wait to see the real numbers, though.

That was the selection of the drives I personally find the best for plotting. If you want to get something else, here are the main key aspects to consider:

  • The form factor – For optimal results, you’d want an M.2 NVMe. This grants you the fastest write speeds, and reduces the chance of the drive speed being the bottleneck. You can additionally use a PCIe adapter for your NVMe drives.
  • Lifespan – Measured in TBW (Terabytes Written), the lifespan of a SSD can vary dramatically depending on the model. As expected, consumer-grade models weren’t designed for intense operations like Chia plotting.
  • NAND Type – This is a pretty lengthy topic but to sum it up for you, drives with Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND are good, whereas drives with Quad-Level Cell (QLC) are bad. This might seem counter-intuitive at first since QLC drives have a higher advertised read/write speed however, they generally lose about 80% of their speed after 200-300 seconds of intense file transfer, whereas the performance of a MLC remains consistent. This graph illustrates this topic pretty well.

1 TB vs 2 TB SSD’s for Chia Plotting

You probably noticed that my list includes only 1TB SSD drives, even though 2TB seems to be the popular choice nowadays. I’m basing this recommendation off my own tests. Here’s what I found out:

The madMAx43v3r plotter uses two different temporary directories while plotting, and a final directory where the completed plot is stored. I will go over the specifics in my Plotting guide but for now I will say that you really want to split the three directories on three separate drives to achieve the best performance:

  • The first directory needs about ~220 GiB of free space and handles about 25% of the all the writes (about 400GB).
  • The second directory needs about ~110 GiB of free space and handles about 75% of all the writes (About 1200GB). Ideally, you’d want to have a RAM drive there. If not, set that directory to your drive with the best TBW, and the fastest write speed.
  • The third and final directory is your farming HDD. Ideally, it’s your slower but massive hard disk drive. It can be an USB drive too.

As you can see, you can get away with one expensive, and one less expensive SSD for your plotting drives. You also don’t have to waste money on 2TB SSD’s since the plotter won’t use the extra space anyway.

Now, a common counterargument is that 2TB drives have higher TBW than 1TB ones. While true, let’s not forget that the real TBW of SSD drives is often higher than the one advertised. A good example is my WD_Black SN750 1Tb drive that has 77% of its advertised TBW value used but is still sitting at 54% health.

Besides, it’s better to buy one high-end 1TB SSD with high TBW (such as the Samsung 970 PRO 1TB) than a mid-end 2TB drive. With the high end-drive, not only you get the same TBW, you also get better and more stable write speed.

Part 3/3: Choosing The Best Chia Plotting & Farming Case
Mid-End CASE: Fractal Define 5

I personally find Fractal Design Define R5 case perfect. It’s big enough to fit everything in it: it features 8x slots for 3.5 HHDs, and you can install up to 6 fans on it. It already comes with two. If you want to add more, I would recommend these: Fractal Design Dynamic X2 GP-14 Computer Fan – Silent Fan – High Airflow

chia farming case Fractal Design Define R5chia farming case Fractal Design Define R5
chia plotting and farming case Fractal Design Define R5chia plotting and farming case Fractal Design Define R5
High-End CASE: Fractal Define 7 XL

If you are taking Chia farming very seriously, the Fractal Define 7 XL might be a better choice for you. For the money, you get room for up to 20 (!!) 3.5 HDDs. You simply can’t beat this for the money. Just don’t forget to install enough additional fans to keep the whole system cool.

chia plotting and farming Fractal Design Define 7 XLchia plotting and farming Fractal Design Define 7 XL
chia plotting and farming Fractal Design Define 7 XL 2chia plotting and farming Fractal Design Define 7 XL 2
NOTE: I have selected this two specific cases because once you finish plotting you can turn your plotting pc to a farming pc as well, so any of these cases are perfect to get started even if you choose to create a mid budget or high end plotting pc. I personaly got the Define 7 XL 🙂
chia farming case fractal design define 7 xlchia farming case fractal design define 7 xl
fractal design define 7 xl server nas chia farming conversionfractal design define 7 xl server nas chia farming conversion
chia farming and plotting fractal define 7 xlchia farming and plotting fractal define 7 xl
chia farming fractal define 7 xl server conversionchia farming fractal define 7 xl server conversion
Best Chia Plotting Hardware – Accessories and Parts

Since the motherboard has only 8 SATA ports that means you can store 8 3.5 HDDs only, just perfect for Fractal Define 5, as for the Fractal Define 7 XL we will need few more parts and accessories in order to fill up the case with 12 more 3.5 HDDs. Here is the list:

The LSI SAS/SATA controller can hold up to 8 HDDs. The Syba controller can also have up to 8 HDDs connected and unlike the LSI it comes with 2x SAS/SATA cables needed for HDD connections.

2 pairs are needed in case you go with the LSI MegaRAID SAS/SATA controller board.

If you go with the Fractal Define 5 most probably you will not need just one SATA splitter (if using PSU recommende by me), but if you go for Fractal Define 7 XL you will need 4x splitters for sure.

8x cables in total is what you need no matter which case you choose betweed Define 5 and 7.

How to Plot and Farm Chia

Now that you have your plotting rig ready, it’s time to get started with the actual plotting. Below, you will find my Farming Rig Setup guide, as well as my full Plotting Guide:

Please share your feedback in the comments below. Thanks!

Disclaimer: This is not financial advise, I am not a financial advisor, this is for educational purposes only. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency please do your own research and invest at your own risk, 1stMiningRig is never liable for any decisions you make. 1stMiningRig may receive donations or sponsorships in association with certain content creation. 1stMiningRig may receive compensation when affiliate/referral links are used.
Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. Subscribe and stay tuned for further updates!

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]]> 14311 Ledger Nano X in 2021 – What’s New and How to Not get Scammed – My Updated Review https://1stminingrig.com/ledger-nano-x-in-2021/ Fri, 02 Jul 2021 01:04:08 +0000 https://1stminingrig.com/?p=13985

This review is NOT sponsored and contains affiliate links. I’ve been a user of Ledger hardware wallets since 2017, and today I’d like to post my updated review on the Nano X. In this review, I’d like to introduce the wallet to those who are new to the product, as well as talk about the […]

The post Ledger Nano X in 2021 – What’s New and How to Not get Scammed – My Updated Review appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

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This review is NOT sponsored and contains affiliate links.

I’ve been a user of Ledger hardware wallets since 2017, and today I’d like to post my updated review on the Nano X.

In this review, I’d like to introduce the wallet to those who are new to the product, as well as talk about the features that have been added since 2018. Since my main focus is security, I will be also sharing some critical information that will hopefully help you stay safe and avoid getting scammed.

Ledger Nano X Review 2021

What’s a Ledger Nano X?

The Nano X is a hardware wallet that supports over 1500 different assets, and can store up to 100 of them at the same time. It supports all of the mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Stellar, Monero, as well as many alt coins and their derivatives. Here’s a full list of the supported assets.

On the outside, the Nano X looks like a pen drive with a stainless steel cover. The body of the Nano is made of plastic however, it feels way sturdier than that of the average pen drive. The device features a 30×13 mm screen, and two buttons. It can be connected via USB to your desktop (MacOS or Windows) or via Bluetooth to your phone (iOS 9+ or Android 7+).

Despite its seeming simplicity, the Nano X is an advanced device that features a high-end ST33J2M0 secure element, as well as its own operating system. This makes the device immune to any remote attacks, as well as makes it highly resistant to attacks even in the unfortunate case a hacker gets their hands on the physical device.

Note: I say “highly resistant to attacks” to avoid confusion. If your device gets lost or stolen, it’s critical to restore your funds with the recovery seed and transfer them to a different wallet asap. No matter how secure the device is, you don’t want hackers to possess the chip that has your encrypted keys on it.
ledger nano x displayledger nano x display
ledger nano x penledger nano x pen

What does the Ledger Nano X do?

The device has two functions:

The first one is to store your personal keys. As you probably know by now, all of the coins are out there in the blockchain; your wallet just holds a set of keys that prove your ownership of those coins.

You can obviously create a so-called software wallet on your PC and back up your keys on an USB stick, or even create a cloud wallet and trust a third party to store the keys for you. While not a particularly bad idea for small sums of cryptos, this method is far from safe.

You probably know how vulnerable are computers and smartphones to hacker attacks. A number of keyloggers and trojans remain undetected even by the best antiviruses, and can leak your personal keys to the hacker as soon as they appear on your device.

Here’s where the Nano X comes into play. Its second function is to authorize transactions while keeping the private keys secret. This way, you can operate a cryptocurrency wallet even from an infected computer or smartphone safer, as long as you follow certain guidelines (as detailed in the sections below).

The Nano X has signing authority for transactions. While you cannot initiate transactions straight from the device, you do use it to manually confirm every transaction you do by pushing one of the two physical buttons on the device.

ledger nano x 24 words seedledger nano x 24 words seed
ledger nano x 24 words seed backup paperledger nano x 24 words seed backup paper

Here’s how it works:

  • You start by creating your wallet on the device, and you write down the recovery words somewhere safe.
  • Then, you link a software wallet of your choice to your Ledger device. This way, you can use the interface of that software wallet to manage the funds on your Ledger.
  • Every time you send crypto to someone, you will have to either confirm or deny the transaction by pressing one of the two buttons on your Nano X. The screen will display the recipient address, which will allow you to verify that you’re sending the funds to the right person.
  • If a transaction was initiated by a hacker, you will be able to decline it, and keep your money safe.

Simply put, if a hacker gets to initiate a transaction from your wallet, they won’t be able to complete it without you physically pushing the button on your Ledger.

Note: Even though the Ledger does offer an extra layer of protection against hackers, it’s still a good idea to only connect it to a PC that has a freshly installed operative system on it to prevent MITM attacks. More on that below.

 

What’s New: Ledger Live

The Ledger Live is a new application that is being developed and hosted by Ledger. As its description states, Ledger Live is “the one-stop shop for your crypto”.

Originally, all Ledger devices only operated with third-party wallets and exchanges. Most of the biggest wallets and sites allow you to link your ledger device to them to add that extra layer of security.

Now, Ledger decided to make life easier for their customers and released their own app that offers a simple interface for storing, buying, selling, swapping, and stacking your crypto. The app is available for Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android.

Note: Even though the app is developed by Ledger, two of its key functions are still powered by third parties – the buy/sell option is powered by the Coinify gateway, and the swap option by Changelly.

Make sure to download the app from the official Ledger website to avoid scams.

ledger live installationledger live installation
ledger live add accountledger live add account
ledger live portfolioledger live portfolio
ledger live app managerledger live app manager
ledger live accounts listledger live accounts list
ledger live buy and sell cryptoledger live buy and sell crypto
ledger live install new accountsledger live install new accounts
ledger live swapledger live swap

Common Questions

What happens if your Nano X gets stolen?
In the unfortunate event this happens, you will most likely have some time to use your 24 word recovery phrase on a new device to access your funds again, and transfer them to a new wallet. Here’s how. As you know, the wallet operates with a 4- or 8- digit pin. The seed gets wiped out from the device if a wrong pin is entered three times in a row, so the device is protected against brute force attacks. There are talks about other methods a hacker can potentially use to access the data on the chip however, those require time and specialized equipment.
What happens if you lose your 24 word recovery phrase?
If you still have access to your ledger, you can create a new wallet (make sure to write down the new recovery phrase), and transfer all your funds there.

Pro Tip: You can back up your recovery seed on a device such as a Cryptosteel Capsule Solo or billfodl. 

 

Ledger Nano X vs Nano S

The Nano X is the newest model, and it offers more features, and an overall better user experience compared to that of the Nano S. Both devices are still manufactured and supported by Ledger, with user experience being one of the key differences between the two: Also check on official website!

Ledger Nano X Ledger Nano S
Apps installed simultaneously Up to 100 Up to 20
Compatible crypto assets 1,500+ 1,500+
Compatible wallets 50+ 50+
Bluetooth Yes, can be connected to smartphones –
Screen size 128 x 64 pixels 128 x 32 pixels
Connector USB Type-C USB Type Micro-B
Battery 8 hours –
Price €119 €59

Ledger Nano X Hacks and Scams – All You Need to Know

Since its release, there have been quite a few attempts to both hack the device itself, as well as trick Ledger users into sharing their private keys in one way or another. None of this was known to the early adopters of the Ledger, and hundreds of users lost their cryptos. If you’re new, you’ll have the privilege of learning from other’s mistakes, and have a more pleasant experience with your Ledger.

Please read this section carefully to get a better understanding on what to, and what to not do:

Man in the Middle Attacks

It’s no rocket science that malware can infect your PC without you or your antivirus noticing it. Once a PC is infected, you can no longer trust what’s displayed on your computer screen. While your Ledger will prevent hackers from accessing your recovery seed and wiping your wallet completely, they can still reroute your payment to a different address if you’re not cautious enough.

Solution: When making a transaction, make sure to follow the steps detailed here. Also, ideally you want to keep your wallet accessing PC offline and only for that purpose, and have a different PC for regular web surfing.

Note: Please do not confuse a MITM attack with a normal BTC address change due to UTXO. If confused, read this topic.

Chrome Extensions

9 months ago, a man created this thread where he claimed that his Ledger got hacked remotely. After some investigation, it became clear that the man downloaded a third-party Chrome extension for the wallet, and introduced his 24-word seed there.

Lesson learned: the official Ledger app will never ask you for your 24 words. Besides, there is no official Ledger Chrome extension, so that app the man downloaded was clearly made by scammers.

Third-Party Sellers

Some people buy their devices from sites like eBay and Craiglist. You can find some really “sweet” deals there but here’s the thing – nothing comes for free.

Back in 2018, a young hacker named Saleem Rashid claimed to have being able to hack a Ledger device. His method requires him to have the physical device in order to install a custom firmware on it through USB.

As far as I know, this issue has been addressed, and the Saleem Rashid now appears on Ledger’s hall of fame. Now, it’s unknown whether there are other ways to exploit a Ledger device so the lesson is pretty clear: avoid third-party sellers.

Don’t get me wrong – the Ledger Nano X is a very secure device that also has an inbuilt integrity check system. Still, it’s a good idea to play it as safe as possible.

Supply Chain Attacks

As this blog post by Kaspersky Labs details, a hacker could potentially install a hardware implant on the Ledger to make it leak your funds. While it’s certainly not easy for a hacker to get their hands on your device if you order it directly from Ledger, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Solution: Ledger devices are easy to open, and this short tutorial shows how to easily disassemble your Ledger Nano, and check whether it’s been tampered with.

Pre-Made Private Keys

As this video explains, some third-party sellers replace the original Ledger documentation with their own.

What they do is they basically pre-set the device for you. They create a private key and print two copies of it. They put one copy in the box and cover it with scratch-off ink, making it look like this is how it came from Ledger. The second copy remains in the possession of the scammer, allowing them to access your funds unless you reset your device and create a new set of recovery words.

You might think “who will fall for this?”. Thing is, with over two million Ledger devices being sold worldwide, you can bet there’s a good share of people who could potentially fall for this.

Phishing Websites

There have been (and probably still are) quite a few phishing websites that look exactly like Ledger’s. The main aim of those websites is to lure you into sharing your 24 word recovery phrase.

Takeaway: Ledger will never ask you for your 24 word recovery phrase, neither it will ask you to send them cryptos. Please, take a minute to check this screenshot compilation to get a better idea on how creative scammers can be.

Hacked Youtube Accounts

Back in February of this year, a handful of hacked youtube accounts were promoting a phishing website to Ledger users. The scam was disguised by a fake news that Ledger released a new web wallet.

Solution: Only trust announcements posted on the official Ledger Blog, official Ledger Twitter, and official Ledger Facebook page.

Data Breaches

Back in June of 2020 there was a data breach on Ledger’s e-commerce site API that leaked the contact information of over 8500 Ledger device owners. The leak consisted of strictly email addresses, phone numbers and names. No payment or credit card information was compromised. Nonetheless, this allowed scammers to send both emails and text messages to Ledger users, prompting them to click on links that would lead them to phishing websites.

Takeaway: While this particular breach was fixed, it’s a good idea to take any emails and messages with a grain of salt, even if they contain your full name. Data breaches happen even to the biggest companies, so please don’t click any links from emails no mater how credible they look like.

Getting your own Ledger Nano X

All of the major online stores sell the Nano X. As we saw earlier though, a skilled hacker can potentially tamper with the device, so it’s always a good idea to avoid third parties as much as possible.

I personally bought my Ledgers from their official store, and got it shipped to me via DHL Express.

I know €119 for one Nano X isn’t exactly cheap but for all of you looking to getting your own Ledger, here is the link. Also consider the Cryptosteel Capsule Solo to store your seed words.

There is also a possibility to buy a back up pack that consists of a Ledger Nano X and a Nano S. You get both for a total of 20% discount. You can store the Nano S in your home safe, and take the Nano X with you to make transactions on the go.

In Conclusion

At this point in time, it’s common knowledge that hardware wallets are a must for safe cryptocurrency storage. The more valuable cryptocurrencies become, the more attention they get from all sorts of thieves.

There are several companies that make hardware wallets, and while I don’t doubt that most of them make good and reliable products, I personally lean towards Ledger. Ledger products have a good track record, and the company’s active bounty system helps to improve its products constantly.

Again, this review was not sponsored by Ledger.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advise, I am not a financial advisor, this is for educational purposes only. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency please do your own research and invest at your own risk, 1stMiningRig is never liable for any decisions you make. 1stMiningRig may receive donations or sponsorships in association with certain content creation. 1stMiningRig may receive compensation when affiliate/referral links are used.
Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. Subscribe and stay tuned for further updates!

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The post Ledger Nano X in 2021 – What’s New and How to Not get Scammed – My Updated Review appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

]]> 13985 Chia Coin Review https://1stminingrig.com/chia-coin-review/ Sat, 12 Jun 2021 14:24:36 +0000 https://1stminingrig.com/?p=13931

You’ve heard about Chia before – some say it’s the new gold mine, others label it just another shitcoin and move on. Unlike certain sensationalists out there, I took the time to follow and study the project for a bit before I decided to write this review. Hopefully, it will help you to better understand […]

The post Chia Coin Review appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

]]>

You’ve heard about Chia before – some say it’s the new gold mine, others label it just another shitcoin and move on.

Unlike certain sensationalists out there, I took the time to follow and study the project for a bit before I decided to write this review. Hopefully, it will help you to better understand whether Chia is for you.

This is going to be part of my Chia series where I will be testing different hardware, and assembling Chia farming and plotting rigs, so if you’re interested in that, make sure to follow me.

Chia Network Review

What is Chia? The Basics

Chia is a new coin that aims to solve some of the issues we have with most of the currently used cryptocurrencies. Namely, the main aim of Chia is to move away from both Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Concept models into a totally new territory.

Chia coin introduces a new concept – Proof of Space and Time (POST). It is meant to be way greener than POW, as well as more secure than POS. Unlike POW, POST is also meant to make mining more accessible for the average Joe since it requires storage space instead of raw hashing power. And by being less power-hungry, Chia mining should in theory be profitable even for those of us living in areas with expensive electricity.

 

POST vs. POW

The issue with proof of work is that it’s not eco-friendly at all. The amount of energy used worldwide by Bitcoin miners alone stands close to what a small country consumes. A lot of POW coins also struggle with centralization issues – we see more and more hashrate coming from huge mining farms with specialized equipment.

Proof of space, on the other hand, utilizes hard drive storage space. Unlike other projects like SIA and Storj, Chia does not offer decentralized storage. Instead, it’s basically CPU mining that requires a bit of CPU power and a lot of free storage to validate transactions on the network.

To prevent grinding attacks like on Burstcoins, Chia also implemented a proof-of-time concept. Plotting takes quite a lot of time and work, and that has been implemented on purpose to prevent people from abusing the system through constant plot overriding.

 

Chia Features

Chia was created by Bram Cohen of BitTorrent Fame. It is written in Chialisp, a lisp-like language. Just like Ethereum, it allows smart contracts. The Chia wallet already supports atomic swaps and multisig. Users can also build their own cryptocurrencies based on Chia called ‘Color Coins’. Users can then create their own rules how those coins work, and peg them to real world and/or assets, use them for reward schemes, etc.

 

Chia Plotting and Farming

Unlike most other minable coins, Chia mining consists of two parts:

  • The first one is called ‘Plotting’. Plotting is the process of assigning a certain part of your hard drive to the Chia network. It’s a process that takes 5-15 hours per plot (depending on your drive speed and setup).
  • The second part is called ‘Farming’. Every 10 minutes, 32 active plots are randomly selected to be allowed to mine 2 Chia tokens. Just like with Bitcoin, these rewards will be halved every 3 years until they reach a hard cap of 4 Chia every 10 minutes.
chia gui plottingchia gui plotting
chia farmingchia farming

Note: Chia mining was labeled as ‘farming’ by its devs to empathize the eco-friendly nature of the coin, as well as to prevent it from being associated with the less and less loved word ‘mining’. In reality though, the therm ‘mining’ is still technically correct, and the word ‘farming’ is just flair.

 

Chia Mining Hardware Requirements

In theory, Chia can be mined/famed on virtually any PC that has at least 250 GB free storage space. Even though every plot takes about 100GB of space, the plotting process requires you to have a headroom of about 250 GB. There are no minimum requirements regarding CPU power, as long as it’s not a totally outdated model.

While this sounds simple enough on paper, the reality is obviously a bit more complex (Just a bit, I promise!… with my fingers crossed behind my back). Here are some things you need to know before farming Chia:

  1. Hard Drive Speed Matters a LOT

Slow hard drives offer slow plot times, which translates into less profits.

In POW mining, we have something called hashrate, and the more a piece of mining gear hashes, the more profit it brings. Chia mining is the same, except that what counts is drive speed rather than computational power.

Now, as we know, the speed of a drive is determined by the drive itself, its connection type (SATA, PCIe, etc), as well as the motherboard port types. This means that ultimately, Chia mining speed still varies depending on the used gear, and the differences might be huge.

Here is a list with what most of the users use to create Chia plots (i wil have my own list of NVMe ssds in the next article):

  1. You’ll Need A TON of Plots

At the time I am writing this, the average chances for one plot of finding a block are very thin. According to the calculator built into the official Chia farming software, the average time it will take one plot to hit the jackpot is 13 years. This number can easily double in the next month as more miners join.Basically, if you want to get any sort of profit off of Chia mining, you’d need at least 40-50 TB worth of high-speed storage.

  1. Chia Farming Kills Consumer-Grade SSDs

If you’re planning on mining on your gaming PC, Chia plotting can easily kill your SSD drive. During the plotting process, the drive has to read and write terabytes worth of information. If you don’t know already, every solid state drive has its write limit (called TBW). Basically, there is a certain amount of information the SSD can handle before it dies.

Chia farming will kill most consumer-grade SSD’s pretty fast. Most of the drives won’t last more than two months. An expensive enterprise-grade drive however might survive Chia mining for up to two years.

  1. You Might Need a Dedicated Chia Plotting Rig

With how long it takes to create one single plot, the Chia miner software offers you the option to create several plots in parallel. While this comes in handy if you have several drives connected to your PC, creating more than one plot at a time applies a considerable load on your CPU and RAM usage.

Having all of that in mind, if you want to have a chance of profiting off farming Chia, you might want to get a dedicated Chia mining rig with enterprise-grade SSDs, decent CPU and RAM.

This is what i am using right now for plotting Chia, in the next article i will have a more detailed list for both budget and high end plotting and farming rig:

chia plotting pcchia plotting pc
chia plotting ssdschia plotting ssds

 

Chia Mining Competition and Possible Issues

The mining landscape is shaped by the amount and size of active miners. Ideally, home miners should be only competing with other home miners but it proved to not be the case with POW coins. Most POW coins are dominated by big companies that own huge mining farms, and take advantage of regions with cheap or free electricity.

Chia mining is not power-intensive, so that’s a plus. As a downside, a lot of the existing data centers all around the globe can easily become Chia mining farms. Server-grade storage drives are perfect for Chia mining thanks to their high access speed and durability.

If you’re mining at home, you might want to get into the project asap before the network gets too saturated. There’s a catch, though:

Chia Pool Mining

Yes, that amazing thing called ‘pool mining’ isn’t yet officially available for Chia. Why is it important?

Just like with conventional GPU and ASIC mining, there is a fixed amount of coins mined every day, and the more units mine the coin, the lesser are the chances for each of them to get the reward.

Now, since Chia does not have any official mining pools, everyone has to solo mine. This is what produces the lottery ticket effect – as a miner, instead of a constant slow stream of cryptos that’s based on your plot count, every tick you either get nothing or two entire Chia tokens (XCH), purely based on luck. While adding more plots increases your odds, there is always that chance that someone with one plot comes and shamelessly steals the jackpot.

Currently, only community pools are available for use but they don’t seem to be reliable. Official pools are planned to be released next month.

 

In Conclusion

Chia is a new cryptocurrency is gaining a lot of traction. It has been listed on exchangers very recently, and over the past month, the list of exchangers the coin could be bought from expanded from 3 to 17. With its price currently hovering between the 600 and 700 dollar mark per coin, Chia is one of the coins that might be worth mining, at least until big storage providers step into the game.

I am working on several guides on how to farm Chia efficiently, so stay tuned! Next one will be about the best hardware for plotting Chia.

Subscribe below to get notified instantly when new Chia related articles are published

Chia useful links:

Official website: https://www.chia.net/

Forum: https://chiaforum.com/

Farming Calculator: https://chiacalculator.com/

Disclaimer: This is not financial advise, I am not a financial advisor, this is for educational purposes only. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency please do your own research and invest at your own risk, 1stMiningRig is never liable for any decisions you make. 1stMiningRig may receive donations or sponsorships in association with certain content creation. 1stMiningRig may receive compensation when affiliate/referral links are used.
Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. Subscribe and stay tuned for further updates!

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]]> 13931 NVidia is ‘Nerfing’ the RTX 30xx GPU’s for Ethereum Mining – It Comes with Its Downsides https://1stminingrig.com/nvidia-is-nerfing-the-rtx-30xx-gpus-for-ethereum-mining-it-comes-with-its-downsides/ Sat, 06 Mar 2021 10:53:51 +0000 https://1stminingrig.com/?p=13904

Recently, NVidia announced in their blog that the company is implementing a new “feature” to their RTX 3060 and future cards. This new implementation will detect mining-related operations and limit the GPU resources, thus reducing mining speed. What’s going on? So far, the only affected cryptocurrency is Ethereum. The hashrate reduction is a solid 50%. […]

The post NVidia is ‘Nerfing’ the RTX 30xx GPU’s for Ethereum Mining – It Comes with Its Downsides appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

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Recently, NVidia announced in their blog that the company is implementing a new “feature” to their RTX 3060 and future cards. This new implementation will detect mining-related operations and limit the GPU resources, thus reducing mining speed.

What’s going on?

So far, the only affected cryptocurrency is Ethereum. The hashrate reduction is a solid 50%. According to NVidia, the reason for this ‘nerf’ is to decrease the demand for new-gen GPUs in the mining community, and fight the current gaming GPU shortage.

we’re taking an important step to help ensure GeForce GPUs end up in the hands of gamers.<span class="su-quote-cite"><a href="https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/02/18/geforce-cmp/" target="_blank">Nvidia</a></span>

NVidia however still wants to support the mining community. In order to do that, the company announced the NVidia CMP – a GPU-like card without any output ports designed specifically for mining GPU-minable coins.

We have already seen something similar with the Nvidia P102-100 GPUs , though never before NVidia has forced miners away from using gaming GPUs so openly.

The Downsides

As a gamer myself, I would love to see the gaming GPU shortage issue solved. In fact, the only reason I’ve got into mining a few years ago was so I could game on a high-end GPU and have it pay for itself over time.

Having gaming gear that pays for itself is any gamer’s dream. Now, do these actions by NVidia get us any closer to that dream?

The answer is probably no. Here’s why:

#1. Big Mining Facilities Will Still Deplete Gaming GPU Stocks

Some people zealously defend NVidia for its decision. What they don’t understand is that mining is a GPU sink. Big mining facilities will keep buying GPUs in bulk as long as mining is somewhat profitable.

And here’s the thing – NVidia is more than happy to supply miners with gaming GPUs.

Some of you already noticed that NVidia is using the term ‘Mining community’ a bit too vaguely, which makes some of their public statements misleading. Let me explain.

We need to understand that the mining community is comprised of two groups of people. The first group are the home miners, most of which are gamers, the ones NVidia is supposed to be defending.

The second group are the big mining facilities. They are the ones that buy most of the GPU’s and cause the gaming GPU shortage to begin with. I am talking about the multimillion companies, most of which are located in China, Iceland and other countries with free electricity. Those companies can afford to buy a big share of the available GPU stock for their farms.

If you wonder how big they are, we are talking about several companies that are worth billions of dollars that operate huge mining facilities with millions of gaming GPU’s in them.

#2 Big Mining Facilities Will Bypass the Hashrate Restrictions

NVidia stated that this hashrate limitation is implemented in the “RTX 3060 software drivers”. Thing is, custom drivers are a thing, and so are custom BIOS flashes.

Big mining companies have their own teams of IT engineers who make their own drivers for optimized mining. Only amateur miners (most of who are gamers) mine under Windows using official NVidia drivers.

This point begs a question: who will get affected by the hashrate nerf, then?

#3 Gamers Are the Only Ones Getting ‘Nerfed’ Here

Think about this: as a gamer who bought the new RTX 30xx card, you will no longer be able to mine in your spare time to make some extra money with your GPU. Not as efficiently as before anyway.

A lot of gamers are getting into mining to make up for the insanely high costs of graphic cards. Now, this alternative will become less viable.

Also, if the mining craze calms down, you might no longer have the option to go to eBay and buy a used new-gen GPU for a fraction of the price as you could back in 2019. Instead, you will have a million offers of used CMP cards you cannot use for gaming.

#4 Is Ethereum Really the Issue Here?

Another thing to consider is that NVidia is nerfing the mining hashrate of only one algorithm, which is ethash. This again rises questions on who’s going to get affected by the nerf the most. Ethereum is one of the most known coins, and it’s one of the easiest ones to mine, too. There are a lot of user-friendly miner software for the coin like CudoMiner, which makes it easier for amateurs (i.e. gamers) to get into mining.

With Ethereum mining no longer being profitable on the newest GPU’s, more experienced users will still find ways around this issue. We can always switch to non-ethash altcoins that are just a bit less profitable to mine, or use custom drivers under Linux to bypass the hashrate limitation.

The average joe however might think that GPU mining is straightforward over.

#5. NVidia’s Decision Might Affect Ethereum Decentralization

 The sole idea of GPU-minable cryptocurrencies is that anyone with a gaming GPU at home can contribute to the safety of the blockchain. This is called decentralization, and it’s is what makes cryptocurrencies so appealing. 

Obviously, the more experienced users will find their way around this issue. However, the fewer average gamers are mining the currency, the less decentralized it becomes.

On the bright side, this might open new possibilities for AMD and maybe even Intel. Besides, the GPUs we have right now will not be affected by these limitations, and they might still be profitable to mine with for a few years from now.

Will We Have Less GPU’s Now?

We are currently experiencing a global semiconductor shortage. This leads us to a question: what chips will NVidia use on their CMP’s?

First of all, developing a new chip costs hundreds of millions of dollars, so there’s little chance that NVidia will actually do that for a mining GPU. The mining scene is very unpredictable, and the insane demand in mining gear might end abruptly any day.

According to the company, they will use dice that weren’t good enough for gaming GPU’s, but that will do just fine for mining.

The chips used for CMP could not meet the specifications of GeForce and don’t impact overall GeForce capacity or availability<span class="su-quote-cite"><a href="https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2021/2/18/22290362/nvidia-will-not-reduce-3060-ti-3070-3080-3090-eth-mining" target="_blank">Nvidia</a></span>

As The Verge pointed out though, the official shot of a CMP chip looks nothing similar to that of an Ampere-based RTX 3080/3090, or the GA104 used in the RTX 3060Ti/3070. Maybe NVidia is putting old Pascal architecture chips to use.

I’m not going to speculate on whether those sub-performing dice could still be used for gaming GPU’s. I know there are a lot of talk regarding how NVidia and other companies managed to give bad dice a second life in the past. All I’m going to say is that the new CMP will not mine as fast as the RTX 30xx cards. They might however be more power-efficient.  That we will know once third-party testing becomes possible.

In Conclusion

I’m not here to bash on NVidia for their marketing decisions. The only takeaway here is that I would personally not expect this decision by NVidia to solve any issues with gaming GPU supply.

The new CMP cards might be interesting if they get sold for cheap. Just keep in mind that they have zero resale value so they still might not be the best option for home miners.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advise, I am not a financial advisor, this is for educational purposes only. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency please do your own research and invest at your own risk, 1stMiningRig is never liable for any decisions you make. 1stMiningRig may receive donations or sponsorships in association with certain content creation. 1stMiningRig may receive compensation when affiliate/referral links are used.
Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. Subscribe and stay tuned for further updates!

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The post NVidia is ‘Nerfing’ the RTX 30xx GPU’s for Ethereum Mining – It Comes with Its Downsides appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

]]> 13904 RTX 3080 Mining Hashrate Review https://1stminingrig.com/rtx-3080-mining-hashrate-review/ Sun, 28 Feb 2021 15:03:59 +0000 https://1stminingrig.com/?p=13778

The RTX 3080 is widely praised as one of the best gaming GPU’s to the date. Not only it’s more powerful than the RTX 2080, it’s also cheaper, making it undeniable a better bang for the buck. Since the card is only a few months old, little is known about its mining performance. Luckily for […]

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The RTX 3080 is widely praised as one of the best gaming GPU’s to the date. Not only it’s more powerful than the RTX 2080, it’s also cheaper, making it undeniable a better bang for the buck.

Since the card is only a few months old, little is known about its mining performance. Luckily for me, one of my friends happened to assemble a monster gaming rig with an Gigabyte RTX™ 3080 VISION OC 10G, and a new gen Ryzen 5 5600x. That beast of a PC can run Call of Duty Warzone at 240 fps average.

The man was nice enough to let me test his GPU on several mining algos.

Note: I will be getting my hands on the RTX 3090 soon to benchmark it and test it in my rigs.

Gigabyte RTX 3080 VISION OC 10G Specs

Core Clock 1‎800 MHz (Reference Card: 1710 MHz)
CUDA® Cores 8‎704
RT Cores 2nd Generation
Tensor Cores 3rd Generation
Memory Clock 1‎9000 MHz
Memory Size 1‎0 GB
Memory Type GDDR6X
Memory Bus 3‎20 bit
Memory Bandwidth 7‎60 GB/s
Card Bus PCI-E 4.0 x 16
Card size L=320 W=126 H=55 mm
Recommended PSU 7‎50W

Gigabyte RTX 3080 VISION OC 10G Unboxed

unboxing gigabyte rtx 3080 vision ocunboxing gigabyte rtx 3080 vision oc
gigabyte rtx 3080 vision oc unboxinggigabyte rtx 3080 vision oc unboxing
gigabyte rtx 3080 vision oc backplategigabyte rtx 3080 vision oc backplate
gigabyte rtx 3080 vision oc topgigabyte rtx 3080 vision oc top

Gigabyte RTX 3080 VISION OC 10G Mining Hashrate

RTX 3080 PC Build

rtx 3080 mining hashratertx 3080 mining hashrate
rtx 3080 mining hashrate reviewrtx 3080 mining hashrate review

As you will be able to see below, my first tests with the 3080 did not give the most breathtaking results. There are two reasons for that:

  • There is still no software support that would let us enjoy the full potential of the 3080 for mining. We need both better mining software and better drivers. This is pretty common for cards that are new to the mining community. Note: I was not able to test it with Bminer due to a library error.
  • The Gigabyte version apparently has issues with memory cooling, which causes hashrate drops over time. This issue is present on the Eagle OC, Vision OC, and the Gaming OC cards.

The Asus RTX™ 3080 10G, on the other hand, is reported to hash up to 97 Mh/s, though it’s not a card I had the chance to test yet. I have also not experienced any cooling issues with the 2080 and 2080Ti Gigabyte cards, so that’s a new. I will be looking further into this issue these days, and I will keep you updated.

The power consumption on the GeForce RTX™ 3080 Vision OC is quite high, with up to 350W on standard clocks, and around 250W at 70% power limit. I obviously run it on the lower power consumption settings, which give me 85 Mh/s on average for Ethash. Here’s a full list of algos and their respective hashrates:

Best Hardware for 6x RTX 3080 Mining Rig

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Gigabyte RTX 3080 Vision 3Dmark Benchmark
gigabyte rtx 3080 vision 3dmark benchmark stockgigabyte rtx 3080 vision 3dmark benchmark stock
gigabyte rtx 3080 vision 3dmark benchmark overclockgigabyte rtx 3080 vision 3dmark benchmark overclock
Gigabyte RTX 3080 Mining Hashrate Performance

Ethereum Hashrate Stock Clocks (Micron)

gigabyte rtx 3080 vision micron memorygigabyte rtx 3080 vision micron memory
gigabyte rtx 3080 ethereum hashrate stock clocksgigabyte rtx 3080 ethereum hashrate stock clocks
RTX 3080 Ethereum Hashrate (ethash)

Hashrate 87.5 MH/s

  • Clocks +1/+1000
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 230w
rtx 3080 ethereum hashrate power limit 100 with overclockrtx 3080 ethereum hashrate power limit 100 with overclock

Hashrate 82.5

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 60
  • Power Draw 222w
rtx 3080 ethereum mining hashrate power limit 60rtx 3080 ethereum mining hashrate power limit 60

I found later on that best settings for highest hashrate were to set power limit to 70% with +150/+1500 clocks.

RTX 3080 Ethereum Classic Hashrate (etchash)

Hashrate 83.5 MH/s

  • Clocks +150/+1000
  • Power Limit 60
  • Power Draw 222w
gigabyte rtx 3080 ethereum classic mining hashrategigabyte rtx 3080 ethereum classic mining hashrate
RTX 3080 Ravencoin Hashrate (kawpow)

Hashrate 44.3 MH/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 270w
gigabyte rtx 3080 ravencoin hashrate kawpow algorithm 100 power limitgigabyte rtx 3080 ravencoin hashrate kawpow algorithm 100 power limit

Hashrate 41.2

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 ravencoin hashrate kawpow algorithm 70 power limitgigabyte rtx 3080 ravencoin hashrate kawpow algorithm 70 power limit
RTX 3080 Grin Hashrate (cuckatoo29)

Hashrate 9.4 G/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 340w
gigabyte rtx 3080 grin cuckatoo29 mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 grin cuckatoo29 mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 9.3 G/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 grin cuckatoo29 mining hashrate power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 grin cuckatoo29 mining hashrate power limit 70
RTX 3080 Grin Hashrate (cuckatoo32)

Hashrate 0.94 G/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 360w
gigabyte rtx 3080 grin cuckatoo32 mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 grin cuckatoo32 mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 0.91 G/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 grin cuckatoo29 mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 grin cuckatoo29 mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Nexus Hashrate (nexushash)

Hashrate 370 MH/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 350w
gigabyte rtx 3080 nexus nexushash mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 nexus nexushash mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 372.5 MH/s

  • Clocks +150/+0
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 nexus nexushash mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 nexus nexushash mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Lux Hashrate (phi2)

Hashrate 19 MH/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 350w
gigabyte rtx 3080 luxcoin phi2 mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 luxcoin phi2 mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 19.5 MH/s

  • Clocks +150/+0
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 lux phi2 mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 lux phi2 mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Veil Hashrate (progpow-veil)

Hashrate 42.5 MH/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 290w
gigabyte rtx 3080 veil progpow-veil mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 veil progpow-veil mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 42.6 MH/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 veil progpow-veil mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 veil progpow-veil mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Beam Hashrate (beam hash III)

Hashrate 50 Sol/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 355w
gigabyte rtx 3080 beam beam hash III hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 beam beam hash III hashrate stock

Hashrate 48 Sol/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 beam beamhash 3 mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 beam beamhash 3 mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 AE Hashrate (aeternity)

Hashrate 15.6 G/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 350w
gigabyte rtx 3080 ae aeternity mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 ae aeternity mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 14.7 G/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 ae aeternity mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 ae aeternity mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Aion (equihash 210_9)

Hashrate 516 Sol/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 350w
gigabyte rtx 3080 aion equihash 210_9 mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 aion equihash 210_9 mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 506 Sol/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 aion equihash 210_9 mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 aion equihash 210_9 mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Bitcoin Gold (Equihash 144,5 BgoldPoW)

Hashrate 155 Sol/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 350w
gigabyte rtx 3080 bitcoin gold Equihash 144,5 BgoldPoW mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 bitcoin gold Equihash 144,5 BgoldPoW mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 150 Sol/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 bitcoin gold Equihash 144,5 BgoldPoW mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 bitcoin gold Equihash 144,5 BgoldPoW mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Conflux (octopus)

Hashrate 80.8 Mh/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 270w
gigabyte rtx 3080 conflux octopus mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 conflux octopus mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 81.2 MH/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 conflux octopus mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 conflux octopus mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Cortex (cortex)

Hashrate 5.25 G/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 350w
gigabyte rtx 3080 cortex mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 cortex mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 5.8  G/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 cortex mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 cortex mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 MoneroV (cuckarood29v)

Hashrate 16.2 G/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 350w
gigabyte rtx 3080 MoneroV cuckarood29v mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 MoneroV cuckarood29v mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 15.8  G/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 MoneroV cuckarood29v mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 MoneroV cuckarood29v mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 MimbleWimbleCoin (cuckarood29v)

Hashrate 16.2 G/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 350w
gigabyte rtx 3080 MimbleWimbleCoin cuckarood29 mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 MimbleWimbleCoin cuckarood29 mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 16  G/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 MimbleWimbleCoin cuckarood29 mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 MimbleWimbleCoin cuckarood29 mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Sero (sero)

Hashrate 43 Mh/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 270w
gigabyte rtx 3080 sero mining hashrate stock.pnggigabyte rtx 3080 sero mining hashrate stock.png

Hashrate 40 Mh/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 sero mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70.pnggigabyte rtx 3080 sero mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70.png
RTX 3080 Swap (cuckaroo29s)

Hashrate 15.5 G/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 350w
gigabyte rtx 3080 swap cuckaroo29s mining hashrate stock.pnggigabyte rtx 3080 swap cuckaroo29s mining hashrate stock.png

Hashrate 15 G/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 swap cuckaroo29s mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 swap cuckaroo29s mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Veriblock (VProgPoW)

Hashrate 21.2 Mh/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 270w
gigabyte rtx 3080 veriblock vprogpow mining hashrate stock.pnggigabyte rtx 3080 veriblock vprogpow mining hashrate stock.png

Hashrate 21 Mh/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 veriblock vprogpow mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 veriblock vprogpow mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 YCash (Equihash 192,7 ZcashPoW)

Hashrate 71 Sol/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 355w
gigabyte rtx 3080 ycash equihash 192,7 zcashpow mining hashrate stock.pnggigabyte rtx 3080 ycash equihash 192,7 zcashpow mining hashrate stock.png

Hashrate 68 Sol/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 ycash equihash 192,7 zcashpow mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 ycash equihash 192,7 zcashpow mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Zano (ProgPowZ)

Hashrate 41 Mh/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 zano progpowz mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 zano progpowz mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 41 Mh/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 zano progpowz mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 zano progpowz mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 ZCoin (mtp)

Hashrate 6500 Kh/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 355w
gigabyte rtx 3080 zcoin mtp mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 zcoin mtp mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 5,800 Kh/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 zcoin mtp mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70gigabyte rtx 3080 zcoin mtp mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70
RTX 3080 Zelcash (equihash 125,4 zelproof)

Hashrate 87 Sol/s

  • Clocks +0/+0
  • Power Limit 100
  • Power Draw 355w
gigabyte rtx 3080 zelcash equihash 125,4 zelproof mining hashrate stockgigabyte rtx 3080 zelcash equihash 125,4 zelproof mining hashrate stock

Hashrate 83 Sol/s

  • Clocks +150/+1500
  • Power Limit 70
  • Power Draw 260w
gigabyte rtx 3080 zelcash equihash 125,4 zelproof mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70.pnggigabyte rtx 3080 zelcash equihash 125,4 zelproof mining hashrate overclock and power limit 70.png

If this was useful, please share this so others can see it too 🙂 thanks!

RTX 3080 vs. RTX 2080 vs. GTX 1080Ti Mining Hashrate

Ethash hashrate Power draw Power Efficiency Efficiency*
Gigabyte RTX 3080 85/ Mh/s 225w 0.37 /mh/s per watt 0.077 Mh/s per invested dollar*
Gigabyte RTX 2080 41.1 Mh/s 105w 0.391 mh/s per watt 0.034 Mh/s per invested dollar*
Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti 40 Mh/s (pill) 165w 0.242 mh/s per watt 0.04 Mh/s per invested dollar*

(*) Values based on the best prices I was able to find at the moment. The GPU market is known for being volatile, so these numbers should be taken as reference only.

So far, the Gigabyte 3080 is not offering the best power efficiency even with its power consumption reduced by 30%. Another thing to keep in mind is that powerful PSUs cost a lot, at the point it might be more profitable to assemble a rig that produces less but also consumes less, and thus doesn’t require a huge PSU to operate.

Now, if power efficiency isn’t as much of a concern for you, then the 3080 does offer way better hashrate per dollar invested.

RTX 3080 vs. RTX 2080 vs. GTX 1080Ti Specs

RTX 3080 RTX 2080 GTX 1080Ti
Memory 1‎0 GB GDDR6X 8 GB GDDR6 11 GB GDDR5X
Memory Interface Width 3‎20-bit 256-bit 352-bit
Memory Bandwidth 7‎60 GB/s 448 GB/s 484 GB/s
CUDA Cores 8‎704 2944 3584
Core Clock 1‎800 MHz 1830 MHz 1582 MHz
Price 1100 1230 $ 1000

In Conclusion

As for now, it’s hard to have a conclusive opinion on the RTX 3080. It’s a new card, so it’s very probable that we haven’t unlocked its full mining potential yet. It does look like a better investment than the previous models but only because of how overpriced 1080’s and 2080’s currently are.

I will keep you updated on this, and I am also getting the RTX 3090 soon to benchmark it. Have a good one!

Disclaimer: This is not financial advise, I am not a financial advisor, this is for educational purposes only. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency please do your own research and invest at your own risk, 1stMiningRig is never liable for any decisions you make. 1stMiningRig may receive donations or sponsorships in association with certain content creation. 1stMiningRig may receive compensation when affiliate/referral links are used.
Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. Subscribe and stay tuned for further updates!

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]]> 13778 How to Host a Storj Node – Setup, Earnings & Reports https://1stminingrig.com/how-to-host-a-storj-node-setup-earnings-reports/ Wed, 30 Dec 2020 08:09:37 +0000 https://1stminingrig.com/?p=13614

Almost three years ago, I have posted my first guide on how to host your own Storj node. Today, I’d like to make a follow up article and share my experience with Storj so far. Why Did I Choose Storj? There are many decentralized storage platforms available on the interwebs. Back in 2017, Storj was […]

The post How to Host a Storj Node – Setup, Earnings & Reports appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

]]>

Almost three years ago, I have posted my first guide on how to host your own Storj node. Today, I’d like to make a follow up article and share my experience with Storj so far.

Why Did I Choose Storj?

There are many decentralized storage platforms available on the interwebs. Back in 2017, Storj was one of the most promising projects. Right from its beginning, it had a clear goal, a well-defined roadmap, and a team that was doing work. One of the selling points for me was that Storj was nailing their milestones and delivering exactly what they promised.

Storj’s bigger competitor is SIA, a platform I happen to host for, too. If you’re curious to know my results with SIA, check my report here. I’ve been running my SIA rig right next to my Storj one for over one year now.

One of the key differences between both platforms is that Storj has a fixed storage price, whereas SIA is a free market. Storj has also more strict hosting requirements, one of which is to have a downtime lower than 5h per month the 5 hour downtime requirement is being recently updated to a new online auditing scheme described here: https://documentation.storj.io/resources/faq/how-the-online-score-is-calculated, opposed to the 13h downtime for SIA. Storj is partnered with FileZilla and other services, which makes it one of the most popular decentralized storage services.

My Results so Far

It was 2017 and I started by connecting eight 3TB hard disk drives to my rig. It took me time to realize that it’s way better to connect only one, and add more storage as demand increases also there are other alternatives to build a Storj node such as QNAP NAS Device or RaspberryPi (coming soon on Synology & Western Digital).

Talking about demand, my hard drives remained mostly empty. This was obviously reflected in my income, which wasn’t all that fancy till late 2019. The release of Tardigrade in March 2019 allowed for enterprises to connect to the networks, and hugely increased the demand in Storj services as petabytes of information have to be stored in the network.

As for today, I am renting 2.7 TB of HDD space (currently one HDD, below you can find out how to add more nodes to the same windows machine using Toolbox), and have earned a total of 465 STORJ that roughly equals 200 USD. That’s not too fancy, considering that I spent that money on electricity to keep the rig running.

storj node statusstorj node status
storj node disk utilizationstorj node disk utilization
Storj Hosting Nodes Rig CaseStorj Hosting Nodes Rig Case
Storj Hosting Nodes HDDStorj Hosting Nodes HDD

Best Hardware to Host a Storj Node

IMPORTANT:
Storj does not recommend running a node on dedicated hardware, but use a machine that is already online and running anyway, so this means you should NOT expect that income from the node would cover your electric bill or internet used to run the node. With existing hardware you are already using for some other purpose any income from Storj would be profit. Running a Storj node is not like mining. It is not recommended people buy hardware or rent internet connections just for running a node. I would recommend that new node operators always consult the official guide for setting up their node: https://documentation.storj.io as over time, some setup steps that work now may change in the future.

Or custom PC build:

To be honest i prefer custom rig for windows storj node hosting, here are the best and cheapest components i found with a total of $486:

Here are some users Storj Nodes

Pictures from storj forum: https://forum.storj.io/t/post-pictures-of-your-storagenode-rig-s/1422

What to Expect in the Future

We know why hosting Storj wasn’t profitable until Tardigrade was released in 2019 and even then, it’s still barely bringing any money in. Despite that, I still believe that we are approaching a time where hosting Storj is becoming profitable.

Since the release of Tardigrade in mid 2019, the developers have been taking a lot of steps to popularize the project, and the results are clear as day.

If I get to find enough to fill all of the 24 TB I have available, the income from hosting might become quite interesting.

Regarding the Storj coin, it has experienced some price fluctuations just like other altcoins did. It was overpriced during the 2018 boom and then fell low during the infamous “crypto bloodbath”. Unlike most other altcoins though, Storj seems to be back on its feet, now priced 4x times higher than what it was exactly a year ago. This might be a good indicator that the product that is backing the coin has demand.

How to Set Up Your Storj Node
Here are the steps you need to take if you’d like to give Storj hosting a try:

Get your unique auth token
storj auth token signupstorj auth token signup
storj auto token generatedstorj auto token generated
Forward 28967 port

Add firewall rule for 28967 port
  • And add firewall rule for the same port: open PowerShell with administrator rights and paste the following command: “New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName “Storj v3” -Direction Inbound –Protocol TCP –LocalPort 28967 -Action allow“, this will automatically do it for you, make sure to open CMD or PowerShell as Administrator.
storj 28965 firewall rulestorj 28965 firewall rule
storj 28965 firewall rule2storj 28965 firewall rule2
Install myCrypto Wallet
mycrypto wallet autheticity verificationmycrypto wallet autheticity verification
mycrypto wallet checksumsmycrypto wallet checksums
mycrypto create new walletmycrypto create new wallet
mycrypto wallet generate keystore filemycrypto wallet generate keystore file
Create custom DNS
  • Custom DNS: Go to duiadns.net (its completely free and very easy to use), signup (free), confirm account, create your hostname (eg: storjhost.duia.eu), download windows client install it, run it, enter your hostname (eg: storjhost.duia.eu) and account password. It will automatically start with windows, no other actions are required from here.
18 duiadns signup18 duiadns signup
19 duiadns dynamic dns signup19 duiadns dynamic dns signup
20 duiadns windows client download20 duiadns windows client download
21b dangerous files21b dangerous files
21 duiadns keep dangerous files21 duiadns keep dangerous files
22 duia dynamic dns windows client installation and setup22 duia dynamic dns windows client installation and setup
Storj Node Installation & Setup
Download Identity
  • Download the Identity Binary: open CMD or PowerShell and paste the following text “[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12; curl https://github.com/storj/storj/releases/latest/download/identity_windows_amd64.zip -o identity_windows_amd64.zip; Expand-Archive ./identity_windows_amd64.zip . -Force” (this will take a minute)
storj download the idenity binarystorj download the idenity binary
storj download the idenity binary commandstorj download the idenity binary command
Create Identity
  • Create Identity (this can take from one to several hours): in the same CMD or PowerShell terminal paste the text: “./identity.exe create storagenode“, once finished make backup of “ca.key ” file.
storj identity storage creation in processstorj identity storage creation in process
storj Authorize the Identity successfulstorj Authorize the Identity successful
Authorize Identity
  • Authorize the Identity: copy “./identity.exe authorize storagenode <email:characterstring>” and replace <email:characterstring> with your auth key that was generated in the first steps, so the final command should look similar to this “./identity.exe authorize storagenode myemail@mails.com:1LT1geuT8AVz9BKqCDoBJYy33mv3moStYqf9AxZbAzJM14j2bYWSGo7cS4Eg8baxByaXjEXTc3zmEL2tfw6m3knBfonVYp“, paste it in the terminal.
storj Authorize the Identitystorj Authorize the Identity
storj Authorize the Identity successfulstorj Authorize the Identity successful
Confirm Identity
  • Confirm the identity: copy and paste the following commands to terminal, these should return the following numbers, 2 and 3
    • (sls BEGIN “$env:AppData\Storj\Identity\storagenode\ca.cert”).count
    • (sls BEGIN “$env:AppData\Storj\Identity\storagenode\identity.cert”).count

Storj GUI Installation & Setup
download storj gui install for windowsdownload storj gui install for windows
storj gui install locationstorj gui install location
storj gui install identity locationstorj gui install identity location
storj data locationstorj data location
storj allocated disk spacestorj allocated disk space
storj node space allocatedstorj node space allocated
storj gui installationstorj gui installation
storj gui finish installationstorj gui finish installation
Storj Node Dashboard (finish)

Storj Node dashboard right after setup

  • To access it you will have to open your browser and go to the following address: http://localhost:14002/
storj node gui finish installation dashboardstorj node gui finish installation dashboard
storj node dashboard after installationstorj node dashboard after installation

Storj Node dashboard after two weeks

storj node after two weeksstorj node after two weeks
storj node after two weeks 2storj node after two weeks 2

Storj Node dashboard after almost one year

  • Total Storj received so far: 465 STORJ
storj node dashboard after 11 monthsstorj node dashboard after 11 months
storj node dashboard after 11 months2storj node dashboard after 11 months2
How to add new HDD to Windows Storj Node Hosting Rig

Since I am getting close to the 3TB storage mark, it’s getting time for me to add a secondary HDD. I will use this opportunity to show you how to do that exactly. Feel free to follow along.

On Windows there is/was no option to create new Node/Add new HDD by reinstalling Storj Node GUI, you are stuck with your first node (manually you can edit your allocated space, unless we install CLI using Docker which is bit more complicated). But not anymore, Vadim created a nice tool for us called “Storjnode Toolbox” which can allow us to add as many hdds as we need with just few simple clicks.

Below you can find the steps to follow to add new Storj Node HDD using Toolbox:

New Storj Node Preparations

  • Firewall 28968 Port Rule, follow the steps and modify the port from 28967 to 28968 , command line “New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName “Storj v3” -Direction Inbound –Protocol TCP –LocalPort 28968 -Action allow“

  • Create new Identity, (this will take a while) in our main Storj Node we used “./identity.exe create storagenode“, this time we will modify “storagenode“, so i renamed it to “storagenode1“, here is full command to copy “./identity.exe create storagenode1“

  • Authorize Identity, once again we will have to rename “storagenode” to “storagenode1“, please double check everything before hiting enter: “./identity.exe authorize storagenode1 <email:characterstring>” replace “<email:characterstring>” with your new email and unique auth token from second step.

  • Confirm the identity, storagenode1
    • (sls BEGIN “$env:AppData\Storj\Identity\storagenode1\ca.cert”).count
    • (sls BEGIN “$env:AppData\Storj\Identity\storagenode1\identity.cert”).count
StorjNode Toolbox Adding Node
  • Run Toolbox as administrator and click “Search Nodes“, this will display your main/first Storj Host Node
2 storjnode toolbox run as adminitrator2 storjnode toolbox run as adminitrator
3 storjnode toolbox search nodes3 storjnode toolbox search nodes
  • Unique Identity Path:  click “Geth Path” and default location is “C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Storj\Identity\storagenode1” select “identity.key“
  • Node External IP:Port: for “IP” use DNS created on duiadns.net, the “Port” should be “28968“
  • Node Dashboard IP:Port: if this is the second node added the new port will be “14003“, the main port will always be 14002.
  • ERC 20 Wallet: the new wallet address you created above with myCrypto.
  • Storage Path: storage folder location where the files will be added for the new node
  • Server Private Address: default port is “7778“, with the second we will use “7779“, with 3rd “7780” et..
  • Storage Amount: choose how much space you want to allocate to this new Storj Node
  • Storage2 Daabase-Dir: Usually same as “Storage Path” unless you use custom locations.
  • Email: you can add the same email used for “Unique AUTH Key“
  • Double check everything then click “Install“
  • Done! 🙂 to access new Storj Node dashboard go to “http://localhost:14003/“
storjnode toolbox new node added successfulstorjnode toolbox new node added successful
toolbox new storj node dashboardtoolbox new storj node dashboard

In Conclusion

I honestly do not regret taking part in this node hosting journey. I’ve learned a lot in the way and I have supported the network when it needed it the most. As for today, Storj node hosting is becoming quite interesting, and I am intrigued to see how profitable it can turn. I am obviously keeping my current rig hosting Storj, and I will keep you up to date with how it goes.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advise, I am not a financial advisor, this is for educational purposes only. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency please do your own research and invest at your own risk, 1stMiningRig is never liable for any decisions you make. 1stMiningRig may receive donations or sponsorships in association with certain content creation. 1stMiningRig may receive compensation when affiliate/referral links are used.
Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. Subscribe and stay tuned for further updates!

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The post How to Host a Storj Node – Setup, Earnings & Reports appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

]]> 13614 How To Setup a SIA Host – Windows Tutorial https://1stminingrig.com/how-to-setup-a-sia-host-windows-tutorial/ Sat, 12 Dec 2020 20:41:54 +0000 https://1stminingrig.com/?p=13451

Sia Hosting Tutorial for Windows SIA is a decentralized storage network that allows renters to keep their data safe and 100% private. Some of its main selling points is that SIA offers very competent prices per stored Terabyte of information due of its decentralized nature. All transactions within the network are done using the SIA […]

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Sia Hosting Tutorial for Windows

SIA is a decentralized storage network that allows renters to keep their data safe and 100% private. Some of its main selling points is that SIA offers very competent prices per stored Terabyte of information due of its decentralized nature.

All transactions within the network are done using the SIA coin and there are three ways of getting your hands on it:

SIA Hosting vs Mining

Mining supports the decentralized nature of the SIA blockchain. Just like, say, Ethereum, SIA needs a lot of hashpower to stay decentralized and reliable. That’s why it’s performed using GPUs and ASICs (though as of today, only the latter is somewhat profitable).

Hosting, on the other hand, does not generate any SIA coins. Instead, hosts create the product SIA is offering, which is decentralized storage. Any coins you earn through hosting are coins someone paid to rent storage space from the network.

sia host network metricssia host network metrics
sia mining metricssia mining metrics

The SIA Coin – What to Do with It

You can trade, hold it (Sia-UI wallet) or you can use it to buy cheap cloud storage and keep your files safe there.

How to Host SIA

Let’s get into the meat of the article.

1) First and foremost, you need to comply with the minimum requirements:

  • Have a PC that’s on 24/7, with a downtime of up to 14 hours per month
  • Have free storage of at least 4TB (though ideally, you should always have more than 4TB free to have higher host score). Depending on the deals you find, 6TB hard drives usually offer the best price per TB. Second hand hard drives work too.
  • A reliable internet connection with no data caps
  • Good bandwidth. To give you a few examples, you need at least 6 Mbps to score a 2/10 and 10 Mbps to score a 5/10. The higher your score, the more chances there are you will get a contract. Besides, you will earn the most from uploading and downloading files rather than from storing them. A good internet connection is key.
  • Own at least $4-10 worth of SIA coins (that’s ~2,000-4,000 SC by the time I am posting this article)
  • Commitment. This one is more about strategy. If you stop hosting while having active contracts you will lose money. Plus, it takes weeks to build a good track record and get a node to good rank, so, before you actually start, make sure you can commit to hosting.

2) Here are a few extras that might help you:

  • Battery backup – in case the power goes off, especially if your electricity provider proved to be unreliable in the past
  • Linux OS – while you can host on Windows, Linux is a better option so if you can, use it instead. Ill use Windows this time.
  • A Solar Panel – if you live in a sunny area, having one of those might help you save money in the long run.

3) Getting the right software

  • SIA Wallet – the first thing you need is the official SIA wallet. You will use it to store your SIA coins and you can also upload and download files from it in case you decide to become a renter and give your mined SIA tokens a use.
  • SIA Host Manager – This is an open source tool I would strongly suggest you to use to manage your host. You can obviously use the SIA Wallet alone but the Host Manager from siacentral has quite a few useful features you don’t want to miss. It allows you to monitor connection status, add, remove and resize storage folders, change host configuration, get advanced metrics and do other useful things.
  • Your Host Page on SIAStats.com – SIAStats is an extremely useful website that allows you to monitor your host and see how much SIA likes it. The SIA network uses a ranking system that decides which hosts will be shown to renters first. Higher rank means more potential contracts. Keeping an eye on your host, as well as on other hosts is critical.
  • SIAStats has an alarm feature that will notify you as soon as your host goes offline or has any other issues. The mobile one is pretty handy, I would definitely recommend you giving it a try.

Sia Hosting Hardware

Here is the hardware that i used for this sia hosting pc (below you will find other and maybe better alternatives as well)

storj hosting node hardwarestorj hosting node hardware
AMD FX CPU Fan installationAMD FX CPU Fan installation
Storj Hosting Nodes HDDStorj Hosting Nodes HDD
Storj Hosting Nodes RigStorj Hosting Nodes Rig
NAS (Network Attached Storage) for Hosting SIA

How to Set a SIA Host

Once you have everything ready, follow me along the following steps to install and configure your SIA host:

SIA Wallet and Host Manager Installation

1) Port Forwarding Router Setup

First of all we will have to forward the following ports: 9980, 9981, 9982, 9983. This can be done from your router. Here is a very useful article if this is new for you!

6 sia host manager port forwarding6 sia host manager port forwarding
7 sia host manager predifine internal ip address7 sia host manager predifine internal ip address
2) Sia Wallet Installation
  • download from official website https://sia.tech/get-started
  • Install, create new wallet (select import from seed if you already have one), save the seed, wait for full sync
  • To skip the waiting download Bootstrap from here: https://siastats.info/consensus.html, once downloaded (remember to completely close SIA-UI wallet) go to “C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Sia-UI\sia\” and upload archive content there (replace the files and folders). Start Sia-UI once again and wait for full sync.
  • Once synced go to dashboard, click on wallet, click “more” top right, select change password, use your seed as current password and then type your new password. If no password set, wallet will ask for seed every time we open it.
  • Go to “Receive” tab and generate new address, copy it, we will use it later.
sia wallet syncsia wallet sync
5 sia wallet consensus5 sia wallet consensus
6 sia wallet full sync6 sia wallet full sync
create sia walletcreate sia wallet
sia wallet save seedsia wallet save seed
sia wallet generate new addresssia wallet generate new address
3) Sia Host Manager Installation and Configuration
  • Download latest version of SIA Host Manager from here https://github.com/siacentral/host-manager/releases/
  • Install it, select “Import” when asked if you want to import your configuration from Sia-UI Wallet (it will automatically import wallet address and synced process)
  • Leave “Daemon Flags” as they are, unless you want to change them.
  • Send 3,000 SIA to your newly generated wallet address (You can buy SIA here If you don’t own any), select “Done” when funds are transferred.
2 host manager sia-ui import2 host manager sia-ui import
3 sia host manager ports3 sia host manager ports
4 sia host manager send funds4 sia host manager send funds
5 sia host manager first run5 sia host manager first run
  • Connection: You will notice connection problems with the first run but you wont have to worry about it, we will fix it in the next steps
8 sia host manager connection problem8 sia host manager connection problem
8 sia host manager no connection8 sia host manager no connection
  • Storage: Add your space to Host Manager
9 sia host manager storage9 sia host manager storage
10 sia host manager add hdd10 sia host manager add hdd
11 sia host manager specified hdd space11 sia host manager specified hdd space
12 sia host manager hdd storage successful12 sia host manager hdd storage successful
  • SIA Host Price configuration (here you can set your own prices):
    • Contract Price: 0.30 SC
    • Storage Price: 460 SC TB/m
    • Collateral: 920 SC
    • Max Contract Duration: 6 Months
    • Download Price: 460 SC/tb
    • Registry Size: 10 GB
13 sia host manager default host prices13 sia host manager default host prices
14 sia host manager contract and storage price14 sia host manager contract and storage price
15 sia host manager collateral price15 sia host manager collateral price
16 sia host manager contract duration and download price16 sia host manager contract duration and download price
17 sia host manager registry size17 sia host manager registry size
  • Announce Host
    • Optionally but recommended (also it is a must if you use storj on the same machine) you can set a custom DNS to your host before to announce it. I personally use duiadns.net (its completely free and very easy to use)
    • Signup, confirm account, create your hostname (eg: siahost.duia.eu), download windows client install it, run it, enter your hostname and account password. It will automatically start with windows, no other actions are required from here.
18 duiadns signup18 duiadns signup
19 duiadns dynamic dns signup19 duiadns dynamic dns signup
20 duiadns windows client download20 duiadns windows client download
21b dangerous files21b dangerous files
21 duiadns keep dangerous files21 duiadns keep dangerous files
22 duia dynamic dns windows client installation and setup22 duia dynamic dns windows client installation and setup
    • Now we are ready to Announce the Host on SIA network with custom DNS address
    • Go to “Configuration” tab, on top right check “Accept Contracts“, click “Announce“, enter your custom host name eg: siahost.duia.eu:9982, click “Announce Host“
    • Now the host will begin the listing, it will take a while because the system will benchmark your host and a score will be give based on your configuration and internet speed, eg: https://siastats.info/hosts?=233
23 sia host manager accept contracts announce23 sia host manager accept contracts announce
24 sia host manager connection24 sia host manager connection
25 sia host manager connection25 sia host manager connection
26 sia host manager announce benchmarks26 sia host manager announce benchmarks

Sia Host After Few Days

sia host contracts dashboardsia host contracts dashboard
sia host storagesia host storage
siahost connectionssiahost connections
sia host benchmarks, score and ranksia host benchmarks, score and rank

Sia Host After 1 Year

All You Need to Know About SIA Host Rank

Also known as Host Scoring Metrics, your rank is what determines how many contracts you will get. When looking for a node to host their data, the renter introduces the price they are willing to pay and the system offers them the top hosts in that price category. This means that having low fees alone won’t necessarily get you more contracts. If you want to be on the top, here’s what you need to know:

  • Uptime – This is the most important factor. Your host must have good uptime and run the latest software version. The network keeps a track record of your uptime so try to keep it as close to 100% as possible since day 1. SIA gets software updates regularly so make sure to check for updates at least every couple weeks.
  • Your rank drops if your remaining storage gets under the 4TB mark. When that happens, your rank gets instantly reduced by a whooping 50% until you free some space or add more storage.
  • Pricing – setting the right price is critical: if it’s too low, it will result in demotivation. If you haven’t already, check my article where I break down how to set your hosting price as high as possible without losing contracts.
  • Host age Your rank will be 50% or less of what it should be until it hits the 42 days old mark. There’s no way around this, just keep the host live with a good uptime so your track record is good.
Note: Your rank will be a mess for the first few days after you launch your node. This is okay. During that time, your host might get a very low rank. Don’t panic. Let the network benchmark your host for a week or so before doing any conclusions.

The SIA network has nodes located on three servers all around the world that constantly monitor hosts for bandwidth, uptime and latency. Those tests are called ‘benchmarks’ and they determine the rank of the host. It’s okay to have better latency and upload/download speeds with one of them.

My Rank Is Decent But I Am Getting Few Contracts, What’s Wrong?

There are two factors that might affect your contracts:

  • Your pricing might need some tweaking; check your competitors.
  • There are quite a few nodes geographically close to you so there’s more offer than demand.
  • On that note, the network itself is still small. Patience is key here – It will take some time to fill up all the space.

SIA Mining

As for today, the only profitable way of mining SIA coin is by using an ASIC. GPU mining is possible but it’s no longer profitable. There was an incident with SIA bricking most existing ASICs by making an algorithm change, leaving only the Obelisk SC-1 units compatible with the new algo.As for today, those units are not on sale and even though they can be purchased from third party sites, the high price and low profitability combo makes them an option few people might be interested in.

In Conclusion

Hosting a SIA node isn’t for everyone but it’s quite straightforward and easy to do. If you haven’t already, make sure to check my analysis on hosting profitability. You will need that information to set the prices right.

If you can’t afford to run a powerful PC as a Sia host, you can get a RaspberryPi with 4GB RAM. Either way, give it a try but don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

I would like to thank Meije Sibbel (Co-founder & COO) from storewise.tech for proving me a lion’s share of the information I know about SIA hosting and renting. Meije Sibbel knows the ins and outs of SIA and he is currently developing the S3 API interface to Sia. Storewise.tech is platform that’s built on SIA that has similar functionalities to wetransfer.com. It’s a great platform and I can personally recommend it. I’ve been using it for a while now and I am not looking back.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advise, I am not a financial advisor, this is for educational purposes only. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency please do your own research and invest at your own risk, 1stMiningRig is never liable for any decisions you make. 1stMiningRig may receive donations or sponsorships in association with certain content creation. 1stMiningRig may receive compensation when affiliate/referral links are used.
Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. Subscribe and stay tuned for further updates!

To receive the latest updates follow me on social media! 🙂
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The post How To Setup a SIA Host – Windows Tutorial appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

]]> 13451 Nvidia GTX RTX 3080 Leaked – Twice the Hashrate of an RTX 2080 at the Same Price https://1stminingrig.com/nvidia-gtx-rtx-3080-leaked/ Thu, 17 Sep 2020 23:54:53 +0000 https://1stminingrig.com/?p=13430

GPU mining might finally be back. Nvidia announced the release of the RTX 3000 series that feature a massive 50-80% performance over their RTX 2000 counterparts. Best part is, the price point is the same – the card is available on September 17, starting at $699 for the Founders Edition. Mining Performance Nvidia leaked some […]

The post Nvidia GTX RTX 3080 Leaked – Twice the Hashrate of an RTX 2080 at the Same Price appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

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GPU mining might finally be back. Nvidia announced the release of the RTX 3000 series that feature a massive 50-80% performance over their RTX 2000 counterparts. Best part is, the price point is the same – the card is available on September 17, starting at $699 for the Founders Edition.

Mining Performance

Nvidia leaked some hashrates for Ethereum (DaggerHashimoto) mining. The RTX series are based on the new Nvidia Ampere graphics architecture that features better raw performance and power efficiency.

Compared to the RTX 2080 Ti (54 MH/s top), the RTX 3080 outputs 75 MH/s with factory settings and up to 93 Mh/s when overclocked. My only concern is power consumption, with the 3080 having a 28% higher TDP than the 2080 on default settings, and up to 60% higher when overclocked.

GTX RTX 3080 Specs

 

Model RTX 3080 RTX 2080Ti RTX 2080
NVIDIA CUDA Cores 8704 4352 2944
Boost Clock 1.71 GHz 1.54 GHz 1.71 GHz
Memory Size 10 GB 11 GB 8 GB
Memory Type GDDR6X GDDR6 GDDR6
ETH Hashrate* 75 MH/s – 93 MH/s 54 MH/s 40 MH/s
Price & Buy $699 $1,100 $780

(*) For reference only

From what we know so far, the RTX 3080 features higher hashrate, same price point, and roughly the same power efficiency as the 2080.

As usual, the Founder’s Edition is probably not the best model for mining. It features only two coolers. Personally, I will wait until MSI or Gigabyte release a version with three coolers.

I will be testing my RTX 3080 on all the popular GPU minable coins and posting the results here soon, so stay tuned!

Disclaimer: This is not financial advise, I am not a financial advisor, this is for educational purposes only. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency please do your own research and invest at your own risk, 1stMiningRig is never liable for any decisions you make. 1stMiningRig may receive donations or sponsorships in association with certain content creation. 1stMiningRig may receive compensation when affiliate/referral links are used.
Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. Subscribe and stay tuned for further updates!

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The post Nvidia GTX RTX 3080 Leaked – Twice the Hashrate of an RTX 2080 at the Same Price appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

]]> 13430 Bitcoin Halving: What Happened and What Does It Mean for Miners https://1stminingrig.com/bitcoin-halving-what-happened-and-what-does-it-mean-for-miners/ Thu, 14 May 2020 11:14:34 +0000 https://1stminingrig.com/?p=13027

As a miner, you have already noticed how your profit from mining was reduced by half yesterday. Your hashpower, as well as the network’s remained the same however the reward per mined block dropped by 50%, from 12.5 to 6.25. What happened is that yesterday May 11th, the 630,000th block was mined, which led to […]

The post Bitcoin Halving: What Happened and What Does It Mean for Miners appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

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As a miner, you have already noticed how your profit from mining was reduced by half yesterday. Your hashpower, as well as the network’s remained the same however the reward per mined block dropped by 50%, from 12.5 to 6.25.

What happened is that yesterday May 11th, the 630,000th block was mined, which led to a planned halving of reward per block. Over its 11 years of existence, Bitcoin experienced three halvings. The first one happened in November 2012 when the reward went from 50 to 25, and the second one happened in July 2016 when the reward decreased to 12.5.

The halving takes place every 210,000 blocks mined, and it’s purpose is to create deflation. In other words, to reduce the creation of new tokens to keep the cryptocurrency economy healthier.

On paper, this will cause a price increase of the Bitcoin in the long run. However, what about the short-term?

How Profitable Is Mining Now?

There are several factors that affect mining profitability, the key ones being network difficulty, mining equipment, bitcoin price and electricity price. Let’s take a look at each of them separately:

Bitcoin Price

As Cointelegraph stated, a lot of miners decided to hold their freshly mined Bitcoins right before and during the halving in the hopes of getting a better deal after the halving. It’s all about offer and demand, and slower Bitcoin generation will surely cause a spike in price. That being said, nobody can say for sure when the market will go bullish.

The most conservative analysts expect the market to remain the same until the beginning of next year, and I can see why. Even though the drop in Bitcoin generation per block is huge, there are currently 18,321,212.5 BTC in circulation, whereas the entire mining network produces 900 BTC a day. That’s roughly 0.005% of the total mass, a day.

The situation was different back in 2016, and especially in 2012 where the amount of existing BTC was times lower, and the amount of generated Bitcoins a day was times higher.

Network Difficulty

The more people (or more like, miners) mine the coin, the less is the share everyone gets. Some experts say a big share of miners will be bailing on Bitcoin soon. Bitcoin.com expects nothing less than a 30% hashrate drop as people will be turning their miners off.

Mining a coin isn’t free. Mining equipment consumes a considerable amount of electricity, which is why when it comes to profitability, power consumption is a critical variable to consider along with the cost of the hardware itself.

Big farms often have contracts for cheaper electricity. Some are also situated in countries and regions where electricity is either cheap or straightforward free. People who don’t have that luxury (mostly home miners) might see their mining earnings turning into losses.

Now, as for today, the network hashrate is higher than ever, and if there will be a wave of people quitting the network, it still has to come. Obviously, if the difficulty drops by 30%, mining will become more profitable, which might attract some of the miners back, kicking the network hashrate back up.

Another factor to consider is that big mining farms with cheap or free electricity might want to start buying miners from individuals and smaller farms. Even though the amount of people mining the coin might be reduced by 30%, the amount of miners might remain roughly the same.

As for today, I would not count on the network hashrate dropping significantly.

Electricity Price

Yet another factor to consider, electricity price might be dropping significantly for certain regions in the world. All-time low oil prices, rainy seasons in certain industrial provinces of China and lockdown policies all contribute to certain regions getting better electricity rates.

This probably means that the biggest farms will remain active and profitable even after the halving.

Mining Gear

Today, Bitcoin can only be mined with ASICs. Those are known for being expensive, have high power consumption and being high-risk investments because of how volatile cryptocurrency markets are, as well as how fast they become obsolete. Every year, new ASIC models are being released, and every new model features more hashrate and less power consumption.

Despite the halving, the ASIC race continues, with Bitmain announcing the release of the S19 Pro (110 TH/s at a power efficiency of 29.5 J/TH), and MicroBT getting ready to release the MS30S++ (112 TH/s,  31 J/TH). The price per unit range from 2,000 to 3,000 USD, which is comparable to the price of previous ASICs back when those were released.

All of this means that both individuals and mining farms that can’t keep up with the newest equipment will face an even more significant loss in profit once those new-gen units are shipped.

Avalon 721 6Ths ASIC Bitcoin Miner ReviewAvalon 721 6Ths ASIC Bitcoin Miner Review
AntMiner T9 Review – Bitcoin ASIC Miner 1AntMiner T9 Review – Bitcoin ASIC Miner 1
GMO Miner B3 Review – Bitcoin ASIC Miner Made in JapanGMO Miner B3 Review – Bitcoin ASIC Miner Made in Japan
WhatsMiner M10 Review Bitcoin ASIC MinerWhatsMiner M10 Review Bitcoin ASIC Miner

Takeaway

Will this halving kill Bitcoin? Certainly not. While some people will rush to the market to sell their coins, the amount of active miners and the network hashrate will most likely keep growing, and the BTC market will eventually go bullish.

The way fiat was weakened by the current events might contribute to the rise of BTC even more. If you already have mining equipment, holding on to it for now might not be a bad idea. Now, if you want to get into mining Bitcoin, waiting till the release of the new miners, or altcoin mining might be better alternatives.

BONUS

With Bitcoins’s block reward halving from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, Binance is holding a bounty program with tasks to complete during the activity period, giving away a total of 12.5 BTC!

Sign up for a 10% discount on crypto trading fees: https://1stminingrig.com/go/binance10/

Disclaimer: This is not financial advise, I am not a financial advisor, this is for educational purposes only. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency please do your own research and invest at your own risk, 1stMiningRig is never liable for any decisions you make. 1stMiningRig may receive donations or sponsorships in association with certain content creation. 1stMiningRig may receive compensation when affiliate/referral links are used.
Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome. Subscribe and stay tuned for further updates!

To receive the latest updates follow me on social media! 🙂
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The post Bitcoin Halving: What Happened and What Does It Mean for Miners appeared first on 1st Mining Rig.

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