But how does ERC work? And who is eligible to claim this employee retention tax credit? This article will walk you through everything you need to know about the Employee Retention Credit, and how you can get started right now.

2022 Employee Retention Credit Complete Guide to Getting ERC

If you’re a business owner with W2 employees, I strongly encourage you to find out if your business qualifies for the Employee Retention Credit – even if you’ve already been told that that your business doesn’t qualify for ERC.

Did you know that ERC stimulus program has been revised and amended over time? And in light of this, the qualifications for the employee retention tax credit have changed as well. Here’s the most important ones to know about:

1. If you’ve already received PPP, you can still qualify for ERC.
2. You can qualify for ERC by showing a decline in revenue during the pandemic.
3. You can now also qualify for ERC by showing a change to your standard business operations. (We’ll discuss some examples later in this article)

Filing for ERC can be a very complex and time-staking process. It requires skills and expertise that most standard CPA’s and accountants do not posses. Therefore, I recommend working with a company or firm that specializes in ERC.

After vetting many companies, I highly recommend Bottom Lines Concepts. They handle the entire process for you and make it really easy for business owners to get their ERC. Best of all, they won’t take a dime until the money is in your account! They’ve filed ERC for over 16,000 businesses, and have recovered over $3 billion is ERC Tax Credits. All you need to do is schedule a quick 5 minutes call with one of their friendly expert ERC advisors to find out if your business qualifies for ERC

Here are some tips to get you started and better understand the ERC Stimulus program. Hopefully, these tips will help you maximize the benefits of the credit.

What is the Employee Retention Tax Credit?

The ERC Program is one of the most powerful and paramount government aid programs to ever exist for US businesses. The employee retention credit is a stimulus program for business established by the CARES Act, and sponsored by the IRS.

The goal of this program is to reward businesses who retained their W2 Payroll employees during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020 and 2021) and continued paying their Payroll Taxes. Because this was a very difficult time for our nation, the US government is basically saying “Thank you” to business owners.

Businesses who retained their W2 Payroll employees during the Covid-19 pandemic can receive up to $26,000 per employee. ERC is a refundable tax credit – a grant, not a loan – that businesses can claim through an ERC filing process.

Who Qualifies for the Employee Retention Credit?

The ERC program was created for small-medium businesses that have faced economic hardship or have have had to make changes in the standard business operations due to Covid-19 government mandates. Employers who showed a decline in revenue, changes or adjustments in standard business operations, or partial / full business suspension during the Covid-19 pandemic and continued to pay employees on W2 payroll during the years of 2020 and 2021.

Qualified wages are wages paid, including health care costs, to the employee whether or not the employee is performing services. The credit can be claimed on all qualified wages. Companies looking to claim the ERTC must report their total qualified wages, as well as the related health insurance costs, on their quarterly tax returns (Form 941 for most employers).

Is ERC like the PPP Loan?

No, The PPP is a loan program that provides funds to small businesses to help them keep their employees on the payroll. The ERC, on the other hand, is a tax credit that businesses can claim for eligible wages paid to employees during the pandemic and do not need to be repaid. Businesses who filed for PPP are also still eligible to receive ERC.

How Can My Business Qualify for ERC?

In order to receive the full benefit, a company must qualify for ERC in one of three ways:

1. A decline in gross receipts, calculated on a quarterly basis – a 50% reduction in 2020 and/or a 20% decrease in 2021, compared to 2019
2. A shutdown due to government order, which can be a full or partial shutdown – think physical space.
3. A Government order caused more than a nominal effect – consider a modification of your business operations. Here’s some examples:
   • Change in business hours
   • Partial or full suspension of your operations
   • Shutdowns of your supply chain or vendors
   • Reduction in services offered
   • Reduction in workforce or employee workloads
   • A disruption in your business (division or department closures)
   • Inability to visit a client’s job site
   • Suppliers were unable to make deliveries of critical goods or materials
   • Additional spacing requirements for employees and customers due to social distancing
   • Change in job roles/functions
   • Tasks or work that couldn’t be done from home or while transitioning to remote work conditions
   • Lack of Travel or Lack of Group Meetings

How do I get my ERC Tax Credit

To claim the ERC tax credit, businesses must submit a prepared filing with the IRS. Businesses will need to provide basic information about their company and employees, as well as documentation showing that they have been impacted by the pandemic.

The IRS will then review the application and determine whether the business is eligible for the credit. If approved, the credit will be mailed to the business owner in form of a check. ERC can provide much-needed financial relief to those businesses who retained.

How to start the Employee Retention Credit 2022 application

To start the ERC credit, employers must file Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return. The credit can be claimed for each qualifying quarter from January 1, 2021, through June 30, 2021. For more information on how to start the employee retention credit 2022 application, visit the IRS website or reach out to an Employee Retention Credit service.

#1 Rated ERC Firm – Bottom Line Concepts

Bottom Line Concepts is the best company for any company or business to file for ERC. Through a detailed analyzation of 10 of the top ERC companies, bottom line concepts delivers the best experience from customer satisfaction to maximizing your ERC refund.

A Proven ERC Track Record for Businesses

Bottom Line Concepts a proven track record in assisting companies recover taxes and wages they have already paid on their W2 employees with zero upfront cost to the business. Their experienced, knowledgeable, and dedicated team will handle the entire process from beginning to end with the IRS on behalf of the business, and work closely with them to collect necessary documents and recover the most possible funds as quickly as possible.

The Entire ERC Process Handled for You

The team over at Bottom Line are truly experts in what they do – and they specialize in complex government tax and refund related filings precisely like the Employee Retention Credit. They have completed over 16,000 ERC filings, and recovered over $3 billion dollars in ERC tax credits. That’s no chump change. It takes a serious operation to be able to deliver on that, and they have proved themselves every step of the way.

Bottom Line Concepts has History and Rapport

Bottom Line Concepts is a division of Bottom Line Savings. Founded in 2009, Bottom Line Savings is a no risk, contingency-based cost savings company. They negotiate on behalf of their clients to get the best prices possible from their existing vendors. They audit old invoices for errors getting our clients refunds and credits, and they increase the profitability and overall valuation of their client’s organizations.

Bottom Line Savings primary client base was fortune 500 and fortune 1000 companies who produced over $100,000,000+ per year in revenue / sales. They focused their services on Government aid, unrealized funds, and specific cost-savings analysis.

Companies that Trust Bottom Line Concepts

Bottom Line Concepts clients include names like Starbucks, Visa Uber, McDonald’s, Rolex, the New York Yankees, the LA Lakers, Chase Bank, MetLife, Comcast GNC, Burger King, Versace… The list goes on.

Can I file ERC with My Accountant or CPA

Many businesses will ask “Why don’t I just file ERC with my CPA?” The answer is because of the complexity and expertise required to properly file for Employee Retention Tax Credit. Would you take karate lessons from a baseball coach? Same thing applies here. You want to work with a company that specializes in ERC, and has a proven track record of recovering funds for many businesses. For the record, simply because they may have filed your PPP for you does not mean they will be able to file your ERC. They are very different types of filing, paperwork, and calculations. PPP is a loan, meanwhile ERC is a grant.

The ERC is a complex 300 page stimulus plan that has been amended, revised, and changed over time. This requires your CPA to know every facet of how the ERC stimulus program has been updated. They also must posses the expertise to properly file for ERC and maximize your credit.

It’s simply a fact that many CPA’s and standard accountants do not have the experience or know-how in understanding how the program works, whether a business is eligible or what qualifies a business, and how to file for ERC. I cannot tell you how many time’s I’ve heard a business owner tell me that they don’t qualify because their accountant told them so. Sure enough, they ended up qualifying.

Important Facts about the ERC Stimulus Program

There are various factors than can affect the eligibility of ERC. Also, many businesses assume they do not qualify because of various assumptions. Here are some hard facts that will help:

1. Even if companies received PPP, they still qualify for ERC.
2. Even if your business did not have a revenue reduction or was deemed essential, they still qualify for ERC
3. ERC is a refund in the form of a grant and can return up to $26,000/employee ($10,000 is the average for companies that received PPP, $20,000 is the average for businesses that didn’t)
4. Simple operational impacts can qualify a business for ERC as well such as change in: job roles, business hours, reduction in services or workforce
5. This stimulus program was established by the CARES Act, it is a refundable tax credit – a grant, not a loan – that your business can claim. The program is based on qualified wages and healthcare paid to employees.
6. Businesses have until April 2024 to claim ERC retroactively for 2020, and until April 2025 to claim ERC retroactively for 2021. They have the ability to do a look back on their payroll during the pandemic and retroactively claim the credit by filing an amended tax return.
7. For tax year 2021, the refundable tax credit is: 70% of qualified wages paid per employee (up to a maximum amount of $7000 per employee, per quarter and up to $21,000 for the entire year)
8. For tax year 2020, the refundable tax credit is: 50% of qualified wages paid per employee (up to a maximum amount of $5000 per employee for the entire year)
9. Independent contractors (1099) and the compensation paid to these individuals are not eligible for ERC
10. Typical turn around times for funds to be collected from the ERC program is 3-6 months.
11. To date, 84% of businesses have not filed for ERC, and most do not even know this program exists.

IRS Resources, Links and Articles pertaining to ERC

These articles will provide additional background on recent developments with the ERC program:

• IRS Extension
• IRS Eligibility
• IRS ERC & PPP 
• Infrastructure Bill article
• IRS Website

The post Employee Retention Credit – How to Receive and Maximize your ERC Quickly first appeared on ewoah - Technology Leader & Serial Entrepreneur.

This is what happens to most of us. We chase things that we think will make us happy without taking care not to head to the dangerous path.

The most satisfied workers were found to be those who weren’t in fancy offices but those who take their jobs as a calling. Fast food logos, on the other hand, make people feel impatient only to end up eating unhealthily. 

I recommends that we choose our pursuit carefully and cultivate habits that send us on the right path. We will fulfill our goals and live a meaningful life.

Keep off people who erode the quality of your life

Just as fast food logos make you impatient, toxic people fill your life with a lot of negativity. They might not be happy with your decision to leave them. However, it is better to cut ties early enough than to live with negative influence. Think of people or things that make your life better. Nothing else deserves your attention.

Don’t take computer or the table to bed

Science has found that short-wave length blue light harms your sleep. When your eyes are exposed to high concentrations, it halts the production of melatonin that induces sleep. Sun has a high concentration of the light in the morning, which makes you alert. The electronic devices also emit the light. Thus, if you get them to your bed, they kill your sleep leaving you less relaxed. 

Appreciate now and here

Be glad you are here today. Gratitude brings about happiness and peace. You may not have the glamor or weather to boast about but appreciating what you have currently gone a long way. Wealth and good food will not bring happiness if you are not happy without them.

Realize that things are different from what you perceive them to be

In addition to the point above, do not be in a hurry to envy others for they look better, richer, and happier. They could be dealing with bigger problems than you behind closed doors. The perfection may just be a mirage.

 Be open to possibilities in life. You never know which one of the opportunities will push you to your success. 

Get started regardless of whether you may fail

Writers take the time to develop a storyline and characters in a plot. However, they are hesitant to start for they do not know if the ideas would work out. Unfortunately, they cannot produce anything if they do not get started. Use the same analogy, get started, and make corrections on the way.

Get organized 

Time is one of the most scarce resources in this world. It is a wonder that some people waste it by being disorganized. We toss things around and then spend a lot of time looking for the same things. In the same way, we go work on projects haphazardly and end up repeating the work. Organize your day in the morning it goes smoothly throughout the day.

Start collecting things that you can connect with

 Have you ever come across a caption, a meme, or an inspiration quote that summed up your feeling in a few words? Such items should be kept among your gems so that you can revisit them and connect with yourself again. 

Do things that define who you are

We all have those moments that defined us in the past. It could be that loud music, dreadlocks, some fancy dressing, singing, exercise, or cooking. Find something that brings the authentic you into the picture and get time to do it. It rejuvenates your mind and soul. 

Say no 

Research has shown the harder it gets to say no, the more you experience stress, depression, burnout, or fatigue and erode self-control. When it comes to saying no, do not fumble around with words like ‘I will think about it,’ I am not certain’ and such. Be firm and stop what you don’t want from the word go.

Have some realistic goals

Many people make outrageous goals and then end up being disappointed when they fall short of their goals. Crazy goals can be inspiring, however, when putting timelines, consider what you can really do.

Your character and happiness are determined by your attitude and how you act out there. Change your habits, and you will enjoy better life and achieve your goals

The post 10 habits that will change your life forever first appeared on ewoah - Technology Leader & Serial Entrepreneur.

LinkedIn is the largest online professional network with about 347 million users and gets two new members every second. It is unfortunate many advertisers have not realized its marketing potential. Here are some facts you may consider when it comes to these types of social media marketing tips;

•    LinkedIn leads other social media sites in driving traffic to corporate sites

•    Over 65 percent of companies in a recent survey claimed they god at least one B2B customer in 2016 from the social media platform

•    Data also showed that over 60 percent of the marketers planned to increase their presence on LinkedIn.

The paid advertising platform on LinkedIn has several options that marketers can use to reach their prospects. However, one of the very best that marketers should utilize is Sponsored InMail. With the use of the LinkedIn Sponsored InMail, you can use the InMail platform to deliver messages that are targeted to specific audience segments. 

Below are some ways to make use of the feature without coming out as a spammer looking to disturb others.

Do a careful selection of your senders 

While using Sponsored InMail, you can assign yourself the role of the sender or assign any of the first-degree connections to be sending your campaigns. They must approve to your decision to use them. 

 Here are the Pros and cons of using the connection and ways to handle the problem 

Let us take an example of using your firm’s CEO account for he is known in the industry. You are likely to have more attention from your recipients than if the same campaigns were sent through another employee who is not well-known in the industry.

 There is catch though to this approach. There is a likelihood that the recipients will be responding to the InMails. Therefore, the CEO needs to be active on his or her LinkedIn account to take appropriate account. If he or she rarely checks his account, you will pass as a spammy adviser and fail to get new clients. 

Laser-target your messages

 There are just a few platforms that offer you opportunities to target your messages like LinkedIn does. This is a plus given that all your targets are business professionals. You can use any of the criterions to sort through your InMail recipients when setting up your campaign. 

•    Company name

•    Company size

•    Company industry

•    Job title

•    Job seniority

•    Job function

•    Member schools

•    Degrees

•    Fields of study

•    Member skills

•    Member gender

•    Member groups

•    Years of experience

•    Member age

Try to be as specific as possible. However, look at the size of your audience as you make different selections. Avoid too broad or too narrow, as it will have a negative impact on the size of your audience. The targeting also helps to make your campaign look legit since you avoid targeting people that do not care about your message. Such people will trash your mail regardless of the good offer you are placing on the table. 

Give genuine value to your clients

The value you provide to your clients is one of the things that will keep them from thinking that your campaign is spammy. You can use the InMail to promote your ebooks, webinars, and other assets to qualify the B2B leads as you educate your audience. Ensure you give your target audience what they need most and in the form of informative content. 

Optimize the CTA button 

One of the best features to have been included in the Sponsored InMail is the ability for the send to customize the text that is to be included in the call to action (CTA) button that sends your message. There are a few suggestions given by LinkedIn that include Join, confirm, download, register, reserve, and try. Use a variation of all these and test your copy. Match you CTA with the benefits to avoid looking spammy.

Do a careful planning of your visual assets

When sending a Sponsored InMail, you also send a 300×250 image banner that appears near the text. The banner together with the CTA button redirects your users to the landing page.

 Here are a few things to keep in mind

• The image banner should not be too busy that it distracts the readers from the message. It should never overpower the text.
• Ensure that your landing page is optimized for mobile phones and tablets for a good number of your prospects will access InMail with their mobile devices
• Avoid directing your LinkedIn prospects to landing pages that look spammy. Getting them to the landing page is just a part of the equation. However, they need to opt-in or do another action on the site. They may choose not to do it if the landing page looks spammy.

Now that the Sponsored InMail is now on LinkedIn’s Self-service Campaign Manager platform, you can set daily budgets and test the targeting options available.

The post A Non-Spammy Way of Generating Leads By Using LinkedIn Sponsored InMail first appeared on ewoah - Technology Leader & Serial Entrepreneur.

You may have the best products and service in the marketplace. However, if you cannot get people to purchase the products, you are as good as not having the business. Sales are the reason why any business is established.

 If you are experiencing low sales, it may be the time you checked what you might be doing wrong. You may be marketing to the wrong people, you may be selling obsolete products or may be pressed hard by the competition.

 Elite Push has put together five tips to help you increase your sales volumes in the first quarter and subsequent quarters of the year.

Add video to your social media adverts

 Videos are the highest converting content format because they engage both the ears and the eyes of your prospects. Come up with video content that provides valuable content and engages your audience and uses it for your marketing campaign. Post the videos on social media pages and web 2.0 sites.

 Studies have shown that an inclusion of video to a landing page can raise the conversions by up to 80 percent. Videos included in email marketing also increase the click through rate to over 200 percent. In fact, over 90 percent of mobile users share the videos with their friends. A further 50 percent of online users interact with at least one video every month.

Keep close watch at the KPIs

It is everybody’s dream to reach the business objectives. However, you cannot reach your dreams if you do not know your key performance indicators and do not track your numbers.

The numbers are those elements that cause your business to grow. This helps you to put your resources where you are likely to get best returns for your efforts

You can use such tools as Google Analytics or Datapine to view and track you KPIs and vital business metrics. They are easy to use and very accurate. If you are not good at monitoring, you can use daily planners or mobile apps such as Trello that helps you keep a record of business numbers.

Make use of the word of mouth advertising

There is no other lead generation method that is as effective and organic like getting referrals from your clients. The clients explain your business to their friends and relatives. Since there is trust between them, the people listening to them are more likely to check out the business and try the product than they would if they saw your advert by the roadside.

 Tell your clients to refer others to you. It is effortless but has good returns. However, before telling them to do that ensure that you have established a good working relationship and given them a service that they loved. Then, your products would be worth the trouble of telling others about them. 

Do not forget the offline marketing

There is so much obsession with online marketing that people forget the offline marketing. Most of the offline adverts still work and bring good returns.

You can seek endorsement for your products from the thought leaders in your community by giving them free products. If they love your products, they will lead their followers into using the products. You can also advertise in magazines and newspapers.

 Look at popular radio stations and ask them to give their listeners some gift hampers and give ways in exchange for publicity, mentions, and advertisements on their airwaves.

Moreover, find out areas where popular events will be taking place throughout the year and apply to display your products, give away gifts and other methods of product promotion at the events. For example, there was a company called Corine Cuisine that prepares natural sauces recipes. In the 2016 Emmy Awards, it gave out its gift hampers and products and got many celebrity clients. Seek for opportunities to showcase your products to the target clients. This way you will become a household name in their minds.

Exceed your customer expectations

It does not matter the kind of business that you do, the ability to positively surprise your clients will go a long way to bringing in more business from the clients.

You do not have to spend lots of cash in entertaining your customers or elaborate surprises, simple things here and there will make your clients stick with you for long. You can give a card to the clients on their birthday, a complimentary cup of coffee while they wait to be served, a gift for buying a given number of items or a given value and much more.

Look at ways that you can cause your clients to be happy and capitalize on such to keep them glad. They will reciprocate by buying more and spreading the good word.

Put all the tips explained above into action. Customize each of them to fit your business type.

The post 5 Workable Strategies to Improve your First Quarter Sales first appeared on ewoah - Technology Leader & Serial Entrepreneur.

In this guide, I am going to show you exactly how I am using this ERC Referral Program to generate massive commissions by helping business owners file for the employee retention credit also known as ERC or ERTC. I will explain in detail how this ERC affiliate program works, who’s behind it and how to get started.

1. ERC Referral Program Introduction
   • Overview of the ERC Referral Program
   • Become a Referral Partner – Join the ERC Affiliate Program
   • My Experience as an ERC Referral Partner
   • Employee Retention Credit – Quick Summary
   • ERC Affiliate Program Explainer Video
2. Getting Started with ERC Affiliate Program
   • Create your Free ERC Referral Account
   • Complete the Basic Training to Activate your Affiliate Links
   • Basic Qualifications for a Business to receive ERC
   • How to Introduce the ERC program to a business owner
   • Questions & Rebuttals from Business Owners
   • How to Onboard a New ERC Client
   • Earning Potential and Compensation Plan
   • Making your Warm-Market Prospect List
3. ERC Affiliate Backoffice Resources
   • ERC Affiliate Dashboard
   • ERC Referrals – Tracking your Deals
     • ERC Referral Overview
     • Referred ERC Businesses
     • ERC Process Stages
     • Referred ERC Affiliates
   • ERC Affiliate Training
   • ERC Marketing Resources
   • ERC Compensation
   • ERC Live Webinars
4. The Companies Powering this ERC Program
   • Bottom Line Concept
   • iHub Global

Overview of the ERC Referral Program

ERC Referral Program with iHub Global and Bottom Line Concepts.

To put it simply, you can earn significant income by joining this ERC referral program with Bottom Line Concepts and iHub Global. Your only task and job here, is to introduce ERC to eligible businesses – that’s it. A simple 2 minute conversation. Everything that happens from there is completely hands off, and handled by experts.

What I personally love about this program is that we as ERC affiliates, or better known as ERC referral partners are actually going out there and helping business owners. Many of which who would have otherwise never known they were eligible for government funds through the Employee Retention Credit Tax Refund Stimulus Program (CARES Act).

One thing that is important to know is that the Employee Retention Credit has been revised and amended over time. These updates have introduced new ways for businesses toqualify for ERC. Due to this, we find that many businesses don’t even know that they can now qualify, or being told that they don’t by their advisors or CPA. With 84% of eligible businesses out there who have not filed for ERC, there is a big gap in the market for us as ERC Affiliates to help educate and get them moving in the right direction.

If you don’t know what ERC is and what it’s purpose is, please take a moment to read the ERC Employee Retention Credit Program Summary below. You can also take a moment to read more about the ERC program on the official Government IRS Website.

Become a Referral Partner – Join the ERC Affiliate Program

My Experience as an ERC Referral Partner

I cannot express how many calls, texts, emails I get on a daily basis from businesses owners, praising me and thanking me for introducing them to an expert ERC Filing Firm and helping them receive their tax refund using the ERC program. It’s a truly an incredible feeling, and I’m building valuable relationships in the process. Meanwhile, I get to earn significant income in the process. (Later in this post I share more details about my earnings and growth with this program.)

A Quick Refresher on the Employee Retention Credit

Before moving on to ERC referral affiliate program, I’d like to summarize what we are talking about here. ERC (Employee Retention Credit) is a stimulus government aid program established by the CARES Act. It is a refundable tax credit – a grant, not a loan – that businesses can claim, and can recoup up to $26,000 per W2 employee that they had on payroll during 2020 and 2021. There are some qualifiers, and we’ll explain that later in this post, but the main thing to focus is on, is that 84% of eligible businesses have not filed for the employee retention credit.

If you don’t know what ERC is and what it’s purpose is, please take a moment to read the 2022 Employee Retention Credit Complete Guide to Getting ERC. You can also take a moment to read more about the ERC program on the official Government IRS Website.

• IRS Extension
• IRS Eligibility
• IRS ERC & PPP 
• Infrastructure Bill article
• IRS Website

ERC Referral Program Video Explainer

ERC Employee Retention Credit – ERC Affiliate Program Video on Youtube

Income Disclosure Statement: This is an exciting opportunity that rewards you for introducing business who complete their ERC filing. Individual results will vary depending on market conditions, commitment levels and marketing skills of each Affiliate. Due to these conditions potential earnings estimates are not possible to provide.

There will certainly be Affiliates who will earn less while others will earn much more. We’re excited about the ERC referral partner program, and we believe it will provide you with a solid foundation to help businesses recoup funds via the ERC stimulus, and also create a way for you to earn in the process.

Getting started with the ERC Affiliate Program

Referring a business to get their ERC is much easier than you’d think. There’s actually very little work involved for the affiliate other than simply introducing a business owner to the Employee Retention Credit. From there ERC Affiliate system, tools and resources provided to every ERC Referral Partner will go to work.

Create your Free ERC Referral Account

The first step is to signup for your own ERC Affiliate Account also know as an ERC Referral Partner. You can use the button above to get started and fill out the form to create your account as shown in the screenshot below.

Complete Basic Training to Activate your Affiliate Links

Activate your ERC Affiliate Links – Once you have access to your ERC Referral Partner account, the first step is to complete a short basic training course. You will see a call-out to to begin the the basic training as shown below:

ERC Affiliate Program Course – Next you will go through a simple 3-4 module course should only take about 15 minutes to complete. It contains all the vital information that ERC Affiliates should know when promoting ERC to businesses and the primary qualifications that a business needs to have. It also is a great way to ensure that if you are building a team of referral partners that you don’t have to manually train each one, and answer all there questions – it streamlines the process for you.

ERC Affiliate Quiz – At the end of the basic training modules there is a 10 question quiz used to ensure that the referral partner actually took the time to digest the information in the modules before. Once The quiz requires a 70% or greater passing score to proceed.

Once you pass, your referral links will now be unlocked and activated on your ERC Affiliate Dashboard. In other words you are ready to go out there are start introducing ERC to businesses and you will get credit for your referrals.

Basic Qualifications for a Business to Apply for ERC

These are the basic pre-qualifiers for a business to be eligible for the ERC. However, don’t get caught up in these details, as the business owner will discuss all these matters with an expert ERC advisor. Our goal as ERC Affiliates is simply to get them scheduled for a quick 5 minute call – that’s it. The only thing I will personally ask before I get them booked, is if they have W2 employees – for me that is enough and worth it for a business to discuss further with an expert.

1. Did the business employ W2 employees in 2020 or 2021?
   
   The business owner can answer yes to either #2 OR #3 below – it does not have to be both.
2. Did the business experience a decline in revenue during those years?
3. Did the business experience a change in standard operations during those years? Some examples include:
   • Change in business hours
   • Partial or full suspension of your operations
   • Shutdowns of your supply chain or vendors
   • Reduction in services offered
   • Reduction in workforce or employee workloads
   • A disruption in your business (division or department closures)
   • Inability to visit a client’s job site
   • Suppliers were unable to make deliveries of critical goods or materials
   • Additional spacing requirements for employees and customers due to social distancing
   • Change in job roles/functions
   • Tasks or work that couldn’t be done from home or while transitioning to remote work conditions
   • Lack of Travel or Lack of Group Meetings

How to Introduce the ERC Program to a Business Owner

Before introducing ERC to a business, remember what you’ve learned from the basic training, and some of pre-qualifiers above. If a business did not have W2 employees at all during 2020 and 2021, they won’t qualify for ERC. So be mindful as to not waste their time, or yours.

The best strategy to open a conversation to a business owner is by asking them this simple question: “Have you heard of, or filed for the Employee Retention Credit”?

There are 4 possible answers you will receive:

1. Business Owner: “Yes, I’ve already filed for the ERC.”
   • Your response: “Wow, that’s great to hear! Well done! It’s awesome to see that savvy business owners like you are staying up to date, and taking advantage of the ERC program.
2. Business Owner: “Yes, I’ve heard of it, but haven’t filed for ERC.”
   • This is an excellent response because you know they are familiar with the ERC program.
   • Your response: “Oh good, I’m glad you’ve heard of it! So you are aware that the Employee Retention Credit is a Government stimulus program that will pay up to $26,000 per W2 employee in the form of a grant – not a loan.”
     
     (Let them answer)
     
     “I’d love to put you in touch with an excellent company that will handle the whole process for you with no upfront cost. They’ve done this for over 16,000 businesses and recovered over $3 billion dollars. They actually specialize in ERC.
     
     “Can I schedule you for a quick 5 minute call with one of their expert ERC advisors? They will pre-qualify you on the phone, answer any questions you may have, and get started on your ERC filing?”
     
     (Let them answer)
     
     “Great what day and time works best for you?”
     
     Collect Info: Day, Time, Name, Email, Phone, Business Name, Business Category, Amount of W2 employees. (See how to onboard a new ERC Client below)
3. Business Owner: “No, what is ERC?”
   • In this case you want to do some quick education on ERC first, then follow similar approach from your response step 2.
   • Your response: “Well, we’re about to have a very exciting conversation!
     The ERC (Employee Retention Credit) is a stimulus government aid program established by the CARES Act. It is a refundable tax credit – a grant, not a loan – that businesses can claim and receive up to $26,000 per employee. This is a check that comes directly from the IRS.
     
     The ERC program was specifically created to help companies who retained their W2 employees during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The US Goverment is essentially rewarding businesses who did so, because this was one of the most difficult times in our history.”
     
     (Let them answer)
     
     “I’d love to put you in touch with an excellent company that will handle the whole process for you with no upfront cost. They’ve done this for over 16,000 businesses and recovered over $3 billion dollars. They actually specialize in ERC.
     
     “Can I schedule you for a quick 5 minute call with one of their expert ERC advisors? They will pre-qualify you on the phone, answer any questions you may have, and get started on your ERC filing”
     
     (Let Them Answer)
     
     “Great what day and time works best for you?”
     
     Collect Info: Day, Time, Name, Email, Phone, Business Name, Business Category, Amount of W2 employees. (See how to onboard a new ERC Client below)
4. Business Owner: “We don’t qualify.”
   • Believe it or not, This is probably the best answer you can. Statistically we have found that 80% of businesses that have been told they don’t qualify actually do in one way or another. Commonly business owners are told they don’t qualify by their advisor or CPA. This can be due a variety of reasons such as: They are not up to date on the stimulus and the fact that new ways to qualify have been introduced, or they do not have the expertise to prepare the filing. I’ve even heard answers of “We are too busy”. Regardless of the reason, this is your time to shine.
   • Your response: “Really? We hear that all the time, and 80% of the businesses that have told us they don’t qualify – we get them their ERC.
     
     (Let Them Answer)
     
     “I’d love to put you in touch with an excellent company that will handle the whole process for you with no upfront cost. They’ve done this for over 16,000 businesses and recovered over $3 billion dollars. They actually specialize in ERC.
     
     “Can I schedule you for a quick 5 minute call with one of their expert ERC advisors? They will pre-qualify you on the phone, answer any questions you may have, and get started on your ERC filing”
     
     (Let Them Answer)
     
     “Great what day and time works best for you?”
     
     Collect Info: Day, Time, Name, Email, Phone, Business Name, Business Category, Amount of W2 employees. (See how to onboard a new ERC Client below)
     

Common Questions & Rebuttals from Business Owners

Below, I will provide a list of common questions, objections, and rebuttals from business owners. Some of these are more tricky than others, but rest assured you will now be armed with the correct responses to each of these questions.

1. Why don’t I just have my CPA handle this for me? I feel comfortable filing with accountant.
   • This is probably one of the most important questions to be able to answer. And as frustrating as it may be to hear this, here is an excellent answer to this question – it’s a bit blunt so feel free to put your own spin on this.
   • Your response: “Great question, and totally makes sense for you to ask or suggest that – we hear it often. Respectfully, I would just l like to make sure I understand your train of thought correctly:
     
     You want to go back to the person:
     
     – Who did NOT tell you about the ERC program, although it’s been around for a year and half.
     
     – Who doesn’t specialize in this type of very complex filing?
     
     – Who will most likely charge you upfront for their time in understanding the 300 page ERC stimulus bill, and preparing the filing.
     
     – And who may not be able to maximize your ERC Tax Refund?
     
     What I’m asking is for you to not make any decisions right now, and to take 5 minutes of your time to have a quick call with an expert ERC advisor from Bottom Line and see what your options are. Worst case you will get off the phone, and be even more educated, and have a better sense of direction on how to go about getting your Employee Retention Credit.
2. What time period does the ERC program cover?
   • The program began on March 13th, 2020 and ends on September 30, 2021, for eligible employers. The statute of limitations to apply for the 2020 ERC does not close until April 15, 2024. The statute of limitations to apply for the 2021 ERCs does not close until April 15, 2025.
3. If I already received PPP can I still get ERC?
   • Yes. Under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, businesses can now qualify for the ERC even if they already received a PPP loan. Note, though, that the ERC will only apply to wages not used for the PPP.
4. Does my business qualify even if there wasn’t a decline in revenue?
   • Yes, If you had a change in your standard business operations during the pandemic, or your business was impacted by the Covid-19 goverment mandates. Some example include change in: job roles, business hours, reduction in services or workforce
5. Do I need to pay back ERC?
   • No. ERC is a refundable tax credit – a grant, not a loan – that businesses can claim.
6. How much money can I get?
   • ERC is a refund in the form of a grant and can return up to $26,000/employee ($10,000 is the average for companies that received PPP, $20,000 is the average for businesses that didn’t)
7. How long does it take to receive the funds after the ERC filing is submitted?
   • Smaller size businesses can see funds in anywhere to 4-6 months, while larger businesses may experience turn around times up to 12 months.

How to Onboard A New ERC Client

To onboard a new client using this ERC affiliate program, you must use the links or forms provided in your ERC Affiliate Backoffice. Under the marketing tab, you will find various links that you can use in the two following ways.

ERC Affiliate Landing Page

You can use ERC affiliate landing page links to send over to a potential prospect. The goal of these pages is to educate, build trust, and allow the business owner to self onboard themselves. Everything is tracked back to your affiliate account, where you have full visibility in your ERC Affiliate Backoffice.

When coming to this page, the business owner will fill out a very short form and schedule a quick 5 minute call with an expert ERC advisor at bottom line concepts. There are over 35 ERC advisors that are on round-robin rotation taking calls, with plenty of availability and scalability. They are friendly, experienced, and very personable – I personally am very impressed and have heard incredible feedback from customers.

ERC Intake Form

If you already have spoken with a business owner on the phone perhaps, and they are ready to proceed, there is no reason to send them a link to a landing page. You can use a simple form to onboard them, and schedule the call with the ERC advisor on their behalf. Essentially this is the same exact process as above, but you are doing it for them with their permission.

Scheduling the Call with an ERC Advisor

Regardless of which method above is used, they will both lead to schedule a call. Not much to explain, but wanted to ensure we can see the full process. The form will pass the data into Calendly scheduling page, where you or the business owner (depending on which method is used) can book the call at the time that is best for them.

That’s it! Those are the only steps to begin the ERC process for a business. Easy right? Now you’ll want to track the status and progress of the ERC filing for this business. We review all that information below in: “ERC Referrals – Tracking your Deals”.

Earning Potential & Compensation Plan

IMPORTANT! Everything discussed here is the referral program specifically put together by iHub Global via their exclusive partnership with Bottom Line Concepts. Which means you must signup under a referral partner that is using the iHub Global system.

This ERC Affiliate program offers a superior compensation plan to all those we’ve seen out there. All earnings for referral partners are derived from a portion contingency fee that Bottom Line Concepts charges the client only after they’ve received their funds from the IRS. Also importantly noted that each client engages into a legal binding retention agreement with Bottom Line Concepts – prior to them preparing the ERC Filing.

Needless to say, looking at the example below – the earning potential of this ERC affiliate program is massive! Even just one deal could deliver significant income!

You have the ability to earn in 3 ways, and increase your earnings along the way.

• Directly referring a business to the ERC program.
• Bringing in referral partners and earning from their directly referred ERC Businesses.
• A leveraged infinity bonus infinite levels deep in your downline also known as genealogy.

Example ERC Referral Earning Scenario

Income Disclosure Statement: This is an exciting opportunity that rewards you for introducing business who complete their ERC filing. Individual results will vary depending on market conditions, commitment levels and marketing skills of each Affiliate. Due to these conditions potential earnings estimates are not possible to provide.

There will certainly be Affiliates who will earn less while others will earn much more. We’re excited about the ERC referral partner program, and we believe it will provide you with a solid foundation to help businesses recoup funds via the ERC stimulus, and also create a way for you to earn in the process.

ERC Compensation Plan Summary

You can learn more about the compensation in the ERC Affiliate Backoffice > Compensation

Making your Warm-Market Prospect List

One of the best strategies is to use your warm market list. These are people you know, places you frequent, and business owners that would be open minded if you were to pick up the phone and give them a call. In other words, leverage your existing relationships. This is the best place to start.

Sit down and make a list of everyone you know. Use the strategies above in “How to Introduce the ERC Program to a Business Owner”

Here’s some examples:

• Your Dentist
• Your Doctor
• Where you get your car serviced / repaired
• Your local grocery store
• Your children’s school.
• Your local church
• Your local restaurants that you frequent
• Your friends
• Your family
• Business associates
• etc..

Get Familiar with the ERC Affiliate Backoffice

As you will learn later in this post, the technology and resources powering this affiliate program has no limits. Every ERC Referral Partner has access to a powerful Backoffice platform that delivers everything you could possibly need and want when promoting this opportunity. Below, we are going to breakdown each section, and what is available to you, so you can hit the ground running.

ERC Affiliate Dashboard

The ERC Affiliate dashboard provides quick access to the most important tools and resources. On there you will find your ERC referral links, webinars, events, ERC program quick training, and call-outs to the more vital sections of the backoffice.

ERC Referrals – Tracking your Deals

The most important resource that this ERC Referral Program delivers (and no one else does) is complete tracking, visibility and transparency. When referring businesses to the employee retention credit, you are going to want to know exactly what’s going on with each one of your referrals.

Luckily, we have this delivered to us as Referral Partners on a silver plater. A full overview of all your deals in totality with charts and widgets, as well as a detailed breakdown list of each business, and their current status. The system is updated every hour on the hour with data directly Bottom Line Concepts. As the business moves through the ERC process starting with their scheduled call, collecting documents, preparing their filing, submitting to the IRS, and receiving payment – all of this is available to keep you up to date, every step of the way.

ERC Referral Overview

The business referral overview section provides your entire ERC referral business from a glance. You can see the chart outlines the most important statuses as the clients move through different deal stages (outlined below).

Lower on the page you will see a pipe-line of widgets that show those numbers with more granularity so you can easily see what’s going on from a birds-eye view.

Referred ERC Businesses

Detailed List – Under the “Referred Businesses” tab you can see a detailed, searchable, sortable table list of your deals. As mentioned previously the “Deal Stages” are updated in the system every hour. As soon as there is some progress with one of your referred businesses, you’ll know pretty quickly.

Timeline View – You can also view each deal individually and get a historical timeline of updates and events that have occurred. This way you get a clear picture of each business and how they are moving through the ERC filing process.

ERC Process Stages

Below is a list of all of the possible statuses that can occur for each ERC deal. They are broken down into 2 categories.

ERC Deal Stages

• New Lead (Initial) – A new lead has been submitted
• Meeting Booked – The Potential Client has a scheduled call with the ERC Advisor
• Unreachable – The ERC Advisor has attempted to call the client via phone and email but was unsuccessful.
• Meeting Happened – The ERC eligibility consultation between the client and the ERC Advisor took place
• Lead Unresponsive – The client has not responded the ERC Advisor or the Project Management team since our contract was sent out.
• Agreement Sent – The Letter of Engagement has been delivered to the Client for E-Signature via Panda Documents
• Agreement Signed – The client has successfully signed our ERC agreement to move forward with Bottom Line’s service and consulting fee
• Lead Unresponsive (Signed) – The client has signed the ERC contract but has not moved forward and is non-responsive.
• Questionnaire – This is a fact-finding form completed by the client for Project Management describing their business structure and identify the documents needed in data upload
• Gathering Docs – The client received a secure share file to upload documents needed for the ERC refund total
• Docs Under Review – All data has been received and our ERC Data Review specialists begin to calculate the ERC refund total
• Docs to be Submitted to IRS – Total refund amount it calculated and presented to the client and 941 Preparation Begins
• Docs Submitted to IRS – Bottom Line receives confirmation from the client to submit 941x Forms to the IRS on their behalf

ERC Collection Stages

• ERC Submitted (1-30 Days ago) – Deal was submitted successfully to the IRS 1-30 days ago
• ERC Submitted (31-60 Days ago) – Deal was submitted successfully to the IRS 31-60 days ago
• ERC Submitted (61-90 Days ago) – Deal was submitted successfully to the IRS 16-90 days ago
• ERC Submitted (91-120 Days ago) – Deal was submitted successfully to the IRS 91-120 days ago
• ERC Submitted (121-150 Days ago) – Deal was submitted successfully to the IRS 121-150 days ago
• No IRS Communications Received – Deal was submitted successfully to the IRS over 150 days ago and no communication from the IRS was received yet.
• Client Unresponsive – Deal was submitted successfully to the IRS over 150 days ago and client did not respond to at minimum 5 attempts to contact them. 2 emails + 3 phone calls
• Client Received IRS Communications – Client received Communications from the IRS and we are attempting to get them in order to invoice
• Client Invoiced – Notice – Client received notices from the IRS and was invoiced, awaiting checks before full collection efforts
• Client Invoiced – Checks – Client was invoiced and we confirmed they received checks from the IRS. Awaiting payment
• Client Paid Partial – Client received checks for some of the quarters that were filed for and paid us for those quarters, awaiting remaining check(s) from the IRS.
• Payment without Noticed – Client sent us payment without sharing notices or checks. Likely underpaid due to interest.
• Client in Dispute – Client is disputing our bill and refusing full payment.
• Client Paid in Full – Client received all checks and paid us in full

Referred ERC Affiliates

Under the “Referred Affiliates” tab you get visibility of the Referral Partners who have joined under you. At this time you can see the amount of leads, booked calls and agreements signed from their efforts – which you would potentially earn on when referencing the ERC Compensation Plan above. However, currently in the works is to get more visibility on your Referral Partners deals so you can be in the loop as well.

ERC Affiliate Training

The ERC Affiliate Training provides overview training, one-pagers, and understanding the process. Without over-complicating it, this section provides the necessary streamlined training that Referral Partners should know when going out there and introducing businesses to ERC.

ERC Affiliate Marketing

In this section you’ll find everything you need to promote and market the ERC Affiliate program. From Landing pages and links to flyers and videos – you have a full toolbox of assets and collateral to educate and refer a business owner to the Employee Retention Credit.

ERC Affiliate Compensation

In this section affiliates can learn about the ERC Affiliate Program Compensation Plan. There is an overview PDF, a video presentation, as well as a downloadable full PDF presentation. If you want to learn more, you can see the section above “Earning Potential & Compensation Plan”.

ERC Live Webinars

Tune into weekly ERC Live call. Learn more about how to promote ERC, bring in businesses, hear success stores, questions and answers and compensation training.

The Companies Powering this ERC Program

This ERC Affiliate Program is Powered by Two Distinguished Companies: iHub Global and Bottom Line Concepts

Let me begin by saying, the only reason this ERC referral program is possible is because two powerful companies partnered up together to make it happen. Both companies provide tremendous resources and expertise in their respective areas, and together have delivered a streamlined machine that helps introduce, educate, qualify, prepare and process the ERC filing in the most effective and superior way.

The platform and technology that is driving this opportunity delivers powerful marketing, tools, training, visibility, and automation for the referral partner – giving them everything they need to generate income with the ERC Referral Program.

Bottom Line Concepts handles the ERC process from start to finish for the business client.

Bottom Line Concepts a proven track record in assisting companies recover taxes and wages they have already paid on their W2 employees with zero upfront cost to the business. Their experienced, knowledgeable, and dedicated team will handle the entire process from beginning to end with the IRS on behalf of the business, and work closely with them to collect necessary documents and recover the most possible funds as quickly as possible.

iHub Global delivers the platforms, technology, and tracking for ERC Referral Partners

iHub Global is a powerhouse tech company powered by 1.3 million affiliates. They have a proven track record of delivering incredible opportunities powered by their platforms and tech systems which automate the training and marketing and tools needed by their sales force. This isn’t their first rodeo, iHub has affiliate programs that revolve around Blockchain, IoT, Web 3.0 / Metaverse, Digital Advertising, and Travel. To date, they have paid out millions in commissions to their affiliates, and continue to innovate and disrupt the industry. Once important thing to note is that iHub Global is a company that carefully vets the products and services they deliver to public, and the companies and brands that power them – iHub sets it’s vision on bringing to market what has never been done before.

Below I will break down the responsibilities and roles of both companies that are powering this very lucrative ERC Referral Program.

Bottom Line Concepts

Bottom Line Concepts Role in the ERC Referral Program

1. Pre-Qualify each Business (client) for ERC. Every single business owner who files their ERC through this program will start off on a dedicated one-on-one call with and expert ERC Advisor. Bottom Line has over 60 full-time in house expert ERC advisors who not only are super friendly, but extremely well trained.
2. Collect required documents from the client. Bottom Line will work with the business owner to collect and organize necessary documents to begin preparing the filing. This includes the 941 Forms (Quarterly Federal Payroll), Payroll data per quarter in an excel spreadsheet, and any existing PPP or PPP forgiveness documents. They provide an easy online document upload / questionnaire to help the client send over the docs.
3. Prepare the ERC filing and amend necessary documents – With over 40 full-time forensic accounts working around the clock, Bottom Line goes to work analyzing the data provided by the client, and making all the necessary calculations to prepare the ERC filing. They also include the process of amending the 941 forms into the required 941x forms. This is a very complex and intricate process. Luckily Bottom Lines has the expertise and system to get this done as efficiently and accurately as possible.
4. Submit the ERC Filing directly to the IRS – Once the ERC filing is ready, the total ERC tax refund amount is calculated and presented to client. Upon the client’s approval the 941x Forms are submitted to the IRS on clients behalf.
   • All the steps above can be completed within 2-4 weeks depending on the clients responsiveness and ability to provide necessary documents for the ERC filing.
   • The following steps can take anywhere between 4-12 months depending on the size of the business (amount of W2 employees) and the complexity of the filing.
5. Approval from the IRS – Both Bottom Line and the client get a notification from the IRS that the ERC claim has been approved, and for how much.
6. Receive Payment from the Client – Client receives their check, and Bottom Line invoices the client to collects their contingency fee.
7. Pay iHub Inc – Once Bottom Line has recovered funds directly from the client based on the contingency fee, a portion of that is paid to iHub Inc on the 15th of each month. These funds are used to be distributed to referral partners for each of their individual efforts based on the ERC Compensation Plan.

Bottom Line Concepts as a Company

If I just had to say this, the team over at Bottom Line are truly experts in what they do – and they specialize in complex government tax and refund related filings precisely like the Employee Retention Credit. They have completed over 16,000 ERC filings, and recovered over $3 billion dollars in ERC tax credits – That’s no chump change. It takes a serious operation to be able to deliver on that, and they have proved themselves every step of the way.

Bottom Line Concepts is a division of Bottom Line Savings

Bottom Line Concepts is a division of Bottom Line Savings. Founded in 2009, Bottom Line Savings is a no risk, contingency-based cost savings company. They negotiate on behalf of their clients to get the best prices possible from their existing vendors. They audit old invoices for errors getting our clients refunds and credits, and they increase the profitability and overall valuation of their client’s organizations.

Bottom Line Savings primary client base was fortune 500 and fortune 1000 companies who produced over $100,000,000+ per year in revenue / sales. They focused their services on Goverment aid, unrealized funds, and specific cost-savings analysis.

Clients of Bottom Line Concepts

Bottom line is trusted by names like Starbucks, Uber, Visa, McDonald’s, Rolex, the New York Yankees, the LA Lakers, Chase Bank, MetLife, Comcast GNC, Burger King, Versace… The list goes on.

iHub Global

iHub Global’s Role in the ERC Referral Program

1. Systems and Processes – With any referral or affiliate program, having a solid foundation of systems and processes are vital. iHub Global has vast experience in planning, developing and deploying complex referral based opportunities to the masses. With the ERC Affiliate program, iHub Global has delivered an streamlined approach for people to join, get started, and have access to all the tools they need to refer a business to the Employee Retention Credit, or even bring in a new ERC Referral Partner.
2. Platform and Technology – At it’s core, iHub Global is really a tech company. They maintain a full-time team of highly skilled software developers, engineers, database architects, and server administrators. Using their proprietary platforms, iHub Global deploys each referral opportunity including this ERC referral program with a powerful easy-to-use web portal and affiliate back office.
3. Training and Education – Education is key, and when it comes to the masses, sometimes it can feel like herding sheep. Luckily, iHub Global provides educational resources and training that the average person can understand. This includes, video training, frequently asked questions, presentation, e-courses, and daily live webinars to ensure that there is clarity and confidence when bringing any product or service to market.
4. Marketing and Automation – iHub Global delivers just about every marketing asset you can think of. When promoting any opportunity or affiliate program – having strong congruent, and compliant marketing material is crucial. From email templates, print assets to digital landing pages and email automation. iHub Global takes no half measures when it comes to the success of their affiliates and helping them to hit the ground running.
5. Initial Client Onboarding – Every prospect (potential ERC business client) starts their journey via iHub systems, links, opt-in forms, landing pages, or otherwise ways to capture and onboard the initial lead as an ERC business. The first step usually us to use an existing digital market asset they provide all of their referral partners with, to educate, build trust, and bring the client into the network. From there, the next step would be to schedule a call with an Expert ERC advisor at Bottom Line Concepts. Once the business moves on from iHub “eco-system”, the rest is taken care of by bottom line. This is what makes the process so easy for ERC Referral partners. Their only job is to make that introduction, and get them into the system to book their call – Easy!
6. Tracking and Visibility – This is one of the most important factors when promoting any product or service – especially this ERC referral program. Full transparency and visibility of every client, every step of the way. This is exactly what iHub Global has delivered to ERC Affiliates using their platform. Their robust dashboard
7. Compensation Plan and Payouts – Once funds are received from Bottom Line Concepts, iHub Inc will reconcile funds owed to each individual referral partner, and convert them into eligible commissions based on the ERC Compensation Plan. Eligible commissions will be paid out on the next available payout distribution date.

Eric, How much are you making from referring ERC to businesses?

I am personally on track to generate $619,500 in ERC commissions at the time of writing this post. I started my efforts on 10/18/2022, which means that at the time of writing this post I have been promoting ERC for 16 days. At this trajectory, and the assumption that only 50% of my referred businesses would get approved for ERC (which is more around 80%), I would be looking at $7,066,171.87 in commissions over the span of the next year. Do I have your attention now?

How can I refer a business to ERC and make money?

ERC Employee Retention Credit Program Summary

If you haven’t been living under a rock over the last couple months, you’ve probably heard of the Employee Retention Credit (ERC). ERC is one of the most powerful and paramount government aid programs to ever exist for US businesses established by the CARES Act. For one of the first times ever in our history, the US Government is giving back and rewarding businesses who retained their W2 Payroll employees during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020 and 2021) and continued paying their Payroll Taxes – one of the most difficult times in our history.

Businesses who retained their W2 Payroll employees and filed their 941 forms (Quarterly Federal Tax Return) during the Covid-19 pandemic can receive up to $26,000 per employee. Right now, ERC qualifications are less stringent than ever. This is due to various updates and amendment to the ERC program over time.

What is ERC?
ERC (Employee Retention Credit) is a stimulus government aid program established by the CARES Act. It is a refundable tax credit – a grant, not a loan – that businesses can claim through an ERC filing process.

Who Qualifies for the ERC Program For?
This program was created for companies who showed a decline in revenue, changes or adjustments in standard business operations, or partial / full business suspension during the Covid-19 pandemic and paid employees on W2 payroll during the years of 2020 and 2021.

Is ERC like the PPP Loan?
No, The PPP is a loan program that provides funds to small businesses to help them keep their employees on the payroll. The ERC, on the other hand, is a tax credit that businesses can claim for eligible wages paid to employees during the pandemic and do not need to be repaid. Businesses who filed for PPP are also still eligible to receive ERC.

The post ERC Referral Program Employee Retention Credit with Bottom Line Concepts first appeared on ewoah - Technology Leader & Serial Entrepreneur.

This guide has been featured on: bitcoinminer.com, bitcoinwatch.com, bitcoinnews.com, bitcoinlinuxguide.info, bitcoinjobs.com, coineer.com and more.

Bitcoin Mining Pro E-Book (Full Version)

In this E-Book, I am going to share my project in creating a Bitcoin mining cluster, which I started in June 2011. I will try to include everything from beginning to the end with as much detail as possible. Most of this project was trial and error, so I will do my best to note each step of the way with all the pros and cons. I would beleive this to the most complete guide currently available for helping people understand the basics of Bitcoin mining, and actually being able to delve into it as well. Please keep in mind that my Bitcoin operation is completely handled under Linux operating systems, however I do have a few Windows based Bitcoin miners so I will provide notes, guides, and best practices for that OS as well. Also note that many of the references that I make in this E-Book are in regard to my personal Bitcoin mining rigs.

If you do not know what Bitcoin is, I highly suggest you read up on the following sites:

• http://www.weusecoins.com/
• https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ
• http://gizmodo.com/5803124/what-is-bitcoin
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

Here are pictures of a few of my rigs

10 steps to implement and deploy your Bitcoin Mining Rigs

Below are the 10 steps to getting your bitcoin mining rigs running. Hopefully, I will be able to answer all your questions later in this E-Book.

•  1. Setup bitcoin mining pool accounts
  Assuming you are not solo mining, you will need to create account with 1 or more bitcoin mining pools. Discussed in section 12.
•  2. Find a location for your bitcoin miners
  You will need to find a good place that you can keep your bitcoin mining rigs. Somewhere they will not be bothered. No kids, pets, weather, or other interferences.
•  3. Ensure location quality / resources (Internet, power, cooling)
  You will need to ensure that wherever you keep you bitcoin mining rigs you have: An internet connection, enough power, and a suitable operating temperature with enough airflow. Discussed in section 6, 7, and 8.
•  4. Asses your budget
  Determine how much money you have, and want to invest in bitcoin miners. Weigh the profit, loss, and risks. Discussed in section 2, and 3.
•  5. Decide on hardware and purchase hardware
  You will need to select and purchase the best hardware according to your budget. All this is explained in section 4.
•  6. Build, configure, and test bitcoin rigs
  You will need to be capable of building these machines from scratch. Without the knowledge of building computers, it is going to be difficult to be successful in running your own bitcoin mining rig. You must know the ins and outs of these beasts. Also discussed in section 4.
•  7. Obtain and implement software and scripts
  There are many options to choose from. Will you be using Windows, or Linux? What kind of Bitcoin mining software will you choose? Will you decide to automate your bitcoin mining rigs? The questions will never end. Learn more in section 11.
•  8. Setup bitcoin proxy
  Now that you have everything setup, you could centralize everything using a bitcoin proxy. This will always keep your login information the same, and allow you to manage mining pools and workers very easily. Discussed in section 13.
•  9. Deploy
  Finally, deploy your bitcoin miners, and start generating bitcoins!
•  10. Overclock
  When everything is running smoothly, get even more performance out of your GPUs by overclocking them. Discussed in section 9.

Here are the primary things we will cover in this E-Book:

I apologize for the order of these items, as you may need to jump around through sections to reference terms, and explanations. I did not think I would be elaborating this much.

What is Bitcoin mining?

• 1.1 What is Bitcoin Mining?
• 1.2 Why would I want to mine for Bitcoins?
• 1.3 What is a Bitcoin Mining Rig?
• 1.4 What is CPU Mining?
• 1.5 What is GPU Mining?
• 1.6 What is FPGA Mining?
• 1.8 Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU?
• 1.7 What is ASIC Mining?

Investment

• 2.1 How much money do I have to invest?
• 2.2 How much money do I want to invest?
• 2.3 How much money did you personally invest?

Return on Investment (ROI)

• 3.1 What is the current value of Bitcoin?
• 3.2 How many Bitcoins can I generate per day?
• 3.3 What is Bitcoin difficulty level?
• 3.4 How will the difficulty level affect my Bitcoin mining?

Hardware

• 4.1 What kind of hardware do I need?
• 4.2 What is the best hardware to get for my buck?
• 4.3 Am I capable of building these machines from scratch?
• 4.4 What exact hardware did you use for your Bitcoin miners?

GPU Mining

• 5.1 Where can I compare graphics cards (GPUs)?
• 5.2 20 Popular Mining GPUs
• 5.3 What is mhash rate?
• 5.4 What are stream processors?
• 5.5 Why are ATI GPUs better than Nvidia GPUs for Bitcoin mining?

Networking

• 6.1 What kind of internet connection to I need?
• 6.2 Do I need to configure my firewall to run Bitcoin?
• 6.3 How does the peer finding mechanism work?

Cooling

• 7.1 How am I going to keep these rigs cool?
• 7.2 How am I going to keep the room cool?
• 7.3 How do I measure room temperature?
• 7.4 How hot will my GPUs get and can they overheat?
• 7.5 How can I change the Fan speed on my GPUs?
• 7.6 How do I measure GPU temperatures?

Power

• 8.1 How much power will I need?
• 8.2 How much will my power bill go up?
• 8.3 How do I measure my power usage?

Overclocking

• 9.1 What is overclocking?
• 9.2 Should I use overclocking?
• 9.3 How do I overclock my GPUs?

Managing

• 10.1 Using a node PC to oversee your Bitcoin miners
• 10.2 How do I manage my Bitcoin rigs?
• 10.3 Can I manage them remotely?

Software

• 11.1 What software can I use to run to mine for Bitcoins?
• 11.2 What is ATI Catalyst Control Center, and why do I need it?
• 11.3 What operating systems can I mine for Bitcoins?
• 11.4 Can I run a Bitcoin miner from a USB flash drive?
• 11.5 Automation and batch scripts

Bitcoin mining Pools

• 12.1 What are Bitcoin mining pools (Pool Mining)?
• 12.2 What are the benefits of using a Bitcoin mining pool?
• 12.3 Different types and rewards of mining pools
• 12.4 Comparison of mining pools?

Bitcoin Proxy

• 13.1 What is a Bitcoin mining proxy?
• 13.2 What are the benefits of using a Bitcoin mining proxy?

Some of these answers were derived from https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/ under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

Explaining Bitcoin mining…

1.1 What is Bitcoin Mining?

Simple definition: Bitcoin mining is the process of creating or generating new Bitcoins.

Technical definition: Mining is the process of spending computation power to find valid blocks and thus create new Bitcoins. Technically speaking, mining is the calculation of a hash of the a block header, which includes among other things a reference to the previous block, a hash of a set of transactions and a nonce. If the hash value is found to be less than the current target (which is inversely proportional to the difficulty), a new block is formed and the miner gets 50 newly generated Bitcoins. If the hash is not less than the current target, a new nonce is tried, and a new hash is calculated. This is done millions of times per second by each miner.

Common question: Is mining used for some useful computation? The computations done when mining are internal to Bitcoin and not related to any other distributed computing projects. They serve the purpose of securing the Bitcoin network, which is useful.

1.4 Why would I want to mine for Bitcoins?

Good question! Here are some of my reasons:

For fun
Building Bitcoin mining rigs is fun, well, if you’re a geek. I have thoroughly enjoyed the entire process of building, configuring, testing, and occasionally fist fighting with these machines. Okay, but now the real reason…

Money
If anyone tells you otherwise, the real reason why everyone wants to mine for bitcoins is because you can make money! Yes, that’s right… How you ask? Well, it’s very simple, currently there are millions of US Dollars, British Pounds, and Euros being traded for bitcoins everyday through online marketplaces! In these systems, users place buys and sells themselves on the exchange and the price is set by the market. The exchange usually acts as a mutual platform between the 2 parties holding people’s funds and performing the trade. The exchange may take a small percent or charge a fee on withdrawals/deposits as their cost.

Not only that, there are plenty of online stores that accept bitcoin as currency. You can buy things like electronics, books, music, games, clothing, and more!

Without going into too much detail, you can get all the nitty gritty right here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade

1.3What is a Bitcoin Mining Rig?

A mining rig is a computer system used for mining Bitcoins. The rig might be a dedicated miner where it was procured, built and operated specifically for mining or it could otherwise be a computer that fills other needs, such as performing as a gaming system, and is used to mine only on a part-time basis.

You should read this wiki page for more detailed information, and example Bitcoin mining rig configurations: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_rig

1.4What is CPU Mining?

CPU mining is the process of using a CPU for Bitcoin computations. CPU mining has become less common since GPU mining has been found to be up to 800+ times faster.

The CPU, or central processing unit is usually a removable component that plugs into the computer’s main circuit board, or motherboard and sits underneath a large, metallic heat sink which usually has a fan, a few are cooled by water.

A CPU is designed primarily to be an executive and make decisions, as directed by the software. For example, if you type a document and save it, it is the CPU’s job to turn your document into the appropriate file type and direct the hard disk to write it as a file. CPU’s can also do all kinds of math, as inside every CPU is one or more “Arithmetic/Logic Units” (ALU’s). CPU’s are also highly capable of following instructions of the “if this, do that, otherwise do something else”. A large bulk of the structures inside a CPU are concerned with making sure that the CPU is ready to deal with having to switch to a different task on a moment’s notice when needed.
CPU’s also have to deal with quite a few other things which add complexity, including:

• enforcing privilege levels and the boundaries between user programs and the operating system
• creating the illusion of “virtual memory” to programs
• for the most popular processors, being backwards compatible with legacy code

Due to the fact that CPU mining is quite outdated and obsolete, there is not much need to further mention or compare other mining methods to CPU mining.

1.5What is GPU Mining?

GPU mining is the process of using a graphics card (also known as a video card or graphics card) for Bitcoin computations. GPU mining has become the primary form of generating new bitcoins, as appose to using a CPU.

The GPU, or graphics processing unit, is a part of the video rendering system of a computer. The typical function of a GPU is to assist with the rendering of 3D graphics and visual effects so that the CPU doesn’t have to.

1.6What is FPGA Mining?

Now that you learned a bit about the mining process through a computers CPU and GPU, well discuss the next advanced of mining hardware. FPGA is what is known as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturing—hence “field-programmable“. The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a hardware description language (HDL), similar to that used for an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) (circuit diagrams were previously used to specify the configuration, as they were for ASICs, but this is increasingly rare).

In late 2011 and early 2012, innovative companies like Butterfly Labs, ZTEX in Germany, a grad student in China, and some individuals in the U.S. started offering FPGA-based mining devices. While most of these were based on the $100 Xilinx Spartan6-150 FPGA, the BFL design used an Altera FPGA, which the company sourced at a discounted price.

The Xilinx Spartan6-150-based mining boards achieved about 200 to 220 MH/s per FPGA, and sold for approximately $1 to $2.50 per MH/s.

Some photos of some well put together / advanced FPGA mining rigs:

What are the benefits of FPGA Mining?

There are various major benefits to using FPGA mining, as appose to GPU and CPU mining.

• Integration: Most FPGA mining chips can be easily connected and disconnected from any PC with a simple USB cable.
• Flexibility: Due the fact that this hardware is external as appose to internal GPU and CPU, it makes it easy to replace and maneuver the device from locations or different computers.
• No max connections: One simple computer or even laptop can support dozens of FPGA USB connections with the support of a USB hub, and does not rely at all on the speed of the PC hardware.
• Low Power Consumption: This is a big one! (Small cost of electricity) Each FPGA miner uses on average under 5 watts of power while hashing! GPU mining will use between 500-1200 watts of electricity for each rig, depending on the hardware and amount of GPU’s. This will add a hefty cost to your electricity bill.

1.8What is ASIC mining?

[This section will be updated by December 9th]

1.8Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU

Some Bitcoin users might wonder why there is a huge disparity between the mining output of a CPU versus a GPU.

A GPU is like a CPU, but there are important internal differences that make them suited toward their special tasks. These are the differences that make Bitcoin mining far more favorable on a GPU.

A CPU core can execute 4 32-bit instructions per clock (using a 128-bit SSE instruction) or 8 via AVX (256-Bit), whereas a GPU like the Radeon HD 5970 can execute 3200 32-bit instructions per clock (using its 3200 ALUs or shaders). This is a difference of 800 (or 400 in case of AVX) times more instructions per clock. As of 2011, the fastest CPUs have up to 6, 8, or 12 cores and a somewhat higher frequency clock (2000-3000 MHz vs. 725 MHz for the Radeon HD 5970), but one HD5970 is still more than five times faster than four 12-core CPUs at 2.3GHz (which would also set you back about $4700 rather than $350 for the HD5970).

A GPU is very different. Yes, a GPU can do math, and can also do “this” and “that” based on specific conditions. However, GPUs have been designed so they are very good at doing video processing, and less executive work.
Video processing is a lot of repetitive work, since it is constantly being told to do the same thing to large groups of pixels on the screen. In order to make this run efficiency, video processors are far heavier on the ability to do repetitive work, than the ability to rapidly switch tasks.
GPUs have large numbers of ALU’s, more so than CPU’s. As a result, they can do large amounts of bulky mathematical labor in a greater quantity than CPU’s.

For more info on this topic go here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Why_a_GPU_mines_faster_than_a_CPU

Investment

2.1How much money do I have to invest?

Ahh, this is a good question I am often asked, and it can be interpreted 2 different ways:

a. How much money do I actually have available to invest in Bitcoin mining?
Well, it’s pretty obvious that only you know the answer to that question. If you can’t answer this question, I suggest you login to your online banking and start keeping better track of your finances 

b. How much money is required in order for me to start mining for Bitcoins?
This was the question you were probably referring to. And unfortunately, there is no single answer to this question. Assuming you have a computer, you can already begin mining for Bitcoins! Yes that is correct! Using your current computers CPU, or GPU you can actually begin generating Bitcoins using various available free software (depending on your operating system). The bad news is that unless you have done the research or actually customized your computer for this type of performance, chances are that you really won’t be able to generate Bitcoins at a feasible rate to make any money (in your lifetime at least).

If you have some money readily available for investment, and based on my current experience you can build a GPU mining machine for as low as about $288. However, that would be with very low-level mining machine with only 1 GPU capable of generating at small mhash rate. I’ll explain what mhash means in section 5.3.

2.2How much money do I want to invest?

This is a tricky question, and all depends on how big of a risk taker you are. I like to put my money to work so I’m a big fan of investing. Anywhere that I can put money, and turn it into more money is usually all I need to hear. But, the most important thing is analyzing your risk and loss.

Let’s be honest, Bitcoin as a currency is the first of its kind, so we really can’t be sure how stable it is, or how long it’s going to be around. Maybe one day the price will crash, as we’ve seen the price has fluctuated pretty violently at times. Maybe governments will get involved, shutting it down, making it illegal, etc.. Maybe people will one day just begin to de-value Bitcoin, and no longer accept it as currency. There are various downfalls that can come about, but here is the way I look at my investment losses; If the worst possible thing happens, which is Bitcoin ceasing to exist PERIOD, what am I left with? Essentially, I am left with a lot of valuable hardware, which is in perfectly good condition. Many people would probably pay some good money for these computers on Ebay or other marketplaces. These machines are a gamers dream with their video rendering capabilities. Not to mention that they each can support up to 18 monitors! They would be great for stock brokers and day traders. Bottom line is, I can probably sell this equipment and make back 70%-75% of my initial investment. Therefor I have my conclusion; I am willing to take a risk in a chance of losing 30% of my investment, and to me it is worth the risk. Some of you won’t be okay with that, by that is why it’s called an INVESTMENT: “A thing that is worth buying because it may be profitable or useful in the future.”

2.3How much money did you personally invest?

If you want to know how much I spent on each machine, I’ll say it flat out:

About $1,600 per machine including shipping. Each machine is currently capable of calculating 1,071 mhash/s. Yes my GPUs are overclocked and we’ll discuss that later in section 9.1.

I also post my exact hardware configuration, and the links to where I purchased it in section 4.4.

Return on Investment (ROI)

3.1What is the current value of Bitcoin?

The current monetary value of Bitcoin can be determined by going to http://Bitcoincharts.com/markets/
At the time of my writing this article, the current value is about $14 USD per Bitcoin. Of course this price is subject to change and will fluctuate. I’ve seen Bitcoin as high as $28 USD, and have seen many people sell at that price too. The price of Bitcoin will unquestionably be one of the two primary factors of your ROI. When started building my rigs, the price of Bitcoin was $20 – $24. At that time, I calculated my ROI to take about 2 months. Obviously, that has changed, and I will explain more in section 3.4 below.

3.2How many Bitcoins can I generate per day?

This depends on 3 main factors:

a. Are you using a Bitcoin Pool or Solo Mining? (More info in section 12.1)
b. What is the current difficulty rate? (More info in section 3.3)
c. What kind of hardware are you using? (More info in section 4.1)

Using this calculator, you can get a pretty good estimate of how many Bitcoins you can generate, and how much money you could make if you sell those Bitcoins for USD.

3.3What is Bitcoin difficulty level

Difficulty is a measure of how difficult it is to find a new block compared to the easiest it can ever be. The difficulty changes every 2016 blocks.

The following is the formula, which calculates the difficulty:

difficulty = maximum_target / current_target
(target is a 256 bit number)

What is the maximum difficulty?
The maximum difficulty is roughly: maximum_target / 1, which is a ridiculously huge number (about 2^224).
The actual maximum difficulty is when current_target=0, but we would not be able to calculate the difficulty if that happened. (fortunately it never will, so we’re ok.)

Can the difficulty go down?
Yes it can. See discussion in target.

What is the minimum difficulty?
The minimum difficulty, when the target is at the maximum allowed value, is 1.

For more information on Difficulty please see: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Difficulty

I also suggest reading about Blocks: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block

3.4How will the difficulty level affect my Bitcoin mining?

A simple answer:

The higher the difficulty rate is, the harder is is to create Bitcoins. There, that was simple 

If you want more detailed information, see section 3.3 above.

Hardware

4.1What kind of hardware do I need?

In order to mine for Bitcoins, you generally need the same hardware as a regular computer such as: Motherboard, CPU, Power Supply, Memory (RAM), GPU, Harddrive OR USB Flash drive

Additionally you may need some other components such as: Ethernet cable, Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor. The Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor components are only required for the initial setup and configuration, and do not need to be connected in order to actually continue mining.

Some other components are optional such as a computer case, Hard drive, and CD-Rom drive.

4.2What is the best hardware to get for my buck?

I won’t spend too much time on this question because there is an extremely helpful list of hardware for example Bitcoin mining rigs, and where to purchase. It is posted below:

I also provide a list of the exact hardware that I purchased for my rigs in section 4.4 below. I did a lot of research before buying my hardware, although I did not see the list shown below before making my purchases, so consider yourself lucky! Prices are always changing and hardware always goes down in cost, so I definitely encourage you to do some research on your own too.

Here are a few main things to keep in mind:

Motherboard: You want find a motherboard with as many PCIe x16 or PCIe x8 slots as possible. This will determine how many GPUs you will be able to use in your rig.
CPU: Although we are going to be using our GPUs to mine for Bitcoins, you still need a decent CPU in order to keep the machine stable. I would reccomend any of the following types of CPUs in order from worst to best: Dual Core, Quad Core, Corei3, Corei5, Corei7. I listed only intel CPUs since they are most common. Here is a great resource for CPU benchmarks / prices: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/
GPU: This will be your most important investment since it is the main factor in dtermining
RAM: You don’t need much ram at all 1-2 GB should be just fine.

This list of hardware is from: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_rig

Typical Dedicated Miner Configurations Using a Tower

One ATI 5830, Approximately 245 Mhash/s

Three ATI 5770s, Approximately 630 Mhash/s

Two ATI 5850s, Approximately 600 Mhash/s

Three ATI 5850s, Approximately 900 Mhash/s

Three ATI 6990s, Approximately 2.1 Ghash/s

Typical Dedicated Miner Configurations Using a Rack Mount

Budget AMD Sempron / Dual ATI 6990: Approximately 1.4 Ghash/s

Typical Multipurpose Miner Configurations

High-end Intel-based miner/gaming rig: single ATI 6990, Approximately 750 Mhash/s

High-end AMD-based miner/gaming rig: single ATI 6990, Approximately 750 Mhash/s

Mid-level AMD-based miner/gaming/workstation rig: single ATI 6870, Approximately 300 Mhash/s

Mid-level Intel-based miner/gaming/workstation rig: single ATI 6870, Approximately 300 Mhash/s

4.3Am I capable of building these machines from scratch?

The first question I would ask is: Have you ever built your own computer? If the answer is yes, then there is probably no reason why you can’t build a Bitcoin mining machine yourself either. It requires standard desktop hardware, just like you would use to build a personal computer.

Here is a very cool 3 minutes video of “phreneticdotnet” building a bestly bitcoin mining rig!

If you have never built your own computer, I’m not sure whether or not I should encourage you to move forward and try to build one. If you have a friend or colleague with experience who can help you out, I would say don’t hesitate! Even if you are pretty handy with electronics, and know about computers or the components that comprise them, then here are a few guides on how to build your own computer:

http://www.build-your-own-computers.com/
http://www.kitchentablecomputers.com/started.php
http://www.build-gaming-computers.com/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/203950/how_to_build_your_own_pc_part_1.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQQ30QoF_-8

There are plenty of resources out there, do some googling: “How to build your own computer”.

4.4What exact hardware did you use for your Bitcoin miners?

Below is the exact hardware that I bought for my rigs. You will notice that the graphics cards that I purchased for my rigs may currently out of stock on Newegg (ASUS Radeon 6950). However, we will discuss various other graphic card choices in the next section. There are even better cards available but all depends on your budget. Also, I am aware that I could have gotten some of these compnents slightly cheaper if I shopped around more. The bottom line is I like Newegg They are prompt, shipping is fast, and always reliable. I’d rather buy all my parts from the same vendor, and 99% of the time it is Newegg.com.

Image	Product Description	Unit Price
	Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer CaseModel #:Nine HundredItem #:N82E16811129021Return Policy:Limited Replacement Only Return PolicyIn StockMail in Rebate	$105.99
	SAPPHIRE PURE Black P67 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel MotherboardModel #:PURE Black P67Item #:N82E16813154018Return Policy:Standard Return PolicyIn StockMail in Rebate Card	$229.99
	ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/1GD5 Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card …Model #:EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/1Item #:N82E16814121437Return Policy:VGA Standard Return PolicyOut Of StockMail in Rebate Card	$269.99
	KINGWIN Mach 1 ABT-1220MA1S 1220W ATX / BTX SLI Ready Modular Active PFC Power SupplyModel #:ABT-1220MA1SItem #:N82E16817121040Return Policy:Standard Return PolicyIn Stock	$259.99
	Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52400Model #:BX80623I52400Item #:N82E16819115074Return Policy:CPU Replacement Only Return PolicyIn Stock	$194.99
	G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQModel #:F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQItem #:N82E16820231193Return Policy:Memory Standard Return PolicyIn Stock	$43.99

GPU Mining

5.1Where can I compare graphics cards (GPUs)?

The following link, is a VERY important one. It should be your bible in choosing, and comparing available GPUs that are on the market:

Luckily, they recently added “20 Popular Mining Cards” to this document, I’ll include it below. This wiki page lists out every GPU, the model, the mhash/s (discussed in section 5.3), the slot type, watts, clock, and other notes related to overclocking and configuration.

Mhash is explained in the next section: 5.3

• Mhash/s: millions hashes per second (raw speed performance ; may not be very energy efficient with some models)
• Mhash/J: millions hashes per joule (energy efficiency ; 1 joule of energy is spent for 1 watt in 1 second)
• Watts: (maximum power consumption, i.e. energy per unit of time : 1 W = 1 J/s)
• Clock: (in MHz) refers to the Shader clock only with nVidia cards (not Core or Memory). With AMD card the shader clock is not separate, but is part of the GPU clock.
• Stream processors (SP): (Shader Units)

Keep this in mind:

Mhash/s: The main goal you want to achieve is lowest cost vs highest mhash rate. The more mhash/s (megahash per second) a GPU can produce the faster is can calculate and process Bitcoin data.

Watts: Another thing to note are watts. Your computers power supply must have enough watts in order to power these cards. If you have 3 GPUs that use 200 watts, but only have a 500 watt power supply 1 of two things will happen. It won’t power up properly and some components in the machine will not get enough power. Or YOU CAN BLOW OUT THE POWER SUPPLY. Yes that’s right, it has happened to me. At one point I drew more power than the power supply (PSU) could handle, and my machine shut off, permanently. Well, until I replaced the power supply, which is a pain in the ass considering it is wired up everywhere inside the machine.

Slots: Some GPUs have different slot or plug configurations. The most common for high performace GPUs are PCIe x 16 or PCI x 8. Make sure your motherboard has these slots so you will be able to plug your GPUs in.

5.220 Popular Mining GPUs

5.3What is mhash rate?

Mhash/s means megahashes per second, or 1,000,000 hashes per second, which is the raw speed performance each GPU is capable of. As mentioned previously, The more mhash/s (megahash per second) a GPU can produce the faster is can calculate and process Bitcoin data. There really is not much more to know 

Also, you might see the term gigahash as well, or ghash/s. This is equal to 1000 mhash/s.

5.4What are stream processors?

Stream processing is a computer/hardware programming technique that allows some applications to more easily exploit a limited form of parallel processing.

Most new video cards have stream processors. Basically video cards have different shaders that are used as small processors to process parts of the image, a stream processor is a generic shader that can be turned into a specific shader on demand (depending on the need). The stream processor is what does a huge portion of the actual rendering. So basically each stream processor is like a processor for a video card. Doubling the number of stream processors does pretty much double the speed of the video card for rendering stuff

Learn more about stream processing here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_processing

5.5Why are AMD (ATI) GPUs better than Nvidia GPUs for Bitcoin mining?

Firstly, AMD designs GPUs with many simple ALUs/shaders (VLIW design) that run at a relatively low frequency clock (typically 1120-3200 ALUs at 625-900 MHz), whereas Nvidia’s microarchitecture consists of fewer more complex ALUs and tries to compensate with a higher shader clock (typically 448-1024 ALUs at 1150-1544 MHz). Because of this VLIW vs. non-VLIW difference, Nvidia uses up more square millimeters of die space per ALU, hence can pack fewer of them per chip, and they hit the frequency wall sooner than AMD which prevents them from increasing the clock high enough to match or surpass AMD’s performance. This translates to a raw ALU performance advantage for AMD:

AMD Radeon HD 6990: 3072 ALUs x 830 MHz = 2550 billion 32-bit instruction per second

Nvidia GTX 590: 1024 ALUs x 1214 MHz = 1243 billion 32-bit instruction per second

This approximate 2x-3x performance difference exists across the entire range of AMD and Nvidia GPUs. It is noticeably visible in all ALU-bound GPGPU workloads such as Bitcoin, password bruteforcers, etc.

Secondly, another difference favoring Bitcoin mining on AMD GPUs instead of Nvidia’s is that the mining algorithm is based on SHA-256, which makes heavy use of the 32-bit integer right rotate operation. This operation can be implemented as a single hardware instruction on AMD GPUs, but requires three separate hardware instructions to be emulated on Nvidia GPUs (2 shifts + 1 add). This alone gives AMD another 1.7x performance advantage (~1900 instructions instead of ~3250 to execute the SHA-256 compression function).

Combined together, these 2 factors make AMD GPUs overall 3x-5x faster when mining Bitcoins.

Networking

6.1What kind of internet connection to I need?

You don’t need any special or crazy fast internet connection or configuration. Any standard high speed internet connection should be able to handle many Bitcoin miners just fine. I would recommend 5mbps+.

Also, I would recommend that all Bitcoin miners are connected through a wired internet connection for stability and reliability. I’ve has some spotty issues using wifi for bitcoin mining, it’s simply not worth the hassle.

6.2Do I need to configure my firewall to run Bitcoin?

Bitcoin will connect to other nodes, usually on tcp port 8333. You will need to allow outgoing TCP connections to port 8333 if you want to allow your Bitcoin client to connect to many nodes. Bitcoin will also try to connect to IRC (tcp port 6667) to meet other nodes to connect to.

If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few ips and/or don’t want to allow IRC connection, you can find stable nodes in the fallback nodes list. If your provider blocks the common IRC ports, note that lfnet also listens on port 7777. Connecting to this alternate port currently requires either recompiling Bitcoin, or changing routing rules. For example, on Linux you can evade a port 6667 block by doing something like this:

echo 173.246.103.92 irc.lfnet.org >> /etc/hosts
iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dest 173.246.103.92 --dport 6667 -j DNAT --to-destination :7777 -m comment --comment "Bitcoind irc connection"

6.3How does the peer finding mechanism work?

Bitcoin finds peers primarily by connecting to an IRC server (channel #Bitcoin on irc.lfnet.org). If a connection to the IRC server cannot be established (like when connecting through TOR), an in-built node list will be used and the nodes will be queried for more node addresses.

Cooling

7.1How am I going to keep these rigs cool?

This is not to be overlooked, and is a major concern among people who mine for Bitcoins. The first step in keeping your rigs cool is to regulate the temperature of the room that your miners will be housed. I discuss the details of regulating room temperature in the next section 7.2.

If you already have your room controlled at a reasonable temperature, then here are several other suggestions to keep your rigs running cool.

Computer Casing: Although I’ve seen MANY rigs laying around without a case, I would certainly recommend keeping your hardware protected inside of a PC case. Exposed hardware is never really a safe option, especially if you have kids, pets, or other factors that could come in contact with your hardware. Assuming you are going to case your rig, getting a good computer case is important for keeping the hardware cool. I recommend getting high performance gaming cases / enclosures from brands like Antec, and Thermaltake. As you can see from the hardware above in section 4.4, I have chosen the Antec 900 ATX Mid Tower case. This case has multiple fans and is optimized for airflow…

1 x 120mm TriCool rear fan with 3-speed switch control
2 x 120mm TriCool blue LED front fans with 3-speed switch control to cool HDDs
1 x 200mm top fan

I liked the fan setup because all the hot air is exhausted from the back, and top of the cases. This gives me a predictable direction of where my hot air will be moving towards. Also, be sure to keep your wiring inside the case clean. Bulky clumps of wires will block airflow!

More / upgraded fans: I have taken an extra step, and installed 3 more high performance fans in my cases.

2 Vantec Tornado Fans which are placed internally right in front of the 2 x 120mm fans displayed on the front of the case.

As well, as a 120mm Ultra Kaze fan on the inside of the side panel vent.

Let me just tell you, this rigs are LOUD. They sound like mini jet engines. Hopefully you have a basement or somewhere you could keep them where the noise should not be an issue. Here are the specs of the fans:

Vantec Tornado 92mm Double Ball Bearing High Air Flow Case Fan – Model TD9238H
RPM: 4800 RPM
Air Flow: 119 CFM
Noise: Level 56.4 dBA

Scythe DFS123812-3000 “ULTRA KAZE” 120 x 38 mm Case Fan
RPM: 3000 RPM
Air Flow: 133.60 CFM
Noise Level: 45.90 dBA

As I said before, the main factor in keeping this rigs cool is keeping the room cool. Good airflow, and good temperature should be all you need to keeping things cool. Check out the section below for how to keep the room cool.

7.2How am I going to keep the room cool?

Keeping the room cool is going to have its challenges, especially if you plan on running 2+ mining rigs in there. These machines basically turn into little heaters, which are exhausting hot air 24/7.

I would suggest trying to keep the room temperature 75°F and below. 71°F would be ideal, and I would say 82°F being the max.

Air conditioning: Hopefully this is something you have in your home, if not, my empathy goes out to you and your miners!  Obviously this would be the first step into keeping any room in your home cool. So make sure you keep your rigs in a cool room, basements are ideal.

Air Duct Booster: This is a little trick I’ve learned over the past, but I’ve taken it a step further in my Bitcoin mining scenario. In order to get the most out of the cool air being sent from the air conditioner through the ducts, I have removed the metal casing that cover most vents, and placed a high powered fan a few feet inside the of air duct. Then I have attached an aluminum wired air hose, with an air tight seal using duct tape, and attached another high powered fan on the end of it. At this point, I have a hose which I can direct in any direction which is literally blasting cool air!

Box Fans / Oscillating Fans: Large oscillating are good to keep near your rigs, they are very good circulating large amounts of airflow around the room, and preventing the room from getting stale.

Room Exhaust Fan: If you plan on keeping your rigs in a closed room, you better be up for the challenge. Even if you have an air conditioning supply to the closed room, it will constantly be battling with the heat from your miners (depending on how many you have). In my case, I am keeping my rigs is in a pretty small room, which is enclosed. After many tests, and attempts to keeping the room cool, I had no choice but to build an exhaust system. Basically, I cut a large circular hole in the wall closest to where the miners would be flushing out hot air. Then I place an industrial exhaust fan which would suck the hot air out of the room. Yes, I am making sound a lot simpler than it actually was. Here is a pic:

I’m sure there are other tips and tricks, but these are some that I use. If it is winter time and you have a window nearby, it would be okay to keep that cracked to let cool air in, although it is not recommended to keep hardware exposed to natural outdoor weather. In doing so, you can start dealing with other issues such as humidity, which will factor in on hardware performance and shelf life.

7.3How do I measure room temperature?

Easiest thing to do is to get yourself a Digital Temperature Monitor

If you are not onsite and want to check the temperature remotely you can get one of these USB Temperature Sensors. Personally I use the Hid TEMPer V10.6.0: It is a measurement device using a USB port to connect to a computer or other machines. Here is a screenshot:

7.4How hot will my GPUs get and can they overheat?

At full load, your GPUs will get HOT! 

I’ve seen GPUs go up to 92°C+ (That’s 198 °F). Ideal temperature for your cards would be about 73°C or lower.

Yes GPUs can overheat! That is why it is so important to keep your room and rigs cool, so your GPUs have optimal temperatures to operate in. Cooler GPUs will output better performance, and that is the goal, isn’t it?

A common problem I have had with my GPUs, is that they are SO close together. Cramming 3 GPUs in a mid-tower case was not easy. There needs to be sufficient space between the cards so that the fans which are cooling the heat sinks have enough airflow. I used small pieces of thick rubber tubing to pry apart each card, so that I would have at least half and inch between each GPU.

7.5How can I change the Fan speed on my GPUs?

This depends on your operating system. Whether you are using Windows or Linux, you must have ATI Catalyst software installed. Please see section 11.2 for more info on how to obtain and install it.

If you are using Windows: Assuming already have the ATI Catalyst Control Center installed, you can look through the OverDrive settings, and adjust the fan speed of the cards. If noise is not an issue I reccomend 100% for maximum cooling.

If you are using linux: you can use the following commands to increase the speed of your fans. In the below example we will be setting the first available GPU in the machine to 100% fan speed:

DISPLAY=:0.0 aticonfig --pplib-cmd "set fanspeed 0 100"

Notice, that the first GPU is identified as: 0.0

If you wanted to run the same for the second and third card you can do so like this:

DISPLAY=:0.1 aticonfig --pplib-cmd "set fanspeed 0 100"
DISPLAY=:0.2 aticonfig --pplib-cmd "set fanspeed 0 100"

7.6How do I measure GPU temperatures?

In Windows: Measuring your GPU temperature is relatively easy. If you have ATI Catalyst installed (if not see section 11.2), you can check the GPU temperature by opening the ATI Catalyst software, and finding the OverDrive setting (Screenshot above). On that screen you will be able to see the temperature of the GPU usually measured in Celcius. Overclocking your GPU can affect the temperature, and is discussed in section 9.

Another way that I like to measure my GPU temperature in Windows 7 is through GPU Observer, which is a desktop gadget that you can download and display right on your desktop. It shows the temps, fan speed, and memory usage – very useful!

In linux: You can run the following command to get the temperature of all the GPUs in the system:

DISPLAY=:0.0 aticonfig --odgt --adapter=all

It will return results that look like this… (Look at the 3rd GPU Temps, 57.5°C – NOT BAD!! :cool:)

Power

8.1How much power will I need?

Of course, this question depends on how many machines / GPUs you plan on running. My machines currently have 3 GPUs installed, with a 1200 Watt power supply. Currently each machine at full load utilizes about 6 Amps, about 700 Watts, which is 0.7 KW (Kilowatts).

An average size residential circuit breaker is about 20 Amps. If you exceed 20 Amps of power on a 20 Amp circuit breaker, you will cause too much power to be drawn, and the circuit breaker will shut off to prevent damage or other failures. Therefore, it is important that you are aware of how much power is available on the circuit which your miners will be plugged into.

In my scenario, I originally only had about 20 Amps, and I needed to power 3 Machines. Although each machine was only using about 6 Amps a total of 18 Amps, the circuit breaker would still shut off periodically. Sometimes the Amp usage could jump for just a second, and it would be enough to trigger the circuit breaker to shut off. Due to this, I had to install additional circuit breakers, and fish some new lines to the room that was powering my Bitcoin Miners. You always want to leave a little overhead, and not max out the lines. Below are some pictures of the process in running new lines, leaving me at a total of about 80 Amps.

WARNING: If you are unsure how to install a new circuit breaker, or run your own electric lines please consult the assistance or services of a professional electrician! If you are capable of handling this yourself, here are some helpful links:

• Installing a circuit breaker
• How to fish electrical wire through ceiling

WARNING: Be sure that you evenly supply power to your GPUs! I made the mistake of running too many watts through a single wire supplied from the power supply. I had various other connections, including a molex splitter which was plugged in to other devices such as fans etc and eventually connecting to the GPU(s). Due to the fact that there was so much power draw through one wire, they quickly burned out, and could have caused serious damage or electrical fire. I would stay away from using any splitter connecters or thin wires when powering your GPUs. – I learned the hard way. Thankfully no serious damage occurred, just needed to replace the wires.

8.2How much will my power bill go up?

Your electric bill WILL increase.

In order to figure out how much you will be paying additionally for your electric bill each month we need to do some basic math.

Here’s what we need:

• How many watts each machine is using
• How much your energy provider charges for KWh (Kilowatt per hour)
• Duration of time that the machines are running.

We’ll use my setup as our scenario:

• Each machine uses 700 Watts
• My energy provider charges about $0.10 KWh (10 cents)
• My machines are running 24/7

Here is our math:

700 Watts × 24 hours × 30 days = 504,000 watt hours
Then we do 504,000 ÷ 1000 x $0.10 = $50.4
Since I have 3 machines I would do $50.4 × 3 = $151.2

Total monthly cost: $151.2

8.3How do I measure my power usage?

Measuring your power utilization is very easy. I purchased this handy gadget called the “Kill A Watt Electricity Load Meter and Monitor.” It costs $30 on newegg, here is a link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001. You can monitor Volts, Amps, Watts, Hz, and VA. There are various products like this one available, so find one that suites you.

That’s all you need to find out how much power resources each machine is using. Be sure to monitor the usage at full load.

Overclocking

9.1What is overclocking?

Overclocking is a term used when running a microprocessor faster than the speed for which it has been tested and approved. Overclocking is a popular technique for squeezing out a little more performance from a system. In many cases, you can force a GPU to run faster than it was intended. Overclocking does come with some risks, however, such as over-heating, so you should become familiar with all the pros and cons before you attempt it. Overclocking is also sometimes called speed margining.

Usually when overclocking you are adjusting the following settings:

• Clock Speed
• Memory usage
• Power (voltage)
• Fan Control

9.2Should I use overclocking?

I would say it is pretty safe to overclock any GPU at the right settings, you can certainly get more performance from your GPUs if you overclock.

My current mhash rate was 300 mhash/s by default. After overclocking my GPUs, I was able to get up to 352 mhash/s per GPU, and they run very stable…Not bad! This process took some trial an error to get the most out of my GPUs without the machine freezing up, but after a few hours of testing, here are my stats:

Default GPU Settings for ASUS ATI Radeon 6950

• Clock Speed: 810MHz
• Memory usage: 1250MHz
• Power (voltage): 110
• Fan Speed: 50%

Overclock Settings

• Clock Speed: 900MHz
• Memory usage: 800MHz
• Power (voltage): 110
• Fan Speed: 100%

You will notice, I increased the clock speed, which is the overall performance, but, I decreased the memory usage. The reason for this is that high memory usage does not provide any benefit in Bitcoin mining. By decreasing the amount of memory it will also help with suppressing the heat. Less heat = better. Also, you will notice I turned my fans up to 100%; this is discussed in section 7.5.

9.3How do I overclock my GPUs?

This depends on your operating system. Whether you are using Windows or Linux, you must have ATI Catalyst software installed. Please see section 11.2 for more info.

If you are using Windows: Assuming you already have the ATI Catalyst Control Center installed, you can look through the OverDrive settings, and adjust the performance settings. See the screenshot below:

If you are using linux: here is a great guide that explains how to overclock ATI cards linux by Melcar: http://www.overclock.net/linux-unix/517861-how-overclocking-ati-cards-linux.html. The same instructions are provided below:

I have adjusted the code with my overclock settings for the ATI Radeon HD 6900 series:

This is a small guide for overclocking your ATI card under Linux. This guide targets Ubuntu, but it should be the same for any distro.

Pre-requisites:

• Working fglrx driver
• Card supported by Overdrive (last time I checked only r6xx and up were supported, mobile and integrate chips excluded)

If you type the command aticonfig in a terminal, you will get several config. options that you can use with the driver, including Overdrive options; the proper synthax is aticonfig <option>. This is a list of Overdrive related options:

  --od-enable
        Enables Overdrive. 

  --od-disable
        Disables Overdrive.  You need to restart X for clocks to go back to defaults.

  --odgc
        List your card's current core and memory clocks, the current peak clocks, and the range by which you can overclock (Overdrive locks are applicable).

  --odgt
        Gives out a core temperature reading.

  --odsc={NewCoreClock|0,NewMemoryClock|0}
        Specify desired clocks fore core and memory.

  --odcc
        Apply the new clocks specified by the setclocks command

  --odrd
        Restores default clocks.  You need to restart X for changes to take effect.

Steps for overclocking:

1. The first step obviously is to turn on Overdrive:

aticonfig --od-enable

If your card is not supported, you will get a message saying so.

2. Next we get the current clocks and the valid overclocking range for your card:

aticonfig --odgc

Default Adapter - ATI Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    810           1250
             Current Peak :    810           1250
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-950]     [1250-1350]
                 GPU load :    98%
				 

3. Now we can specify valid frequencies for our overclock:

aticonfig --odsc=900,800

Default Adapter - ATI Radeon HD 6900 Series
                  New Core Peak   : 900
                  New Memory Peak : 800

4. Finally we apply the new frequencies:

aticonfig --odcc

5. Check your new overclock:

aticonfig --odgc

Default Adapter - ATI Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    900           800
             Current Peak :    900           800
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-950]     [1250-1350]
                 GPU load :    98%

You can also use Overdrive for Crossfire setups. The process is identical, with the difference that you need to specify the device being overclocked. Example:

aticonfig --list-adapters
#each card will be given a number that you append to the normal Overdrive commands
aticonfig --adapter=0 --odgc
#and so on...

Stress Testing

There is also a stress test available for Overdrive. For me this never works and I have yet to get an answer on this from any ATI dev. But you can try it and see if it works for you:

atiode -P 60 -H localhost:0; echo $?
#runs a stress test for 60 seconds; you can specify whatever time in seconds you want

After the test finishes it will spit out a number. Each number corresponds to a certain status:

0: Test successfully completed.
1: Invalid command-line parameters.
2: Test failed because of rendering errors.
3: Target adapter not found.
4: Test aborted due to unknown reason

Another way of stress testing is to run furmark. It works perfectly under WINE (just make sure you have Compiz off).

Other Tools:

If you don’t like the command line, there are also a pair of third party tools that you can use. Same pre-requisites still apply, since this are just frontends for Overdrive:

ATI Overclocking Utility
32bit
64bit

It’s pretty self explanatory. The latest version also has support for Crossfired cards.

AMDOverdriveCtrl

Managing

10.1Using a node PC to oversee your Bitcoin miners

Currently, I have a dedicated windows machine onsite that I can connect to via, VNC, RDP, or Logmein. This machine is actually my primary node (connection point) for overseeing my Bitcoin mining rigs. It also is capable of monitoring the temperature in the room.

From this machine I can:

• Bootup, shutdown, restart, and check the status of all my Bitcoin miners
• Stop/Start mining software for all or individual GPUs
• See what speed and mhash/s rate they are running
• Monitor GPU temperatures
• Monitor clocks, memory, and voltage
• Adjust settings such as overclock, fan speeds, and various other scripts that power my Bitcoin miners.

All you need as far as software is Putty to connect to your miners via SSH, and a few bat scripts.

I think it is very important to have a central node where you can control and configure all these things, it makes it a lot easier to manage.

10.2How do I manage my Bitcoin rigs?

This is pretty broad question, but I’ll try to go over the basics of what I do to manage my Bitcoin mining rigs.

You want to check on your Bitcoin miners at least every few days to make sure everything is running smoothly. If you keep them close by (in your home), then it will probably be easier to monitor and manage them. My Bitcoin miners are not kept in my home, so I do my best to stop by the location at least once a week.

Physical check:

• Ensure all machines are running
• Ensure all fans are running
• Check room temperature
• Check GPU temperatures

Software check:

• Check Bitcoin proxy (discussed in section 13.1)
• Check Bitcoin pool accounts (discussed in section 12.1)
• Check Bitcoin markets

10.3Can I manage my Bitcoin miners remotely?

The simple answer is: Yes.

If you are using Windows: You can use the following protocols to login to your windows machines remotely to manage your Bitcoin miners: VNC, RDP, or Logmein.

If you are using Linux: You can use SSH (Command Terminal), or if you want a visual remote connection, take a look at this article: 7 of the best Linux remote desktop clients

Software

11.1What software can I use to run to mine for Bitcoins?

Here are my current choices for Windows and Linux mining:

For Windows: I like to use GUIMiner. Screenshot below.

For Linux: I like to use poclbm. Sorry, it’s command based, so no screenshot.

Below is a list of all the popular miners currently out there.

• GPU
  • DiabloMiner – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=1721.0
    • Support: Windows, Linux, OSX
    • Features: Long Polling, BFI_INT
  • poclbm – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=1334.0
    • Support: Windows, Linux
    • Features: Long Polling, BFI_INT
  • hashkill – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=6819.0
    • Support: Linux
    • Features: Long Polling, BFI_INT, Auto Reconnect
  • Phoenix – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=6458.0
    • Support: Windows, Linux
    • Features: Long Polling, BFI_INT, Auto Reconnect
  • MeteorMiner – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10353.0
    • Support: Windows, Linux, OSX (Java Implementation)
• CPU
  • Jgarzik – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=1925.0
    • Support: Windows, Linux
    • Features: ???
  • Ufasoft – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=3486.0
    • Support: Windows, Linux
    • Features: Long Polling, Failover
• FPGA
  • FPGAminer – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=9047.0
    • Support: Windows
    • Features: N/A
• Browser-Based
  • BitJam – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=11549.0
    • Support: Windows, Linux, OSX (Java Implementation)
    • Features: Browser-based, Embed-able Java Applet
  • KradMiner – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=9876.0
    • Support: Windows
    • Features: Firefox Browser-based OpenCL
  • Bitp.it – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=9042.0
    • Support: Javascript Browers
    • Features: 100% Javascript
  • BitcoinPlus.com – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8780.0
    • Support: Windows, Linux, OSX (Java Implementation)
    • Features: Browser-based, Embed-able Java Applet
• Front Ends
  • GUIMiner – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=3878.0
    • Support: Windows
    • Features : poclbm, ufasoft, phoenix (phakt support)
  • AOCLBF (Formerly Phoenix Rising) – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10264.0
    • Support: Windows
    • Features: Phoenix (phakt support)
  • Diablo and RPC for Mac – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8994.0
    • Support: OSX 10.6+
    • Features: CLI Frontend Setup
  • BitMiner – http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=12135.0
    • Support: Windows
    • Features: poclbm, (Planned) Temp readings / usage

11.2What is ATI Catalyst Control Center, and why do I need it?

The ATI Catalyst Control Center is a 3D acceleration control application that enables you to control the functionality of your graphics card. ATI Catalyst Control Center can be used to fine-tune your graphic settings, enable or disable connected display devices, and change the orientation of your desktop, etc. Many features present you with a preview of your changes before they are applied.

The ATI Catalyst Control Center generally comes with graphics driver for ATI graphics card and south bridge driver for ATI chipset (if you have an ATI chipset on your motherboard). The main advantages of ATI drivers and Tools are their universal compatibility with any ATI graphics card or motherboard. So, the single software you download for your use can be is only necessary to run any other ATI graphics card (inbuilt or external, PCI or AGP, whatever).

Downloading ATI Catalyst software for your operating system:

If you are using Windows: The appropriate ATI Catalyst Control Center version usually comes with your graphics card, so you may want to check with your vender for a specific version. OR You can also download this online here: http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/downloads.aspx.

If you are using Linux: The ATI Catalyst Display Driver can be found here: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx. You can use the following guide on to install it on Ubuntu 10.10: http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=3356.msg47489#msg47489, unfortunately this guide is not verified to work on later versions of Ubuntu or Debian, so you will need to Google around for a guide to help you with that. You can also use your package manager to search and install the latest software.

11.3What operating systems can I mine for Bitcoins?

You can use both Windows and Linux. Personally, I prefer Linux.

I highly recommend using LinuxCoin. It is a small Debian Wheezy based OS created just for the bitcoin community. Linuxcoin has been designed with the average user in mind and everything is super simple to start using / mining bitcoins. Everything is pre-installed and is ready to go. It saves a lot of work and headache, this is what I use. Best of all, it can be run directly off a USB flash drive! Which answers our next question…

Get more info here: http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=7374.0 Or you can visit the official site here: http://www.linuxcoin.co.uk/

11.4Can I run a Bitcoin miner from a USB flash drive?

YES! Use LinuxCoin, please read the section above!

11.5Automation and batch scripts

My friend Brandon and I put together a very nice automated script that sets up our entire bitcoin mining environment. It creates various files and utilities that we’ll need to run, overclock, and monitor our Bitcoin miners.

Please note: This code has only been used / tested on LinuxCoin!

This script does the following (Scroll down to see the “Setup” script):

• Disables Screen Saver
• Enables AMD Registration
• Creates gpuminer.sh config files for each indivdual GPU worker
• Creates startgpu.sh files for each GPU and use settings from the gpuminer.sh
• Creates mine.sh files which use screen to execute the startgpu.sh
• Creates maxfans.sh, which boosts all the GPU fans to 100%
• Creates startallgpus.sh, which can be used to start all GPUs
• Creates gettemps.sh, which can be used to retrieve the temperature from all GPUs
• Creates overdrive_profile.ovr, which sets up the overclock settings
• Creates setclocks.sh, which actually applies the overclock settings
• After it creates all the files, it sets the proper permissions on files
• Lastly, it installs screen, and then runs setclocks.sh

You WILL need to customize this script for your needs!

This code has been setup to use 3 GPUs. You will notice reference to GPU1, GPU2, and GPU3. This is what you’ll need to customize:

• GPU Count: If you have more or less GPUs, you will need to adjust this script.
• Username/Password/Pool/Port: You will need to change the username, password, mining pool, and possible the port (-p).
• Clock Settings: These clock settings are optimized for the ATI Radeon HD 6950 GPU. If you do not have this card, you will probably need to adjust your clock settings to the appropriate frequencies.

I use a Windows machine to execute / monitor all my bitcoin miners. Looks like the following:

I use Putty to configure SSH profiles for each bitcoin miner GPU, and then I use a .bat file to launch which bitcoin miners I want. The .bat file will run putty, automatically login to the bitcoin mining rig, and launch our command to start running the miner.

First I setup a Putty session for each GPU per machine. For example, M1_GPU1, M1_GPU2, M1_GPU3. Each one of them point to my first Bitcoin mining rig identified as M1. The IP address of M1 is: 192.168.1.4

Next, I go to the “SSH” menu item on the left, and I tell putty a command to execute upon login. You will see I input: /home/user/mine1.sh. I will set this accordingly to each GPU, so the second one would simply be: /home/user/mine2.sh, and the third woudl be: /home/user/mine3.sh. This command will actually execute out bitcoin miners to run.

 

Then, I go to the “Behavior” menu item on the left, and I give each one their appropriate name. This way, when each GPU terminal windows pops up, it has the appropriate title in the title bar so I can identify it.

Lastly, I go to the “Window” menu item on the left, and I specify the amount of columns and rows, so when the GPU terminal window opens, it will be in nice little square like you see in the screenshot above.

When we are all done with Putty, I create a .bat file with the following code. This code actually runs putty.exe, then it identifies the profiles we just created in putty, and automatically logs in to the SSH session using the username “user” and the password “live” (default login with LinuxCoin).
However, remember the /home/user/mine1.sh, we put into the “SSH” menu? When this putty runs, and uses the profile we created, it will automatically run that command, upon login. That THAT is what executes each GPU miner!

Code for our .bat file:

start /SEPARATE putty.exe -load "M1_GPU1" -l user -pw "live"
start /SEPARATE putty.exe -load "M1_GPU2" -l user -pw "live"
start /SEPARATE putty.exe -load "M1_GPU3" -l user -pw "live"

Create setup script file on linux
To use this code, you will need to create a file on Linux and copy and paste the contents inside. Save it as a .sh file, for example setup.sh. Then you can execute this file by running:

sudo sh setup.sh

Here is the setup script

#!/bin/bash

# Disable Screen Saver ---------------------------------------
setterm -blank 0
DISPLAY=:0.0 xset -dpms
DISPLAY=:0.0 xset s 0
sudo killall xscreensaver

# Enable AMD Registration ---------------------------------------
cd /opt/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx64
sudo tar xvfz icd-registration.tgz -C /

cd /home/user/
sudo chmod -R 777 /opt
mkdir /home/user/miners/

# Setup Mining Configs---------------------------------------

cat > /home/user/miners/gpu1miner.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0.0
cd /opt/miners/poclbm/;DISPLAY=:0.0 python poclbm.py --user=GPU1 --pass=password --device=0 -o yourbitcoinpool.com -a 5 -p 80 -v -w 128 -f 25
EOF

cat > /home/user/miners/gpu2miner.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0.1
cd /opt/miners/poclbm/;DISPLAY=:0.1 python poclbm.py --user=GPU2 --pass=password --device=1 -o yourbitcoinpool.com -a 5 -p 80 -v -w 128 -f 25
EOF

cat > /home/user/miners/gpu3miner.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0.2
cd /opt/miners/poclbm/;DISPLAY=:0.2 python poclbm.py --user=GPU3 --pass=password --device=2 -o yourbitcoinpool.com -a 5 -p 80 -v -w 128 -f 25
EOF

# Run Individual GPU's---------------------------------------

cat > /home/user/startgpu1.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0.0
sh /home/user/miners/gpu1miner.sh
EOF

cat > /home/user/startgpu2.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0.1
sh /home/user/miners/gpu2miner.sh
EOF

cat > /home/user/startgpu3.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0.2
sh /home/user/miners/gpu3miner.sh
EOF

# Define Mine Files---------------------------------------

cat > /home/user/mine1.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash
screen -s GPU1 -t M1_GPU1 /home/user/startgpu1.sh
EOF

cat > /home/user/mine2.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash
screen -s GPU2 -t M1_GPU2 /home/user/startgpu2.sh
EOF

cat > /home/user/mine3.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash
screen -s GPU3 -t M1_GPU3 /home/user/startgpu3.sh
EOF

# Set Fans to 100% ---------------------------------------

cat > /home/user/maxfans.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash
DISPLAY=:0.0 aticonfig --pplib-cmd "set fanspeed 0 100"
DISPLAY=:0.1 aticonfig --pplib-cmd "set fanspeed 0 100"
DISPLAY=:0.2 aticonfig --pplib-cmd "set fanspeed 0 100"
EOF

# Start all GPUs ---------------------------------------
cat > /home/user/startallgpus.sh << EOF
screen -dmS GPU1 /home/user/startgpu1.sh &
screen -dmS GPU2 /home/user/startgpu2.sh &
screen -dmS GPU3 /home/user/startgpu3.sh &
EOF

# Get Temperature ---------------------------------------

cat > /home/user/gettemps.sh << EOF
echo "GPU1";
DISPLAY=:0.0 aticonfig --pplib-cmd "get temperature 0"
echo "GPU2";
DISPLAY=:0.1 aticonfig --pplib-cmd "get temperature 0"
echo "GPU3";
DISPLAY=:0.2 aticonfig --pplib-cmd "get temperature 0"
EOF

# Set GPU Clocks (Mhz,Memory,Voltage)---------------------------------------

cat > /home/user/overdrive_profile.ovr << EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<OVERDRIVE_PROFILE>
  <PERFORMANCE_LEVEL level="2" gpu="88000" mem="80000" voltage="1100"/>
  <PERFORMANCE_LEVEL level="1" gpu="50000" mem="68000" voltage="1100"/>
  <PERFORMANCE_LEVEL level="0" gpu="25000" mem="15000" voltage="900"/>
  <FAN_SETTING percentage="100"/>
  <FAN_CTRL enabled="no"/>
  <FAN_CTRL_CURVE type="0"/>
  <FAN_CTRL_POINT nr="0" temperature="2000" percentage="0"/>
  <FAN_CTRL_POINT nr="1" temperature="4000" percentage="2500"/>
  <FAN_CTRL_POINT nr="2" temperature="6000" percentage="5000"/>
  <FAN_CTRL_POINT nr="3" temperature="8000" percentage="7500"/>
  <FAN_CTRL_POINT nr="4" temperature="10000" percentage="10000"/>
  <MONITOR_SAMPLE_TIME interval="10"/>
  <COLOR_PROFILE enabled="no" longitude="-13.000000" latitude="52.000000" color_temp_day="0" color_temp_night="0" transition="30"/>
</OVERDRIVE_PROFILE>
EOF

cat > /home/user/setclocks.sh << EOF
DISPLAY=:0.0 AMDOverdriveCtrl -b -a -i 0 overdrive_profile.ovr
DISPLAY=:0.1 AMDOverdriveCtrl -b -a -i 6 overdrive_profile.ovr
DISPLAY=:0.2 AMDOverdriveCtrl -b -a -i 12 overdrive_profile.ovr
EOF

# Set File Permissions ---------------------------------------
chmod +x /home/user/setclocks.sh
chmod +x /home/user/gettemps.sh
chmod +x /home/user/startallgpus.sh
chmod +x /home/user/maxfans.sh
chmod +x /home/user/miners/gpu1miner.sh
chmod +x /home/user/miners/gpu2miner.sh
chmod +x /home/user/miners/gpu3miner.sh
chmod +x /home/user/startgpu1.sh
chmod +x /home/user/startgpu2.sh
chmod +x /home/user/startgpu3.sh
chmod +x /home/user/mine1.sh
chmod +x /home/user/mine2.sh
chmod +x /home/user/mine3.sh

# Install Screen ---------------------------------------
sudo apt-get update;sudo apt-get install screen

# Run Set Clocks ---------------------------------------
sh /home/user/setclocks.sh

Bitcoin Mining Pools

12.1What are Bitcoin mining pools (Pool Mining)?

Pooled mining is an approach where multiple generating clients contribute to the generation of a block, and then split the block reward according the contributed processing power. Pooled mining effectively reduces the granularity of the block generation reward, spreading it out more smoothly over time.

Pooled mining “pools” all of the resources of the clients in that pool to generate the solution to a given block. When the pool solves a block, the 50 BTC generated by that block’s solution is split and distributed between the pools participants.

Solo mining is when a miner performs the mining operations alone without joining a pool. All mined blocks are generated to the miner’s credit.

Pros/ConsPool Mining Pros

•  Pooled mining generates a steadier income.
•  Pooled mining can generate a 1-2% higher income (before fees, if any) due to long polling provided by the pools.

Pool Mining Cons

•  Pool mining can suffer interruptions from outages at the pool provider.Pools are subject to DOS attacks and have other downtimes, too. Backup pools and solo mining can be configured for these cases.
•  Pooled mining tends to generate a smaller income due to fees being charged and transaction fees not being cashed out.There are zero fee pools. Until now, transaction fees are not cashed out by any pool.
•  Pools might be part of attack scenarios.

Solo Mining Pros

•  Solo mining is less prone to outages resulting in higher uptime.
•  Solo mining doesn’t incur any fees. For each discovered block, 50 BTC and the transaction fees are paid to the miner.

Solo Mining Cons

•  Solo mining tends to generate more erratic income.
•  Solo mining wastes time due to only supporting getwork pull.

See Also

•  Why pooled mining An article in favor of pooled mining.

12.2What are the benefits of using a Bitcoin mining pool?

With increasing generation difficulty, mining with lower-performance devices can take a very long time before block generation, on average. For example, with a mining speed of 1000 Khps, at a difficulty of 14484 (which was in effect at the end of December, 2010), the average time to generate a block is almost 2 years.

To provide a more smooth incentive to lower-performance miners, several pooled miners, using different approaches, have been created. With a mining pool, a lot of different people contribute to generating a block, and the reward is then split among them according to their processing contribution. This way, instead of waiting for years to generate 50btc in a block, a smaller miner may get a fraction of a bitcoin on a more regular basis.

A share is awarded by the mining pool to the clients who present a valid proof of work of the same type as the proof of work that is used for creating blocks, but of lesser complexity, so that it requires less time on average to generate.

Get all the details here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Why_pooled_mining

12.3Different types and rewards of mining pools

Reward types and explanation:

PPS – Pay Per Share. Each submitted share is worth certain amount of BTC. Since finding a block requires shares on average, a PPS method with 0% fee would be 50 BTC divided by . It is risky for pool operators, hence the fee is highest.
SMPPS – Shared Maximum Pay Per Share. Like Pay Per Share, but never pays more than the pool earns. [1]
ESMPPS – Equalized Shared Maximum Pay Per Share. Like SMPPS, but equalizes payments fairly among all those who are owed. [2]
Prop. – Proportional. When block is found, the reward is distributed among all workers proportionally to how much shares each of them has found.
PPLNS – Pay Per Last N Shares. Similar to proportional, but instead of looking at the number of shares in the round, instead looks at the last N shares, regardless of round boundaries.
Score – Score based system: a proportional reward, but weighed by time submitted. Each submitted share is worth more in the function of time t since start of current round. For each share score is updated by: score += exp(t/C). This makes later shares worth much more than earlier shares, thus the miner’s score quickly diminishes when they stop mining on the pool. Rewards are calculated proportionally to scores (and not to shares). (at slush’s pool C=300 seconds, and every hour scores are normalized)

See details here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools

12.4Comparison of mining pools?

Personally, I use Bitcoin Pooled Mining (Slush), and Bitcoins.lc. See the rest below and check out this link for details: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools

(Sorry, I know this table goes off the page! :()

Bitcoin Proxy

13.1What is a Bitcoin mining proxy?

A bitcoin mining proxy is a a multi-pool, multi-worker proxy for Bitcoin miners, supporting long polling and pool failover. This software allows multiple miners to be run against multiple pools with fail-over to other pools if something happens to a miner’s preferred pool. It requires a web server supporting PHP, and a MySQL database.

Here is a link to what seems to be the only good available Bitcoin Mining Proxy: https://github.com/cdhowie/Bitcoin-mining-proxy

13.2What are the benefits of using a Bitcoin mining proxy?

Failover: If one pool fails, it can automatically switch to another pool.

Centralization: Keeps all your bitcoin miner workers and pools centralized.

One time login setup: You only need to setup your worker logins one time.

Pool toggling: You can switch, enable, or disable a pool at any given time.

Monitoring: Easily monitor live stats, and mhash rates of your miners.

The post How to Build a Bitcoin Mining Rig From Scratch first appeared on ewoah - Technology Leader & Serial Entrepreneur.