Dual mining: which cryptocurrencies are profitable for parallel mining in 2022

What is Dual Mining and how does it work?

When mining cryptocurrency on a video card, the GPU load remains low. This means that there is still enough capacity left to mine one more coin. The main condition is that both mined currencies must work using the same algorithms. Most often this is Ethash.

The main currency of interest to miners is Ethereum. It was previously complemented by Decred, Lbry and a number of altcoins. In 2022, dual mining is still in some demand, and new coins have been added to the old ones - Zilliqa, Siacoin, RavenCoin.

Figure 1: Zilliqa (ZIL) is the most trending altcoin of 2022 among those who practice dual mining

Principles of overclocking video cards using the Kawpow algorithm

The hashrate of video cards when mining this algorithm is affected by almost all overclocking parameters of the video card. Therefore, everything needs to be overclocked. However, if we overclock everything at once, we will not know the true cause of the failure when video cards become unstable.

Therefore, acceleration should be done in stages.

Step 0. Before starting overclocking, we determine the profitability of the algorithm - the 2CryptoCalc calculator will help here. Next, we write down how much 1 kWh of electricity costs for you.

Taken together, we obtain an assessment of the rationality of overclocking in terms of energy costs. Next, we use these values ​​to determine a reasonable level of power consumption for the video card.

Step 1. Find a stable maximum from memory.

To do this, we step by step increase the memory by +50 MHz to the maximum level of stability. We retreat down one step.

An important aspect: when the video card heats up, the video memory chips also heat up and the stable overclocking values ​​decrease.

Cryptocurrency mining

The second important aspect: there is no need to turn on the tablet for 1080 and 1080ti video cards. At a fixed PL, it will not increase speed, and the stability of acceleration will definitely decrease.

Step 2. Overclocking the core.

If mining is carried out on the Windows operating system, then we record the core voltage in the MSI Afterburner program. This will increase overclocking stability and increase the level of maximum achievable energy efficiency.

We increase the core frequency by +25 MHz upward, find a stable maximum, and move down 1 step from it.

If you have an electricity tariff differentiated by time of day, and you want to automatically switch to cold mode at an expensive tariff, and also overclock cards at a cheap tariff, then core overclocking must be performed for all core fix points.

Cryptocurrency miner

It is better to start tuning from the highest voltage desired point. It must be remembered that the higher the core voltage, the less it can be overclocked. On the same card, at the 950 mV level, the card can have a maximum overclock of +125, at the 800 mV core level it is already +175 MHz, and at the 700 mV level even +225 MHz - especially for the RTX 30xx series.

In this case, it is better to step back down by 50 MHz at high voltage points with a margin. After all, there the card is extremely unstable, and if the driver fails, all the points disappear at once.

Cryptocurrency selection

Let's look at popular and profitable cryptocurrencies for dual mining in 2022.

Basic and additional coins

It is recommended to choose one of the following as the main currency for mining:

• Callisto;
• Expanse;
• Ethereum Classic;
• Ethereum.

In addition to them will be:

• Blake2b;
• Lbry;
• Siacoin;
• Zilliqa;
• and others.

Let's look at some in more detail.

RavenCoin

RavenCoin (RVN) is a fork of Bitcoin launched in 2022, the mining of which is only possible using a graphics processor, or GPU.

Users are interested in the cryptocurrency due to its higher transaction speed compared to Bitcoin. For miners - double mining in conjunction with Ethereum, Zilliqa or other currency.

In the ZIL+RVN combination, the latter is the main currency. Double mining of a pair is possible as part of a pool, which increases the participant’s work efficiency. The only pool with Dual Mining support for the bundle is .

Figure 2: K1Pool is one of the key platforms for dual miners in 2022

Siacoin

Simultaneous mining of Ethereum and Siacoin on GPU is still possible and in demand. However, ASIC owners are gradually increasing their influence on the market.

Ethereum and Zilliqa connection

The most popular pair of 2022 is ETH+ZIL. This bundle is also promoted by the K1 pool. Let's pay more attention to it and look at all the subtleties.

What is Zilliqa? The project is known to the community as the first blockchain to introduce sharding technology - organizing a network according to its size. This allows you to solve scaling issues. Limits on the number of transactions per second have been removed, and the hash rate is tied to the number of nodes in the chain. The Zilliqa protocol divides the chain between 600 shards, which allows you to relieve the load while maintaining computing power.

A similar solution is also being considered in Ethereum. Zilliqa is one of the most promising projects of our time, and some see it as a replacement for Ethereum.

What is attractive about ZIL mining? Out of 100 minutes of block processing by the GPU, only 1 is required for Zilliqa's needs. The remaining 99 minutes can be devoted to mining Ethereum or other currency.

Those who decide to mine ZIL in K1Pool are attracted by the service with low commissions - 1%. The minimum payouts for users are 0.01 ETH and 50 ZIL. Additionally, the site offers staking at a rate of 6-10% per annum.

What will you need? For mining you will need a GPU from AMD and NVIDIA, as well as one of the programs:

• GMiner;
• LolMiner;
• T-Rex.

How to mine? Let's look at K1 as an example, although the steps for Nanominer and other pools for dual mining are similar.

First, let's look at Ethereum mining in a pool.

1. Register on K1Pool.com and receive your profile address.
2. Install an ETH wallet - exchange, MEW or one of the recommended ones by Ethhub: https://docs.ethhub.io/using-ethereum/wallets/desktop/
3. Download ready-to-use software from K1: https://bit.ly/k1pool-miners
   

   Important! In the presented package there are several applications to choose from:

   for NVIDIA GPU - T-Rex/GMiner;

4. for AMD GPU ‒ LolMiner/GMiner.
5. After downloading, edit the configuration or .bat file in the package. Antivirus programs may issue a warning when opening files of this format.

When opened, the “batch file” for T-Rex will look like this:

t-rex -a ethash -o stratum+tcp://eu.eth.k1pool.com:3840 -u Kr_WALLET -px –worker RIG_NAME

For GMiner:

miner –algo ethash –server eu.eth.k1pool.com:3840 –user Kr_WALLET –worker RIG_NAME

For LolMiner:

lolMiner –algo ETHASH –pool eu.eth.k1pool.com:3840 –user Kr_WALLET.RIG_NAME

The algorithm for them is the same: instead of Kr_WALLET, we indicate the profile address received during registration. If you wish, you can change RIG_NAME to any name you like.

Now let's set up Zilliqa mining:

1. We install the ZIL wallet - an exchange wallet or one of the officially recommended ones: Zillet, ZilPay, Trust Wallet or another. Enter the generated ZIL address for payments on the K1 website, Wallets page.
2. Join one of the K1 pools, in this case Ethereum RBPPS+, by running the mentioned .bat file. Simultaneous mining of ZIL will be carried out automatically in a separate window.

Important: for double mining, a video card with a capacity of 4 GB or higher is recommended.

Figure 3: Around this point, you might have gotten tired of all these scripts. So just enjoy the picture. Cryptocash cares about its readers.

Where to buy a video card for mining - review of the TOP 3 stores

As I already said, with the growing popularity of mining, video cards have become a scarce commodity. To buy the right device, you will have to spend a lot of time and effort.

Our review of the best online sales points will help you.

1) TopComputer

Moscow hypermarket specializing in computer and household appliances. It has been operating on the market for more than 14 years, supplying goods from all over the world at almost manufacturer prices. There is a prompt delivery service, free for Muscovites.

At the time of writing, there are AMD , Nvidia (8 Gb) cards and other varieties suitable for mining on sale.

2) Mybitcoinshop

A specialized store selling exclusively mining products. Here you will find everything you need to build a home farm - video cards of the required configuration, power supplies, adapters and even ASIC miners (for new generation miners). There is a paid delivery and pickup from a warehouse in Moscow.

The company has repeatedly received the unofficial title of the best store for miners in the Russian Federation. Prompt service, friendly attitude towards customers, advanced equipment are the main components of success.

3) Ship Shop America

Purchase and delivery of goods from the USA. An intermediary company for those who need truly exclusive and cutting-edge mining products.

Direct partner of the leading manufacturer of video cards for gaming and mining - Nvidia . The maximum waiting period for goods is 14 days.

Mining programs. Settings

In addition to pre-configured pool software, the user can use other solutions.

PhoenixMiner

One of the current programs for 2022 is PhoenixMiner. Among its advantages:

• support for AMD and NVIDIA cards;
• support for Windows and Linux systems;
• higher ‒ 3-5% ‒ speed of operation compared to the average application due to code optimization.

How to get started with PhoenixMiner? Example for Windows:

1. Download and unpack the archive from the official website.
2. Enter in the .bat file:PhoenixMiner.exe -pool stratum1+tcp://eu.ezil.me:4444 -proto 2 -wal 0xABC00015802b5f19d2b8230936865d05D237A3C.zil1abc0001zwwv7qnqdk8u0xfway0y6svsypx02j3 -worker 4gbcards -coin etc
   

   Important: the Ethereum address begins with 0x, the Zilliqa address begins after the dot with zil - replace them with yours. Combinations of other cryptocurrencies are also acceptable. The ezil.me pool can also be replaced.

3. Run the file by clicking on it. For those interested in more fine-tuning, the PhoenixMiner team has compiled a selection of commands:
   https://phoenixminer.org/documentation/arguments/

The steps for the Claymore Dual Mining app are identical.

LolMiner

It is also not necessary to download pre-configured versions of LolMiner. You can configure the program yourself - the steps are the same as for Phoenix/Claymore.

For the Shardpool pool, the commands written in .bat look like this:

lolMiner –algo ETHASH –pool eu1-zil.shardpool.io:3333 –user 0xabc0018b788ab54bea1340c10a5422a8ae88142f.workerName –pass [email protected] : [email protected] –enablezilcache –dualmode zil – [email protected] s.com:2020

You need to replace the Ethereum address with your own - it starts with 0x. And Zilliqa - it starts with zil.

Code examples for other pools can be found here:

https://lolminer.ac/en/settings/

Latest releases, forks, discussions - on GitHub:

https://github.com/Lolliedieb/lolMiner-releases/releases

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090

Best GPU for Mining Performance

★★★★★

RUB 287,130

price may vary

VIEW IN YA.MARKET

Hashrate: 121MH/s Video memory: 24GB GDDR6X | TDP: 350W Power Input: 1x 12-pin PCIe (FE only) or 2x 8-pin PCIe

pros

• Excellent performance
• 10496 CUDA cores
• Suitable for games

Minuses

• Expensive
• Consumes a lot of energy

An obvious choice for "best performance", NVIDIA's RTX 3090 truly stands in a class of its own. This is incredible in gaming, pushing the boundaries in 4K (and some even mention 8K if you can believe it) and in crypto mining. While AMD has undoubtedly quelled NVIDIA's claim to the GPU throne with its Radeon RX 6000 cards, several of which are included in this review, the top-tier option still belongs to Team Green.

For gaming, DLSS 2.0 and 2.1 are perhaps some of the impressive features that come standard with this GPU. It uses dedicated Tensor cores to run AI rendering in real time, effectively boosting frame rates as well as outputting frames at a much higher resolution. Since ray tracing can have a negative impact on performance, DLSS is an ideal combination.

The RTX 3090 has excellent mining specs, including a whopping 24GB of GDDR6X VRAM and 10,496 CUDA cores. You can easily earn a decent income every month, and that's after accounting for electricity (depending on your region).

5

Double mining on HiveOS

HiveOS is a Linux-based operating system specifically for miners.

Instructions:

Creating a wallet on HiveOS. For this:

1. In Coin, select ZIL (or another coin of interest).
2. Add addresses in the format YOUR_ETH_ADDRESS.YOUR_ZIL_ADDRESS.
3. We call them DualWallet ETH/ZIL.

Create a new flight sheet (Flight Sheet):

1. In Coin, select ZIL.
2. Select the DualWallet ETH/ZIL wallet.
3. We select the desired one among the pools. For example, ezil.
4. We are looking for a suitable one among miners. For example, LolMiner.

Enter the parameters. For LolMiner this is:

• –worker %WORKER_NAME%;
• –ethstratum ETHPROXY;
• –enablezilcache;
• –dualmode zil;
• –dualstratum YOUR_ETH_WALLET.%WORKER_NAME%@eu-eth.hiveon.net:4444.

HiveON is HiveOS's own pool.

Pools, exchanges, wallets

Crypto is mined in blocks. Each block is awarded CUs, which must be sold to make a profit. It takes a long time to mine a block alone, so you need to look for a pool - a single server where you can direct the power of your computer. Thus, the pool plays the role of a mine, where miners, that is, miners, together search for that same block. Having calculated it, miners receive a share of the reward in accordance with their contribution.

When the amount for withdrawal is reached, the cryptocurrency can be transferred to your wallet. The best way is to create your own wallet using special software from the creator of the cryptocurrency. However, such a local “wallet” often creates difficulties: it can take a long time for the currency to arrive, and if something happens to the computer, you can lose everything. In addition, wallet software is updated frequently.

Enterprising people are already offering to create an online wallet. Often such opportunities are available on the websites of popular exchanges. There is a commission for using such a wallet, but all operations are faster, and trading on the exchange becomes convenient.

There are also risks: you can run into attackers who will close the exchange when there is a lot of money in users’ wallets, and then “flee.” And no one will look for them, because cryptocurrency is outside the legal framework.

For the same reason, withdrawing cryptocurrency can be a problem. Not all coins can be withdrawn to a bank card, just as not all coins, in principle, can be withdrawn anywhere. They either appear on the stock exchanges or disappear from them. Therefore, it is worth mining popular cryptocurrencies so as not to be left with them forever without the ability to withdraw them into fiat.

Profit calculation

In short, the productivity increase when choosing dual mining is 3-5%. In this case, 1-2% will be given as commission to the pools. It is also worth taking into account the likelihood of faster wear of video cards.

You can calculate your profit from mining using Whattomine and Nicehash calculators. The latter is also a market for computing power, however, it does not support dual mining.

Figure 4: Nicehash calculator

Sid Meiers Civilization VI and Dishonored

But Sid Meiers Civilization VI is already a tougher nut to crack, and even with the frame rate fixed at 30 FPS and the graphic settings at an average level, it causes a slight drop in the hashrate already at the beginning of the game.

But such a drop can be neglected, and 30 FPS is quite enough for a turn-based strategy. But let's move on to 3D shooters and try Dishonored . At minimum settings at 1080p, the game runs smoothly, causing a slight drop in hashrate. But this game mode is quite good, considering that your video card simultaneously mines almost to its full capacity.

Coin prospects

When studying how profitable the mining of certain cryptocurrencies is, it is also worth assessing their prospects - the cost of the mined assets directly depends on this. Let's consider the most famous and attractive projects.

Ethereum

The main engine of the decentralized finance industry still runs on Proof-of-Work algorithms, which means it is susceptible to good old-fashioned mining. Current production will be at least until the end of 2022. In the future, the team promises a transition to Proof-of-Stake, which means the end of mining in the usual sense. Fortunately for the miners, Vitalik Buterin’s team has already postponed and rescheduled more than once what was promised, which they have been waiting for even longer than the ever-memorable three years.

Ethereum Classic

Interest in ETC is growing again in 2022. The currency is considered as a PoW alternative to Buterin’s Ethereum. Classic Ethereum is scheduled for an update at the end of July that will improve security while reducing gas fees. And the list of Ethereum Classic investors was supplemented by the Digital Currency Group, which invested $50,000,000 in the coin.

Recent events show that ETC, which has been the victim of a 51% attack several times, has partially repaired the damage to its reputation.

Figure 5: Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Ethereum (ETH) logos

Zilliqa

The decentralized ecosystem is seen as an alternative to ETH. The main advantage of Zilliqa is its high speed - about 1,000 transactions per second - while maintaining the ability to scale the network with an increase in the number of nodes.

Unlike the Bitcoin or Ethereum teams, the Zilliqa developers initially rejected the idea of ​​moving part of the operations outside the blockchain, since this would only delay the need to resolve the issue.

At the current stage, investor support is weak - the project’s capitalization does not exceed $1,000,000,000, and the coin itself is far outside the top 50 in the ranking of the largest.

Siacoin

One of the oldest projects on the market, the idea of ​​Sia was announced in 2013, and the project itself has been operating since 2015.

Among the attractive features: full support for bilateral agreements between users, no commissions for carrying out any transactions on the network, and the ability to mine on hard drives.

Among the disadvantages, there is a high concentration of computing power in one hand.

RavenCoin

The main idea of ​​the Raven team is to create a virtual platform for exchanging various assets: government money, metals, shares and others. The problem is that the implementation of the authors' plans is carried out with great difficulty.

Beam

The project was born after the Bitcoin team refused to accept the MimbleWimble privacy protocol. Beam was launched in 2022 as a more secure version of BTC. However, the platform's audience remains low due to the team's delays in software development.

Is it worth mining in 2021?

First, let’s decide whether it’s worth mining cryptocurrency today, and whether you can count on benefits. In the situation with popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum, it is difficult to count on quick results. This will require investment to purchase powerful hardware and connect to pools. But if you have start-up capital, it’s worth a try.

As for new virtual coins that have not yet gained popularity, they are easy to mine without large investments. This is the path recommended for beginners. Don’t rush to invest a lot of money, because the cryptocurrency market is extremely unstable. The value of these assets is constantly changing and depends on market sentiment. For example, you can invest several thousand dollars in the purchase of equipment for Bitcoin mining, and after a few months its rate will collapse due to a ban in some country.

This is why mining for beginners requires a cautious approach, and financial investments must be deliberate to reduce risks. At first, you can limit yourself to buying a more powerful video card, and only then build GPU farms or even spend money on ASIC miners . But to do this, you need to understand the principle of production and the rules of the market.

Farm photo

Types of dual mining. Triple mining

Enthusiasts are not limited to mining two coins on one GPU. Some go further, mining a third coin on the CPU - this method is called Triple Mining. It is advisable to use this solution if you have one GPU - working with several cards loads the processor, and there will simply be no way to mine crypto on it.

With the spread of Chia and its clones, coin mining on GPU and HDD simultaneously has become more relevant. The advice is the same: it is not recommended to use the CPU simultaneously with Chia mining on hard drives, since the processor is already actively used.

Another alternative is offered by the Dualmine.com service - dual cloud mining, or double cloud mining. According to the developers, dual mining on the cloud is also possible, which they offer clients to check. The offer should be taken with caution: despite a relatively good Trustpilot rating of 3.7 out of 5 (based on 3,700 opinions), recent opinions about the platform are overwhelmingly negative.

Figure 6: Michael, tell me again what is “three-person mining” called?

One day in the life of a miner-enthusiast

In the morning, when I wake up, I don’t go to the toilet or even get coffee. I'm interested in the computer that's humming in the corner. It almost always hums because two video cards are working inside it at once. Both mine, but each is busy with its own cryptocurrency. The maximum load on both cards forces the cooling system to operate at higher speeds (approximately 75-85% of the maximum). I'm already used to it.

So, 2 monitors are connected to the computer. We haven’t gotten around to creating a separate “farm” yet, so mining takes place on a work computer. The browser with the mining pool that I use is always open on the first monitor. There you can look at statistics and check how much time it still takes to cross the threshold for automatic transfer of “cryptocurrency” to withdrawal.

On the second monitor there are two browser tabs with Etherium and Zcash quotes. These are the two cryptocurrencies that I dig. I cannot deny myself regular sleep, so I need to find out as early as possible how the price of a currency has changed over time.

Thus, every day I have approximately 8-12 hours when I can monitor the exchange rate and sell it if something happens. If the situation is controversial before going to bed, then I still sell what I can, because I don’t know what will happen to the price when I wake up next time.

Expanders for connecting video cards. 1 to 4 port splitter.

PCI e adapter for connecting 4 video cards
Advantages and disadvantages of wired risers:

✓ The problem of the lack of several ports on the motherboard for video cards is solved. (Check in advance whether the motherboard supports multiple video cards).

✗ High cost (about 1500)

✗ This is unlikely to be found in stores, only in China (aliexpress.com)