Written by Thuto William
Foreword from the author.
Memories of the future.
The title of this foreword is very poetic and powerful. It can only be understood by the 21st Century citizen who has witnessed the greatest technological leap in human history. They have watched their fellow neighbours run from house to house to deliver breaking news to doing so with a click of a button to a tap on a screen. They have gone from glazing at birds during the early hours of the morning to waking up to a world filled with drones that deliver tea and biscuits to their kitchen door. So when I say memories of the future one can only imagine the fantastic technologies our descendants will wake up to in the distant future.
Cryptocurrency is without a doubt one of those fantastic technologies which will be at the forefront of everyday life in that distant future. It’s hard to imagine a world without paper currency or financial institutions like banks and loan providers but believe me you…that’s where technology is headed.
This guide is full of terms and very sophisticated words(JARGON) which paint a picture of the present state in computing technology that may sound futuristic and give you memories of the future when in reality its memories of the technology you hold on your hands.
Rest assured this guide will not put you to sleep, I myself don’t like reading cleverly written literature so don’t expect me to torture you in any way. I urge you to read this guide with an open mind with being prey to the illusion of not being smart enough to mine crypto currencies. You can do this!
Table of Contents
1.Does GPU Memory Matter?
2.Best Beginner Mining GPU cards
3.Mining Terminal Explained
1.Does GPU Memory Matter?Most crypto miners will agree with me and say that GPU cards are the most cost effective devices to mine cryptocurrencies with. The sole reason for this is because GPU cards are cheaper compared to ASIC miners which cost tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars to operate and maintain and they consume a huge amount of electricity. GPU cards are cheaper to buy depending on their VRAM and the model of the cards.VRAM:This acronym stands for Video Random Access Memory and it’s the most important feature all crypto miners consider before purchasing a GPU card. The most sort after VRAM size is 8GB with at least 1600 MHz processing capacity. I must point out that 8 GB is not the peak of GPU VRAM, as of today 32 GB VRAM cards do exist but they are not worth buying for crypto mining because they are not efficient, but they obviously mine a lot of cryptocurrency.Okay that’s confusing so let me explain:Efficiency is a physics term which gives you a good assessment of whether or not a particular task is worth it or not.in GPU mining you have to consider the electrical cost /Crypto Output. In other words, you have to make a profit not a loss which a 32 VRAM GPU will result in, a huge loss!Ravencoin Mining Efficiency example:
32 VRAM GPU card (Rtx 3090 ti) Electricity cost=(0.50-Kwh) using KAWPOWOne-day profit=20 RVN=$1.50 One-day electrical Cost=$3.00Profit & Loss= -$1.50 (LOSS) The example above shows how much Ravencoin a GTX 3090 ti with 32 GB VRAM will yield in one day, you can see that this VRAM is not efficient because it results in a daily loss of $1.50 which is unacceptable.
Many miners who mine cryptocurrencies under a speculative approach will ignore this loss because they are betting on RAVENCOIN rising in value in the near future. The only problem with speculative mining is that most miners that apply that approach are gambling and fascinated by the possibility of a future filled with riches. It’s not as bad as it sounds because many speculative miners have become super rich because of this approach but it’s still risky and expensive. Such a GPU costs around $10 000 to purchase and it was primarily made for gamers who don’t mind paying a huge electricity bill.So what VRAM should you consider?I myself preach to the little guy who wants to give crypto mining a try without blowing their bank account.
So with that in mind I would recommend purchasing a 4GB VRAM GPU card preferably an upper GeForce class like GTx 550 ti or GT 730.These cards are in stock and over supply which makes them affordable to purchase. A reasonable budget for these models will be around $200-300, this also includes riser cards, PCIE adapters. These GPU cards are ideal for speculative miners because they mine good amount of crypto currency that might be worth a fortune in the near or distant future. So let’s dive deep into the capabilities of these cards and calculate their daily yield in the next topic.
2.BEST BEGINNER MINING GPUSGT 730:The Gt 730 is a low end graphic card and one of the last cards on the GEFORCE GT class. It is not supported by most mining software because of its age and obsolete drivers but they are still mining softwares that are community developed like Ethereum Miner Community miner that support most cards dating back to the early GEFORCE GT cards like the 210 and 610 so don’t panic, as long as your card has at least 4GB VRAM you are sorted. Before we start calculating the potential yield of a mining card you must be aware that every cryptocurrency has its own unique algorithm that mines it.
An algorithm is a mining code written in parallel to the block chain code of that cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency Algorithms
Bitcoin-SHA 256
Monero-RANDOM-X
Ethereum-ETHASH
Bitcoin GoldEQUIHASH
The list above shows cryptocurrencies and their mining algorithms. This means that one cannot mine any cryptocurrency with any random algorithm because it will shut down the software and cause complications with the system. The original mining algorithm is the SHA 256 which mines bitcoin and a few other cryptocurrencies but it cannot mine Ethereum or Bitcoin Gold.
The most preferred Cryptocurrency to mine with low end cards is BTG (Bitcoin Gold) which is mined with the Equihash algorithm. First and foremost, Bitcoin Gold is a valuable cryptocurrency which is in the top 50 most traded crypto currencies and has had a rapid rise in the last 5 years.
Then you must also consider the number of miners currently mining BTG, in this case it’s a small number but that’s good because fewer miners result in a large share of the pie(BLOCK).So let’s calculate a plausible yield from the GT730 4 GB VRAM.HASHRATE:2mh/sRavencoin(RVN) using KAWPOW
4 GB VRAM GPU card (GT 730) Electricity cost=(0.50-Kwh) using KAWPOWOne-day profit=0.3 RVN=$0.45 One-day electrical Cost=$0.50Profit & Loss= -$0.05 (LOSS).
You can see that the GT 730 mines at a daily loss of $0.05 but please keep in mind the speculative nature of mining cryptocurrencies like raven coin which multiplies in value 3 times in the course of a year. In other words, that loss is irrelevant to a speculative miner because the future value and profit of that coin is what matters the most.
You might as well exaggerate that profit to any amount possible because crypto-currencies are very volatile so any profit you can think of may be your mining reward in the future.One more thing to consider is free electricity because if you have free and unlimited power supply then the world is your oyster. The value of your yield will be your profit and the only area of concern will be your ROI (Return of Investment).
This will be calculated using two variables: Cost of equipment and total crypto yield and this determines if whether or not your mining operation has accumulated enough profit to cover the cost of your equipment since electricity is no longer a factor. Refer to the equation below.ROI= (Crypto yield + electricity cost) (Cost of equipment)
3.MINING TERMINAL EXPLAINED!
To most people the image above may look like something out of a Sci-Fi movie but it’s just a summary of a crypto mining activity displayed on a CMD interface known as a terminal. The terminal is the oldest interface in computing as it goes back to the first personal computers like the Apple 1 or older Altair mobile computers so it might shock most of you to find out that the terminal is a crypto miner’s first choice when it comes to mining software and display.
So why is that?Well the answer is simple and straight forward: Computer memory! When you mine cryptocurrencies you want to utilize as much processing power as possible so if you mine with software you will definitely decrease the processing power needed by your mining devices because some of that will be directed towards running the software and you don’t get paid for that. So your first choice should always be mining with a command interface like a terminal because it consumes less processing power.Here’s what the Mining Terminal Indicates:
ALGORITHM USED BY A CPU OR GPU1.
The first line on the terminal is straight forward, it clearly indicates the algorithm used by a CPU or GPU. On this terminal randomx is solving the computations for MONERO(XMR).
SUCCESSFUL CONNECTION2.The 14th line indicates a successful connection to the mining pool which a miner has taken part in, on this terminal the miner is logged into the minexmr.com:4444 mining pool.
DIFFICULTY OF THE NETWORK3.The 15th line indicates the difficulty of the network at that given time because it varies depending on the mining load, price of Coin. The higher the difficulty the harder it is to mine a crypto block and earn.
JOB RECEIVED4.Job received means your CPU/GPU has received code which it has to solve in order to mine a block. once that code has been solved by your device it is deemed successful and you get a share of that block.
HASH RATE5.That is the hash rate of you CPU/GPU at a given period because the hash rate can fluctuate depending on the temperature of your device and the algorithm being used.
And we are done!