Cryptocurrency mining is all the rage right now, but is it worth the time and effort in 2021? Read on to find out.
Cryptocurrency has been around for a while, with Bitcoin being one of the most well-known examples. Mining cryptocurrency involves solving complex mathematical equations through computer power to verify transactions made between parties without going through an intermediary like a bank or credit card company.
With no central authority overseeing cryptocurrencies, miners maintain consensus about which transactions are considered valid.
The work that goes into mining can be intense – people often use powerful computers designed specifically for cryptocurrency mining – but many believe that this form of transaction verification will eventually become obsolete as more companies begin using blockchain technology.
Is mining cryptocurrency worth it in 2021?
What is mining cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency mining is when transactions are cerified and added to the public ledger, known as the blockchain, and the means through which new coins are released. Anyone with access to the internet and suitable hardware can participate in mining. The mining process involves compiling recent transactions into blocks and trying to solve a computationally
difficult puzzle.
What are the benefits of mining cryptocurrency?
The benefits of mining cryptocurrency are that you will use your computer to maintain the network on which the currency operates. For instance, if users stop mining on a particular blockchain, it may become vulnerable to attack. Your efforts help secure the blockchain, and the more computing power you dedicate, the greater your share in the network’s rewards.
What are the disadvantages of mining cryptocurrency?
Mining is also the mechanism used to introduce Bitcoins into the system: Miners are paid any transaction fees and a “subsidy” of newly created coins. This both serves the purpose of disseminating new coins in a decentralized manner and motivating people to provide security for the system.
The disadvantage is that as more miners join, block creation increases, and the difficulty of finding valid blocks proportionally decreases. This means that mining will always be a profitable venture but also has a decreasing rate of return as each day goes by. that depends on your hardware and expect around $0.06 to $0.10 per kilowatt-hour.
In return, you get somewhere around $20-30 per day, depending on the price of Bitcoin when converted to US Dollars. It also mentions that when mining with a GPU, the break-even point is after approximately 200 days, and if you want to mine with an ASIC, it will take closer to 1000 days.
Is mining cryptocurrency profitable in the long term?
It looks like it may be, but you have to keep in mind that there are more aspects than just the hardware costs. Electricity is usually your primary concern, so you need to check out your electricity price at your location and the pool fee added to the reward. Also, depending on the location, other taxes might apply, so you must keep all this in mind.
Is mining cryptocurrency worth it?
If you are thinking about investing some money into mining hardware, first research what your expected return is going to be like. You can check out calculators like this one which allows you to input details like how much you pay for your electricity and what kind of hardware do you use. According to the provided calculator, mining Bitcoins is not profitable unless
the price is higher than $1,788.
Should you mine cryptocurrencies in 2021 or not?
You will have to do some research, check out the calculators I have mentioned above and decide for yourself if mining is worth it in your case or not. I will continue to mine since I might get lucky and find something big that gives me a good investment return, but only time can tell if this will be the case. Also, I have been considering building a custom ASIC from those cheap Chinese developers that sell on eBay some nice LGA 1151 motherboards for around $50 with 4 PCI slots and then use those parts for the mining and doing other stuff on them.
If you are going to make any serious amount of money into mining hardware or ASIC’s, then I would recommend getting a professional opinion from an accountant and also google your country rules for such stuff. It might be that there are some excellent benefits available if you claim it as a business.
Hardware:
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 OC Windforce Edition
(GV-N1060WF2OC-6GD)
CPU: Intel Celeron G3930 (Dual Core/ 2.9 GHz, LGA 1151)
PSU: Corsair AXi Series, AX760i 80 PLUS PLATINUM 760W
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
What is the best graphic card for mining cryptocurrency?
NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB is currently the best gpu for mining 2021.
One of the most anticipated cards in recent months was certainly GTX 1060 6GB by NVIDIA. It’s finally available on the market, and it’s time to go deep into details: what kind of performances can we expect? And how does it compare with AMD solutions?
We already had a chance to test the first custom models to start with raw performance numbers.
The GTX 1060 6GB is not a gaming powerhouse: it’s an entry-level card, but it offers a significant mining advantage over AMD RX 480/470/460. We are going to investigate this in detail, starting from the following chart. It’s based on our new ETH hash-rate testing procedure, and we already showed results for Radeon RX 400 series:
Here is what you should remember about GTX 1060 6GB mining performance:
- It has GDDR5 memory, so it’s significantly slower than 8GB RX 480 4GB. On the other hand, it’s still faster than Radeon RX 480 with 3/4GB of video memory.
- GTX 1060 6GB is also much cheaper than 8GB RX 480, but its power efficiency is slightly lower (~2 MH/s per watt) for gaming. On the other hand, it’s still better than the RX480 series for mining, despite its lower number of shaders and base/boost cores clocks.
- Power usage depends on the actual card model, but most GTX 1060s allow reaching the power limit more flexibly than RX 480 cards. This will be a significant advantage for overclocking.
- GTX 1060 6GB cards can be modded with a dual-BIOS, so you can try to underfoot and overclock them by recovering original BIOS from the card. It’s simpler than RX 480 trickery, but the safety of this approach depends on the used BIOS version (i.e. not all of them can be undervolted).
- GTX 1060 6GB cards are up to 20% slower than overclocked RX 480 4GB – 8GBs, but they support CUDA and a wider range for memory clock, so it’s possible to get better results by underclocking them with a custom BIOS.
At this point, we want to share some interesting observations. Our channel is filled with posts like “RX 480 can’t reach 11 or 12MHs”. Well, GTX 1060 6GB cards are likely to be the opposite. It’s easy to find tested samples reaching 15-16+ MH/s rate (TDP at around 120W), and it’s possible to tweak them further.
We will investigate this in future reviews, but now we can say that GTX 1060 6GB cards have much overclocking potential.
Conclusion
That’s about it. I have not gone through all available hardware for mining, but this should give you an idea of what is good to work with to start your journey in the exciting world of cryptocurrencies. If there are any questions or corrections, please feel free to leave a comment below so other people can see it as well, and I will try to address it ASAP.
