Cryptocurrencies appear every month and it’s not so easy to understand all this turmoil, and Monero mining even more so has many nuances. Even if you have been mining altcoins for several years and know the necessary hardware, the task will not be easy. Bitcoin is the most popular currency, but for a quick payback, it requires too much investment, which not everyone is capable of.
There is another side to the crypto market – altcoins (other currencies built on blockchain technology). Let's understand the nuances of Monero mining, select the optimal hardware and look at the history of CryptoNight.
Information from history
The developer's goal was to create software capable of performing larger calculations while using resources economically. This would allow ordinary users to mine currency on a par with professionals. The CryptoNight algorithm is much more demanding on RAM, but allows you to use all PC resources.
Monero first became available for mining in 2014, but attention was paid to it only a year ago. At the beginning of 2022, the capacity required to mine Bitcoin increased, and the efficiency of the systems left much to be desired. Many miners began to look for a solution. Ordinary users who are unable to spend thousands of dollars on farms have also joined them.
Unlike Bitcoin, which relies on the power of video cards, Monero uses the processor equally, which increases mining efficiency. Currently, 1 block is generated every 2 minutes, compared to a Bitcoin block generated every 10 minutes. Does this mean that you will have to build a separate system for the altcoin? Not at all, we will explain why below.
Mining difficulty on the Monero network
After the launch of the Monero project in 2016, as the number of miners expanded, the complexity of the network gradually increased. At the end of 2017, rapid growth began, associated with a rise in the price of the coin and an increase in those wishing to mine this cryptocurrency. The network complexity correction mechanism works as follows:
- the system is configured to generate blocks once every 2 minutes;
- connecting new mining capacities leads to faster calculations, and a block is generated in less time;
- the network complexity increases, and the calculation interval returns to the specified 2 minutes;
- When the time it takes to find a new block increases, the opposite situation occurs.
The increase in difficulty continued until the beginning of April 2022 and reached a maximum level of 129.5 GH/s. At this time, the project developers made changes to the mining protocol to combat ASIC devices. The motivation for this decision was the desire to make the Monero network more decentralized
Figure 1. Network complexity graph
The protocol update made it unprofitable to work using ASIC devices, and the network complexity dropped from 129 GH/s to 32 GH/s and in a short period was corrected at the level of 50-60 GH/s.
Current Monero rate chart
The main question that concerns everyone who wants to start mining Monero is how fast is the Monero to ruble (XMR/RUB) and Monero to dollar (XMR/USD) rate growing? After all, growth dynamics directly show whether an asset is a successful investment. At the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2022, the altcoin had only positive trends.
In January 2022, a downward movement was noticed, but this can be attributed to the general situation in the cryptocurrency market. For those interested in investing in digital coins, it is worth considering that this is a volatile market.
How to Use Hardware to Mine Longer and More
As in any business, all good things should be in moderation. If you think that the power is not enough, then the equipment can be overclocked. If in this case you still do not have enough crypt, then you need to buy additional video cards.
In terms of wear and tear, the equipment that mines Monero is superior to its Bitcoin competitors, which is why part of the mining power goes to the processor.
The golden rule of all miners is: do not allow the farm to overheat (above 60-62 degrees). To do this, you can improve the cooling system or occasionally give the farm a rest (the first option, of course, is preferable). It is also worth updating the thermal paste periodically.
Author of the article, financial expert
Dmitry Tachkov
Hello, I am the author of this article. I have a higher education. Qualified investor. Finance and credit specialist. Worked in commercial banks of the Russian Federation for more than 3 years. I have been writing about finance for more than 5 years. Please rate my article, this will help improve it.
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Wallet
Monero Wallet and the “demon” are one file, and you can download it from the official website getmonero.org. The Monero online wallet has a non-standard design and interface, but you can quickly adapt to it, and navigation will not be a problem.
To create a wallet, after downloading the file, you need to open the bitmonerod file and synchronize the block chain, and to speed up the process you should connect blockchain.bin. After downloading the file, copy it to a directory. The wallet address in the system is specified during installation, but by default it looks like %AppData%/bitmonero.
How to calculate mining profitability: tips for beginners
It makes no sense to start mining with zero knowledge in the field of cryptocurrency mining. If a future participant in this specific market has a minimum initial qualification, he will have to do the following:
Step one. Delve into the theory of the process and understand its economic meaning. As in any other type of business, those who have the opportunity to invest large amounts of money have the advantage. Factors influencing the profitability of investing in cryptocurrency mining:
- electricity tariffs;
- the capabilities of the computer, in particular its video card;
- availability of special equipment;
- available system settings for an effective algorithm;
- the right pool.
It is currently not advisable to start mining in solo mode. Creating your own productive farm requires huge investments.
Step two. It is necessary to select the type of cryptocurrency, that is, the specific coin to be mined. Options: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, NEM, IOTA, Monero and a few more items. The criterion is the dynamics of changes in complexity and, of course, price. It should be remembered that the newer the currency, the easier it is to mine, and the less power is usually needed for this. The complexity of the work increases over time, and it is good if the choice is made before it reaches a critical level.
Step three . Creating a wallet. It can be desktop, mobile or online. The choice of wallet type is most often determined by the terms of the service on which mining is performed.
Step four. Determining the optimal pool. If you don’t have enough money to create your own farm, then the easiest way is to join the community of miners. The share of income depends on the contribution expressed by the productivity of the equipment. The determining factors are the following:
- commissions charged for a new block and withdrawal of funds;
- pool service capabilities (process control and obtaining additional information);
- multi- or single-currency;
- simplicity of organizational issues of entry;
- clarity of instructions.
It is not always possible to determine the best pool the first time, so you have to use trial and error.
Step five. Purchasing a miner. This word refers not only to the person who mines cryptocurrency, but also to the software tool. There are several of them (Antmainer, Cgminer, Cudaminer, etc.), and each of them has a functional specialization.
Step six. Software setup. After downloading and installing the mining program, it requires adjustment. The procedure is simple - you need to follow the instructions.
That's it, you can mine.
Profitability calculator
To make it easier to calculate your profits, you can use a mining calculator, for example, https://whattomine.com/coins/101-xmr-cryptonight. He will calculate the profitability of XMR mining on your system, taking into account all PC parameters.
This requires a “idle” launch of the miner to see how fast the problems are solved. The more powerful your system, the more coins you will receive. For greater efficiency, you should build a PC taking into account the features of the Monero algorithm.
Relevance of the calculator
As already mentioned, every novice miner is interested in his costs and further profits. Many even draw up something like a business plan. Therefore, the point of calculating the profitability of the farm will be mandatory.
It is quite difficult to work with all the numbers manually, since in this case you will need to use several formulas. Moreover, a person may make a mistake and, without checking the calculation, think that it will be incredibly profitable or unprofitable, respectively.
That’s why mining calculators help novice miners and even professionals more than ever. Instead of lengthy additions and multiplications, you can simply indicate the characteristics of your farm and find out the approximate result in a couple of seconds.
How to mine Monero
To make Monero mining as efficient as possible, do not forget that systems with ASIC are absolutely not suitable for this altcoin. But at the same time, it provides more opportunities for customization and distribution of system power.
You can farm Monero solo on both a GPU and a CPU. The second option is suitable if you need to save energy. To speed up mining, it is better to mine in combined mode. Iron must be selected taking this nuance into account. The best video cards by megahashes per unit cost are:
- Radeon HD6870;
- GTX 750;
- GTX 1050.
Due to the variety of price segments of the cards presented above, you just have to choose the one that suits your budget. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Monero does not have preferences in video cards and both AMD and Nvidia are equally suitable for it. But the distinctive feature of the algorithm is mining on the central processor.
Therefore, unlike standard crypto mining systems, here you will have to take care of a good core for the motherboard.
8-core processors are still useless, since the algorithms do not know how to split the operation into such a number of threads, but 4-core i5 and i7 series processors will be the optimal choice.
Just like with video cards, there is no definite correlation in the performance of one of the brands. If you want to save money, go to the secondary market and buy video cards there.
There is a small trick - it is better to look for used components for gamers, not for miners, by checking the warranty card. After all, only advanced players begin to overclock their hardware, which can lead to serious consequences in the long term. The majority of miners are not at all averse to this approach. Overclocked cards will not be accepted at the service center, and you risk stumbling upon an already “baked” video card.
A good budget solution among processors would be:
- AMD RX 470/480;
- AMD HD 7990/7950.
It’s not worth taking Ryzen for mining, because it still won’t reveal its professional potential and will once again increase the payback period of the asset.
How to start mining Monero?
Exmo.me.
You need to start mining Monero with the following steps:
- Register a wallet.
- Synchronize it.
- Connect a video card or processor.
- It is better to choose a pool and mine Monero cryptocurrency collectively, rather than solo.
Now let's learn more about registering a wallet.
The Exmo hot wallet is convenient for mining; you can register it here exmo.me. On Exmo you can exchange XMR for other cryptocurrencies or withdraw it to fiat. For long-term accumulation, it is better to use a cold wallet, for example, withdraw XMR to the Standard Monero GUI.
When registering on Exmo you need to enter the following data:
- login;
- password;
- email;
- captcha
After registration, the following interface will appear.
Interface.
Then you need to find out your Monero Address and transfer a certain amount of XMR.
Appearance.
Verification of the transaction will take some time, just like in any POS mining.
Verification.
The address must be copied, and the Monero mining wallet must be left open.
XMR Technical Parameters
To briefly summarize the characteristics of Monero, we get the following:
- The altcoin was released in April 2014.
- Monero is based on the CryptoNight algorithm, which uses a different approach to system resources.
- The possible maximum production is 19 million coins.
- The block reward is floating, which is worth considering when using the profitability calculator.
- At the moment, the estimated block time is 2 minutes.
- High standard of data protection and anonymity respectively.
Let's take a closer look and first consider the base of the coin in detail.
Algorithm
Everything you need to know from the history of the CryptoNight algorithm for the Monero cryptocurrency to start trickling into your wallet - it uses a different hashing method. Initially, the Monero algorithm was a fork of CryptoNote, unlike Scrypt, which allows for calculations with greater efficiency. The power remains the same, and fewer resources are required to solve problems. Perhaps this is due to direct dependence, because the following blocks are not generated randomly, but are associated with early calculations.
This system allows the use of up to two megabytes of RAM. The downside is that it is impossible to use ASIC, so those who are professionally involved in Bitcoin mining will not be able to switch to Monero in a second.
Complexity
The parameter shows the conditional coefficient of difficulty of finding a cache, which is lower than the target proposed by the system. It is calculated as the ratio of pool difficulty to target. At the moment, the difficulty of Monero is 104.451 G and is growing by 7.82% daily (this is the average for the last week).
The exception is noise, when the value may drop for 1–2 days and then regain positive growth dynamics. The complexity determines how many resources of your system will need to be spent on mining one token, and this parameter changes once every 2 thousand mined blocks.
Features of using RAM
The main difficulties of mining Monero are the recalculation of each block. Accordingly, as the difficulty increases, the mining speed also increases. The main idea of the algorithm is to allocate a block of data in RAM, using binary sorting to eliminate duplicate elements. The larger the block that we managed to allocate, the more convenient it is to store the data without calculating it again and again. Accordingly, the amount of RAM also affects the mining speed.
The developers also took care to prevent internal parallelism, which means that a 2-core processor will require 2 times more memory, a 4-core processor will require 4 times, and so on. In accordance with this, select components for the system.
Transactions and block reward
Combined mining uses the central and video processor in a ratio of 1 to 1, and accordingly, it is extremely demanding on memory. This allows AES encryption to be used, which increases system security. The block reward is calculated with inflation of less than 1 percent, which allows you to maintain interest in the coin. Thanks to the use of a recursive relation, by the end of 2022 more than 86 percent of all currency will be mined, accordingly, the chance of finding a block will decrease by 2 times by this fall.
When a transaction is made, it is instantly displayed on the network and after 1 second, the wallet on the other side of the planet recognizes the payment (you must enter the show_transfers pool command). But until the operation is confirmed, do not rely on this announcement. After all, senders can make “double payments.”
To confirm that the funds have been credited to the account, it is necessary for all nodes in the blockchain to reach an agreement among themselves. This will require at least 2 minutes while a new block is mined. After which, all information about the transfer is entered into the block, which requires another 2 minutes. On average, 10 transaction confirmations require 26–27 minutes. After which the funds will be unlocked and available for subsequent transactions.
Network commission
The Monero commission is dynamic, so it can change under the influence of several factors. To determine the average value, it is enough to look at the data of the last 100 transactions. As of February 2022, the average is 2.86 USD per transaction.
For more convenient calculations, use the calculator. You can reduce the commission by lowering the priority of the application. Such a transfer will take longer to process, but you will pay only 1/4 of the standard transaction cost.
Calculating profitability
The Monero cryptocurrency (XMR) is one of the 5 largest cryptocurrencies by capitalization and is of interest to investors.
Page bitmakler.com/Monero___mining.
Here are good Monero mining calculators and a hard drive mining calculator:
- bitmakler.com/Monero___mining;
- in-trend.biz/mayning/monero/.
The following parameters are used in the calculations:
- Electricity costs.
- Type and cost of equipment.
- Hashrate, computing power.
- Monero to dollar exchange rate.
- The block reward is a variable parameter.
- Mining difficulty.
In this video you can find out the profitability of mining Monero on a video card; different models are compared.
On average, the profit from mining Monero is from 200 USD on a farm of 6 top video cards.
Much depends on proper setup, so you need to carefully read the step-by-step guides and be sure to watch videos in which miners not only talk, but also show what exactly they are doing. Video reviews are more informative than text, and information from them is better remembered by beginners.
Solo mining Monero
The algorithm involves mining Monero in two ways:
- Solo mining. When only a central processor or video card is used. This saves system resources, energy, and allows the remaining power to be distributed to other tasks. It is very convenient if mining on your PC is not the only task of the hardware. Suitable for beginner.
- Combined mining. Allows you to use the resources of the central and graphics processor, working in multiple threads. The best miner will use this option as it gives the greatest performance boost. But you also need to assemble a computer for it accordingly. As already mentioned, the amount of RAM consumed by the miner directly depends on the number of threads.
On CPU
Mining Monero on a processor is a good solution for those who want to save on electricity. Using Cpu Miner, you will not achieve enormous performance, the hashrate will not be sky-high, but it will be enough to distribute resources over several operations. Mining currency in this way will require the use of a special miner for the processor, for example:
- Wolf's CPUMiner is a popular choice.
- Yam Miner is also allowed to be used, but has a couple of disadvantages.
For efficient CPU mining, Windows is the last option. OS packages based on Linux are a good choice, because they allow you to specify precise hardware settings, increasing the optimization and efficiency of the system.
On video cards
This type of XMR mining has a higher hashrate, but energy consumption also increases significantly. Depending on which graphics card was selected for Monero, you can go to Claymore CPU miner (suitable for AMD) or CUDA-miner (for nVidia).
On both systems, the setup is standard, but the performance table shows that it makes no difference which brand of video cards you choose if the cards' performance is comparable to each other. A detailed comparison reveals nothing but slight noise, but in the long term, AMD and nVidia have the same performance.
For example, configuration on nVidia occurs in the start.bat file. After downloading the appropriate application, open the document and enter the address of the pool you selected using “-o”. After which you need to indicate where the funds will be sent to you, to do this we write “-u” and after the command - the wallet address. When adding a worker, you should also enter the email as follows: “address.worker/email”.
Cloud mining Monero
Tariffs genesis-mining.ru.
With cloud mining, computing power is rented, and this saves the miner from purchasing expensive equipment and maintaining the farm. In addition, the mining center can guarantee a certain hashrate, organize round-the-clock uninterrupted power supply and Internet, and maintenance.
The 3 best and most time-tested services for cloud mining of Monero are given in the table.
| Domain | The most inexpensive tariff plan | Year of foundation | Peculiarities |
| genesis-mining.ru | 28 USD | 2013 | The only negative is that there are periods when tariff plans are not available. |
| eobot.com/cloud | From 30% commission | 2013 | There are bonuses when registering. |
| ru.minergate.com | 1-1,5% | 2014 | Hashrate from 39.5 MH/s |
Cloud mining of Monero is inferior in terms of profitability to cryptocurrency mining on video cards, but this is an excellent option for those who do not have start-up capital.
Monero mining pools
The main question for beginners is: “Which mining pool should I choose for a lower system commission and higher earnings?” The first thing to understand is that no one will evaluate or choose Monero mining pools for you. No matter how many positive or negative reviews there are about them, you should test the waters yourself. We recommend mining Monero on two main platforms:
- Monero.miners.pro – with a commission of one and a half percent, the pool was originally created for the CIS and it will be more convenient for you to start there.
- Xmr.prohash.net with a two percent commission, the pool produces good power of 25 kh/s, but without a good system there is no point in going there.
Each miner decides where to mine cryptocurrency for himself, but the main advantage of the coin is the ability to distribute the load and is also displayed on the pools. Average video cards are suitable for currency, and not all pools are suitable for these video cards. Somewhere you simply cannot use resources rationally.
Depending on the pool, the network commission may increase, and you will have less and less money in your wallet. Thus, one of the most powerful pools xmr.nanopool.org will require 2 percent, with a minimum payout of 1 xmr. There is also a more arrogant Dwarfpool, which charges at 3 percent with a customizable minimum and average power. Accordingly, depending on your needs, it is better to select a pool individually.
At the same time, take into account the power of the assembled system, because some pools have restrictions and with a video card that is too weak, you may simply not be allowed.
How is the power of mining equipment measured?
Let’s introduce a new concept – “hashrate”. Hashrate is a value that shows the speed of solving a mathematical problem. It’s easy to guess that the efficiency of mining equipment is measured by the “hash per second” parameter.
Rice.
3 – hashrate measurement units In fact, the hashrate of any video card consists of such parameters as:
- Video memory volume . The most important indicator of video card power. This is the value you need to start from if you want to have powerful equipment and a solid profit.
- Cooling . The second most important quantity. The better the cooling system works, the less wear on the entire system will be and the more stable its operation will be.
- Memory speed . The higher the indicator, the faster the video adapter processes information.
- Bus width . The video card memory bus is a channel connecting the video card's GPU and memory. The bus width determines how much data the video card processes per unit of time. For mining to be efficient, the editors recommend purchasing video cards with 256-bit buses. There are also 128-bit ones, but they are so inefficient that their payback is in question.
- Overclocking capability . Any video card can be overclocked. Thereby increasing its productivity by 40-50%. Not a bad indicator considering zero costs.
Withdrawal from wallet
Having received coins on Monero wallet's, it is best to first exchange them for bitcoins and then sell BTC for dollars or rubles. Exchanges where the BTC rate is usually higher are suitable for these purposes:
- Exmo;
- CEX.IO.
The LocalBitcoin platform is also a good option, allowing you to later withdraw funds directly to a card or e-wallet. With such a chain, losses on commissions will be minimal, and your head will not boil from the number of actions.
Mining calculators - necessary calculations
You all know about cryptocurrency mining as a profitable investment without any special risks. Most of you have probably tried to do it, which means you know what kind of work it is. What is very important is that even a beginner understands what financial investments need to be made.
The profitability of mining directly depends on the performance of the equipment. The higher it is, the more expensive the device will be. Moreover, it is recommended to buy several machines at once, because this way you can assemble a farm that is many times more efficient than a single miner. Thus, the cost of purchases must be deducted from the reward for operating the system.
In addition, any farm works very intensively, and therefore consumes a lot of electricity. It's good if you connect the system to solar panels. But today this is not always available, because the vast majority use sockets that are familiar to everyone. Accordingly, bills need to be paid. And servicing the same batteries will also cost a pretty penny.
Where to buy and sell Monero
Buying and selling Monero occurs through standard exchanges. If you do not want to use Changelly, any services that support the exchange of Monero for bitcoins and vice versa will do. We wrote about how to buy bitcoins cheaply in our article.
If you already have BTC, then we recommend using the following most convenient exchanges to purchase XMR:
- Binance;
- Huobi;
- HitBTC.
Choose any service you like and make exchanges there. Please pay attention to the final Monero transfer fee.
How to use online calculators
You can find a large number of different Monero mining calculator online. They all work on the same principle: the user enters the necessary information about his equipment into the empty fields, the system can pull up individual data from the Internet (for example, about the level of network complexity). As a result, the site provides information about how much the miner will earn per day, week, month or year. These calculations are, of course, approximate, since there are a number of other factors that influence the final result: pool selection, correct mining program settings, hardware overclocking.
Some calculators require the miner to enter a large number of different data. Experts suggest first running production programs dry to get a bearing on these indicators. You also need to pay attention to the fact that equipment from different manufacturers produces different results when mining coins.
Let's make the calculation using the Coinwarz.com mining profitability calculator. In the empty columns you need to indicate the following data:
Hash Rate (equipment hashrate in H/s);- Power (equipment power in Watts);
- Power Cost (cost of 1 kilowatt of electricity in USD);
- Pool Fees (pool commission if mining is carried out as part of a community);
- Hardware Costs (costs of purchasing equipment in dollars, if necessary).
The program independently pulls the following data from the Internet:
- Difficulty (difficulty level of extraction);
- Block Reward (reward for the mined block);
- current XMR/BTC rate;
- Bitcoin quote relative to the US dollar (BTC/USD Value).
If the resource does not provide information about current rates, or you want to recalculate potential profits not in bitcoins or dollars, but in another currency, then you can use an online cryptocurrency calculator.
