Home Cryptomining: How Much Can You Make? Cryptocurrency mining has grown in popularity, sparking discussions about everything from its role in the ongoing worldwide chip scarcity to its potential environmental consequences. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that mining can be profitable, even more so if done on a large scale. So, can anyone benefit from cryptocurrency mining, and what are the prerequisites for getting started?
In this post, we’ll examine how much you can desire to earn from cryptocurrency mining and whether it’s worthwhile.
What Do You Need to Start Mining Crypto?
A strong computer is the first thing you’ll need to mine cryptocurrency. The money you earn scales linearly with your contribution to the network’s computational power. This is why you’ll see people renting large warehouses and populating them with computers purely for cryptocurrency mining.
More practically, you will require a PC with a modern graphics card. A graphics card’s role is probably familiar to PC gamers. It is a specialized piece of hardware developed for particular uses, such as graphics rendering and math crunching for cryptocurrency mining.
Assuming your PC already has a mid to high-end GPU, you have everything you need to start mining.
Calculating Potential Profits From Crypto Mining
Ethereum has long ruled supreme in profitability, significantly outperforming any other mineable cryptocurrency. Other cryptocurrencies, however, have shown to be similarly profitable to mine in the past. Notably, tokens such as ZCash were a viable option in 2017.
Nonetheless, there is little doubt that Ethereum will be the most profitable cryptocurrency to mine on a consumer-grade computer in 2021. Other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Litecoin, can only be mined using specialized hardware known as ASICs, which are scarce compared to computer hardware.
There is enormous money to be made if you buy one of the most delinquent years graphics cards, such as Nvidia’s RTX 3060 Ti or 3080. For example, with an RTX 3080, you may expect to earn up to $7 per day, according to WhatToMine, a website that tracks cryptocurrency mining profitability.
You must, however, remember to account for the electricity consumed to power the card. Assuming a global average electric price of 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, you would lose approximately $0.60 per day to your electricity company—roughly 10% of your revenue. However, over a month, a single RTX 3080 should generate around $180 in pure profit.
RTX 3080 Profitability
It’s important to note that these sculptures are based on various factors and variables, including luck, mining difficulty, current transaction fees, and the price of Ethereum itself. Ethereum was trading at around $2,300 on the day the above computation was conducted. However, if its value changes significantly, you can also expect your revenue to change.
The amount of money you earn is also determined by how busy the Ethereum network is at the time. During network congestion, miners will make more because users will be forced to pay higher fees for completing their transactions.
How to Get Started With Crypto Mining
Nicehash is one of the most user-friendly mining software options if you want to skip the headaches of selecting and setting up various mining software.
It is as easy as downloading and executing the miner to use Nicehash. It is intended to detect the hardware in your system automatically and may even be able to tweak it for maximum performance. The main disadvantage is that it may be less profitable when compared to starting from scratch.
However, you will likely get much better results if you study the best overclocking and undervolting settings for your graphics card. Applying an overclock is relatively simple these days, and the risk of hurting your GPU is minimal, but more on that later.
Because electricity is the most expensive cost to offset, your goal should be to maximize your system’s performance per watt. If you’re in a hurry, consider WhatToMine’s recommended overclock and power limits (TDP) for your card as a starting point. Then, because each GPU is unique, fine-tune the settings to find your sweet spot. Remember, the goal is to optimize performance while minimizing power consumption.
Does Crypto Mining Wear Out Your Hardware Faster?
One common misperception among those new to cryptocurrency mining is that the practice has the ability to wear down your hardware faster. The fact, however, is significantly more nuanced. Consider another application for graphics cards, such as gaming.
Your GPU is continually pushed to ramp up and down the amount of power it needs depending on the scene it renders when gaming. This results in heat spikes on the GPU chip and fans on the card that ramp up or down depending on the workload.
Mining, on the other hand, consistently places a strain on your hardware. This maintains a constant temperature for the GPU. Furthermore, because you will most likely undervolted or power limit the card, it will likely produce less heat than when gaming.
Is It Too Late to Start Cryptocurrency Mining?
If you already have a capable computer to earn, cryptocurrency mining offers a reasonably simple and hands-free passive income option. The most important factor to consider is the cost of electricity in your area.
However, you won’t be able to mine cryptocurrencies anytime soon unless you already have a graphics card. As you may have attended, demand for GPUs has driven up prices, complicating the profitability equation.
But before you go out and buy a pricey GPU, remember that Ethereum is eliminating mining. So nobody knows whether cryptocurrency mining will be as profitable as it is today in a year or two.
