Relevance of mining for 2022: payback and equipment

Predicting the future of cryptocurrency mining is a thankless task, somewhat reminiscent of fortune telling on coffee grounds, but, nevertheless, there are certain indicators that you can rely on when studying the issue of mining prospects. Let’s figure out whether it’s worth starting mining in 2022 and how best to do it.

It’s worth clarifying right away that in 2022, mining of the most popular cryptocurrencies has largely become industrial and for 95% of ordinary users (whose investments do not exceed $100,000), the most profitable format for investing in cryptocurrency is its direct purchase on the exchange. It is on the stock exchange, not in the exchanger because exchanges charge much lower commissions, provide maximum liquidity, and most importantly are safe to use.

The reliability of a cryptocurrency exchange is primarily determined by the trading volume and the number of users. By all key metrics, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world is Binance. The site has the largest cash turnover and supports transfers in rubles from Visa/MasterCard and payment systems QIWI, Advcash, Payeer .

For a safe and convenient purchase of cryptocurrencies with a minimum commission, we have prepared a rating of the TOP 5 exchanges that support deposits and withdrawals of funds in rubles, hryvnias, dollars and euros:

#	Exchange:	Website:	Grade:
1	Binance (Editor's Choice)	https://binance.com	9.7
2	Huobi	https://huobi.com	7.4
3	Exmo	https://exmo.me	6.9
4	OKEx	https://okex.com	6.5
5	Bybit	https://bybit.com	6.3

Especially for beginners, we have prepared a detailed guide: How to buy Bitcoin on a crypto exchange for rubles?

Next, we will move directly to assessing the relevance of mining in 2021 and answer the question under what circumstances it is still profitable to mine cryptocurrency on your own.

Analysis of the prospects for mining cryptocurrencies

When analyzing possible future mining, the following factors must be taken into account:

The growing difficulty of mining the most profitable cryptocurrencies (increasing hashrate);
Are there prospects for increasing the capitalization and value of the main cryptocurrencies produced by mining;
Plans of leading manufacturers of mining equipment to produce new miners and for which coins;
Legislative prospects related to the cryptocurrency sphere, which can both facilitate mining and complicate the ability to engage in this activity;
Suppliers' plans to increase the cost of electricity, or to provide discounts to miners as persons engaged in production activities. Thanks to the fairly low cost of electricity in most post-Soviet countries (including Russia, Ukraine and Belarus), the prospects for mining do not look so bad;
At what real price can the equipment be sold in the future in the event of an even stronger drop in profitability?
What plans do the developers of the main cryptocurrency platforms have for their further development, will there be a transition to other algorithms for the functioning of the blockchain and how will this affect the profitability of miners;
The general state of the global financial system, which significantly affects cryptocurrencies.

All these factors affect the payback period of the equipment and the overall profitability of the mining business. Let's try to figure out in more detail whether it is worth investing in cryptocurrency mining now.

SHA 256 - Bitcoin mining algorithm

The SHA-256 algorithm appeared immediately after the creation of Bitcoin. It is integrated with the mining of this cryptocurrency. SHA is an acronym for Secure Hash Algorithm and is part of a family of hashing algorithms developed by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

SHA 256 is a 256-bit cryptographic hash function (also known as hash function or hash function) used as proof of work in the Bitcoin system. It is a one-way hash function that assigns any number to a short, always constant size, quasi-random value.

Let's describe the power on the “Hash per second” scale:

1MH = 1000HH.
1 GH = 1000MH.
1TH = 1000GH.

However, at the current level of difficulty, hash rate is measured in terrahashes (TH) and even petahashes (PT).

Possible problems for the coming year

In the near future, it is expected that many popular cryptocurrency platforms will be updated, as well as important decisions that will affect the general state of the cryptocurrency market.

The upcoming Ethereum 2.0 update will definitely reduce the profitability of mining. Making a positive decision on a Bitcoin ETF can significantly improve the state of the cryptocurrency market and thereby increase the profitability of mining.

Two new profitable algorithms have also appeared : Autolykos and Octopus . Manufacturers of Nvidia video cards, as if wanting to rehabilitate themselves after the release of the failed RTX 20 series, have released a new one. Miners liked the RTX 3060/3080 graphics adapters so much that they even started installing a hashrate limiter on the latest batches so that at least some of the video adapters reach gamers. However, according to the latest data from thematic forums, miners have already managed to solve this problem.

AMD has also released a number of promising new products. Based on all this information, we can conclude that mining is still profitable. Especially if electricity prices in your area are not very high (or you personally have access to a free outlet).

The Bitcoin price, which rose significantly at the beginning of 2022, entered a new growth cycle in the fall and set an absolute price maximum. After the spring recovery, a correction has begun and it is difficult to say how deep and lasting it will be. Some have already started talking about a new crypto winter, but it is too early to draw such conclusions.

In addition, the ten-year history of the blockchain industry shows that, after another rise, prices do not roll back to old lows. It is difficult to predict when the next rise will come, but it is possible. If it comes again, the cryptocurrency mining business will likely become even more profitable.

How much can you earn and how to increase your income

The amount of earnings when mining cryptocurrency depends on many factors: the power of the equipment, the correct choice of the pool, cryptocurrency, electricity costs, etc. On average, experienced miners receive about $500-1000 per month. Before purchasing equipment, it is advisable to calculate the potential profitability using special calculators, for example, https://whattomine.com/asic. Such services are intuitive, and for calculations you just need to insert the missing data.

If the profit margin is not satisfactory, you can take measures to increase profitability. To do this, take the following steps:

Buy a more powerful video card and add it to the rig, or spend money on an ASIC.
Leave equipment running at maximum power when you are not using its capabilities. This applies to the situation when a home PC is used as a farm.
Do not disable the miner program when you need a computer. Just pause it.
Update your GPU drivers regularly, as its performance directly depends on it.
Try overclocking your GPU, but only if you understand what to do.

Mining calculator

Is it worth starting mining in 2022, how not to lose money?

The decision about whether to start mining this year must be made taking into account factors affecting the cryptocurrency market and available financial opportunities. Considering the unpredictability of exchange rates in the long term, you should not take out loans for such a business .

The most reasonable decision to invest in mining would be to allocate an amount that is not so important in the short term and carry out mining for the long term or for trading on exchanges.

Mining 2022 – the essence of the process and prospects

In 2022, the most profitable cryptocurrencies for mining, according to Whattomine data (taking into account the seven-day mining period), are:

For AMD cards : Ether (for cards with memory 6 GB and higher, until it switches to PoS), ETC, Ravencoin, Ergo, Beam;
For Nvidia cards : Ether (for cards with memory 6 GB and higher, until it switches to PoS), Ergo, Conflux, MTP, Equilibria, BitTubeCash and other forks of CryptoNight, MimbleWimble, and Equihash.

All these coins give a profit of about 100%, so it cannot be said that mining is now unprofitable. Most of these coins are constantly present in the top cryptocurrencies used for mining, so you can plan that such a business will consistently generate income.

Cryptocurrency mining process and degree of difficulty

The BTC network automatically changes the difficulty level of tasks depending on the speed of their resolution. The rules of the system state that the winnings decrease over time. Currently this is 12.5 Bitcoins per block - the value will then decrease (every four years on average, exactly every 210,000 blocks) to 6 BTC, decreasing successively until the last coins are mined.

These top-down conditions were set by the creators of Bitcoin before the first block was mined and are used to automatically regulate the number of coins issued. Therefore, the more people want to participate in the process of confirming a transaction, the more the complexity of the “mathematical puzzles” increases, which in the case of Bitcoin must be obtained as a result of a hash function (called Hash) with specified parameters. Adjusting the difficulty level stabilizes the currency emission rate at the desired level.

Solving the puzzle is not based on logic, but on guesswork on a large scale. It was as if each of the miners received a padlock with a code to decipher. Just by guessing, he will be rewarded by joining our block to the system and receiving a coin. The most important is the total computing power that a given miner or group of miners has (the so-called hash rate) - the higher it is, the faster the combination is guessed. The developers programmed the algorithms so that the time required for extraction was about 10 minutes. When the number of miners increases, the difficulty level increases accordingly. It's worth adding that even the "guessing" process itself involves a significant amount of energy consumption, and most approaches fail.

Business development plan, what you need to know when investing money

When calculating a business plan for the development of a mining business, it is worth taking into account the factors indicated above, approximately determining which cryptocurrencies will be the main ones for mining and understanding their prospects in more detail, including the complexity of mining.

Some technical details

When mining any cryptocurrency that is mined using the proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm, it is necessary to take into account the difficulty of mining.

This indicator is associated with the growing increase in network power and the functioning algorithms of blockchains of different cryptocurrencies, in which the generation of blocks should be carried out in approximately the same time interval.

Mining difficulty

When the profitability of a coin increases, many miners “jump” to it, expecting to make greater profits. Often they do not win anything due to the fact that while they are mining enough coins for the exchange, their rate will fall.

You can protect yourself from this by using the Nicehash program, but you must be prepared to pay a fee and use less than optimal video card settings to achieve compatibility with most mining algorithms.

Generally, in the long run, miners receive less income from mining popular coins due to the increasing complexity of the network. This factor must be taken into account when calculating the profit from a mining farm in the long term. There are many resources on the Internet that allow you to study the difficulty graph for each specific cryptocurrency and roughly understand how much profitability will decrease.

Let's try to develop a plan for a mining business, calculating the cost of the farm and taking into account its payback.

Minimum investment in mining

The amount of minimum investment in business mining is related to the following factors:

The cost of a mining farm, which can consist of one rig for 6 cards of the GTX 1660 Super or RX 5600 XT , or, on a large scale, will be approximately a multiple of the cost of one rig with such video cards or other components;
The cost of rent and security, which is different in each specific case, for example, for a mining hotel you need to plan a periodic payment, and in the case of home use, the rent is zero;
The cost of electricity per month, which it is advisable to take into account when starting a mining business, because it is better to exchange cryptocurrencies for money without haste;
The cost of paying for Internet access.

If you are planning serious investments in the mining business, then it is worth considering the possibility of using mining hotels that provide security and care for the equipment, which justifies paying for their services, and also consider a plan for the mining business in special containers.

When calculating a mining farm, you can take as a basis the cost of one rig, as a conventional unit used for mining.

A typical rig might have the following configuration:

MSI Z390-A Pro motherboard – costs about $ 125
Processor for socket 1151 – about $ 125
DDR RAM – about $ 30
A power supply of at least 1200 watts or two 700 watts each with Bronze certificate or higher – from $100;
6 GTX 1660 with 6 gigabytes or 6 AMD RX 5600|5700 XT with 6/8 gigabytes of memory with six risers – from 5,500 and above;
Housing/frame, cables, wires, surge protection device - about 50 .

The total cost of such a rig will be approximately $6,000. You can save money somewhere, buy better equipment somewhere. but the prices for a new rig will be approximately the same.

Taking into account the current profitability of mining Ether and other similar cryptocurrencies in terms of profitability, according to Whattomine, the daily income from such a business will be about $8 with the cost of electricity being 6 American cents per kilowatt. Based on these data, the mining farm will pay for itself in approximately 25 months.

Whether this is a lot or a little, everyone decides for themselves. When planning investments in cryptocurrency mining, you need to take into account fluctuations in their growth. As of June 26, 2021, 11:20 Moscow time, the ether exchange rate on the Binance exchange is $1,727 per coin. After updating the network and improving the technical characteristics of the Ethereum platform, it can rise again to $4000/5000 and even more.

There are many factors that allow us to hope for the further growth of cryptocurrencies, which will make the payback period several times shorter, but no one can know this for sure.

How to start mining: instructions

After preparing the equipment, you can deal with the next question - how to start mining cryptocurrency using a pool. The general algorithm of actions is as follows:

Decide on the optimal extraction method (discussed above).
Select the appropriate pool to connect to. When studying the characteristics, pay attention to the total hashrate, number of users, ping, and how the rewards are distributed. Examples include the following platforms: 2miners.com, f2pool, sparkpool. As a rule, there are no difficulties in finding a pool.
Decide and download the miner program, without which you won’t be able to start making money. When choosing software, pay attention to the cryptocurrency you plan to mine. Sometimes pools recommend a specific miner to work with and even provide a link to download it. The most commonly used are GMiner, T-Rex, Ethminer.
Set up the miner. To do this, make changes to the bat file. Here you need to indicate the number of the storage facility where the money will be transferred and write down the pool address. Detailed instructions on how to start mining cryptocurrency should be in the FAQ section of the service.
Launch the cryptocurrency mining program and monitor the process. In most software, you can control the parameters of the video card, change the speed, temperature and other parameters. The optimal temperature for the GPU is 60-70 degrees.

To remotely monitor the farm, you can use special software, for example, Team Viewer.

Photo of miner setup

Relevance of mining on ASICs in 2022

If you calculate a farm using ASIC equipment, you need to take into account that the profitability of old ASICs is now very low, and new ones are highly likely to be profitable only in the next few months.

In this case, you need to take into account the time factor associated with the supply of new equipment, customs clearance, the cunning of Chinese sellers and more...

Considering the significant volatility of the cryptocurrency market and its unpredictability, it is practically impossible to accurately calculate the prospects for mining and the profitability of ASICs in 2022. Everyone can independently calculate the profitability of buying ASICs, but in any case it is necessary to take into account the fact that they cannot be reprogrammed to other algorithms, which can be done with mining farms on video cards. In addition, a video card can always be sold at its residual value, and few people need ASIC devices.

Based on this, the prospects for mining on video cards look brighter. However, all PoW algorithms are taken under the control of industrial miners, and some blockchain projects (for example, the same Monero), protecting themselves from ASICs, switch to algorithms that are beneficial only for mining on central processors.

On the other hand, there is more and more hype about the excessively high electricity consumption of Bitcoin miners. The Chinese authorities are already planning to ban the operation of crypto-mining data centers in one of the provinces where electricity is produced mainly from coal-fired stations. And Elon Musk’s tweets about the “unenvironmental friendliness” of Bitcoin mining also contributed to the decline in the rate of the first cryptocurrency, and then the rest of the coins.

Thus, the answer to the question of what the future holds for Bitcoin mining, which is entirely based on ASIC devices, seems quite clear. Buying old ASICs for Bitcoin mining can only be justified by having confidence in the prospects for the growth of cryptocurrencies and the ability to wait for this event for a long time.

The most important problem is not the bad impact of mining on the environment, but the upcoming transition of the financial systems of developed countries to blockchain. The US and EU are closely monitoring the Chinese digital currency transition program, and are almost ready to launch similar projects. Other governments are following suit. And now they are already beginning to perceive Bitcoin and other crypto-coins of distributed networks as a direct threat to the state monopoly on the issuance of money.

Nowhere has it come to direct bans yet, but the pressure is increasing. And in poor countries, for example, in El Salvador, Bitcoin is already ready to be recognized as an official means of payment. Some issue a state cryptocurrency, while others, not having money for its development, are ready to use what they have.

Considering the current situation in the cryptocurrency market, the prospects for mining in the coming years currently remain rather vague. But, with a high degree of probability, it can be predicted that cryptocurrencies will continue their development and will increasingly penetrate into all spheres of human activity: the future calls and mines...

This will inevitably lead to an increase in their popularity and financial attractiveness. Therefore, mining can be regarded as an investment in the future, in which cryptocurrencies, as one of the classics said, will be used not only by everyone...

Difficulties in creating a “home farm”

When setting up a mining farm at home, two main problems arise: noise levels and high temperatures, warns the head of the Six Nines data center.

According to him, this applies not only to ASICs, but also to video cards. A profitable farm can be made at home, but a comfortable one cannot, says Troshin. Philip Modnov cited several more issues that will have to be dealt with: dust and heating of electrical wiring, which in residential buildings is not intended for high electricity consumption.

Cloud mining is the best option for most investors

Cloud mining is a model for earning cryptocurrency by renting equipment (hashrate); mining is carried out through the management of equipment by a contractor who resolves all issues regarding technical and software components.

Setting up cloud mining does not require a powerful computer or knowledge in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrencies in general. The setup in this case consists of going through the standard registration procedure on the service website, choosing a tariff plan and paying for the contract. Then the user specifies the address (personal wallet) where the mined cryptocurrency will be withdrawn.

Rating of the TOP 5 cloud mining services (with current estimates for 2022):

Service	Grade	Detailed review
IQ Mining (editor's choice!)	9.5	Read review
ECOS	7.2	Read review
YoBit VMining	6.5	Read review
BitDeer	6.4	Read review
HashFlare	6.3	Read review

The better mining pool Binance Pool

A mining pool means a place where miners pool their strength (computing power) to mine blocks, dividing the prize in proportion to the input. Currently, a single search for blocks can take hundreds of years, and so the best method of retrieval is to have teams working together to retrieve a block. The creation of the "mine" was a response to the difficulties in obtaining compensation for individual miners.

There are 5 reasons for choosing Binance Pool:

Low commission of only 2.5% and the best reward to participants for the found block.
Huge selection of supported crypto coins and staking.
Transparency and independence of conditions, constant access to detailed and advanced statistics.
One account for all services from Binance.
Guaranteed daily quick payments without freezing personal funds and additional requirements.

With Binance Pool, the question of how to mine bitcoins is solved extremely simply: register, set up equipment and mine cryptocurrency!

Farm assembly diagram

After the equipment has been purchased, we proceed directly to the assembly of the farm itself.

First, we take the motherboard, RAM and processor.

We insert the RAM and processor into the corresponding slots of the mother card.

Next, take the power supply and connect it to the motherboard. To do this we need 2 wires from the power supply:

Motherboard power
Processor power supply (on almost all modern units, the word “CPU” is written near the connectors (edges of the wire)

We insert the wire powering the motherboard tightly into it. We check if there are any cracks. If there are any, insert the cable more tightly.

Next, take the processor cable from the power supply and insert it into the motherboard.

The motherboard is connected, now you need to power the hard drive or SSD. To do this, you will need 2 wires: one SATA from the power supply, and a second SATA wire from the motherboard (included with the motherboard).

The wire that comes with the motherboard looks like the picture below (may be a different color, most often black)

The wire for the hard drive from the power supply looks like the picture below.

Now these two wires need to be connected to the hard drive. The wire from the power supply must be inserted into the unit itself and directly into the hard drive.

The wire that came with the motherboard is inserted into the hard drive at one end and into the motherboard at the other.

On the motherboard, the hard drive connector is called SATA.

The hard drive is connected and the system is powered up. All that remains is to connect the video cards.

We insert the first video card into the large PCI-e x16 slot of the motherboard.

Now you need to supply power to the video card. To do this, take a PCI-e cable from the power supply, insert one end into the unit, and the other into the power supply of the video card (into the connectors). This type of cable is most often written “PCI-e”.

Pay attention to the power consumption of video cards.

If cards consume more than 250 watts, then according to safety regulations they must be powered by two different PSI-e wires. And if the power consumption is less than 250 Watts, but there are 2 power outputs (2 connectors) on the card, then 1 double wire is enough (technical name - PSI-e (6+2)+(6+2))

The card connected to the power supply looks something like the picture below.

Now you need to power the remaining cards; most likely they will all be installed on the riser.

We insert adapters from risers into the remaining PSI-ex16 and x1 slots, as in the picture below.

Now you need to insert power into the riser itself - wires from the unit, Molex or SATA. In order not to confuse those who are not well versed in this, the picture below shows the difference between SATA and Molex wires.

Having firmly inserted the power cable (SATA or Molex) into the riser, insert the wires of the USB cable (which were previously inserted into the motherboard). It will look like the picture below.

Now all that remains is to insert the video card, already powered by the power supply, into the riser. This procedure is no different from inserting a card into the PCI-e slot of the motherboard, since the slot in the riser is identical to the slot in the motherboard. It will turn out like in the picture below.

That's it, the farm is assembled, now you need to turn it on and connect the monitor.

For the first time, be sure to connect the monitor to the main (first) video card located on the motherboard itself. To turn on the farm, switch the button on the power supply from 0 to 1.

Now the most interesting thing, because there is no button to turn on the computer (farm), like on a standard PC we are used to. In order to turn on the farm, you need to find the following inscription on the motherboard (it will be next to the needle-shaped outputs) “+PLED” “+PWRBIN”.

Having found these inscriptions, take a metal object (for example, scissors) and clamp the two outer needles. Hold the metal object for no more than 1-2 seconds, the system will instantly turn on, the video card cooler and power supply will start working.

The farm is assembled and completely ready for work. Now all that remains is to configure the video cards and install the miner itself - a program for mining cryptocurrency.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult for private individuals to engage in mining”

Sergey Arestov, co-founder of BitCluster

The second half of 2022 became golden for all miners. Old devices, such as S9 and L3+, which cost 3,000 rubles in the summer. and were unprofitable even at an electricity tariff of 2.95 rubles. suddenly they turned into “typewriters”, and now they bring in 4 thousand rubles. per month. Their cost now reaches 15 thousand rubles.

The production of new devices is contracted until the end of 2022. Giants such as Marathon Patent Group buy 70 thousand Antminer S19 from Bitmain. This deal alone will increase the network hashrate by 7 EH/s, which is almost 5% of the total hashrate.

In addition, we will see an explosive increase in the complexity of the network with the arrival of high water in Sichuan, when internal Chinese migration begins and all the equipment of the Celestial Empire is plugged into the socket. This will certainly contribute to the fact that it will be almost impossible to mine Bitcoin on old devices, unless the rate shoots up to $70 thousand. After an increase of 250% in December, no one will say that this is impossible.

It is becoming more and more difficult for private individuals to engage in mining and compete with American giants, but when the market calms down, the excess profitability goes away, the main criterion will again be the cost of electricity, and in Russia it is one of the lowest in the world.

There is already news that Swedish and Norwegian companies are resuming mining, but we remember that during the stagnation, expensive electricity led to a series of bankruptcies.

Types of mining

On your home computer for mining, you can simultaneously use several components to earn cryptocurrencies:

Video card - for carrying out calculations using proof-of-work algorithms that require high speed, parallel use of multiple computing units of the graphics processor 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 processor ;
Processor - for calculations that require high performance, using high-performance small cache memory (several megabytes) - cryptocurrencies such as Monero, Electroneum, HODL and others are mined;
A storage device , usually a hard drive, that allows you to earn cryptocurrency for renting out your space (you can mine cryptocurrencies like Siacoin, Storj, Burst and others).

The best coins for mining can be selected using calculators on the sites Nicehash, Whattomine and others.

All methods of earning money in most cases require a computer to be constantly connected to the Internet, which mines cryptocurrencies. In addition to mining on your own equipment, there is the possibility of earning cryptocurrencies by renting the capacity of companies that provide cloud mining services.

For the vast majority of users, cloud mining remains the best option for bitcoin mining in 2022, due to the flexibility of contracts and more favorable working conditions than mining on your own equipment.