In 2022, Litecoin mining has caught up with BTC coin mining in popularity. Such a dynamic surge of interest is explained by the fact that “digital silver” is much easier to mine. The complexity of the Bitcoin network has increased significantly over the past few years. Therefore, an ordinary miner is simply not able to compete with the leading pools.
In addition, mining Bitcoin requires equipment with enormous computing power. GPU farms are losing their efficiency every day because they are not able to impose significant competition on integrated circuits.
The Litecoin cryptocurrency is among the TOP 10 assets by capitalization, so it is not surprising that miners are showing interest in it. Until recently, the system was completely protected from ASIC devices, but eventually manufacturers were able to adapt their equipment to the Scrypt algorithm.
From a technical point of view, the digital currency Litecoin is more advanced than Bitcoin. Firstly, the team of Charles Lee (founder of the Litecoin project) managed to expand the block size. Secondly, integrated circuits have not been used for coin mining for a long time. Thirdly, LTC mining is simply cheaper.
The Scrypt algorithm also provides for asset mining on central processors, but today this approach has completely become obsolete. What does a novice user need to know about Litecoin mining? Let's consider the most significant points so that each user can understand whether he should invest money in this.
Litecoin Mining Basics
When studying the basics of modern mining, first of all, you should emphasize that this process involves the use of a video card and a central processor. With the help of this equipment, network operations are processed when mining LTC coins.
Mining Litecoin first of all requires the purchase of appropriate equipment. In addition, you should download, install and properly configure the software. As a result, the process of searching for blocks will start, for which the user receives a reward. For one block, the user receives about 50 LTC coins. This is about 5 thousand dollars.
“Digital gold” and “digital silver” - differences
Cryptocurrency blockchain
After the appearance of Litecoin, many criticized it for the fact that there were not so many differences from Bitcoin. But as the team developed, it proved that Litecoin has the right to exist. The total supply of Litecoin (LTC) is 84 million coins. This is four times more than BTC.
Unlike the first cryptocurrency, the Litecoin blockchain is designed for large transaction volumes. Blocks in the network are generated faster, which means operations are completed faster. At the same time, the Scrypt algorithm is responsible for the complexity, which adapts to the computing power involved in mining.
If the network hashrate grows, then the difficulty increases, but if for some reason it falls (for example, as a result of halving), then the difficulty decreases.
Scrypt is simpler than SHA-256, but at the same time this algorithm requires more memory due to the huge number of arithmetic calculations.
This makes creating an ASIC for Litecoin mining more expensive than for BTC.
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We recommend: Bitcoin hashrate: what it is, what it depends on and how it changes over time
How to mine Litecoin?
How to start mining LTC crypto coins? First you need to think carefully about how you plan to mine Litecoins - solo or in a pool. Platforms for collective cryptocurrency mining help maximize profits, so this option is considered more profitable.
The Litecoin mining algorithm does not allow you to earn money using the computing power of an ordinary central processor. Therefore, it makes sense to think about purchasing an ASIC device or GPU farm.
Be sure to create a wallet to which profits will be redirected. Download the official Wallet from the Litecoin cryptocurrency developer website. There will be no problems with installation.
Summary
In 2022, mining Litecoin (LTC) using GPU farms makes virtually no sense. ASICs continue to dominate the market. Most of them have been discontinued, but you can still find them on the secondary market.
Even the most powerful farms on the latest video cards are inferior in performance to ASICs. Therefore, when choosing a coin to mine with a GPU, it is worth familiarizing yourself with mining other currencies - most likely, it will be more profitable than trying to mine Litecoin. In conclusion, we would not recommend starting to mine Litecoin in 2022 as there are many other coins with lower mining difficulty but higher profitability.
Disclaimer : this article is not a recommendation and does not encourage trading. The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile. While price analysis is a useful tool, it should not be considered a reliable forecast of the future performance of any investment vehicle.
We encourage everyone to explore different points of view and familiarize themselves with local legislation before investing in certain cryptocurrencies. Changelly staff, including the author of this article, may or may not own cryptocurrency, but refrain from making any recommendations or advice to the reader. DYOR!
How to mine Litecoins with ASICs?
The most expensive, but at the same time profitable option. In principle, ASIC devices seem to be a particularly good solution in light of the increased complexity of the network and the outflow of power to industries that are more profitable for processor equipment.
The key stumbling block is the cost of integrated circuits. For example, the Bitmain L3+ model with a hashrate of 504 MH/s will cost about $1000. The device consumes 600 W in 1 hour. The equipment will pay for itself in about six months, provided that the price of Litecoin does not collapse.
Keep in mind that the complexity of the network is constantly growing, which means that the mining speed will decrease. However, in any case, integrated circuits remain the most profitable computing equipment.
Monitoring the miner
After launching the miner, various statistics will automatically be displayed in the installed terminal. According to the cgminer program, as a rule, it gives more information than the second miner. The reason is that the first indicator displays information about the currency and the pool, as well as about the computer itself. As for the second column of indicators, the hashing speed is reflected here, as well as the blocks calculated by the processor.
GPU farms
Video cards are the main method of mining not only Litecoin, but also many other digital currencies. Mining Litecoin using a PC is gradually losing efficiency. It is simply unprofitable to mine LTC coins on GPU devices. The payback period for equipment significantly exceeds the warranty on video cards.
For clarity, let's consider a specific example. Let's imagine that you decide to assemble a farm from Radeon RX 480 video cards. This is a relatively cheap model with a maximum hashrate of 29MH/s.
A farm of 10 cards will cost almost $3,000. Total performance – 290 MH/s. In one hour, such an installation will consume about 3 kW.
Such a farm will take almost twice as long to pay for itself than an integrated circuit. In the near future, the situation will not change for the better, because the rise in the value of cryptocurrency will become a catalyst for an increase in the number of miners using ASIC devices. Naturally, this will cause an increase in the complexity of the network.
Setting up a computer for Litecoin mining on video cards is simply pointless. There is a great risk that the expensive equipment purchased will never pay for itself.
What you need to know
Mining is a relatively similar process for many cryptocurrencies. If we give an analogy with real life, we can take harvesting as an example. To pick an apricot and cherry tree, you need to stand with a container under it and collect all the berries. But if you can take an apricot directly by the fruit, then it is advisable to take a cherry by the stem so as not to crush it.
When approaching Litecoin mining, you must also take into account its features, algorithm and protocol, and mining characteristics.
There is a misconception that even a 5-year-old child can start mining. Well, if you tell such a child the minimum basics of cryptology and programming, then he can try. But the likelihood that the child will make money from this is negligible. The efficiency of mining depends not only on hardware and minimal knowledge, but also on the skills of the miner.
Litecoin mining pools
Solo mining of the Litecoin cryptocurrency is ineffective, so it makes sense to think about joining the pool. Let's consider the most productive resources.
AntPool:
- Mining speed – 27.3 TH/s.
- The number of active users is more than 30 thousand.
- Efficiency – 100%.
- Blocks found - over 41 thousand.
- Block generation time is no more than 12 minutes.
- The number of active walkers is 7 thousand.
- The share of the Litecoin network is 26%.
LitecoinPool:
- Mining speed – 22.6 TH/s.
- The number of active users is more than 11 thousand.
- Efficiency – 100%.
- Blocks found - over 40 thousand.
- Block generation time is no more than 12 minutes.
- The number of active walkers is 138 thousand.
- The share of the Litecoin network is 20%.
F2pool:
- Mining speed – 15.6 TH/s.
- The number of active users is more than 7 thousand.
- Efficiency – 100%.
- Blocks found - 80 thousand.
- Block generation time is no more than 12 minutes.
- The number of active walkers is 40 thousand.
- The share of the Litecoin network is 18%.
These are the main Mining pools for LTC mining.
LitecoinPool.org
LitecoinPool is one of the most famous and oldest Litecoin mining pools, which was launched in 2011 by one of the Litecoin developers. It has eight servers scattered around the world.
Other benefits include pay-per-stake and shared mining pool. This combination of features guarantees a payout even if a network block becomes orphaned. It is also worth noting that this is one of the first pools to offer secure mining over Stratum connections with TLS encryption.
Best Litecoin Mining Software
To earn a stable income from cryptocurrency mining, learn how to properly manage the process. To do this you will need special software. There are many different options; it will be extremely difficult for a beginner to choose truly effective software from such a wide range.
The best miners for mining Litecoin :
When choosing a miner, be sure to read the instructions in order to correctly configure the software for the computing power used.
Setting up Litecoin mining comes down to the fact that the user downloads an archive with the program from Bitcointalk or GitHub. He unpacks it, and then opens a batch file with a notepad to register the server, worker and wallet used. Miners are predominantly console applications, so the program is controlled via the command line.
To use ASIC equipment, special programs are not needed, except in situations when it comes to industrial scale. In this case, special software is ordered to maximize profits.
The presence of a special program will significantly increase the performance of integrated circuits. Therefore, the costs of creating software are more than justified.
Wallet encryption
When setting up mining equipment, special attention must be paid to the safety of the received currency. To ensure security, it is worth encrypting your wallet. This process is very simple to complete. You will need to go to the settings and find the corresponding line with the word “encryption”. This operation is carried out to ensure that no one can gain access to the wallet.
An alternative to such protection is to create a backup copy of your wallet, or better yet, several at once. They need to be stored in different places - portable disks or flash drives. It is not worth creating such a copy immediately after installing the wallet and synchronizing it. Backup is relevant only after active work with the wallet, as soon as operations related to sending, receiving payments, and creating addresses are started.
This should not be a one-time process, but a system. The process of creating a copy is very simple, just select “File” and “Perform a backup copy” on the main page of the wallet. It is imperative to designate and remember the path where this copy will be located.
Cloud mining Litecoin
Recently, this method of mining Litecoins has become increasingly popular. Particular demand for cloud mining arose as a result of the price collapse of cryptocurrency, as a result of which the costs of purchasing equipment became unreasonably high. The main advantages of cloud mining:
- Minimum investment. Purchasing contracts to rent computing power requires little capital investment. Payments are transferred to your wallet balance automatically.
- No financial costs for maintaining and maintaining the farm. The company leasing the capacity resolves these issues independently, and a small commission is deducted from you.
- There are no additional costs. The user will not have to pay electricity bills.
- On average, the profitability of a contract is 20% of its original cost. You can increase your profit by taking part in a promotion or receiving a discount.
Flaws:
- A large number of scammers. There is always a risk of being deceived, so cooperate with proven services.
- Even if the value of the cryptocurrency drops significantly, you still will not be able to change the terms of the contract.
- There is no ability to switch between mining algorithms. Mining is carried out for a specific cryptocurrency.
Maximizing Power
To make your mining work better and more efficient, you should give preference to discrete graphics cards. Thanks to them, you can run both miner programs simultaneously. To achieve this result, you will need to enter the “-threads N” parameter into the launch command. The letter N in this case denotes the number of cores that will be occupied by the mining process.
You shouldn’t take up all the free cores; you need to leave a little to work effectively with programs and video cards. If you take up all the free space, the processor will not be able to process information from the graphics card.
