How to mine Ethereum in 2022? Setting up a pool, program and video card

) is the process of verifying transactions and creating blocks using computer computing equipment, during which the emission of the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) also occurs. Ethereum is mined using ASICs or video cards.

By 2022, the difficulty of mining Ethereum has increased so much that it is no longer possible to mine ETH without specialized equipment. According to the latest data, the maximum difficulty value for mining the “second” cryptocurrency is at ~4600 TH.

At the same time, the hashrate of the Ethereum network is growing, even despite the reduction in the reward for miners to 2 ETH, as well as news about an even greater reduction and the transition to the Proof-Of-Stake algorithm. That is, at some point, equipment purchased solely for Ethereum mining risks becoming unnecessary.

In this article we will talk about the characteristics of Ethereum mining, the necessary equipment, as well as how much you can earn from it.

• How to mine Ethereum
• Where to start mining Ethereum
• Ethereum mining equipment
• Ethereum Mining Calculator
• What is the best way to mine Ethereum Mining Ethereum in a pool
• Solo mining

How to mine Ethereum

How to mine ether
Brief instructions on how to mine ether:

1. Create a cryptocurrency wallet to store mined ether.
2. Select equipment and calculate its payback and profitability using a mining calculator - these can be ASIC devices or video cards.
3. Register in a mining pool.
4. Install and configure the equipment.
5. Start mining ether!

See step-by-step instructions on how to mine Ethereum:

Step-by-step instructions for mining Ethereum

Below you will find all the details of Ethereum mining. To mine Ethereum, just like any other cryptocurrency, you need access to an uninterrupted Internet connection.

Below are the main steps that you need to take before you start directly mining cryptocurrency.

First, you should decide on the equipment with which you will mine coins. Ethereum mining is possible using both ASIC miners and video cards. When choosing equipment, it is important to consider your budget and goals. Note that for more efficient mining, it is recommended to install mining farms.

How to mine Ethereum

The next step is to create a digital wallet in which the mined ETH will be stored. The most popular of them are MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, Jaxx, Coinomi. For an increased level of reliability of savings, it is recommended to use hardware wallets, for example, from manufacturers such as Trezor or Ledger.

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Read the detailed article: Ethereum Wallet

It is worth saying that Ethereum uses the Ethash cryptocurrency algorithm. It, like all other algorithms, works on the principle of hashing the metadata of the last block in the blockchain using a special code called nonce. This is a random binary number that specifies a unique hash value. That is, each new block is assigned a new value, and miners try to guess the nonce.

The miner, or in most cases the mining pool, who finds the required number receives a reward.

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Since the system itself is built on cryptography, it will not be possible to guess the nonce manually using selection without using computing power. This is simply impossible.

The only way is to find a solution using a cyclic search from all possible options. The search continues until one of the computers finds the correct value, thereby triggering the hashing algorithm. The cycle repeats every 12 seconds.

Ether mining methods

It’s worth noting right away that there are several ways to mine Ethereum. Namely:

1. Independent mining on your own separate computing power.
2. Cloud mining on rented capacities.
3. Mining on your own equipment as part of a pool.

By and large, to start mining Ethereum, you only need to have a more or less modern personal computer at your disposal.
After all, you already have all the necessary power to calculate the hashing algorithm, namely the CPU and GPU. Another thing is whether mining on your home computer will suit you, or, more precisely, the amount of ether mined and the time spent on it. In fact, independent mining of ether has not paid off in full for a long time, either when using a PC, or even when using a farm of several video cards. This is due to the fact that with the discovery of new blocks of the blockchain, the complexity of encryption increases and it becomes more and more difficult for a small farm to find new blocks.

Cloud mining involves the sharing of computing power by several people. Simply put, you are renting equipment from another miner. This works on the principle of regular investments, that is, you pay a certain amount and at the end of the agreed period you expect a reward. Although the advantages of such mining are obvious, namely: no need to buy expensive equipment, this method is also associated with great risks.

The fact is that when looking for partners, there is a very high chance of running into scammers who will simply take your money without giving anything in return. Until recently, this was precisely the main stopping factor of such a scheme, but with increasing complexity, such a partnership in itself is becoming less and less profitable and risks going into oblivion as a species.

The easiest way today is to use your computing power as part of a common pool of miners. With this approach, all community farms work to mine the same block of the blockchain, and the resulting coins are divided in proportion to the computing power provided by the miner. It is the general effort to open new blocks that most resists the increasing complexity of cryptocurrency mining and keeps small home farms afloat.

Where to start mining Ethereum

How to start mining Ethereum
If we are talking about home conditions, then to mine ETH, like other cryptocurrencies, you will need a powerful mining card. Due to the complexity of the network, we will not consider mining on processors, since it will not bring any income.

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For the same reason, now there is no point in mining Ethereum solo; the greatest income comes from mining in pools.

As for the GPU, the profit largely depends on the cost of the video card itself, which you need to “beat off” first, as well as on the price per kilowatt of electricity. In some cases, this is a decisive factor for the final earnings. The choice of GPU, as is the case with other cryptocurrencies, is between AMD and Nvidia.

Where to buy Ethereum

Only Bitcoin is more popular than Ethereum, so you can buy the former almost anywhere. The main thing is not to buy coins from hand, as a resident of Obninsk once did.

Top exchanges by Ethereum trading volume. Source: CoinMarketCap

Ethereum is traded on at least 400 platforms. The most popular ones are Bitfinex, Binance, GDAX, Huobi and OKEx. Daily trading volumes on each of them amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ethereum mining equipment

Ethereum mining equipment
Profit from mining primarily depends on the characteristics of the equipment used. It's worth noting that while some mining hardware may have a higher hash rate, others may use less power.

Therefore, when choosing the best option, it is important to find a balance between the required power and energy efficiency.

Below are examples of the most effective equipment for Ethereum mining in 2022.

Asic devices:

• Asic Innosilicon A10 with a hashing speed of 485 Mh/s and power consumption of 850 W as of March 2022 brings its owners a profit of around $1,142 per month;
• Asic Antminer E3 with a hashing speed of 190 Mh/s and power consumption of 800 W brings a profit of around $413 per month.

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Read the full article: What is an ASIC miner. How ASIC mining works

Video cards for Ethereum mining

Video cards:

• A farm of 8 GTX 1080 Ti video cards has a fairly high hash rate of 400 Mh/s with a power consumption of 1700 W, while a farm of 6 GTX 1080 Ti video cards produces 300 Mh/s with a power consumption of 1200 W. These installations generate monthly income in the amount of $6960 and $3942, respectively;
• A farm of 8 GTX 1080 video cards is significantly weaker than the new GTX 1080 Ti model. It is characterized by a hashing speed of 272 Mh/s with a power consumption level of 1400 W. In turn, a farm of 6 GTX 1080 video cards produces 204 Mh/s with a power consumption of 900 W. Monthly income is $4592 and $2646, respectively;
• A farm of 8 GTX 1070 Ti video cards has a hashing speed of 250 Mh/s with a power consumption of 1150 W, and of 6 GTX 1070 Ti video cards - 192 Mh/s with a power consumption of 1000 W. Farms are able to generate monthly income of $4296 and $2424, respectively;
• When installing a farm on 8 Radeon RX470/RX570 video cards, the monthly return is about $4072. Equipment hashing speed - 240 Mh/s with power consumption of 1200 W;
• The Radeon RX480/RX580 has a daily return of slightly more than $509 with a hashing speed of 240 Mh/s and a power consumption of 1200 W. The Radeon RX 480 is one of the most economical models from the video card manufacturer AMD in terms of energy savings and associated costs.

Note that when determining the level of profitability, the cost of electricity was used at $0.1 kW/h. Therefore, if a cheaper or free outlet is available, the profit margin will be significantly higher than the data presented, and vice versa.

Thus, for a more accurate assessment of the results, we recommend using an Ethereum mining calculator.

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Read the full article: The best video cards for mining. Rating of mining video cards

System requirements

There is no point in mining cryptocurrency without a good system, since the efficiency will be reduced to zero, and your equipment simply will not hold up. In the case of ether, this is especially true, since several factors play a role here:

• a large number of people mine ETH, because being the first to solve a block requires good performance;
• due to the large number of miners, the currency network is constantly overloaded, which creates additional load on the system;
• the extraction process requires a colossal amount of action from the system, which is why it warms up a lot. Weak equipment will not last long.

Therefore, when assembling a computer for Ethereum mining, you should adhere to at least the minimum requirements:

1. The operating system must be 64-bit.
2. A good provider - it is especially important to pay attention to ping, since due to delays many hash sums may be missed.
3. 4 gigabytes of RAM and 2 gigabytes of video card memory.
4. High-quality program settings, more on that below.

I don’t want to upset you, but if you cannot provide such a system for yourself, then you will not benefit from mining even on pools, let alone solo. Well, for greater efficiency and the likelihood of being first on most blocks, assemble a system with the best performance, and you can also use more video cards.

Ethereum Mining Calculator

Ethereum Mining Calculator
The Ethereum mining calculator is an easy way to calculate the profit or amount of Ether generated on certain hardware designed for cryptocurrency mining.

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Before using the service, the user needs to become familiar with the characteristics of the equipment and the cost of electricity in the region in which the farm will be installed.

So, before making a decision in favor of mining Ethereum, the miner needs to take into account any risks associated with this activity. Mining is not only the verification of transactions on the blockchain, but, first of all, the work for which a reward is intended.

Mining today has become a business activity, and in order to determine the profitability of this activity, participants in the process need to use tools such as a cryptocurrency mining profitability calculator.

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In fact, using this service, beginners can check how profitable their activities will be.

And if the result meets expectations, then as income is generated, they will be able to develop their own mining strategy.

It is worth noting that the calculator is necessary not only for those who are about to enter the world of Ethereum mining, but it is also an important tool for those who are already in the know. Given that cryptocurrencies are very volatile and are characterized by constantly changing factors, such as the level of difficulty and the value of the asset, miners need to constantly monitor the amount of their own income.

Calculation of profit from mining

The mining calculator is capable of calculating profit amounts on a periodic basis - be it hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or annually. The Ethereum calculator takes into account various factors to arrive at these numbers, including:

• Energy consumption of the mining device.
  This indicator is measured in watts and plays an important role in determining the amount of profit or loss during coin mining. Mining any cryptocurrency, not just Ethereum, consumes enormous amounts of energy;
• Device hashrate
  . It is important to know the hash rate, which is measured in megahashes per second (Mh/s) or gigahashes per second (Gh/s). The higher this number, the more efficiently blocks will be mined;
• The percentage charged by the mining pool for the services provided
  . Almost all miners tend to join mining pools for the purpose of more efficient mining. In turn, the pools charge a small percentage in the form of a service fee on mining reward payments. This indicator is necessary for a more accurate assessment of effort;
• Network complexity and block reward
  are another important factor that is taken into account in determining the final profit. The difficulty level is constantly changing, in most cases increasing. At the same time, the block reward may decrease;
• Finally, the most important thing is the price of ETH in US dollars
  . The higher the value of the asset, the greater the profit will be.

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The most popular Ethereum calculators on the market are WhatToMine, ASICMinerValue, CryptoCompare, AsicTrade and others.

AsicTrade is a Russian-language service specializing in the sale of equipment and calculation of profits from its operation. It is convenient because to get the result you only need to enter the energy cost indicator.

Ethereum mining profitability online calculator // Source: Asictrade.com

However, the service may show inaccurate results due to the inability to add data such as the size of the commission charged by mining pools into the calculations, as well as ignoring fluctuations in the size of the computing power of the equipment.

In any case, the profitability calculator will help the miner make the best choice of equipment for efficient mining in this day and age.

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Read the full article: Mining calculator: how to calculate the profitability of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies

How to turn Ethereum into fiat money?

Although more and more merchants are accepting payments in cryptocurrencies, many purchases cannot be made using Ethereum.

To make the conversion, you can use several options:

• Selling on the stock exchange at the current price. The exchange is actually made through a market order. The user places his amount of ETH at the current price and receives USD or RUR;
• Selling at the right price. Also an exchange operation, but with a pending order. The user sets the required price, different from the current one, and indicates the amount of ETH that he intends to sell. If the price reaches the set level and a counter order is created, the transaction will be closed and each party will receive their benefit;
• Exchange via machine . Exchangers that track the current exchange rate of an asset and instantly exchange fiat money and cryptocurrencies among themselves are very popular. The process is really fast, but the rate is not always the most profitable;
• Private exchange. It is used quite rarely, but if both parties know each other and the exchange rate suits them, an exchange or transaction occurs.

The most profitable current rate is displayed by multiple monitoring services, for example, Bestchange (for exchangers) and Coinmarketcap (for crypto exchanges).

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What's the best way to mine Ethereum?

Ether mining methods

Mining Ethereum in a pool

When choosing a pool for Ethereum mining, you should look at the following parameters:

Pool lifespan;

Total hashrate;

Payment scheme (PPLNS, PPS, RBPPS, etc.);

Commissions;

Minimum withdrawal amount.

The last point is most important for those who have assembled a minimal farm with not the largest, but profitable hashrate. If the withdrawal in the pool starts from 1 ETH, then you don’t have to wait for earnings for at least six months, or even a year.

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As for the payment system, PPS is more suitable for “home” miners, since it rewards each mining participant, while in PPLNS the reward is divided in proportion to the contribution.

That is, the lower the hashrate invested in the network, the lower the amount of ETH received.

Also, some users are of the opinion that it is better to choose a younger pool

, than large because it distributes the reward among a larger number of participants. However, in small pools, due to the low hashrate, there is a lower probability of finding a block.

It is also worth considering that it is better to choose a multi-currency mining pool with the ability to switch between top cryptocurrencies. Pools designed for mining one coin are less profitable

due to the ever-changing difficulty and course.

Solo mining

As mentioned above, if after the advent of Ethereum income could be obtained by mining even on one video card, now you can’t expect any income from solo mining.

Moreover, even if you assemble a farm of 10 medium-sized AMD RX580s, the hashrate will be 302 Mh/s. According to the Rubin Mining Calculator, the average time to find a block with such a system will be 85 days and 11 hours.

Obviously, ETH is not at all suitable for solo mining, and it is better to consider other coins with less difficulty. After all, in this case, blocks can be found much faster, and, therefore, earnings will be much greater.

Let's sum it up

Summing up, I would like to say that it is not too late to start mining Etherium. You can still catch the last car of the departing train. However, investing in a large farm is only worth it if you know where you will go after the possibilities of mining ether are exhausted. If you are going to use your home computer, then you actually do not risk anything and in any case, even if you do not manage to earn a lot of money, you will gain a lot of experience that may be useful to you in the future.

Best Ethereum Mining Pools

Ethereum mining pools
The best pools to mine Ethereum on:

• Ethermine is one of the oldest and most well-established Ethereum mining pools. According to the latest data, he mines about 20% of all ETH coins. The pool uses the PPLNS payout system and the minimum withdrawal is 0.05 ETH. The total power of the pool is 84.8 TH/s. The popularity of Ethermine is due to its user-friendly interface, high reliability and security. The minimum automatic withdrawal of funds to the linked wallet also plays a role;
• Nanopool is also one of the oldest pools. Total power – 28,001 GH/s. The reward distribution system is PPLNS, and the minimum payout is 0.05 EHT. More than 44,000 miners use the service, and the pool mines more than 310 blocks per day;
• F2pool – pool with a capacity of 1231 GH/s. But payments here start from 0.1 ETH. One of the main disadvantages of F2pool is that it is not fully translated into English and the main language is Chinese.
• Dwarfpool - in 2019, was one of the largest Ethereum mining pools with a total capacity of 3344 Gh/s. The minimum reward was also 0.05 ETH. But he had a different payment system - RBPPS. During its operation, the pool has proven its reliability. Security was ensured by the fact that to withdraw even the minimum amount you will need to bind to an IP address. But as of 2022, Dwarfpool is closed forever.

Of course, there are other pools, but they are less powerful and, accordingly, payments to them may occur with a delay.

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Read the full article: Mining pool - the most profitable pools

How are payments made?

We mentioned that the pool does not keep funds in its accounts for a long time.

Payments are made in two ways:

• Every day. At the checkout time, all coins located on the user’s account in the pool are paid in one payment to the account specified in the account;
• From the minimum amount. The pool sets a minimum payout amount and automatically pays it out when reached. Some services allow the minimum amount to be adjusted in both directions.

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Ethereum mining programs

Ethereum miner
One of the best and long-proven ones on the market is the Claymore's miner, which is well suited for mining cryptocurrency using the Ethash algorithm. This program is easy to use and is popular with many miners.

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However, one fact should be taken into account - this software operates on a paid basis - the free program mines Ethereum for 2 minutes per hour or 48 minutes per day exclusively for the developer.

Also interesting is the so-called Claymore's Dual, which mines two coins at once - Ethereum and the Decred cryptocurrency. First, download the program by following this link. No installation is required, but you need to create a batch file - a text file, but with a .bat extension.

Since each video card or GPU farm requires its own settings, it is best to find them on a specialized server, for example, Bitcointalk. Once the file is ready, all that remains is to run it and Ethereum mining will begin. Do not forget that before this you need to create an address where the mined ETH will be sent.

In addition to Claymore's, there is also PhoenixMiner, the setup of which is practically no different from Claymore.

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Help: Windows Firewall may prevent you from opening a BAT file for security reasons. In this case, you should run the program through administrator permission.

Selecting and setting up the miner program

Ethereum mining will not start after starting the PC or farm. To initialize the process, you will need a special program called a miner.

A large number of such programs have been developed, both universal and specialized.

Miners created for a specific currency, as well as for a specific type of video card, show better performance.

It is recommended to mine Ethereum on AMD cards using Claymore's Dual Miner program.

An overview of this software can be found here. The program allows you to mine coins using two algorithms, but requires fine tuning.

For Nvidia cards, EthMiner is considered the best, slightly increasing the hashrate of most popular video card models in mining.

There is a lot of information on each offer on the Internet. Users offer their own settings and builds for all popular PC configurations and farms, and also recommend driver versions for each model.

Installing the drivers and miner takes a few minutes. To configure, you need to edit launch and debug files. The startup files specify the pool address, the payout wallet address, and the walker password, if necessary. Debug files are edited to achieve the optimal balance between performance and heating of video cards.

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Ethereum Cloud Mining

Cloud mining services for Ethereum
Cloud mining is the process of mining cryptocurrency using rented computing power. To participate in this type of mining, service clients will not have to make large investments in the purchase of equipment and other processes associated with mining.

How to start Ethereum cloud mining:

1. Go to the official website and register an account using your email address and a strong password.
2. Decide on a contract.
3. Top up your account and purchase a contract.

There are a large number of cloud mining services on the Internet that pay Ether to clients in the amount and within the time frame specified in the contract purchased by the client. So, anyone can take advantage of all the benefits of mining, regardless of age, location, investment size, and so on.

Below are examples of Ethereum cloud mining services that will be relevant in 2022.

HashFlare

HashFlare is a cloud platform for mining not only Ethereum, but also a number of other cryptocurrencies. Provides services on the market since 2015.

The service promises fixed commissions for instant withdrawals. Contract prices start at $1.40 per year. However, as of November 2022, the possibility of purchasing a contract aimed at mining Ethereum is closed.

In general, there are no service charges. The reward for mined coins is distributed among all HashFlare clients depending on the size of their investment. Has a Russian-language version of the site.

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Official website of HashFlare

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HashFlare Review

Genesis Mining

Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Cloud Mining Process
Genesis Mining has positioned itself as the leading cloud mining provider in the world. This service was founded in 2013. The platform supports a Russian-language interface.

Provides plans for Ethereum mining, costing from $525 for 2 years. In addition to fixed plans, the service also takes into account the individual wishes of clients, giving them the opportunity to independently set the size of the hashrate and the desired period of the contract.

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Attention! As of March 2022, the service does not register new clients.

However, there are still reviews online about the provider’s dishonesty. Thus, there have been cases of refusal to make payments to Genesis Mining due to rising costs of servicing the process, for example.

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Genesis Mining Official Website

HashGains

HashGains is another cryptocurrency cloud mining provider. The HashGains data center offers the ability to mine BTC, ETH and a number of other cryptocurrencies at minimal cost and risk. Hashgains provides a wide range of mining services, including:

• Instant crediting of coins to the account;
• A varied selection of hash powers;
• 24/7/365 Technical support;
• High efficiency.

Among the shortcomings is the lack of a Russian-language interface. As for the work of the site’s technical support, judging by the reviews, it is far from at the highest level. Although, in general, the service is praised.

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HashGains official website

Eobot

Cloud mining of cryptocurrencies on Eobot
Eobot has existed since 2013. Clients have the opportunity to enter into a mining contract for Ethereum and a wide range of other cryptocurrencies. Contracts are provided for a period of 1 day and can reach 10 years. Contributions start from $10; There is a service charge.

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Attention! In March 2022, an announcement appeared on the official website that the service would be closed presumably in 2031.

With an emphasis on anonymity, withdrawals are only possible in cryptocurrency. Reviews about the service's work are predominantly positive, however, there are situations in which the service is not ready to meet the needs of its clients, so before depositing funds, we recommend that you carefully read the platform rules. And this applies not only to the Eobot service!

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Eobot official website

Among other providers that support the Ethereum mining function, we note NiceHash, MinerGate, IQMining. All of the above platforms have been operating on the market for several years and have both positive and negative reviews about their activities.

Note that when choosing cloud mining, the user eliminates the need for additional expenses and headaches in the form of paying electricity bills or installing programs associated with the process.

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However, no one can be immune from the fact that these services will continue to make payments to users and meet all the conditions of the concluded contracts.

How is Ethereum mined?

There are quite a few pictures and articles on the Internet about the endless corridors between the shelves, on which an incredible amount of mining equipment is displayed.

Yes, industrial mining is a significant part of cryptocurrency networks, but true decentralization lies in the placement of small private mini- and medium-sized mining farms.

There are three options for mining Ethereum:

• Home PC mining coins during idle time;
• Mining farm, which will be discussed below;
• Rented equipment.

Mining farm

They are an open case of a system unit or a special frame for a farm on which the filling of any system unit is placed.

The only difference is the number of video cards connected to the system.

It varies depending on the capabilities of the motherboard and the owner’s finances from 1 to 12 per farm.

The cost of equipment to start working with one video card starts from 15,000 rubles. The cost of one mining card starts from $300.

The return on investment is calculated in such a way that the profit is generated after 8 - 12 months of work.

That is, all invested funds have already been spent, at least in the equivalent of Ethereum.

Such terms are dictated by the warranty period for the operation of video cards. Due to the fact that work is carried out at extreme conditions around the clock, and often under software overclocking, the likelihood of cards failing is very high.

Replacement under warranty is a very profitable way to insure yourself against force majeure.

The first benefit is that a burned-out warranty card can be exchanged, which means you don’t have to buy a new one, at least right away.

However, the shortage of high-performance video cards on the market significantly lengthens the warranty exchange procedure, so it is recommended to keep 1-2 cards for hot replacement.

The second benefit is the ability to sell cards with a residual guarantee to gamers at the price of a new one or close to that.

Related Components

In addition to video cards, which will be discussed in a separate chapter, an Ethereum mining farm will also require other equipment that has been unfairly ignored by many reviews and guides:

• RAM. To operate the farm, 4 GB of modern memory is sufficient, but it is better to have 8 or 12 GB, and also set the maximum volume of paging files on the hard drive;
• HDD. Any working disk without bad sectors and errors that can accommodate an operating system from Win7 drivers and several utility programs will do;
• CPU. Any processor is suitable for working through a home PC. For several video cards, there must be a processor capable of dedicating one core to work with each card (physical or logical does not matter);
• BY. For the operation of video cards on the network, there are ready-made driver assemblies for most popular configurations. If the experience is the first and, so to speak, test, it is enough to update the drivers to the latest versions;
• Internet connection. In an ideal situation, there should be a dedicated line with maximum bandwidth (100Mb). Choose a provider not based on price, but on stability, since each break will require a restart of the Ethereum mining process;
• Power unit. For a home PC or system with one video card, a standard power supply is suitable. If you plan to add video cards in the future or the farm is being assembled for several at once, the power supply should have a 15% power reserve compared to the nominal power consumed by all the farm equipment. For each iron model, the nominal and maximum consumption is indicated in the specifications. For farms with a large number of video cards, two and sometimes three power supplies are used.

Video cards for Ethereum mining

This issue is specifically included in a separate part of the material, because video cards are the key and most expensive elements of the process.

Video cards for mining are divided according to their performance . It is calculated in the number of computational operations (hashes) per second. For Ethereum, the quantity is measured in millions of megahashes (Mh/s) operations. The performance of the most commonly used video cards for Ether mining is summarized in a table.

In order to calculate the profitability of working with one or more video cards, you need to use special production calculators that take into account many variables in the calculations.

Accounting is carried out not only by nominal productivity, but also by the cost of electricity, pool commission and other variables.

The result offered by the calculator covers several time periods at once, which allows you to calculate the payback period of the equipment and the profit that will be received afterwards.

Important. The calculation is made for a specific moment and there are several reasons for this:

• Current difficulty. We mentioned that it is constantly growing, therefore, the profitability of the same hashrate will decrease over time;
• Coin value. It can vary by more than 100% per day, respectively, and the calculation of the payback period will be different each time;
• Cost of electricity. Given the seemingly insignificant cost of a kW/hour, in terms of a month or a year, the total amount turns out to be very significant, and provided that excess consumption over the established norm is paid at an increased rate, payment of bills becomes almost the main expense item.

Advice! Before investing money and time in Ethereum mining, study the relevant forms and information portals covering the topic, ask all your questions and prepare alternative mining options that will allow you to switch to other coins in the event of force majeure with ETH.

It is also important to set for yourself the percentage ratio between those coins that will be sold and those that will remain as an investment.

Solving the overheating issue

During operation, video cards get very hot and need to be kept as far apart as possible.

For this purpose risers are used. Overheating of cards leads to their shutdown or burnout.

The second negative aspect of the farm is noise.

Video card coolers operate at maximum speed and when using at least three cards, the noise from them is quite noticeable.

If there are 6 or more of them, it becomes impossible to stay in one room for more than a couple of hours.

Options for solving the problem are to move the farm to a balcony or to a separate room and ensure a sufficient level of cooling.

For large capacities, you need a separate room with a minimum level of air dust at a distance from residential premises or buildings corresponding to GOST standards.

Some miners are switching rigs for mining Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies to water cooling. This minimizes noise levels and stabilizes operating temperatures.

The disadvantage of this approach is the price of professional water cooling equipment.

Making some of the components yourself increases the risk of leakage, which is detrimental to electronics.

However, a dielectric can be used as a coolant, but the question is again about price.

By the way, if you don’t even want to think about how to mine cryptocurrency, it’s easier to use one of the proven, automated and specialized services. One of these is Angryminer - a software mining that automatically uses the power of your equipment to mine tokens. To get started, you need to install the program on your computer by registering in the system. You can earn about $50 monthly from one computer, which beats many competitors in this mining field. The service provides for the extraction of 12 types of cryptocurrencies: Etherium, Etherium Classic, Expanse, Monero, Musicoin, SOILcoin, Signatum, Zcash, Bytecoin, Decred, Ubiq and ZenChash. You can withdraw money weekly to Steam, QIWI accounts or top up your phone balance. The minimum withdrawal amount is $5 and all this with no withdrawal fees!

Rented equipment

There are quite a few companies offering to rent some computing power.

Not all of them are reliable and the choice of a specific proposal is a topic for a separate article.

They have a common operating principle. It consists in the fact that the company purchases computing equipment at its own expense, places it in its own premises and maintains it independently.

Clients are invited to buy a contract, according to which all coins mined with the purchased power will be sent to their wallet throughout the entire contract period.

The benefit of the company is that they charge a small service fee, and they also retain all purchased equipment.

The client's benefit is obvious, provided that he invests in a reliable project. In the absence of any time costs, without the need to pay electricity bills, buy equipment, configure it and maintain it, he receives the number of coins corresponding to the rented power.

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Is it profitable to mine Ethereum in 2022?

Ethereum mining in 2022
As mentioned above, a significant parameter affecting the profitability of mining any cryptocurrency is the cost of electricity.

If we consider a mining rig of 10 RX580s with an average hashrate of 300 Mh/s, then according to the WhatToMine website, the monthly income will be $175. You can calculate your earnings from mining Ethereum with a different hashrate using this link.

Average hashrate of 10 RX580 video cards // Source: whattomine.com

But you need to take into account that we are mainly talking about mining in a pool. Based on the average price of such a video card of 13,000 rubles, for 10 pieces, excluding other equipment, you will need 130,000 rubles. At the same time, in a year, again, excluding electricity payments, you will be able to earn $2,134.

Income from mining Ethereum on the rig from 10 RX580 // Source: whattomine.com

Accordingly, it will be possible to recoup the funds spent on the purchase of equipment in a year, or even a year and a half.

The main question today remains the date of transition from the Proof-Of-Work algorithm to Proof-Of-Stake, which was announced by Vitalik Buterin at the beginning of 2022.

However, this is less of a concern for those who mine on video cards than for users with ASICs. After all, when the long-awaited transition to PoS takes place, GPU owners will simply start mining another cryptocurrency.

Before buying equipment to mine Ethereum, you should consider all possible options and force majeure. The situation on the cryptocurrency market changes almost every day, and no one can accurately predict the profitability of purchasing equipment.

What income should you expect?

“How much can I earn?” is the main question of those who invest in mining. Their goal is not just to recoup their investments, but also to make a profit.

Many miners, who became disillusioned with mining the elusive Bitcoin, began to switch to more affordable cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, ZCash or Monero. However, the transition to PoS, which excludes earning Ether using computing power, makes its own adjustments. Because when the network switches to the PoS algorithm, mining will be replaced by staking, when the probability of finding a new block will be higher for those participants in the process who own a larger share of tokens from the total number.

However, while Ether mining on GPUs is still alive, miners want to determine the potential profit before the process begins and make the appropriate calculations. ✅

When calculating mining profitability, the following parameters are taken into account:

• Network complexity;
• Exchange rate of mined digital currency;
• Cost of electricity;
• Network reward for the mined block;
• Pool commission (when mining in a pool);
• Equipment rental fee (for cloud mining);
• And other expenses.

Therefore, it is clear that the lower the complexity of the network and the cost of 1 kWh, the higher the coin exchange rate and the reward per block, the greater the profitability from mining.

Profitability calculators are used to calculate the profitability of ETH mining. Miners often use the following services:

• Minergate.com;
• nicehash.com;
• cryptoval.com;
• and others.

Profitability of Ethereum mining with different approaches

Each method of mining the Ethereum cryptocurrency has different profitability.

When using GPU farms , the miner's main expense is the purchase of the video cards themselves, and effective mining requires high-performance and the latest models, which are expensive. When choosing a card, it is also important to consider not only its power (hashrate), but also how much electricity it consumes: the less, the better. In addition to the card itself, you need to buy the rest of the equipment: motherboard, power supply and other system elements.

How profitability depends on the mining method

Therefore, due to the huge costs of purchasing equipment and maintaining its operation, the profitability of mining in regions with expensive electricity may be negative. To save on the purchase of equipment, many miners rent power instead of purchasing their own. The profitability of cloud mining also depends on the service and is constantly changing: the complexity of the network increases, the coin rate rises/falls, etc.

In 2022, new mining equipment appeared - ASIC , which is characterized by high performance, and many miners switched from GPUs to ASICs. Two main parameters that are taken into account when calculating mining profitability are performance and power consumption. One ASIC device can provide a hashrate that is comparable to using 6 GPUs. But at the same time, energy consumption is significantly lower, thanks to which ASICs provide better profitability for ETH mining.