This is possible due to the wide variety of algorithms used to build the blockchain of the thousands of coins currently in existence. But the answer to the question of whether mining on specific hardware will be profitable requires a more detailed study of the existing hardware configuration and the selection of optimal computation algorithms that will give the highest productivity.

How to start mining on your home computer

To start mining, you need to make sure that the available equipment is suitable for mining cryptocurrencies. In addition, you need to open a wallet where the earned cryptocurrency will be transferred (the easiest way to do this is on a cryptocurrency exchange ), select a coin for mining, a suitable pool, download and configure a miner program, and you can start mining.

The easiest way for beginners to use the Nicehash miner program, which allows you to mine at home automatically by mining the most profitable cryptocurrency and converting it into bitcoins (the user only needs to open a bitcoin wallet ). In this case, you do not need to choose a pool, know the intricacies of program settings, but you will need to pay a commission for this.

This mode is available only for video cards installed in PCI-Express slots and supporting Open Cl technology for products from AMD and CUDA from Nvidia. Thus, theoretically, the crypto mining stocks minimum video card for mining from AMD that supports Open Cl version 1.0 is the Radeon HD5450 (and other cards of the Evergreen series), and Nvidia has video cards with Tesla microarchitecture: GeForce 8400, which supports CUDA 1.1 and GeForce 8800, Quadro FX 5600 (CUDA 1.0). Video adapters below the level of Rx 560 and GTX 1050Ti, no one uses for mining. Each pool has a specific withdrawal threshold. That is until you earn enough money, no one will pay anything. Even if you are connected to a free socket, with a low hash rate, it will take a very long time to wait for payments.

Old video cards in mining

You need to understand that the old video accelerator can theoretically perform calculations for mining some cryptocurrencies (they do not support a large number of algorithms), but the performance of such a mining farm will be minimal. In fact, they can only be used to learn the process of mining a limited number of cryptocurrencies using old mining programs that support these cards.

Currently, AMD HD6000 and higher video cards are of limited use (depending on the price for electricity and the calculation algorithm) for mining, and from NVidia - with Fermi microarchitecture (support for CUDA 2.1 and higher) - GTX560Ti series and more modern.

Morally outdated GPU devices, in principle, can demonstrate a pretty decent hash rate. For example, AMD Radeon R9 390x on Ethash overclocks to 30 Mh / s, but high power consumption reduces the profitability of mining. And buying used cards for mining is not worth it

To start mining cryptocurrencies on a processor, the minimum mining requirement is support for SSE2 instructions, and for mining at an acceptable speed, it must support AES instructions. In processors, these instructions appeared in 2011:

Morally outdated GPU devices, in principle, can demonstrate a pretty decent hash rate. For example, AMD Radeon R9 390x on Ethash overclocks to 30 Mh / s, but high power consumption reduces the profitability of mining. And buying used cards for mining is not worth it

To start mining cryptocurrencies on a processor, the minimum mining requirement is support for SSE2 instructions, and for mining at an acceptable speed, it must support AES instructions. In processors, these instructions appeared in 2011:

In Intel processors of Sandy Bridge architecture, as well as on server processors starting from the Xeon E3-12xx series;

At AMD - starting with Bulldozer FX41xx series processors.

The CPU performance in mining depends on the clock speed and the number of cores. The Xeon line is considered a promising option. AMD Ryzen and Intel i3, i5, i7 series cpu have proven themselves quite well. The more powerful the processor, the higher the profitability of crypto mining.

What affects earnings in mining, how to earn more

The biggest impact on the ability to earn cryptocurrency on a home computer is the video card. The GPUs of high-performance graphics cards have a large number of stream processors and high-performance video memory, which typically have much more aggregate processing power than the processor.

However, after the transition of the Monero (XMR) cryptocurrency and some Cryptonight forks to the RandomX mining algorithm, mining on the central processor has become more relevant. On the RandomX protocol, top-end central processors are more efficient than video cards. With the current profit, it makes no sense to use GPU-rigs on MXR, but the pools continue to work, which means that CPU mining is profitable. Moreover, over the past week, the coin rate has significantly increased.

Mining types

On a home computer for mining, you can simultaneously use several components for earning cryptocurrencies:

Video card - for performing calculations according to algorithms of proof of work that require high speed, parallel use of many computing units of the GPU and a large amount of high-performance memory (several gigabytes) - ether, expansion, ZCash, and many others, as well as all cryptocurrencies that can be mined on the processor;

Processor - for calculations that require high performance, using high-performance cache memory of a small volume (several megabytes) - cryptocurrencies such as Monero, Electroneum, HODL, and others are mined;

A drive for long-term data storage, usually a hard drive, which allows you to earn cryptocurrency for leasing your space (you can mine cryptocurrencies like Siacoin, Storj, Burst, and others).

Conventional mining on PC

Cloud mining setup does not require a productive computer. It consists of going through the standard registration procedure on the pool, depositing money (usually ordinary money or bitcoins), and choosing a tariff plan. Then the user specifies the address where the mined cryptocurrency will be withdrawn, withdrawal limits, and other parameters. Cloud mining starts after balance replenishment. After that, you need to periodically check the balance and funds received from the cloud provider.