In my last post we discussed turning our day trading desktops into cryptocurrency mining machines.
Today I want to discuss something that is probably on everyone’s mind. Is it worth it? Is mining still profitable?
I will admit we have seen some serious pull back over the last couple of days, but does that mean we should dump mining altogether? Lets find out!
Whether you are considering ramping it up and building a dedicated mining rig, or you just want to make sure you’re not upside-down with electricity costs, it’s vital keep a finger on the pulse of your estimated profits.
Mining Workload
The most important thing to understand is your mining power/workload. If you are mining Ethereum (ETH), your mining work load is calculated by Mh/s(Mega Hashes per second). If you have an rx580 graphics card, like me, you are most likely getting between 20-30 Mh/s.
The next thing to do is find a mining profitability calculator. There are several calculators that will estimate your profitability based on the current market price of the currency, difficulty of the block, your pool fee, and the cost of electricity.
Two popular calculators are https://www.cryptocompare.com and https://whattomine.com/. I like to input the information into each of these calculators and take an average for a more rounded estimate.
I have input these numbers into the calculator to determine profitability: 25 Mh/s for ETH mining, $0.13 per kWh (electricity costs), and 1% pool fee (fee for hooking your miner to a pool). Based on the current market price, you would earn an extra $1.76 per day. That comes out to an extra $53.39 per month; not bad for 1 hour of set up time.
Taking the Plunge On A Mining Rig
With crypto seeing a couple of bullish days and your computer mining for you on the side you may be thinking about taking the plunge and building a dedicated mining rig. If this is you, here are some things to look for:
If you are the type of person that wants to make sure they get a good deal on everything, mining may not be for you. GPU prices are holding their inflated values and computer components in general are becoming harder and harder to find.
If you still want to take a stab at it I have compiled a list of things you may want to keep in mind while attempting a budget build.
First, start with what you can afford. Put a list of all the parts together that you think you will need and start pricing them out. Starting with a 12 card 1080ti build may not make the most sense.
Second, look for something that has room for growth. For example, purchasing a motherboard that holds only 1 or 2 GPUs because that’s all you can afford is probably not a wise business decision. Instead, start with a board that can accommodate 5-8 cards. It will work perfectly with just 1 card, and you can scale up later without needing to buy a new motherboard.
Third, manage your risk appropriately. If you are anything like me you like to keep a close eye on your risk exposure. When building a rig, you can manage your risk by keeping versatility in mind. Purchase things that have multi purposes, and don’t purchase anything you don’t need.
Last, don’t give into FOMO. Make sure you acquire the knowledge necessary to build a computer and to understand everything that mining entails. It can be a fun and exciting hobby, or it can be a serious investment. Just remember everything has risk, so don’t risk anything you can’t afford to lose.