Is Bitcoin mining profitable? Should I invest in BitCoin? The answer is subjective, it depends where you live and what type of hardware you own. BitCoin mining is profitable if you live in a country where electricity is cheap, such as China, or you have Solar Panels that generate free electricity. Even if you have access to cheap or free electricity, you will need a dedicated BitCoin mining hardware. A home computer powered by 3 SLi Nvidia GPU such as 1080 may do the trick.
See More ▼ 16 Exchanges To Buy And Sell BitCoins / Ethereum Without Credit Card
There are many BitCoin software, the trouble is, most of them are outdated. The main job of the software is to deliver the mining hardware’s work to the rest of the Bitcoin network and to receive the completed work from other miners on the network. Hack: How To Make BitCoin Mining Profitable Again? Install Solar Panel and mine for BitCoins during the day, however solar panels simply do not offer enough energy to power a modern mining facility.
1. Hive OS
The ultimate mining platform that allows users to setup, mine and control processes more efficiently and hustle-free across thousands of rigs all in one place. Everything you and your team need to keep your farm at its peak efficiency.
Monitor your rigs from a single dashboard. Keep track of hashrates, online statuses, GPU errors, team activity, pool configurations, power consumption, remote access from anywhere across the globe, troubleshoot and reboot GPUs remotely or perform bulk updates across your entire farm.
- Real-time monitoring of your workers stats with regular refresh intervals without the need to reload the page.
- GPU Overclocking – A wide range of GPU settings to reach their most optimal performance: clock speeds, memory speeds, fan speeds and more
- Supported Miners – Claymore’s Dual Ethereum, Claymore’s ZCash AMD GPU, Claymore’s CryptoNote AMD GPU, Ethminer, CCminer forks available, SGminer forks available, Bminer Equihash, Dstm’s ZCash Cuda, EWBF CUDA Zcash, EWBF CUDA Equihash, Zcash, Optiminer, LolMiner-mnx, XMR Stak AMD Nvidia CPU, XMRig, cpuminer-opt
- Nvidia – Nvidia GeForce 10xx series family (1050, 1050ti, 1060, 1070, 1070ti, 1080, 1080ti, P106-090, P106-100, P104-100, P102-100) are fully supported with overclocking
- AMD – AMD Radeon RX series family (460, 470, 480, 560, 570, 580) are fully supported with overclocking
- ASIC – Bitmain Antminer series S9, S9i, L3+, L3++, D3, A3, T9+, Z9-Mini
2. EasyMiner
A simple easy to use UI for minerd.exe or cgminer.exe Bitcoin,Litecoin client. Highly optimized for x86, x86-64 and ARM architectures
It supports the getwork mining protocol as well as the Stratum mining protocol, and can be used for both solo and pooled mining.
- Automatically uses SSE2, AVX and AVX2 instructions where available
- Supports the Stratum mining protocol
- Lightweight, only depends on libcurl and jansson
- Tested on a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows
- Features : cpuminer , cpuminer 64 , bitcoin , bitcoin miner , cpu miner , cudaminer , cgminer , gpu miner ( gpu miner ) , stratum mining proxy.
- EasyMiner makes cryptocoin mining simple by ensuring maximum transparency with his featured log viewer.
3. MinePeon
MinePeon is an arm mining platform for the earlier generation of bitcoin miners (ASIC & FPGA) that interfaced with a computer via USB. It ran on the Raspberry PI 1 & 2 and there was even a version or two for the BeagleBone Black making it a very cheap and efficient alternative to running a full PC. Mining has moved on from those days to dedicated miners in dedicated farms just as it moved on from CPU & GPU mining.
It was a great project while it lasted and perhaps one day I may get back to it (who really knows what direction mining will go next) but for now, it is shelved. A new version would take many hours to put together so unless someone wants to throw large amounts of bitcoin at me and take a few weeks off my normal schedule it is unlikely to happen. Run on Windows, Raspberry Pi, and Linux.
4. Ufasoft xCoin Miner
Ufasoft Coin is a Multi-currency bitcoin client and Miner. Supported currencies:
- Bitcoin – BTC
- Namecoin – NMC
- Litecoin – LTC
- Peercoin – PPC
- Novacoin – NVC
- DevCoin – DVC
- TerraCoin – TRC
- FeatherCoin – FTC
- PrimeCoin – XPM
- ProtoShares – PTS
- DogeCoin – DOGE
- EarthCoin – EAC
- MetisCoin – MTC
- iXcoin – IXC
5. Bitcoin Miner
[ Discontinued ] Let your computer earn you money with Bitcoin Miner, the free easy-to-use Bitcoin miner! Earn Bitcoin which can be exchanged for real-world currency! Works great at home, work, or on the go. Download Bitcoin Miner and start mining Bitcoin today! Bitcoin miners perform complex calculations known as hashes. Each hash has a chance of yielding bitcoins. The more hashes performed, the more chances of earning bitcoins. Most people join a mining pool to increase their chances of earning bitcoins. Mining pools pay for high value hashes known as shares.
6. ethOS Mining OS
[ Discontinued ] ethOS is a 64-bit linux OS that mines Ethereum, Zcash, Monero, and other GPU-mineable coins. Instead of installing software onto Windows or Linux, the entire Linux OS is designed from ground up to mine for BitCoin.
- Supports up to 16 NVIDIA GPUs: Any 2GB+ GTX 900 and GTX 1000 series.
- Supports up to 13 AMD RX Series GPUs: Including support for RX Series voltage control and Z170/X/Z270/X/Ryzen Chipsets.
- Supports up to 8 AMD R7/R9 Series GPUs: Any 2GB+ HD 7000 series, any R9 200/300/Fury/Nano.
- Supports multiple coins: Ready to mine Ethereum, Zcash, Monero and many other gpu-mineable coins.
- Extremely lightweight: Works with weakest possible CPU made in the last 5 generations on only 2gb of ram.
- GPU overheat protection: GPUs will automatically throttle or turn off if they reach temperature thresholds.
7. MinerGate
[ Discontinued ] MinerGate is a mining pool created by a group of cryptocoin enthusiasts. It is the first pool which provides service for merged mining. This means that while mining on their pool you can mine different coins simultaneously without decrease of hashrate for major coins. Supported currencies
- Zcash [ZEC] – Zcash is a decentralized privacy-centered currency, allowing users to partly conceal the details of their transactions, such as sending and receiving parties and the amount. It is possible due to innovative technology the developers have come up with, zero-knowledge proving. Zcash is a fork of Bitcoin protocol, thus they share some similarities, such as the total amount of coins to be minted and block reward halving. Advanced privacy is the main major improvement.
- Ethereum [ETH] – Ethereum is currently the most ambitious blockchain project. It runs its own cryptocurrency, called Ether, but goes beyond being just digital currency. Ethereum is a decentralized platform that allows building smart contracts: decentralized applications (dapps) that run as they are coded without any possibility of censorship, downtime, fraud or third parties interference. The applications can move value through Blockchain and represent the ownership of property. The big idea behind Ethereum has attracted millions of users (crypto-enthusiasts, miners, investors) and boosted the market value of Ether coins, making it the most popular cryptocurrency after Bitcoin.
- Bitcoin [BTC] – Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried out collectively by the network. The original Bitcoin software by Satoshi Nakamoto was released under the MIT license. Most client software, derived or “from scratch”, also use open source licensing.
- Litecoin [LTC] – Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant payments to anyone in the world. It is based on the Bitcoin protocol but differs from Bitcoin in that it can be efficiently mined with consumer-grade hardware. Litecoin provides faster transaction confirmations (2.5 minutes on average) and uses a memory-hard, scrypt-based mining proof-of-work algorithm to target the regular computers with GPUs most people already have. The Litecoin network is scheduled to produce 84 million currency units. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that could run at the same time, on the same hardware used to mine Bitcoins. With the rise of specialized ASICs for Bitcoin, Litecoin continues to satisfy these goals. It is unlikely for ASIC mining to be developed for Litecoin until the currency becomes more widely used.
- Bytecoin [BCN] – Bytecoin is a first CryptoNote-based cryptocurrency. A CPU-mined coin, it”s primary advantages are extraordinary transaction untraceability and unlinkability features. BCN is stated to be much more anonymous than Bitcoin and all its existing forks. The developers claim a person’s right to privacy is their primary concern and strictly observe their own privacy. Bytecoin was started on July 4th, 2012. BCN is based on CryptoNote, an open-source technology for anonymous cryptocurrencies. It utilizes ring signature and one-time addresses for completely anonymous payments. CryptoNote is designed in a way, which makes block chain analysis impossible. CryptoNote is focused on CPU-mining in order to make the special purposes devices useless.
- Monero [XMR] – Monero is a new coin using the CryptoNote protocol. It’s based on Bytecoin, which was coded from scratch and is not a descendent of Bitcoin.
- DigitalNote [XDN] – DigitalNote is an experimental open-source cryptocurrency based on CryptoNote technology and CryptoNight algorithm. It is a fork of Bytecoin – the very first implementation of CryptoNote. Nobody owns or controls DigitalNote. It is a scalable decentralized cryptocurrency with strong privacy protection. DigitalNote uses ring signatures, to provide unlinkable and untraceable transactions.
- QuazarCoin [QCN] – QuazarCoin is a new cryptocurrency based on the CryptoNote and uses the CryptoNight algorithm. QCN protects your data and privacy with help of completely anonymous transactions with ring signatures.
- Fantomcoin [FCN] – Fantomcoin supports merged mining. It can be possible with Bytecoin, Monero, QuazarCoin or any CN based coin. New blockchain needs no additional hashpower – it uses Bytecoin, Monero, QuazarCoin blocks or shares as PoW. Miners are free to choose the “donor” chain they like. In case other chains based on CryptoNote will appear they also can be used as “donor” chains.
- MonetaVerde [MCN] – Moneta Verde is the first CryptoNote-based cryptocurrency with block reward increasing together with difficulty. It supports merged mining with Monero, QuazarCoin, Bytecoin or any other CryptoNight-based coin.
- AEON coin [AEON] – AEON coin is the anonymous cryptocurrency which is based on the CryptoNote protocol and uses the CryptoNight algorithm.
- Dashcoin [DSH] – Dashcoin is a Next generation anonymous cryptocurrency and the first automatically mutating cryptocurrency created with CryptoNote technology.
- Infinium-8 [INF8] – Infinium-8 (INF8) is a new privacy-centric coin using the CryptoNote protocol. The open source reference implementation of CryptoNote was coded from scratch based on the CryptoNote reference implementation, and is not a fork of Bitcoin. Infinium-8 aims to be a fungible and untraceable digital medium of exchange. It intrinsically has a higher degree of anonymity than Bitcoin or any of its various forks. Infinium-8 s the cryptocoin with blockreward increasing together with difficulty.
8. WinMiner
[ Discontinued ] Make your PC work for YOU 100% of the time (instead of 90%* idling). It is dead simple, all you have to do is install, then turn On/Off your PC. The miner will automatically mine for BitCoins or any other cryptocurrencies according to the settings. This software is ideal for those working as the IT admin of a university, most of the time, those computers in the lab are idle. Time to make money.
9. HoneyMiner
[ Discontinued ] Honeyminer is the first platform that allows anyone with a computer to mine for cryptocurrencies. You don’t need to be a cryptographer or have a computer science degree to join this revolution! Their experts take care of all the software (and security) stuff, so that you can just open up Honeyminer and start earning blockchain rewards right away. Every piece of a coin that you receive is a thank you from the blockchain for helping to secure the ledger and verify transactions. You are joining the most important technological advancement since the internet!
Honeyminer identifies the most profitable currency to mine at any given moment based on your computer’s specs and the difficulty of each blockchain. Behind the scenes, they convert these smaller cryptocurrencies into safer and more liquid blockchain assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, for no charge.
10. BitMinter
[ Discontinued ] Bitminter is a Bitcoin mining pool that aims to make it easy for anyone to make bitcoins. Bitminter has it’s own custom miner with a clear graphical interface and can work with GPUs and external ASIC devices equally well. Bitminter is one of the oldest pools. Since they opened in 2011 over 450 000 people have registered accounts with us.
So, A graphic card GUI is an ASIC now?
All graphic cards are asics technically, it’s us that make the distinction.
No, they are 3 separate “things”. Graphics cards are still used for their high power (many cycles) GPU devices.
A “GUI” is a “Graphic User Interface” it is a program with forms to fill in, buttons to click.
Different from a “CLI” “Command Line Interface” aka command window, root window, PowerShell window, DOS window. Where you type commands to start an application, it is displayed in simple b/w text. Many times more versatile, but more complex. An ASIC is another thing entirely.
From Wiki: An ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) is a microchip designed for a special application, such as a particular kind of transmission protocol or a hand-held computer. You might contrast it with general integrated circuits, such as the microprocessor and the random access memory chips in your PC.
If you can afford a computer with 3 GTX 1080s then you probably don’t need to mine bitcoins for earning money haha.
Which way is more profitable if you consider electric consumption and processing speed? mining by Graphic card (for example 3 SLi Nvidia 1080) and ASIC?
you’ll need a dedicated miner such as Bitmain’s Antminer, anything less than that is not fast or profitable enough, unless you have supply to free electricity, for instant you have your own room in a University, Office, Factory and etc where the boss has no idea what you are doing.
Using Miner Gate now. Faster performance than other GUI’s.
Impressed with this GUI’s flexibility to mine various coins with no advertising as Bitcoin miner.
HiveOS FTW! They have a working windows beta version aswell now.
I am George in Nairobi Kenya East Africa,I am asking if somebody is telling me to send him my bitcoin wallet and my password here so that he can mine for me,Can i give him,or what is your opinion about this.Kindly he is telling me that i will mine twice.
Thanks by
George Onduko
In Nairobi kenya
East Africa
Thank you for your detailed review. I don’t know yet what the best compromise is between a high level but efficient configuration for mining and a less efficient but less energy consuming configuration.
GPUs are better at mining because of their Parallel Processing not Serial. Maybe if someone got a load of Neo Geo’s that were 24 Bit Parallel Processors someone could get ahead of the game?