Mining in 2020 has significantly reduced its profitability, but continues to be a source of small income. The most popular cryptocurrencies are currently mined using video cards and special equipment.
In addition, there is another type of mining that is available to almost every owner of computing equipment connected to the Internet – mining on a processor. This article will help you figure out how to start mining on a processor and how profitable it is.
What is processor mining
Mining on the processor is carried out in a similar way to the process of mining cryptocurrency using the proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm.
Most blockchain networks, on which the main cryptocurrencies are based, have built-in mechanisms for adapting the complexity of the calculations, due to the fact that the computation time for one block must be constant. Therefore, with an increase in the total computing power, it is necessary to increase the complexity of the computations in order to keep the block dwell time the same. There are cryptocurrencies, the mining of which is specially optimized for processors, which is done to achieve the highest degree of network decentralization and to provide the widest possible access to cryptocurrencies.
The most popular cryptocurrencies that are mined on processors use the CryptoNote algorithm or its modifications.
Is it profitable to mine with a processor, how not to lose money Due to the relatively low computing power of processors, mining cryptocurrencies with large networks (for example, ETH, ZCash, BTC) on them is not profitable.
You can get a small income from mining on the processor when mining cryptocurrencies specially optimized for this, for example, Monero .
The main differences between mining on a Processor (CPU) and a video card (GPU) There are no big differences between GPU and CPU mining. A video card is a combination of many computational modules on one crystal. These are microprocessors optimized for carrying out resource-intensive graphical computations that perform multithreaded computations in parallel.
Mining on a processor is carried out in a similar way, but the number of cores on a processor die is limited to a few, while video cards have hundreds and thousands of them. The algorithms for mining cryptocurrencies optimized for processors have such features that the computation to find the hashes of their blockchain depends on the speed of random access to the memory, which is the highest in the processor’s cache memory.
Therefore, on such algorithms, processors with a large cache memory have performance comparable to multi-threaded video cards. In addition, the availability of hardware support for carrying out cryptographic calculations has a significant impact on the mining speed. For processors, this is the AES instruction set . Older processors, especially server ones, can have a huge cache, but do not support these instructions, so they cannot provide a high hashrate for mining.
If desired, you can mine on a video card and a processor at the same time by running two different programs for this.
Choosing a processor for mining, the main criteria for buying Choosing a processor for mining, the main criteria for buying The choice of a processor for mining should be made taking into account the fact that for the highest performance you need a large amount of high-speed cache memory and the presence of support for AES instructions for performing cryptographic computations. All modern processors have this support.
Besides, the clock speed of the processor and its power consumption are important. The older the processors, the larger their semiconductor transistors and the higher their consumption. Therefore, the most optimal choice for mining is the choice of modern fast processors with a large cache memory.
Table of the best CPUs for mining 2021 To figure out which processor for mining is best to buy in 2021, consider a table comparing their hash rate when mining Monero and the approximate cost.
CPU Hash rate kH / s Cost, USD USA Profit per month, USD USA at the cost of electricity 0.05 cents AMD AMD CPU Threadripper 3990x 41.3 5000 $ 2.81 $ AMD CPU EPYC 7742 39 7545 $ $ 2.64 AMD CPU EPYC 7551 28.9 3400 $ $ 1.96 AMD CPU EPYC7601 28.3 4000 $ $ 1.92 AMD CPU EPYC 7302 24.4 1500 $ $ 1.66 AMD CPU Threadripper 3960X 20.4 1399 $ $ 1.36 AMD CPU Ryzen 9 3950X 16.51 850 $ $ 1.10 AMD CPU Ryzen 7 5800X 8.5 450 $ 0.57 $ AMD CPU Ryzen 5 3600 6.67 250 $ 0.45 $ AMD CPU Ryzen 5 1600 3.96 170 $ 0.27 $ INTEL Core Intel CPU i9-9980XE 9.8 2500 $ 0.67 $ Intel CPU i9-7940X 6.4 1000 $ $ 0.44 Intel CPU i9-9900 4.92 400 $ 0.34 $ Intel CPU i7-9700KF 3.54 350 $ 0.24 $ Intel CPU i7-8700 3.53 320 $ 0.24 $ Intel CPU i9-8950HK 2.66 320 $ 0.18 $ Intel CPU i5-8500 2.66 200 $ 0.18 $ Intel CPU i5-9500 2.47 190 $ 0.17 $ Intel CPU i7-7700K @ 4.70GHz 1.8 300 $ 0.12 $ Intel CPU i5-7600K 1.99 300 $ 0.13 $ Intel CPU i7-6700 @ 3.40GHz 1.7 300 $ 0.12 $
The data on the profitability of mining cryptocurrencies on central processors was taken from the Nicehash service.
What is better to mine on a processor in 2021 The most profitable cryptocurrencies for mining on the processor and you can choose the best processor for mining on the website
https://www.nicehash.com/profitability-calculator?lang=ru.
The calculator available on this site will help you figure out which mining processor you need to use to get the most benefit
At the time of this writing, AMD CPUs, in terms of mining profitability, have left far behind their competitors. According to the nice hash calculator, the best cpu from Intel (CPU i9-9980XE) brings in only $ 1.5 per day in net profit (at an outlet price of 0.05 USD / kWh). However, the payback period is quite long.
The AMD CPU Threadripper 390 x model, with a moderate cost of electricity, will pay off only after 2 years. True, if the prices for crypto coins increase, then the money will be recouped faster. In addition, it is worth noting that nice hash is not the most profitable pool, you can find more profitable servers. But, all the same, the payback period for central processors in mining is longer than that of video cards and ASICs-miners. The cost of top-end cpu models is equal to the cost of an entire mining farm of several powerful video cards, or one ASIK of the latest model. The advisability of buying an expensive CPU for mining is rather questionable. Nevertheless, there are a number of coins that can only be mined on cpu. A complete list is available at https://miningpoolstats.stream/epiccash-randomx .
Mining on server processors, which typically have a lot of cache, is beneficial when it supports AES instructions. For example, mining on a Xeon X3330 processor with 12 megabytes of cache gives a maximum speed of 50 hashes when mining Monero due to the lack of AES support. A simple Pentium or Intel I3 gives the same speed even when using a single mining thread, thanks to AES support. Good results are obtained by mining on an Intel I5 processor in 2-3 threads, developing a speed of 100-200 hashes per second.
When using the calculator, you need to take into account the possibilities of exchanging the mined cryptocurrency for ordinary money. For example, Monero can be exchanged on almost any cryptocurrency exchange, and Hodl only on a few, for example, on YoBit, where a wallet for this currency cannot be opened for several months.
Based on this, it is worth not buying various scam coins and mining reliable cryptocurrencies, such as Monero and using exchanges that have higher reliability. If you are not planning to put off these cryptocoins for a long time, then you can mine anything. The main thing is that they can be immediately exchanged for bitcoin, or another liquid coin. Just do not accumulate large amounts, sell everything at once according to the market order.
Is it possible to mine on a Bitcoin processor Theoretically, bitcoin can be mined on a processor and at the dawn of its mining it was done that way. But at present, the complexity of bitcoin mining has increased so much that even specialized equipment does not bring any income, and bitcoin mining on a processor can only be done for academic purposes.
Mining Monero on a processor Mining Monero on a processor Mining Monero and other similar cryptoassets is currently the most profitable. To do this, you need to open a wallet on one of the exchanges, for example Binance .
It should be borne in mind that full synchronization of a local wallet with the network can take a significant amount of time and take up a lot of disk space. In the latest versions of Monero wallets, you can use synchronization with a remote node, which significantly reduces synchronization time and practically does not take up space.
Alternative light wallet MyMonero. The program can be installed on a computer or work with the blockchain through a browser. Download link https://github.com/mymonero/mymonero-app-js/releases .
The XMR digital coin can also be stored using the Coinomi multi-currency application.
The profitability of mining Zcash on a processor
As in the case of Bitcoin, mining ZCash, as well as Bitcoin Gold, on a processor is theoretically possible, but it is a useless and unpromising waste of resources.
Mining on the Ethereum cryptocurrency processor Ethereum mining requires a lot of memory tied to the DAG data block used in the calculations. Currently, the DAG size for ether is 4 gigabytes , which makes it impossible to mine it on the processor. Moreover, to mine ether on video cards, you need to have such a volume of video memory to fit the DAG and service information. Therefore, on Windows 10, where the amount of service information is large, it is no longer possible to mine air on three gigabyte video cards. And cards with 4GB of video memory will soon go out of the way.
How to set up a program for mining on a processor VIDEO
The choice of a program for mining on a processor is carried out with the expectation that the program does not lead the computer to freezes and gives out the maximum hash rate.
Which program to choose for mining Monero and similar cryptocurrencies based on the Cryptonight algorithm on a processor are best mined with such a program:
XMRig miner – Available for download at https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig/releases . The default commission to the developer is 5%, when setting the parameter —donate-level 1 it is 1%. XMRig (CPU, Nvidia, AMD) is very user-friendly and comes with its own setup wizard to easily generate mining settings.
Open config. json , and enter the wallet address in the required column. The miner himself will detect available devices and start the process of mining the Monero cryptocurrency on the pool. For more fine-tuning, you can select the number of threads that the processor uses. As a rule, each thread requires at least 2 megabytes of cache, so, for example, on Intel CPU i7-7700K @ 4.70GHz (8 megabytes of cache), it makes no sense to run more than 4 threads. If the computer is used in parallel for other purposes, then the number of threads must be reduced.
You can write configuration parameters config. json or, create a separate executable file for each pool, if you have not yet decided where exactly you will work constantly. The mining launch file is created in the Notepad application. When finished, select the “save as” option and specify the file.bat extension. After that, the created file is launched and the mining process begins.
Start.bat
xmrig -o POOL ADDRESS -u YOUR MONERO WALLET ADDRESS -cn 2 -t 2, where 2 is the number of threads for mining Monero. The best mining pools for Monero currently are:
minexmr.com; supportxmr.com; nanopool.org; f2pool.com. Before starting mining, you need to create an email address for the accumulation of Monero cryptocurrency. The wallet can be created either locally by downloading the official wallet from getmonero.org or from an exchange such as Binance.
The profitability of mining on the processor The income from mining on the processor is small, but it allows you to reimburse the cost of the processor in a couple of years. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the ability of the motherboard to constantly provide power to the processor at maximum mode. In the summertime, the power supply circuits of the processor on the motherboard overheat, which can lead to breakdown of transistors and failure of not only the board, but also the processor.
The exact amount of income in relation to energy consumption can be viewed online on the Nicehash calculator. To use WhatToMine Mining Profitability Calculator,
Run mining on a pool to measure hashrate Open the page https://whattomine.com/coins/101-xmr-randomx ; Enter the received data in the Hash rate field. Specify the price of electricity in your region in the Cost field and the equipment capacity in the Power field. Click Calculate. The service will calculate how much you can earn approximately per day, week, month and year.
Each miner decides for himself whether or not he should mine on the processor, exposing both the board and the processor itself. Given the significant fluctuations in the value of the cryptocurrency, such mining can be a useful activity when collecting Monero cryptocurrency in the expectation of a significant increase in its rate to the values that it already had (more than $ 500).
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