In mining, cryptocurrency as in any kind of activity there are always experienced and beginners, who just have to understand all the intricacies of cryptocurrency and their mining. Because mining is available for almost all segments of the population with at least a superficial understanding of computers and it does not require any education or training courses, so beginners in mining make quite serious mistakes that lead to tragic consequences, after which new miners give up. We have prepared answers to the 4 most important mistakes that beginners can potentially make and they will be fatal. This list is based on our many years of experience in dealing with people who are interested in cryptocurrencies, but have no idea about the blockchain technology, and the use of computers is limited only to watching Youtube and games. If you are just starting to understand cryptocurrency, then be sure to read the material below.
1 Mining Bitcoin or BTC on your computer
Misconception: With the help of my computer, laptop or smartphone, I will mine bitcoin
ANSWER: Bitcoin mining cryptocurrency is really possible using a personal computer regardless of its capacity, but due to the fact that many people are engaged in mining the most famous cryptocurrency, moreover, on an industrial scale and on specialized devices ASIC (50 thousand times more powerful than a regular computer), therefore Your Bitcoin mining income on your home computer will be too small even to pay for your electricity bill.
TIP: In order to make a profit from mining on a home computer, you need to mine not Bitcoin, but other cryptocurrencies (altcoins), which are intended for mining on video cards or CPUs. The most famous cryptocurrency for mining on video cards is Ethereum. Income from mining on the Ethereum video card compared to Bitcoin will be several thousand times more, which will allow you not only to pay electricity bills, but also receive income from mining. If you only need Bitcoin, then you can always exchange any cryptocurrency for Bitcoin in a cryptoexchange, which will be much more profitable than mining Bitcoin from graphics cards.
2 The more powerful equipment for mining (video card or ASIC), the better
Misconception: I will buy the most powerful equipment and it will bring the most profit
ANSWER: In part, this statement sounds correct, but here it is necessary to separate the two concepts well. The first is the electrical power measured in watts, i.e. the power of the device that it consumes from the electrical network for its work. The second power is the speed at which the mining device calculates the data needed for mining cryptocurrencies. Such power is measured in hashes and can be specified in KH (kiloheshes - a thousand hashes), MH (megaheshes - a million hashes), GH (gigagesh - a billion hashes), TH (teraheshes - a trillion hashes). When choosing a device for mining, you need to turn on these two parameters. Let us take as an example the video card Radeon R9 290X, which even by today's standards has a fairly high performance in mining, but at the same time it also has a high power consumption (power) of 300W. If the price for electricity is 0,1 USD and more, mining will not be profitable, since You will pay for electricity more than this video card will generate income from mining.
TIP: The principle of choice is to select the device with the lowest power in watts and with the highest power in the hashes. Usually newer equipment can offer more hashes with less power consumption in watts. This parameter is called energy efficiency, which you can calculate yourself. To do this, the number of hashes divided by the power in watts. The more energy efficient hash per watt, the better. To find out how powerful a graphics card in mining on our site is, there is special material with the current hashrate of all popular graphics cards for various mining algorithms. At the same time, it is worth paying attention to the cost of equipment, since a great price will not pay him for a reasonable time. If the payback period is more than a year, then it is worth thinking much, and with a payback period of 2 or more years, it is best to completely abandon this venture. To facilitate the selection of equipment for mining, there are special online mining calculators sites that you can use to select a video card or ASIC and find out how much in BTC or dollars such a device will earn, taking into account the price of electricity, hashes and other important parameters. Instructions for working with online mining calculators can be found here.
3 For mining, cryptocurrency only needs to run one program - the miner.
Misconception: Tell me where to download the miner program so that I can get cryptocurrency on my computer.
ANSWER: Download mining software is only the first stage. Even if you have already chosen a cryptocurrency suitable for mining on video cards and downloaded the required miner and know the income from mining, this does not mean that after the launch of the miner you will immediately start earning. Before launching the miner's program, first of all, you need to understand such mining concepts as Solo mining and pool mining. Solo mining is relevant only for owners of a very large number of video cards or ASICs calculated in thousands of pieces, because mining is in search of the so-called "block" and who will be the first to find it and get a cryptocurrency. The more computing power, the more chances to find the block. The Ethereum cryptocurrency already mentioned by us is being extracted simultaneously by 6,500,000 GTX1060 video cards, if you own one such video card, then your chances of finding the first unit will be approximately 1 to 6 million, i.e. in the solo mining mode, your computer can work for several years but without earning anything. The presence of 2, 6 or 50 video cards, as you can guess, does not greatly increase the chances. In order to make the income from mining more stable and predictable, there are special services - pools that combine several thousand miners into one big powerful computer and, when the block is found, distribute the miner’s income while taking a small commission, which is usually 1%.
TIP: Almost every miner’s program comes with a special file that is usually called a “bat file” with a .bat extension, which specifies all the parameters for operation. If you simply start it, your computer will not be mined to you, but by the creators of this miner. To customize the bat-file for yourself, you need to open this file in any text editor and find the name of the pool, which is configured for mining. Find the site of the pool specified in the file on the Internet and register in it. Next, you need to replace the default settings in the file with yours, which are registered in the pool for your account. Running the corrected bat-file will bring you a cryptocurrency income that will accumulate on the pool. To use this cryptocurrency, you will need to withdraw it from the pool to your local or web wallet.
4 Bitcoin can not be stolen
Заблуждение: Биткойн защищен самым надежным шифрованием, поэтому никто не украдет его у меня.
ANSWER: Bitcoin is really reliably protected and no one except you can manage it, but until exactly until the attackers gain access to your computer or your account on the pool, cryptocurrency exchange or web wallet. In addition, the owners of cryptobirth, pools and web wallets themselves can steal your cryptocurrency savings under various pretexts, since physically cryptocurrency stored on their computer, not on yours. Keeping cryptocurrency on your own computer or smartphone is also fraught with many risks due to infection with various viruses and trojans.
TIP: Even if you successfully coped with the cryptocurrency mining and your crypto-saving starts to grow slowly, you should not underestimate the last tip, because due to the slightest negligence, you can lose all cryptocurrency savings accumulated over months or even years of mining. And you can practically do nothing with it, because This area is practically not regulated by law and you will have no reason to charge someone. Therefore, in this matter should rely only on themselves. In short, do not store large amounts in online services (wallets, exchanges, pools). For long-term storage, leave the cryptocurrency only on devices (computer, laptop, smartphone) that only you have access to, and this should be spare devices not intended for permanent use on the Internet. In addition, create a complex password for your crypto wallet and store it separately, which will make access to your cryptocurrency much more difficult even if someone gains access to your storage device in one way or another. And do not forget that any technical device has the ability to break, so make backup copies.
