About a month ago I got quite intrigued by the idea that we can earn cryptocurrencies using the computing power of our computer (also known as mining). I did some research over the internet and found out that it is quite possible to mine few fractions of coins every day using the computer I already have.
This computer has RX 580 GPU, which is quite good for mining Ethereum. I don't use GPU most of the time so I can run the mining software all the time even when I'm working,
What platform am I using?
I'm using https://minerstat.com/ to mine Ethereum. In fact, it is quite easy to get started. All you need to do is go to their website, create an account, do some basic configuration. You will then need to download Minerstat desktop software and connect it to the web platform using an API provided to you.
Minerstat Web Platform
Minerstat Desktop Mining Software
Problems faced
At first, I was getting very low Mega Hash(MH) from my Rx 580. I did some research and tried few overclocking settings and was able to achieve about 22 MH without pushing the GPU too much. That was still low compared to what other people were getting on the same GPU card. After hours of trial and error, lots of crashes, and blue screen of deaths I finally found a setting that was quite stable and got about 24-25 MH which is good.
AHA moments
- The first AHA moment was when I discovered that turning compute mode on actually increases MH quite a bit.
- The second was turning the memory timing to Level 1.
After all these struggles over two days, I was finally able to achieve 30-31 MH on my RX 580. I'm quite satisfied with these settings.
Was it worth it?
Right now my computer is earning 0.0007 ETH per day which is about 2.5 USD at the current rate. The electricity cost where I'm living is super cheap too. Also, the fact that my computer was already running all the time even before I started mining makes it feels like it is worth it.
Will I continue?
I might run it for a few more weeks before I get tired of it. There is a possibility of adding more GPUs and do it at larger scale, but GPUs are really expensive these days. Maybe if I find some cheap ones online I might give it a shot.
This was how much I earned in about month. lol. It was fun though.
As someone who did mine for quite a while during both boom and bust cycles, it's simply not worth the strain on your hardware and electricity costs anymore. I tried mining for a couple years, and the electricity costs erased basically all my gains.
Yeah, it sucks but even things like the internet weren't accessible to me until recent years, so I too missed the boom and bust cycles. But I guess it's better late than never.
I just wanted to experiment a bit to find out if it's profitable. I pay 8 cents /kWh for the electricity, so it is profitable as long as the hardware doesn't fail, which I guess is highly unlikely.
Haven't seen you in a while, welcome back!
Yeah, thank you :). I plan to come here more often now that I have some spare time.
I didn't get what you were trying to say at first but I later saw you use RX 580 I thought you started free
Sorry, if it was worded poorly. Yeah, I did start for free as I already had all the components. This was just an experiment to check if mining is profitable.
Ohh. how can I also do that
Yay! 🤗
Your content has been boosted with Ecency Points, by @the100.
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
Congratulations @the100! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Your next target is to reach 60 posts.
Your next target is to reach 3750 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz: