What is up ladies and gents.
Hope your all doing good out there. I know the world has been real rough on the vast majority of us lately but hopefully you’re all finding ways to make it through in one piece.
So, today I’ve decided to bring you guys some info and such on some products that some of you may be interested in – cryptocurrency miners.
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I’m sure by now the vast majority of people have heard of cryptocurrencies – likely Bitcoin at the very least – but for those of you that haven’t here’s a quick definition (I’m sure I’m going to butcher this a bit, as I am not a huge computer science or tech guy but here goes).
Basically cryptocurrencies are tokens/rewards/”coins” that are given out to people that take part in a program. These are computer programs that you would run, and as your computer does so, you are sharing your power/answers with the program and various other users to essentially find the end result.
The best way I’ve heard this described is that your computer is constantly trying to solve a math equation. The program knows the answer, and your computer runs the program constantly trying to figure out what X equals. For example, 1 + X = 27. As you do this you are sharing your answers and each one brings you, and everyone else involved in the program closer to finding X. The more answers you provide, the bigger your reward will be once the answer is found. This reward is the token/coin or smaller pieces of the coin, sometimes referred to as “crypto dust”, which is basically pennies. Much like it takes pennies to make a full dollar, all of these cryptocurrencies are also made up of much smaller pieces.
Anyways, enough about that, I’m here to recommend you towards some various mining tools (software programs) that you can use to mine for yourself, should you choose to do so. I have to preface this with a word of warning though, mining is energy intensive, especially for the big coins. This means that in doing so, you will be putting your computer through a lot of stress, and it is possible that doing so (especially improperly) could destroy your computer in the process, so PLEASE, do this after you’ve done some more research, and at your own risk. I have personally destroyed one of my computers a couple of times and had to rebuild it by doing just this. This process of mining is also pretty heavy on power usage, so, again, if you’re not prepared to pay the electricity cost, then don’t get into this.
Now, why bother mining you ask? Well, lets put it this way – in my opinion anyways, this is like investing in something for the future. As of writing this, Bitcoin (BTC) itself sits around $62,000 CAD. At one point, many years ago 1 BTC was literally worth nothing – so you could consider this an investment. I personally have mined some BTC, and over the last few years it’s gone from being worth like $5 to now being worth about $250, and as time goes on I only expect these prices to rise, especially during our current pandemic state, where cyptocurrencies have started to really shine since most people are currently unable to work, and still need ways to buy things.
Alright, so now with that out of the way, here are my recommendations for mining programs.
#1 – Awesome Miner
Awesome Miner is not the prettiest, or even the easiest mining software to use, as they offer control over a TON of different options within the app. You can download the main software, and then once inside the program, you can download the various other software you would need for the different coins or tokens. What I do really like about Awesome Miner is the fact you can benchmark and check out your computers stats before ever starting to mine. This is great because you can see right away whether your computer is even able to undertake the tasks, and it also gives you a sense of how hard mining will be on your computer.
Awesome Miner takes a little bit more understanding to set up and get going, such as picking the correct miner, linking miner(s) to the correct pool locations and wallets but I like the fact you can customize these settings, and that the program also shows you how much energy you miner is using, how hot your computer is running, and how much profit you stand to make after a day/month. Ultimately Awesome Miner would be my favourite miner right now since it gives you so much information and options for control.
#2 – Minergate
Minergate has been around for awhile and I have used it for a few years to get a bunch of different coins – Bitcoin Gold, Bytecoin, Monero, Etheruem, Ethereum Classic and a few others. I’m using it now, even as I type this, going after Monero at the moment.
Minergate has been accused of not being the best miner, and they likely aren’t but honestly, I like that the User Interface is so clean and friendly. It’s straight forward, you just pick what coin you want to mine, decided how many of the available threads you wish to use (I’d recommend not using all of them so as not to burn out your comp), and then click start – that’s basically it. They also allow you to use their pools in other miners. You’ll obviously need to create a user name a password, and you can use their website to check in on how your mining is going, as well as cashing out once you have reached a minimum confirmed threshold.
Overall, it may not be the best miner, but it is straight forward and I can confirm they do pay out, and their customer service has also been good to me when I had any issues.
#3 – NiceHash
NiceHash is another graphically appealing miner. They certainly understand their own branding and once you sign up, download the software and set up your workers and wallet address, it’s a simple 1 click and you’re off to the races.
NiceHash is straight forward and easy to use and I can confirm that they do pay out. I haven’t used their miner in awhile now but I do still like and will endorse their product. Another advantage to NiceHash is they offer loads of information on their website, the offer different types of mining software for different products, many different kinds of wallets and you can mine more than 1 type of cryptocurrency with them as well.
And last but not least….
#4 EasyMiner
EasyMiner is not the prettiest looking program – in all honesty, it looks like something from the last 80’s or early 90’s lol, but hey, it doesn’t need to be pretty because it does it’s job.
I have used EasyMiner in the past to go after Litecoin (LTC) but the program can also be used to go after Bitcoin as well.
EasyMiner comes with a few different modes, such as Classic Mode, which allows you to point the program at a different pool, or you can use MoneyMaker mode to mine using their own pool, and everything is basically already set up for you.
I like EasyMiner because again, it works. At this point it’s going to take you a long time to get to the payout threshold for either BTC or LTC, unless you have a beast of a computer or a rig specifically made to mine, but again, EasyMiner is pretty simple to operate and it does what it is supposed to, so it could be worth your while.
And that’s about all I have for you today on this topic folks, but I will be back later with another couple of posts to talk about Mining Pools, Crypto Faucets, and Crypto Wallets.
Also, as a quick note – Most antivirus programs will try to block mining programs as they interpret them as viruses, so to successfully run a miner, you may either have to create an exception in your antivirus program, or just completely turn it off while you mine.
Again, hope you’re all doing great out their folks.
Take care,
The JAC
Title image from: Pixabay
