What is dual mining and how does it work
When mining cryptocurrencies that use the Ethash hash function (ETH, ETC, EXP and others), the greatest load in the calculations falls on the video card’s memory. The GPU is very lightly loaded. This allows you to simultaneously mine two cryptocurrencies using one video card. As a rule, they use the Claymore’s Dual Miner program, which works great simultaneously with the Nvidia and AMD video cards in the same rig under the 64-bit Windows 7 or 10 operating system. The latest version of this program can be downloaded from the links to https: // bitcointalk. org / index.php? topic = 1433925.0.
How to set up dual mining
Setting up dual mining consists in setting the optimal parameters for overclocking video cards, which should provide maximum performance, stability, automatic fan control and reducing the load during overheating, as well as setting parameters associated with a particular mining pool.
- Before that, the operating system, drivers must be installed and configured on the rig, and the computing mode for drivers from AMD must be enabled.
The record of the necessary settings of the mining program is recorded in a BAT file intended for its launch. Let’s consider in more detail the procedure for setting it up to start dual mining.
Bat file for dual mining
Dual mining can be performed both on one pool (for example, Ether and Pascal on Coinotron ), and on different (for example, Ether on Ethermine and Decred on pool.mn/dcr ). When setting up mining of the selected coin for a specific pool, you need to familiarize yourself with the help section on its website. Recommended parameters should be indicated in the parameters for launching the BAT batch file.The easiest way is to configure the launch parameters if the same video cards are in the rig.
If you do not take into account overclocking parameters, for NVidia and AMD video cards, setting the BAT file for dual mining looks as follows (for the Coinotron pool when mining ETH and Pascal):
EthDcrMiner64.exe -epool coinotron . com : 3344 –ewal username.worker_name -epsw work_password – esm 2 -dcri 22 – dcoin pasc -dpool coinotron . com : 3348 -dwal username.worker_name -dpsw work_password -allpools 1 -allcoins -1
In addition, it is necessary to set the parameters for acceleration, fan control and temperature . Their setup during double mining does not differ from the parameters used when mining one coin. For finer tuning of the miner, commands are used, which can be found in the Readme !!! file, which is located in the miner folder.
Let us consider these values in more detail:
- EthDcrMiner64.exe is the path to the mining executable. If the BAT file is located in the folder with the program, then just specify the name of the executable file for mining. In order to avoid problems during mining, you need to add it to the list of exceptions in the antivirus and firewall;
- -epool coinotron . com : 3344 is a parameter where the address and port of the pool are indicated. To mine ETC on the same pool, you must enter the value coinotron.com:3345. On Ethermine, during ether mining, enter the value us1.ethpool.org∗333 (or eu1, eu2, us2, asia1 when using other servers in this pool);
- -ewal username.worker_name is the username on the pool and the name of the rig. On some pools there is no need to create separate workers, but if there is an optional opportunity to use them, then it is better to use it. This is convenient for controlling the operation of rigs. On Ethermine, this line will look like this: -ewal wallet_address.worker_name ;
- -epsw worker_password – here indicate the password of the worker, which is indicated on the pool.On many pools, the English letter x is used instead of the password . On Ethermine this parameter will look like: -epsw x;
- -esm 2 – this parameter (Ethereum Stratum mode) is set in accordance with the parameters of the pool. For Coinotron, this parameter is 2, for dwarpool – 0, for Ethermine -1;
- -dcri 22 – parameter of the mining intensity of the second coin. If you do not set this parameter, then it is set to 30 by default. This parameter can be adjusted during mining by pressing + and – . One click will change the intensity by 1 unit up or down, respectively. Usually, this parameter is selected experimentally so that the mining speed of the first coin is the highest;
- – dcoin pasc – this parameter indicates which coin is mined as the second (in this case, Pascal). For mining, Decred indicate -dcoin dcr, for siacoin sc ”, for LBRY lbc, for mining other coins according to Blake2s and Keccak algorithms, indicate blake2s and keccak, respectively.
- -dpool coinotron . com : 3348 – address and port of the pool for mining the second coin;
- values -dwal username.worker_name and -dpsw work_password – mining parameters of the second cryptocurrency, which are set similarly to the pool settings for the first coin;
- -allpools 1 – parameter related to the commission to the developer. If a mining pool is used that is not included in the list of pools used by Claymore, then the program may stop working without setting this parameter;
- -allcoins -1 – a parameter related to mining on the developer, which must be specified when mining coins other than Ether as the first cryptocurrency. When installing -1, the miner will first work for the developer, and then for the user. This will help avoid crashes in the program with different sizes of the DAG data block, which is needed when mining cryptocurrencies with the Ethash algorithm.
If the computer freezes during the start of mining, then it is worth increasing the size of the swap file, reducing overclocking of cards, and also adding the -gser 1 or 2 parameter to the command line to more smoothly enable video cards in Ethash coin mining.
Sometimes, when the cards overheat, the question arises, how to disable dual mining in the Claymore’s Dual Miner program. To do this, just add the -mode 1 parameter to the BAT file , which will switch the program to mining only the first coin. If you want to enable dual mining, you need to set this value to -mode 0.
Metaverse Cryptocurrency Example (ETP)
As an example, consider how to mine a Metaverse (ETP) coin in a dual.
To mine this cryptocurrency, you need to open a wallet, select a pool with the lowest ping, configure a batch file to run and run it.The wallet for this coin can be downloaded from the official website, or use the wallet on one of the exchanges, for example, Bitfinex, HitBTC, RightBTC. The addresses of the pools can be taken from the site https://explorer.mvs.org/mining.
For the Russian pool http://comining.io when mining the second Pascal coin on Coinotron, the batch file will look like this:
EthDcrMiner64.exe -epool s.comining.io:9999 -ewal address1.worker1 -epsw x -esm 3 -dcoin pasc -dpool coinotron.comhaps348 -dwal login2.worker2 -dpsw password2 -allpools 1 -allcoins -1
In order to have the highest profit, you need to constantly monitor which coins can be profitably mined in dual.
Basic currency combination options
The first coin can be used to mine Ether, Ether Classic, Expanse, Musicoin, Ubiq and other, less well-known cryptocurrencies corresponding to this algorithm.
As a second cryptocurrency, you can mine: Decred, Siacoin, LBRY Credits, as well as less common cryptocurrencies with Pascal, Blake2s (for example, Verge, NevaCoin, Tajcoin) and Keccak (SmartCash, MaxCoin and others). When mining new, little-known coins, you need to understand that in the future there may be problems with their sale due to the lack of support on most cryptocurrency exchanges.The most profitable coin for mining at a particular point in time can be tracked on the Whattomine website.
Which coin to choose for dual mining
The income from mining the first coin can be viewed at the following addresses (for the most famous cryptocurrencies):
- Ether – https://whattomine.com/coins/151-eth-ethash;
- Ether Classic – https://whattomine.com/coins/162-etc-ethash;
- Expanse – https://whattomine.com/coins/154-exp-ethash;
- Musicoin – https://whattomine.com/coins/178-music-ethash;
- Ubiq – https://whattomine.com/coins/173-ubq-ethash.
The profitability of mining the second coin can be found at:
- Decred – https://whattomine.com/coins/152-dcr-blake-14r;
- Siacoin – https://whattomine.com/coins/161-sc-blake-2b;
- Pascal – https://whattomine.com/coins/172-pasc-pascal.
Profitability calculators for other coins can be found at https://whattomine.com/calculators . Tracking the benefits of mining on these calculators will help to understand that it is better to mine in a dual with ether, or its clones.
To enter values into the calculator, you need to know the approximate mining speed of a given algorithm, power consumption and the cost of one kilowatt in dollars.
Coin mining according to the Ethash algorithm, as a rule, is performed at such a speed:
- on AMD cards of the RX470 / 570 series – about 28 Mh / s depends on the firmware of the video card and the memory on it;
- AMD 480/580 – about 30 Mh / s, depending on the settings and features of the memory and GPU;
- RX460 / 560 – 13 Mh / s;
- R9 290 – 28-30 Mh / s;
- for Nvidia GTX 1060 3/6 gigabyte cards – 19-24 Mh / s;
- GTX 1070 – 30 GTX Mh / s;
- GTX1080 with OhGodAnETHlargementPill-r2 tablet – 35 Mh / s;
- GTX1080Ti with OhGodAnETHlargementPill-r2 tablet – 50 Mh / s.
The second coin at standard intensity (about 30) on the latest versions of Claymore’s Dual GPU Miner on AMD cards of the RX570 / 580 level is mined at a speed of about 900 Mh / s for Decred, about 500 Mh / s for Pascal, for Keccak – about 300 Mh / s . On Nvidia cards, Decred mining speed is about 2-3 times lower, Keccak – about 2 times lower.
At the same time, consumption, compared with the mining of one coin, increases by 30-50 watts. Accordingly, the heating and wear of the cards increases.Based on these figures, mining the second coin is practically profitable with free or very cheap electricity.
Is dual mining profitable, advantages and disadvantages
When mining the second coin, the following factors must be considered:
- Currently, ASIC miners have been issued for most coins for the second coin algorithms;
- The mining speed of the second coin on video cards is not so high and profitable, therefore dual mining currently makes sense for coins that do not have many ASICs;
- The latest versions of Claymore’s Dual Miner have no commission for the developer from obtaining a second coin.
Double mining allows you to earn additional cryptocurrency without spending additional costs on the purchase of new equipment. The rate of most coins that are mined as a second cryptocurrency is quite low, and the complexity of mining profitable tokens is very high. In this regard, the extraction of the second coin now actually does not compensate for the increase in electricity costs.
Although mining a second coin is currently not so profitable. as it was a few months ago, it can be cost-effective at a low price for electricity. In addition, in winter, an increase in the power consumption of video cards during dual mining can be beneficial in the form of heating the room in which rigs are installed.
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