Mining farm: assembly features and income generation. Creating a cryptocurrency mining farm What a mining farm looks like

We will assemble a farm for 8 cards, no matter NVIDIA or AMD. 8 cards is the optimal number, Windows works without problems with 8 cards, and motherboards for 8 cards are relatively cheap. You can buy motherboards for 13 cards, but then you will have to install Linux, and the price of such motherboards is higher. Our choice is 8 cards.

Cards should be chosen based on price-quality ratio; you can always get advice in the 2 Bitcoin chat. Don't have time to think and search? NVIDIA GTX 1060/1070 is a good option for starting, cards with these chips are produced by a large number of manufacturers, the cards are universal (suitable for Ethash and Equihash algorithms). We strongly do not recommend mixing AMD and NVIDIA cards in one rig. If you choose AMD, buy all 8 AMD cards, if NVIDIA, buy all 8 NVIDIA cards.

By the way, for the safe sale and purchase of mined cryptocurrency, we recommend a Telegram bot. Read the overview and details of the work in.

What to buy? Don't forget anything. How to assemble? 2Miners.com Tips:

We buy components for a mining farm

Frame

for 8 cards: 1,500 rub. in St. Petersburg are manufactured according to our requirements (password: “2 Bitcoins”). It turns out awesome, you can stack them on top of each other. Contact. You shouldn’t waste your time making a frame yourself, you don’t want to use our contact - open Avito and buy any other ready-made solution, this will save a lot of time and money. If you will install it in a server rack, we recommend cases from rigbox.

Motherboard

Installing video cards

It happens that some cards do not install normally and hang in unidentified video adapters. In this case, you need to install the driver manually, specifying the path to it.

With AMD cards the situation is more complicated: the cards are installed, but each has an exclamation mark. AMD atikmdag Patcher will come to the rescue. Click “Yes” and after reboot the problem is solved!

Watchdog

You need to properly connect the WatchDog pins to the Reset and Power pins on the motherboard so that the timer can reboot or turn off/on the farm. 2 photos of the connection, they are absolutely the same, just wires of different colors.

Install the driver and watchdog timer program from the official website: driver, program. The program must be set to autoload, and monitoring must be configured in it; we always configure Internet monitoring on the site yandex.ru or google.com, and process monitoring on cmd.exe.

Chips

A few things to remember to do:

Disable system sleep in power settings. This setting is best done after everything, because it may be reset when installing video card drivers. Getting to this menu is simple: Win -> Gear -> First menu item (system settings).

If you're going to get more out of your cards than they can from the factory, we recommend installing Afterburner. We are using MSI Afterburner. AMD cards require the latest Beta version. Make all card settings at your own peril and risk; for advice, you can contact Chat 2 Bitcoin.

Mining programs

If you plan to use several farms, read the post ““, there are detailed instructions on how to do this. If you don't need this, you can simply install Claymore according to steps 1.4, 2, 4.

Content

In a situation where the word “bitcoin” appears every now and then on the pages of online publications and is increasingly heard on TV screens, even small children know what it means. This is a cryptocurrency, to earn money you need a mining rig - an open frame on which computer hardware is installed. Very often, the main part of such a miner is a block of several video cards, with the help of which mining is carried out.

What is a mining farm?

Structurally, a mining farm is a computer designed to solve certain computing problems. A powerful processor and a capacious hard drive are not required here; the emphasis is on a large number of powerful video cards (there can be up to 6 of them) and several power supplies that provide the system with the necessary energy. Good computing power of a home farm allows you to set up cryptocurrency mining, and essentially represents an alternative (or even the main) type of income with a quick payback period.

How does it work

From a software point of view, a mining farm is nothing more than a device for computing in a distributed database using algorithms and programs. The essence of the mining process is to track and process new blocks of transactions in a specialized blockchain network - this is what is called “mining”. Each discovered block will generate profit, ultimately giving you the opportunity to earn bitcoins or other cryptocurrency. Searching for one block takes varying amounts of time - from several minutes to several days, and this is influenced by two main factors:

• Equipment performance. The more powerful your mining rig, the faster your cryptocurrency mining speed will be.
• Network complexity. The more miners the blockchain operates, the lower the cost of the found block will be and the more difficult it will be to search for it. Having experienced an extraordinary boom in popularity at the turn of the 2010s, the mining industry attracted many ordinary users who, attracted by the ease of making money, began to purchase equipment in huge quantities.

Payback

In generating cryptocurrency, the leading role is played by the power of the computer, so only owners of very productive equipment, for which you need to pay with real money, will be able to get a good income in digital currencies. Computer companies produce ready-made options, but you don’t have to pay a high price: with a minimum of knowledge and skills, you can assemble equipment for bitcoin mining with your own hands.

However, the main obstacle to profitability is not the expensive components for mining cryptocurrency, but the high costs of operating the equipment. The video card block of a mining rig consumes a lot of energy, so electricity bills will be astronomically high, and given these costs, projects pay for themselves much more slowly.

Types of mining farms for cryptocurrency production

Currently existing mining farms for cryptocurrency production can be divided into three types:

1. Based on graphics processing units (GPUs). In the first steps of the formation of the Bitcoin system, AMD video cards combined into blocks of several pieces made it possible to achieve excellent mining results. Today, large GPU farms are no longer so efficient due to high energy costs and rapid depreciation, but they may well be suitable for a beginner.
2. Using FPGA modules. Such logical matrices are not inferior to GPUs in mining performance, but do not require a powerful cooling system, which makes them more reliable and compact.
3. Based on ASIC processors, which are designed specifically for bitcoin mining. Today, such computer systems are considered the best devices, making it possible to achieve a 25-fold increase in speed, but at the same time, such equipment will cost much more.

Bitcoin farm

The ability to profitably mine bitcoins led to a rapid increase in the number of mining farms and an unprecedented expansion of the blockchain network, so the emergence of the second generation of cryptocurrencies was a predictable process. Today, miners have many options available for mining - from the increasingly popular cryptocurrency Ethereum to Ark and Xaurum, which are not known to many.

The equipment used also imposes its limitations on production. While a mining rig based on a block of video cards can easily switch to mining another cryptocurrency, FPGA modules will require manual reprogramming, and ASIC chips are initially configured for only one option. In such conditions, calculating the optimal configuration of mining farms becomes a difficult task for the owner seeking to make a profitable investment in mining.

Ethereum mining

Although in the six months since the beginning of 2019, the Bitcoin rate has grown by 160% and reached $3,000 in June, there are other examples in the cryptocurrency market that show steady growth. These include Ethereum - since the beginning of the year, the ether exchange rate has increased by 4485%, amounting to $375.5. The advantage of the new cryptocurrency was appreciated not only by miners, but also by large world-famous companies. In February 2019, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance was created, a non-profit block that includes such monsters as Microsoft and Intel, which makes the position of this cryptocurrency even more stable.

Cryptocurrency farm for mining altcoins

Given the great popularity of Bitcoin and the increasing complexity of mining, in recent years, alternative cryptocurrencies (they are also called altcoins) are increasingly being created, and their mining is recommended for novice miners. In the first steps, you need to acquire a small farm based on GPU or FPGA modules in order to independently try out how Litecoin or Monero is mined and understand how to make a profit in this business.

Buy a mining farm

If you decide to go with ready-made equipment, then the Internet will offer you many options for assembling farms for mining cryptocurrencies. The price range is in the range of 96,000 – 240,000 rubles, depending on the type of design and power (prices here and below are as of July 2017). At the same time, assembly according to individual parameters is possible, which can reduce the price of the finished unit for sale.

Equipment power

The more powerful the block you have, the higher the productivity of the mining farm. There are a few simple rules that you need to consider if you like a mining rig in a store:

1. The advantage of a ready-made farm is that all the work on selecting the necessary components for the block has already been done for you - you get a turnkey solution, which all you have to do is plug it in and start mining.
2. Be sure to include the cost of mining bitcoins and electricity charges in your estimate. Even not the most powerful farm on ASIC panels consumes over 20 kilowatt-hours per day. There are devices with much higher consumption; the seller will tell you the exact figure for the unit you are purchasing.
3. You should not focus only on the indicators of computing power (hashrate), but evaluate the system comprehensively. High block productivity implies an increased price and greater risks that the owner bears when investing in cryptocurrency mining.

Complexity of the blockchain network

Considering the rapidly increasing complexity of the blockchain network, we can give some advice to a novice user:

1. Choose only modern equipment. No used special devices, even at a very attractive price - at the current rate of work, the wear rate will be very high.
2. Opt for more functionality. For example, by switching the video card, you can mine another cryptocurrency (or even find a use for the card not related to crypto mining); this is impossible for ASIC processors.
3. Never take out a loan to purchase equipment, given the high risks of production. The situation may change, and if today the generation of cryptocurrency provides a stable income, then tomorrow this money may hardly be enough to pay for electricity.

What does the hashrate of a mining rig depend on?

One of the basic characteristics that determines the power of your mining rig is the hashrate - the number of calculations performed per second. The higher this indicator, the more productive your mining rig will be. As of mid-2019, 600 kH/s is considered good for video cards, while there are the latest AMD 7990 series models using two cores with speeds of up to 1,500 kH/s.

Although the hashrate of a miner on ASIC processors is significantly superior to GPU models, with indicators of 14,000 kH/s, the high cost (from $2,500) can extend the payback period of such a mining block. Given the sharp changes in cryptocurrency rates and the rapidly increasing complexity of the blockchain network, this option is not suitable for all users.

How to build a mining rig

In many cases, assembling your own mining block will be a priority over purchasing a ready-made mining rig. Benefits include:

• lower costs, especially if you already have some of the parts;
• the ability to select components more flexibly;
• enjoyment of the assembly process.

Among the disadvantages:

• time spent searching for the necessary components and shortages of individual components (due to the great popularity of cryptomining, it can be difficult to buy powerful video cards);
• the need for at least minimal knowledge about the operation of the equipment, but this gap is easily filled with information on the Internet, which provides assembly diagrams and photos of crypto farms;
• lack of warranty or service.

Frame for mining farm

If the case of an ordinary home PC is closed to protect the “filling” from dust, then the mining rig has an open frame for easy cooling of the block. Essentially, this is a rack of metal corners, adjusted to the dimensions of video cards or other equipment of a mining farm. It is not difficult to find such a frame on sale - they are made according to standard sizes (600x400x300 mm, 600x400x400 mm, 700x400x400 mm, etc.), which makes it possible to reliably install the blocks on top of each other.

Selecting a video card

A maximum of 6 video cards can be connected to the motherboard; this indicator should be used when calculating how much computing power your mining rig has. When choosing the required model, compare the ratio of power and energy consumption with each other - this will allow you to save both when purchasing and when operating a mining farm:

Even without a calculator, it is clear that at the same price, the 6990 video cards differ significantly from other 6900 series cards in terms of higher power with an insignificant difference in energy consumption. In the same way, by analyzing these three indicators, you can find the best option to buy video cards for your mining farm.

Power supply for installation

Choosing a farm power supply is not as simple a process as it might seem at first glance. To properly power a mining rig for six video cards, even 1000 W may not be enough. Additional power is also required for other equipment for generating coins, which is why you should always choose power with a margin of 150-200 W. Equally important will be the presence on the farm block of the required number of PCI-E connectors so that all video cards for mining can be directly connected.

Cooling and air circulation systems

Given the large heat generation, mining rigs require additional cooling. This should be taken into account when installing video cards, between which there should be 8-10 cm of space for air circulation. The easiest option is to use floor fans and a special room with an exhaust hood, especially if you have more than one mining rig.

Assembly miningfarm

The configuration of the remaining components of the mining farm will not be complicated: everything is the same as for a regular computer. You will need a hard drive, a motherboard with the ability to connect six video cards (for example, Biostar H81S2) and a RAM slot. The overall assembly of your mining rig involves installing all components and connecting individual components into a single unit using cables and extension cords.

Launch of cryptocurrency mining

Setting up a farm involves installing special software with which you can interact with the crypto mining industry. The choice of program depends not only on what cryptocurrency you are interested in, but also on the mining method, because it can be:

• Single (solo) - when the development of a block is carried out alone, and all the income goes to the owner of the mining farm, but this type of mining requires powerful equipment.
• Through special pools in the network, where many miners are engaged in mining and income is divided in proportion to the contribution of each.

Is it profitable to mine cryptocurrency using farms?

Before buying or starting to assemble your first farm, rarely does anyone not wonder how much this project provides a stable income. Progress in the field of mining solutions does not stand still, and if back in 2013-14. 6 months were enough to “get to zero” and start making a profit, but today such a period can be considered very lucky even for a large company with several dozen crypto farms.

Equipment and maintenance costs

If we summarize all of the above, we can come to the following approximate cost estimate for an entry-level crypto farm, where the payback period will directly depend on the chosen cryptocurrency and exchange rate fluctuations:

• the cost of the equipment is 150,000 rubles.
• power – 600 kH/s.
• electricity – 2,100 rubles.

Profitability of leading cryptocurrencies

If you make the top 5 most profitable cryptocurrencies at the end of June 2019, it will look like this:

Profitability of farming

If we compare the income from one coin with the time it takes to mine it, then the position of the Ethereum cryptocurrency looks very tempting. At this cost of the coin, the equipment on which 150,000 rubles were spent will pay for itself in 11-12 months. This figure may seem attractive to an investor, but the downside is that it represents a long-term forecast in the field of cryptocurrency trading, where the situation can change, literally, tomorrow.

For those who do not like to take big risks, but want to try themselves in a new business, instead of trying to create new mining farms, it makes sense to start cloud mining. This technology harnesses the power of network-attached storage without requiring the purchase of special hardware, and the minimum investment is just $1.

Mining cryptocurrency at home is not a good idea. Overloaded networks, disrupted traffic jams and constant noise lead to miners being kicked out of apartments and offices. Who offered them an alternative and how much did they earn from it?

Daniyar Latypov (Photo: Regina Urazaeva for RBC)

The sharp rise in cryptocurrency prices in 2017 gave impetus to the development of home mining. First, video cards, motherboards and power supplies—components for mining farms—disappeared from store shelves. Then rapid growth created a new problem: farms consume huge amounts of electricity, wiring in high-rise buildings cannot cope with the load, and computers in rooms without ventilation overheat and stop working. Crypto farmers began to look for alternatives, and demand gave rise to supply - mining hotels, guarded areas with a fee for renting a “bed” for the farm.

RBC discovered three hotels - in Tatarstan, Moscow and the Moscow region. How is their business structured?

How it works

Mining (from the English mining, extraction) is the generation of cryptocurrency by solving mathematical problems. The miner rents out the computing power of his computer, which connects to the blockchain network (a decentralized database containing information about all transactions) and maintains its operation.

A mining farm (or rig) is a powerful computer assembled from several video cards (usually four to eight), a motherboard and a power supply. The cheapest crypto farms on Avito are sold at prices starting from 75 thousand rubles. A regular computer most often has one video card, so it makes no sense to use home and office PCs for mining.

To solve mathematical problems, miners unite into pools - teams that connect to the blockchain network. Solo mining is unpopular as it dramatically reduces the chances of success. When a solution is found, a cryptocurrency is created and all pool participants are given a reward proportional to their performance. To receive this reward, you need to create a crypto wallet. You can convert virtual currency into traditional fiat money using cryptocurrency exchangers (HotExchange, Payforia, etc.).

The most profitable, but at the same time the most expensive cryptocurrency today is Bitcoin. It has been mined since 2009: initially it was done by one person under the nickname Satoshi Nakamoto. Then $1 was equal to 1.3 thousand bitcoins; on October 9, 2017, one bitcoin was already worth $4.66 thousand. Satoshi initially set a limit that only 21 million bitcoins could be created, and as the popularity of this currency grew, more and more were required to mine it computing power. ​Today it is not profitable to mine Bitcoin on ordinary farms; it is mined on so-called ASICs - ready-made equipment created specifically for mining. Its cost starts from 170 thousand rubles.

Typically, home mining farms are involved in the creation of altcoins - all other cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin (the most popular are Ethereum and ZCash). “I thought that it was enough to sweat a little on the assembly, press the “money” button and the money would flow like a river, but that was not the case. Farms need constant control, and income directly depends on the cryptocurrency rate. At the moment, I have invested 1.4 million rubles in mining, which, taking into account the average monthly exchange rate, should pay off in about two years after the start. My ten farms bring in 110-120 thousand rubles per month. revenue,” a miner who wished to remain incognito told RBC.

Tatar mining

Kazan resident Daniyar Latypov began mining when it was not yet mainstream: he assembled his first farm in 2011. Radio engineering education and a passion for computers helped me figure it out, but at that time cryptocurrency was cheap and did not bring significant income: Latypov earned only about 6 thousand rubles. per month, half of which went to pay for electricity.

Mining on a grand scale

Mining in Russia is not legalized, but it is not prohibited either. “There is no regulation of the cryptocurrency market yet. The only document that affects this industry is a letter from the Federal Tax Service dated October 3, 2016, in which transactions with cryptocurrencies are equated to foreign exchange,” says Maximilian Grishin, a lawyer in the Moscow office of the international law firm Ilyashev and Partners. According to Olga Sorokina, managing partner of O2 Consulting, hotels will face risks if the owner of the premises begins to pay tenants in cryptocurrency. If payments are made in rubles, then there is nothing to complain about - in fact, the activities of miners-hoteliers are not much different from the business of hosting providers.

Small mining hotels with an area of ​​up to 300 square meters. m will not withstand competition with large companies that are already beginning to fill the market, says Anatoly Knyazev, founder of the Bitcoin Fund hedge fund. One of the pioneers in this area was Internet ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev, whose company Radius Group equipped equipment for cryptocurrency mining on the territory of the former Moskvich plant.

Igor Shuvalov, appointed by Vladimir Putin to be responsible for the development of cryptocurrency technologies, plans to bring mining to the level of state corporations. “We talked about the future of this sector in Russia, given that it is developing so quickly in the world. Among other things, we talked about electrical energy generators, near which such [mining] centers could be installed. But there are no specific projects yet,” Shuvalov.

There is already an alternative to mining hotels - cloud mining, the collective use of computing power. Companies providing such services purchase equipment and offer part of this capacity to clients for rent. In return, they receive income minus expenses for the Internet, electricity and the organizer’s commission. However, many market participants do not understand the economics of such projects. “Think for yourself: why rent out a machine for printing money, which can bring high income to the cloud owners themselves?” - asks Alexey Ivanov from SberBit. According to the owner of the mining hotel, Adam Guchigov, this scheme provides less income than independent mining, and does not allow control over whether the owners honestly share profits with tenants.

Dear capital

Muscovite Alexey Ivanov started thinking about mining as a source of income in April 2017, when he and a friend were choosing components for a computer. “I was surprised to note that video cards had disappeared from store shelves,” recalls Alexey. — We realized that people are buying hardware to mine. A logical question arose: is it possible to make money from this? Ivanov, an IT specialist by training, a former employee of a Russian venture company and co-owner of office equipment service companies, decided to understand the technology.

Aleksey Ivanov (Photo: Oleg Yakovlev / RBC)

Together with his partners, he assembled several farms, which he installed in the office of his company. It turned out that this is much more convenient than home options. “Keeping a farm at home is risky: you simply won’t be able to turn on the washing machine or kettle - the plugs will break. People did their best: they tried to strengthen the wiring and rented separate apartments to put farms there,” says Ivanov. He decided to start hosting mining farms professionally.

The first thing he did was assess the demand: he created a website on which he posted an advertisement about the services of a mining hotel (Ivanov claims that he was the first to come up with this phrase). Within a few days, about ten calls came in, and he decided to act. As a test site, together with five partners (friends and colleagues), I rented an office next to my own with an area of ​​40 square meters. m, installed a separate power supply line, installed ventilation, purchased iron racks, temperature and humidity sensors. All this cost 300 thousand rubles.

The premises were filled within a week, and Ivanov rented another 200 sq. m. m of office space in the same business center (at a rate of 1-1.2 thousand rubles per 1 sq. m). Now the SberBit mining hotel occupies 300 sq. m. Ivanov offers clients an all-inclusive package - a guarded site, payment for Internet, electricity and administrator work. Placing each mining device will cost the client 5 thousand rubles. when consuming up to 1 kWh of energy, 6 thousand rubles. at a consumption of 1-1.5 kWh, and 8 thousand rubles. at a consumption of 1.5-2 kWh. Another 2.5 thousand rubles. you will have to pay to install the farm.

In the first month, Ivanov managed to attract about 20 clients (mainly through an ad on Avito and contextual advertising on Google). There are now 300 mining farms operating in the hotel. For four months, the company's revenue from this activity amounted to 2 million rubles, net profit - 200 thousand rubles. These are not high figures, Ivanov admits, office premises do not have sufficient electrical capacity and rent is expensive; production premises with large supplied capacities are needed.

From garage to workshop

Adam Guchigov first heard about cryptocurrency in 2013, when a potential client came to him, a stockbroker for an investment company. “A man invested in the purchase of bitcoin and asked what he should do with this wealth,” recalls Guchigov. “Bitcoin cost $20 back then, we didn’t work with it and advised the client to exchange it for dollars.” He became interested in cryptocurrency only in 2017, when they started talking about it on federal television channels. Together with his colleague Daniil Munaev, Guchigov purchased 12 video cards (it cost 480 thousand rubles) and found a specialist who, for 20 thousand rubles. helped put together two farms.

The test was unsuccessful: the farms that worked in Munaev’s garage overheated and constantly turned off. Entrepreneurs sold them for 540 thousand rubles, and with the proceeds they ordered others from China, with an additional cooling system. The new system worked without interruption and brought in about 1.5 thousand rubles. arrived on the day.

By June, the number of miners and the complexity of calculations increased, and the payback of farms fell from four to 10-12 months. “We understood that mining was difficult to scale, and we were looking for a more reliable business model,” the entrepreneur recalls. The idea was suggested by a truss assembly specialist who helped Guchigov at the start. “Orders came to him almost every day, the count went to millions of farms in Moscow alone. Where are they all stored? - Guchigov was perplexed. It turned out that most of the collector's clients keep farms on their balconies.

Photo: Regina Urazaeva for RBC

Guchigov relied on newcomers who bought two or three farms and placed them at home. “Farms make a lot of noise and generate a lot of heat; if you live in the same room with them, you can go crazy,” says Adam. He decided to create a commercial mining site with 24-hour security and monitoring. Unlike Ivanov, he did not get involved with expensive Moscow real estate, but rented part of a production workshop in Podolsk (70 sq. m. for 28 thousand rubles per month), installed the Internet, installed ventilation, purchased metal racks for storing farms, three robots vacuum cleaner for cleaning and hired one administrator. The workshop is located in a closed area with access control - this is how we managed to save on security. About 130 thousand rubles were spent on the start. Guchigov found his first clients even before the opening: he was helped by the connections of a farm customizer he knew, who offered accommodation in a mining hotel to his clients.

The hotelier charges 3 thousand rubles for his services. from every farm. Electricity is paid separately depending on the power of the computers: on average, an additional 2-3 thousand rubles are paid per month. Now in the Podolsk mining hotel there are 72 computers and this is not the limit - on each of the 70 square meters. m of space, four trusses can be installed, says Guchigov. The place will soon come in handy, he is sure: “Rain, snow, hurricane winds - all these delights of Moscow autumn are to our advantage. As soon as the weather turns bad, all those who still have farms on their balconies will run to us.”

View from the outside

“Sooner or later the market will be captured by large players”

Alexey Noskov, head of the “Mining” project at the Xelent data center

“The market is experiencing a gradual transition from residential mining to a more civilized scheme: solo miners are moving equipment to hotels in search of safer conditions. But this period will not last forever: sooner or later the market will be captured by large players who will build professional data centers under the guise of mining hotels. I believe that small private hotels will be relevant for no more than two to three years.”

“A solution for those who were kicked out of their apartment”

Pavel Sukhachev, co-founder of SAVL (wallet for storing and exchanging cryptocurrencies)

“Mining hotels are an extremely dubious and temporary solution for inconspicuous market players, some private miners from the category of those whose family kicked them out of their home due to noise, heat and a huge amount of electricity bills. The future belongs to powerful data centers with cheap electricity, which operate under direct contracts with thermal power plants, in which residual electricity is purchased.”

“Mining hotels can be compared to selling shovels during the gold rush”

Alexander Borodich, founder of the Universa blockchain

“Accommodation in mining hotels is best for beginners who do not want to endure the headaches of constant problems with farms: looking for ways to bypass electricity meters, endure noise, regulate temperature and humidity. Those who have already spent the winter with farms managed to find a solution to the listed problems without hoteliers. But the market is being replenished with new people, and at this stage it is an easily considered and profitable business: it can be compared to selling shovels during the gold rush.”

In 2017, even people who do not have access to the Internet know what Bitcoin is. And active network users have information not only about the features and rapidly growing rate of bitcoin, but also about the specifics of the issue of this cryptocurrency, namely, the ability to mine it independently. Therefore, it is natural that in stores selling powerful video cards, from time to time there is a shortage of hardware - people buy up cards to create their own Bitcoin farms and mine cryptocurrency on them. But to make a profit from mining digital coins, purchasing a card with a high hashrate and installing it on your PC will not be enough. You also need to understand how a Bitcoin farm works, how to assemble it yourself, and how to start mining. Let's try to answer these questions in simple words, and also tell you how to assemble a bitcoin farm for 50,000 rubles. And we’ll separately figure out whether it’s possible to earn bitcoins by playing virtual games with withdrawal of money.

Bitcoin farm: what is it in simple words and how it works and produces cryptocurrency

The custom of calling computers used for cryptocurrency mining “farms” came from the United States, because it was American miners who, when communicating with each other, jokingly began to call their PCs equipped with several video cards that way. Now the term Bitcoin farm is used all over the world, and in any country this phrase means computers connected to one network with powerful equipment connected to them, on which digital coins are mined.

Theoretically, processors, video cards, and specialized equipment - ASIC miners - can be used as hardware for Bitcoin mining. But in practice, the power of the processor and even a gaming video card today is no longer enough to mine the most expensive and popular cryptocurrency. Therefore, Bitcoin farms that bring consistently high profits operate on the latest ASIC models.

If you answer the question, a Bitcoin farm - what is it in simple words and how does it work, then we can say this: it is one or several powerful machines interconnected that mine Bitcoin. Of course, a Bitcoin farm must always be connected to the Internet, because all operations to create new coins are carried out online. And due to the fact that in the Bitcoin system one new block, which today brings 12.5 coins, is mined on average in 10 minutes, computers must work around the clock. The reason for this is simple - 24/7 mining maximizes the chances of solving each new block before other miners do.

Software tasks performed by a Bitcoin farm

The Bitcoin farm has only one task - to solve a new block before other miners and thereby earn a reward for its owner. That is why the characteristics of the processor, motherboard, RAM and hard drive of the computer on which mining is carried out do not play any role. But the performance of video cards or ASICs, which are used to mine cryptocurrency, is key. The fact is that both the complexity of bitcoin mining and the number of bitcoin farms are increasing every day, and in order to successfully compete with other “diggers” of electronic coins, you need to have very powerful equipment with a high hashrate.

Mining itself, from the point of view of the software problems being solved, represents the following sequence of actions:

1. The Bitcoin system provides all miners with the hash function of the new block, and some of the hashing characters were taken from the previous, newly created block, and the other part were arbitrary.
2. Software equipment installed on mining farms all over the world solves a new block in parts by enumerating numbers - that is, it selects characters that would fit a given hash function (for reference, each block contains tens of thousands of characters, and the hash - the function is a chain of several dozen characters).
3. When any mining farm manages to solve a block, it will immediately be entered into the blockchain, and the system will give miners a new hash function that must be solved to obtain a new block.
4. For a solved block, the miner who extracted it receives a reward of 12.5 btc. Those who did not cope with the task simply begin solving a new block.

According to the principle described above, new blocks are created not only in bitcoin, but also in other cryptocurrency systems. Only the hashing algorithms differ: BTC uses SHA-256, Ethereum uses Ethash, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Digitalcoin uses Scrypt, etc.

On video cards you can mine cryptocurrency with almost any hashing algorithm, the main thing is to install the appropriate software on your computer. But ASIC miners are initially “tailored” to a specific algorithm, so each model is suitable for mining a limited number of electronic currencies.

Bitcoin farm - how to start mining digital coins

Considering cryptocurrency mining as a way to make money online, novice miners first of all wonder how a bitcoin farm is assembled and how to start mining bitcoins on it. In fact, there is nothing complicated in assembling a mining farm for bitcoins or any other cryptocurrency, and any user who knows how to connect other equipment to the motherboard will be able to complete the farm in less than an hour.

Assembling a small Bitcoin farm involves removing the case from the computer system unit and installing it on a rack made in the form of a frame, and then connecting it to the motherboard via video card risers and placing them on the rack at a distance of at least 10-15 cm from each other. Since powerful video cards require additional power, they come with special wires through which the cards installed on the motherboard are connected to the power supply.

Do you want to make money from mining? Then you will need certain investments and a business plan on how to organize the process. And if you consider that with the increase in the market value of cryptocurrencies, manufacturers of computing equipment for their extraction also raised prices, it becomes obvious that all investments need to be thoroughly protected. As a result, the organization of mining farms has turned into a completely trivial investment process, funds for which may well be borrowed. And start the process like this: draw up a business plan for a mining farm.

Investments in cryptocurrency mining

Mining has long been a type of entrepreneurial activity. Of course, here it is:

• revenue prospects with variable, but quite predictable factors;
• costs with a completely understandable structure, as well as the possibility of reducing them;
• there is growth potential and a tendency to increase the value of the extracted product - cryptocurrency block headers.

Like any project that potentially generates money, a mining farm startup will require initial investment. Before throwing yourself into the pool headlong and breaking piggy banks, extracting the last savings from the bins, it seems reasonable to make a calculation, draw up a business plan for a mining farm, in order to at least, theoretically, be convinced of the return on the invested funds, and most importantly, determine the deadlines after which can be focused on payback and net profit.

To maintain the required level of mining, project organizers have to acquire more and more computing power. The size of investments is growing by leaps and bounds. Mining farms that generate significant revenue become large-scale projects, more reminiscent in appearance of high-tech plants than the research centers of the first enthusiasts.

However, this is only the case with the very first cryptocurrencies. And new altcoins, for the most part, have not yet become so complicated that they require significant scaling or high-performance computing centers (which are ASICs) for their own production. Some tickers can even be mined on the CPU; some require video cards (GPU graphics processors). But the main thing is that the road to mining is open even for small entrepreneurs, who, with their farms, create that very decentralized cryptocurrency system, the implementation of which was pioneered by Bitcoin.

All the more in demand is a preliminary calculation of profitability and break-even point, because with a decrease in the scale of production, any change in external parameters can lead to a catastrophic drop not even in profit, but in revenue for a fairly significant period, which can make the project unprofitable.

Due to the significance of these factors, it seems reasonable to consider them in more detail, so that those wishing to invest in creating their own farm have an idea of ​​what they are dealing with and what they should be wary of.

Mining as a business

Any business depends on various conditions and factors. The mining business is no exception here. Let's try to list the most significant parameters.

Complexity

This capricious indicator has already been mentioned above. All of us, when we were schoolchildren, had occasion to solve, perhaps not even particularly ingenious, but cumbersome mathematical equations, where you just need to sequentially execute standard algorithms. Computing devices do something similar during the mining process, be it CPUs, GPUs or ASICs. What is any unit of cryptocurrency? This is one of the results of solving a giant system of equations. The number of solutions is limited and countable, but finding each subsequent root of such an equation is more difficult than finding the previous one.

The cryptocurrency system is created in such a way that the intensity of production only decreases over time. This is due to economic reasons: after all, presumably, an increasing amount of computing power will be drawn into the mining process, and a large-scale increase in productivity (in the absence of complication) can lead to temporary inflation of virtual money. So, from the perspective of the developers of the cryptocurrency system, this principle embedded in the program code of the cryptocurrency looks quite logical and justified.

But for those who want to enter the industry by organizing their own mining farm, this feature is an extremely unpleasant obstacle. Not only does difficulty work against you – constantly reduces the productivity of your mining center, – So this complexity also grows exponentially. That is, not evenly, but with sharp jerks and upwards without falling.

Recommendation: you should start mining those cryptocurrencies whose difficulty is on the flat part of the mining difficulty curve. That is, the angle of inclination of the tangent to the curve at a given point (this is characterized by the tangent of the angle of inclination of the tangent) should be less than 45 degrees to the abscissa axis (the tangent should be less than 1). The profitability of mining and its productivity directly depend on the difficulty. For example, for Bitcoin at the current date (01/15/2018), the yield of 1 Th/s is ideally just over $2.0.

Market rate of virtual coin

The second most important factor influencing the profitability of cryptocurrency mining. In 99% of cases, computing equipment is purchased for fiat money, to be more specific, for US dollars. And when mining cryptocurrency, an entrepreneur in most cases will most likely sell it for traditional money, because for example, it is customary to pay for electricity in the currency of the country where the farm is located. The growth of the cryptocurrency exchange rate gives mining literally a second wind.

In many ways, the growth of the cue ball for miners was comparable to the beginning of the rise in oil prices in the 2000s for the whole of... Russia. At a price of $80 per barrel, something that just recently seemed utopian, namely the development of the northern shelves, immediately becomes possible and profitable. To mine Bitcoins, high-performance computing centers - ASICs and (“concentrated” GPU processors), which were previously too expensive for mining, began to be purchased en masse.

An increase in the market rate of the mined cryptocurrency can really give impetus to the development of a mining farm. But its fall can lead to stagnation of the project and even loss of profit. The reason for this is the following: along with the growth of altcoin exchange quotations, everything related to the infrastructure of its production is growing, primarily computing equipment. If the price of cryptocurrency decreases, it will not become cheaper. Let’s assume that you won’t be able to purchase new mining components, but old capacities purchased at high prices will greatly extend their payback period.

Recommendation: when deciding to purchase computing power, pay attention to whether the cryptocurrency exchange rate is “overheated” and whether it is about to fall inevitably. If the answer is yes, then when purchasing equipment... bargain!

Electricity cost

The most influential variable influencing the cost of mined altcoins is the cost per kilowatt hour of electricity. Back in mid-2016, this was almost the determining factor for the entire mining procedure in general. However, since then, the cost of virtual coins of all types has increased significantly and the price of a kilowatt has lost its system-forming importance.

But as she grows, she can fall. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to consider access to cheap energy at the business planning stage. Possible measures:

• If the farm is located in an apartment or in a country house, you should take care of purchasing a home battery (manufactured by Tesla, for example) in order to be able to include a nightly tariff for energy consumption, where the cost per kilowatt hour is several times lower. At the same time, it will be possible to solve the problem of power supply interruptions;
• sometimes it makes sense to consider the possibility of placing a mining farm (including medium and mini-format) on the territory of some research institute or other enterprise that has electricity benefits. At the same time, it will be possible to solve the problem of cooler noise.

Recently, a project was launched by miners-heaters who propose not to throw away heat from microcircuits, but to use it to heat apartments. A completely profitable project that contributes to the decentralization of cryptocurrency mining in principle. Why is this not a real way out?

General attitude towards mining by government authorities in the country

Despite the fact that this item is placed at the very end of the list, it is the most important, fundamental and key. If cryptocurrencies are actually being persecuted, then it is quite possible that a reasonable solution would be not to create a farm within a given jurisdiction at all, but to try to do this in countries with a more lenient legal climate.

And if you don’t want to go anywhere, then take care of security measures, namely, make sure that no one knows about your farm. But remember: the speed of the “knock” exceeds the speed of sound!

Room

Space requirements begin when the truss reaches the size of several racks. In terms of ASICs, this is at least 36 pieces. It should be based on the standard that 1 such production unit must account for at least 2.2 m 3 of room volume. Of course, this is not a dogma, and the standard is very conditional.

We need a supply of air in order to ensure its normal circulation, and most importantly, so that it has time to cool down after removing the heat from the microcircuits. The operating temperature of the cards themselves is from 70 to 80°C. You need to make sure that the air temperature does not rise above 40°C (but preferably not above 30). Otherwise, the farm is in danger of overheating and failure (for a long time).

Naturally, to maintain a “comfortable” operating temperature, the room must be constantly cooled. It is considered normal if up to 45% of all energy costs are spent on cooling.

Some miners place their farms at home, but on balconies. In winter, it is possible to achieve significant energy savings due to the absence of the need to cool anything (it’s already cold on the balcony, the main thing is that it is glazed). In addition, it is automatically possible to solve the problem with noise, which, in the case of a farm of 12 ASICs, exceeds 65 decibels.

Equipment

The required mining equipment depends entirely on what mining algorithm is intended to be used. And this is directly dependent on the chosen altcoin (for mining).

SHA-256 and Scrypt

It is proposed to consider the most popular algorithms with reference to the virtual coins mined with their help and the equipment used.

Ethash Algorithm

This algorithm was specifically designed for mining the Ethereum cryptocurrency, which has become a kind of potential substitute for Bitcoin. Ether is mined by GPU processors - video cards produced by two world leaders - NVidia and AMD. Here is their ranking by performance:

• AMD Radeon R9 295X2 1018MHz/1250MHz 57.68 Mh/s;
• NVidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders 1582MHz 32.04 Mh/s;
• XFX Radeon R9 390 Black Edition OC 1050MHz/1500MHz 29.89 Mh/s;
• AMD Radeon R9 Fury X 1050MHz/1500MHz 29.71 Mh/s;
• NVidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Founders 1506MHz 27.35 Mh/s;
• AMD Radeon R9 Nano 1000MHz/500MHz 27.11 Mh/s;
• Sapphire Radeon RX 580 LE Nitro 1411MHz/2000MHz 26.45 Mh/s;
• AMD Radeon RX 480 1266MHz/2000MHz 24.86 Mh/s;
• EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW2 iCX 1860MHz 23.50 Mh/s;
• PowerColor Radeon RX 570 Red Devil 1320MHz/1750MHz 22.50 Mh/s;
• Sapphire Radeon R9 380X Nitro 1040MHz/1500MHz 21.38 Mh/s;
• XFX Radeon RX 470 1256MHz/1750MHz 20.35 Mh/s;
• EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 FTW+ 1860MHz/2002MHz 19.16 Mh/s;
• ASUS GeForce GTX 1050 Ti STRIX OC 1493MHz/1752MHz 12.03 Mh/s;
• XFX Radeon RX 460 1220MHz/1750MHz 11.93 Mh/s.

Equipment collection

You don’t need to think that in order to mine Bitcoins you only need ASICs (or video cards for Ethereum). You will need full-fledged computers, just a graphics function
the processor in it will be incredibly bloated. It can be compared to a bodybuilder who pumps up his muscles, but does not “pump up” his head much... However, he still has it.

So for mining, instead of a video card, a distributor with 7 or more slots is connected to the mother card, into which GPU processors are already inserted. In addition, the processor, RAM and all other components are also inserted into the motherboard. The distributor has a limited number of connections, so if you need to connect more GPU processors, this means that you will need more motherboards (in other words, you need another computer, albeit without a monitor).

Assemblies made from such quanta represent full scaling when constructing a mining farm.

What to do with income

You don’t need to think that once the mining process starts, your life will become miserable. It will, of course, improve significantly, but in order not to be left in the cold, the process needs to be managed. We are not talking about technical services (this goes without saying), first of all we mean financial management.

In no case should we forget about the growing complexity of mining. You always need to monitor it and react sensitively to it. How? Through the purchase of new computing devices and components. The optimal increase in mining capacity is 5% per month, if you count not by hashrate, but by actually mined virtual coins! (how can the Russian economy compete with you with its growth at a record... 1.2% at the end of 2017). How much additional capacity needs to be purchased for this is determined empirically, taking into account the increase in the complexity of mining.

The order of distribution of mined funds is as follows:

• first we pay “for the light”;
• then we set aside for the purchase of equipment, based on the above “standard”;
• everything that remains after this can be used as profit (that is, used to pay off a loan taken to finance a business plan, for current consumption, etc.).

If you do not follow this “budget rule,” then very soon your farm will first begin to stagnate and then completely degrade, which we under no circumstances wish for you to do.