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How to Mine Cryptocurrency Profitably

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    Chris
    Twitter
Simpe Notebook on Amazon

Introduction

Welcome to my review and tutorial of mining cryptocurrency.

As always, this information is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be personal financial advice. There's an inherent risk involved with financial decisions and the website owner will not be held liable for decisions others make.

Everything you need to know to mine cryptocurrency profitably in 2020.

Right after I posted an article about how to start mining cryptocurrency in 5 minutes, I started looking into it much more. If I could make money using my computer's processor, what could I do with powerful equipment, and would it be a source of passive income? Yes!

On Oct 30, 2023, I made the "Simple Notebook" and submitted it to Amazon KDS. Three days later, Amazon KDS (Kindle Direct Publishing) made the book available for sale on Amazon. One month into being live, the books have been viewed by x users. It attracts 10+ unique visitors daily notching 10-20 page views, with 12 sales for a total of $25 / month revenue.

What is cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency, like digital money. That's easy enough to understand. But what makes cryptocurrency unique is how it works and how it's made.

Cryptocurrency works by using cryptography to secure and verify transactions on a distributed ledger. That sounds complicated, but it's actually pretty simple. There's a network of computers that keep a record of transactions. As new transactions occur, they get added to the record of transactions on every computer in the network. Each record is another block on the chain of records, so the technology is called blockchain. Blockchain is just a distributed ledger.

Cryptocurrency doesn't exist anywhere physically. To give it value, some cryptocurrency requires some kind of effort to make it. In the largest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, that effort is computing effort - solving complex math. If you have a computer, you can let it solve some math equations and you'll be rewarded in that cryptocurrency. The effort your computer puts in is called mining and this is where there's opportunity to profit.

What is cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining is using a computer's processing power to solve math equations in exchange for a chance to be awarded crypto coins. The computer that solves the equation gets the coins.

In practice, mining a cryptocurrency alone is possible, but unless your computer solves the problem, you won't be awarded anything. To limit that risk, it's common to have computers team up to mine together to increase their chances of being rewarded and split the coin among the computers. Groups of computers mine together in pools.

There are 2 types of computers used for cryptocurrency mining:

  1. A computer built specifically for mining a particular cryptocurrency. This type is called ASIC, or application specific integration circuit.
  2. A computer built to be flexible to mine any type of mineable cryptocurrency. This is a computer with a lot of graphics cards. Graphic cards, commonly called GPUs, provide a lot of computational power. This is the type we'll explore here.

From an experience perspective, cryptocurrency mining is having your computer work, keeping the electric on, receiving payouts and sending the proceeds to your bank.

My mining rig and why I chose this setup

To mine crypto, the only thing you need is a computer. But to mine it at a significant level, you need specialty mining equipment. Fortunately, it's not very expensive and is easy to setup. A computer specifically built to mine crypto is called a rig. Here's what I use in my 6 GPU rig:

  • Motherboard: Asus B250 Mining Expert
  • Processor: Intel G3930
  • Ram: Corsair 8GB Ram
  • Hard drive: Kingston 100GB
  • USB Key: Corsair GTX
  • Frame: Veddha VC3
  • PCIe Riser: Dr. Meter (6 pack)
  • Fans: Rosewill (2 4 packs)
  • Power Supply: Corsair ax1200i (1)
  • PCIe Splitter: JacobParts (5 pack)
  • Graphics Card: Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT (6) -Power Monitor: Wemo Insight Smart Plug (1)

You should also get these, but no matter how many rigs you have, you only need 1 of them. I refer to them as support gear.

  • Display: Spector E205W
  • Mouse: AmazonBasics 3 button mouse
  • Keyboard: Rii Ultra Slim Compact Keyboard

Why I chose those components for my rig

Motherboard. I chose the Asus B250 Mining Expert because it has some advantages over other motherboards. It has 19 GPU slots so I can add a lot of GPUs to mine. It's cheap, so it'll get me profitable on the rig sooner than later. It comes ready to mine right out of the box.

Processor. I chose the Intel G3930 because it's the best processor that's compatable with the motherboard and it's cheap.

Frame. I choose the Veddha VC3 because it's the nicest 6 GPU rig I found, it's cheap and it's stackable.

Power Supply. I chose the Corsair AX1200i because it's has a digital controller and is very efficient.

Graphics Cards. I choose the AMD RX 5700 XT cards because they have the best estimated profitability per day and are 67% less than their comparable NVidia cards.

Ram, harddrive, fans and USB key, PCIe Riser and PCIe splitters. I chose them because they're the least expensive.

The name of the game here is to keep your rig gear cheap so it pays for itself sooner while getting premium components where it matters. Premium components for a rig are the board, the graphics cards, the power supplies and the frame.

How do you start a mining rig in 3 steps

The easiest way to start mining is to download honeyminer to your computer. You'll start earning crypto within 5 minutes. If you have a GPU that's compatible, you can start GPU mining right away.

If you want more, you want to start your own mining rig. Here's what you need to do:

  • Gather the equipment. You need a motherboard, processor, ram, hard drive, USB key, frame, PCIe risers, fans, power supply PICe splitter, graphics card. You should get a display, mouse and keyboard. If you want to monitor your rig's power usage, you want a power monitor. I give suggestions for each in the next section.
  • Assemble the rig.
  • Create your mining pool USB Key

Steps to building a mining rig

Gather the equipment.

You need all the components to make a mining rig. There's different options for each, and it's important you make sure the equipment you pick is compatible with each other. For example, the motherboard I use requires a 6th or 7th generation intel processor. You can't use an 8th generation processor.

The easiest way to put together a rig that works is to put together a copy of mine. I know it works because it's working. Above I list all of my gear and have links you can use them to buy them.

Here are some details about each component.

Motherboard. You need a motherboard to which you can attach multiple GPUs. I prefer the Asus B250 because it's inexpensive and you can add a lot of GPUs of the type I like. While it lists 19, my reseaerch suggests it can only be 13 AMD cards and the rest have to be a specific card called a P106 mining card. I don't like that restriction but I'm still happy with the 13 cards. I may end up stacking 2 frames and converting the 6 GPU rig to a 12 GPU rig. I list my recommendations for gear in the next section

Power Supplies. You need a power supply with enough power that they can power your rig. Some motherboards will have a separate power supply for each bank of GPUs. It's important to figure out a configuration that will work. Depending on the size of your rig, you may have 1, 2 or 3 GPUs.

Graphics Cards. Graphics cards are the workhorse of your system. The ones you choose will determine your profitability; i.e., how much crypto rewards you earn and your electric costs. I like the Sapphire RX 5700 XT.

Mining case. You could make your own mining case. Personally, I find them worth their $45 price tag, but could see making my own if I were to make many mining rigs.

My favorite mining rig gear

Mining motherboards:

  • Asus B250 Mining Expert
  • ASRock H110 Pro BTC+
  • Gigabyte GA-H110-D3A
  • Biostar TB250-BTC Pro
  • MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon
  • Asus ROG Strix Z270E

The reality behind mining

One day, it will end. There is a lot of speculation out there.

The future of mining

I can't know for sure, but I predict most projects that are around long enough will migrate to staking.

Conclusion

This was one of the best things I've ever done.

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