Ether (ETH), the digital currency on the Ethereum blockchain, has grown to become the second largest cryptocurrency, commanding an aggregate market value of more than $2 billion – behind Bitcoin with a market cap of well more than $10 billion. While people may buy Ether in the open market (for around $225 per ETH currently), others may choose to “mine” for ETH by using their computer’s power to validate and confirm transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, in a process known as proof-of-work (PoW). These ‘miners’ are rewarded with blocks of Ether – currently the reward is 5 ETH per block, and a block is expected to be found, on average, once every 12 seconds. Bitcoin miners can use specialized hardware known as ASIC chips to solve the mining algorithm, but Ethereum’s mining algorithm is purposefully ASIC-resistant, requiring computer memory as well as processing power. Ethereum is quite difficult to get mining on personal Windows based computers – although with a bit of help and following the tutorials you can get it up and running and start your own ethereum mining project in an hour or so. You will need to download two programs and need to have a decent GPU (graphics card) with more than 1GB of memory to get the most bang for your buck in terms of mining as Ethereum works on a memory hard hashing technique which GPU’s are best.

For those thinking of getting into Ether mining. This forum is not the alpha and omega of eth mining. The stock of Ethereum. Ethereum is already working hard.

Running a CPU you might be able to generate 0.15 Mega Hashes whilst with a decent GPU with enough memory you could be doing upwards 25 Mega Hashes (used to measure computing power). So in terms of total efficiency, taking into account electrical costs, a GPU is definitely worth it even if it costs you upwards $200. How to Mine for Ether Directly While home bitcoin mining has become quite user-friendly, ether mining using the CPU or GPU on your computer is a bit more hands on. Here is a basic overview of the steps required. Create an ether wallet. This can be done for free by downloading wallet software, or by creating one via a web wallet service such as. This wallet is your virtual ether account that holds your digital currency and where you can send and receive coins.

Any node participating in the network can be a miner and their expected revenue from mining will be directly proportional to their (relative) mining power or hashrate, ie., number of nonces tried per second normalised by the total hashrate of the network. Ethash PoW is memory hard, making it basically ASIC resistant. If you’re serious about mining Ethereum, download an Ether wallet. You’ll need a secure wallet to store your mining rewards. Ethereum GPU Mining. It’s possible to GPU mine Ethereum using Geth. You’ll need to have some familiarity with the command line in order to get started. Ethereum Mining vs Bitcoin Mining. Bitcoin mining and Ethereum mining are quite different. For those thinking of getting into Ether mining. This forum is not the alpha and omega of eth mining. The stock of Ethereum. Ethereum is already working hard. Why mining ETH is worth it and the reasons that Ethereum has the. How I Learned to Mine Eth (Ether) on Ethereum. The hard-fork DAO which still mines ETH.

Amy mining rewards you earn will go to this wallet. The next thing you will need to do is download a program called Geth, which is program that talks to the Ethereum Network and serves as the relay between your computer’s hardware and the rest of the distributed network. When a block is mined by another computer, your Geth program will receive that information and update your copy of the blockchain.

Geth comes zipped and is a command-line program with no windows or graphical user interface. You will then have to download another piece of software to actually initiate and process the mining activity, known as Ethminer. This is also a command-line only program, and can only be started after you have downloaded and synchronized the entire Ethereum blockchain with Geth. How to Mine for Ether Indirectly The easiest way to mine for ether is to do so indirectly, via ‘cloud mining services’ OR by using networks like Computta.com where they join forces with many other users to do necessary calculations on their computers and get cryptocurrency rewards. Computta’s Smart Miner application will actually do everything for you after a simple 2-click install. They will choose the best mining pools, best methods and even best and most profitable cryptocurrency to mine at any give moment, so you get the most reward possible from your device’s computing power.

You will see your earnings in real time and can withdraw to your cryptocurrency wallet at any time. With cloud mining you need to buy into a ‘contract’ to rent their datacenter’s computing power. Cloud mining contracts are generally long-term – 1-year or longer – and come at a fixed cost to the buyer, right now from $35 per MH/s of computing, or “hashing” power. Cloud mining service claim that in the (very) long-run it is profitable for users to rent their mining power. But we are yet to see any real users prove that. Note that like Bitcoin mining, ETH mining profitability fluctuates based on Ethereum’s market price of course, as well as the mining difficulty, which is a function of how much aggregate mining power is on line. Bottom Line If you are really good with your computer and basic programming skills and are ready to be overcoming continuous tech difficulties and hiccups you can try to setup your computer to mine for Ether directly.

Otherwise consider using network mining service like Computta.com (BTW100% free) to see instant earnings from your computer(s) or invest into cloud mining contracts and wait to see how it will turn out for you in the long run.

If you are thinking of getting into Eather mining and start building an expensive rig then dont, soon in a few months you will not be ble to mine anymore. PoS will take over and mining will no longer be possible. PoS stands for Proof Of Stake, meaning people that hold Ether can do so called staking where they deposit their coins into a 'staking vault' and receive fees for confirming transactions on the network.

That works via a consensus algorithm. My recommendation: Its too late to get into mining, instead buy Ether now with that money and you will make much more money. The required amount for staking is RUMORED to be 1500. But if you allready have a few AMD cards laying around, then you can at least mine some Ether for now.but dont og out buy expensive equipment now. The party is already over and the only way to make money with Ether is to buy ether as an Investment and hold on to it for future gains in price. Good Luck Servercookie. I am seriously not trying to troll anyone, just informing people if the coming change.

The majority of the suggestions here are pretty vauge and cryptic, and no one is giving anyone a clear answer. The simple fact is that mining will stop soon and then you will sitt there With a lot of shinny Cards you have to mine something else With. If you can find a profitable alt coin that is. I was seriously thinking of getting into mining myself. But buying equipment for 5k and only being able to mine for a few more months is not such a great Investment idea. Not if you want a ROI I have read the blog, and the conclusion is fairly simple.

We are now in PoW and are able to mine, once PoC starts then mining will stop.simple as that really. For those who have allready bought Equipment then mine as its the last day on Earth and hope you recoup the Investment. OP Is trolling but does make a point or two. At the rate people are moving to mining it will surely be destroyed in a month or two. I have yet to see anything come out of ether beside sergei's ethereum doubler (fraud ponzi russian scam) and augur, which is nothing special anyway and could have been implented with other crypto currencies. When it does go to POS what will the network be doing besides facilitating ether transfers and students trying to start their own coin??

Problem with BTC >>chinese took over with asic and 1cent power and BTC diff grew 10x the rate of BTC price. Result = dead network with bad price point. Problem with Ether >>1.2 million miners wanting another bitcoin when it isn't going to be that, too many miners, too fast growth with no application or useful purpose relative to cost How am i trolling, are you seriously thinking you will be mining once PoC comes out.

I would love to see you doing any ether mining at that point. Feel free to prove me wrong, just read the eutherum blog. Problem with Ether >>1.2 million miners wanting another bitcoin when it isn't going to be that, too many miners, too fast growth with no application or useful purpose relative to cost Right, while I believe in Ethereum in the long run, but it should be pretty obvious the price is buoyed by pure speculation at this point. Not to say this is uncommon in crypto, it's just Ether is not backed by anything sustainable right now. Despite this, the mining profits right now are insane. We can all enjoy that for the time being. Yes, mining 'right now' is great which is why we're seeing an explosion of farms.

If anyone cares to calculate how much some people have made of Ether's 3000% increase in the past 3 months and what this means, then it's kinda obvious how much capital the wiser early adopters have to sink into this. Further consider that Ethereums market cap ATM is just a shard under $1b from an origional $19m crowd fund. People still have that money to spend, and obviously some are spending it on huge GPU farms. Because of this, mining profits in a months time will probably crash out with the diff explosion.

It really has nothing to do with POS. POS and POW will both be running in Serenity up until Metropolis which I believe intends only to run POS. OP is not trolling, just inexperienced and not fully aware of the more likely factors that threaten our POW returns. Yes, mining 'right now' is great which is why we're seeing an explosion of farms.

If anyone cares to calculate how much some people have made of Ether's 3000% increase in the past 3 months and what this means, then it's kinda obvious how much capital the wiser early adopters have to sink into this. Most Efficient Electroneum ETN Miner 2018. Further consider that Ethereums market cap ATM is just a shard under $1b from an origional $19m crowd fund. People still have that money to spend, and obviously some are spending it on huge GPU farms. Because of this, mining profits in a months time will probably crash out with the diff explosion. It really has nothing to do with POS. POS and POW will both be running in Serenity up until Metropolis which I believe intends only to run POS. OP is not trolling, just inexperienced and not fully aware of the more likely factors that threaten our POW returns some people like to buy and sell, some like to 'mine' as well.

From the initial investors perspective, if you are selling out of eth, what will you buy? I bought eth directly when it was inexpensive (up to 0.008 BTC/eth), but now I want to mine instead of buying because mining insulates you against price volatility somewhat. I have spent whatever i can spend and or have electricity/AC for during spring. Maybe one or two more cards and that's it.

Total of three rigs with up to ~220mh/s in immediate future and total of ~260-270mh/s final. Will mine whatever i will mine, then hold. Will not convert back to fiat, or at least not for a while. Maybe will sell some to self driving cars with AI later on. Right now is still NOT a bad time to start mining ETH simply because the GPUs are in stock and still cheap. So going out and maxing out your credit card at Newegg doesn't seem like a big risk like it did 2 years ago. The reason why alot of people got BURNT with Litecoin GPU mining is because when the 280X came out it cost like $299 USD, and then it was out of stock and prices jumped to $450 USD and people kept buying them while the price of BTC and LTC kept falling and difficulty rising.

With ETH you can get the R7 370 which is like $100 USD and worse case you sell it second hand for like $70 USD in 6-12 months. Yes, mining 'right now' is great which is why we're seeing an explosion of farms. If anyone cares to calculate how much some people have made of Ether's 3000% increase in the past 3 months and what this means, then it's kinda obvious how much capital the wiser early adopters have to sink into this.

Further consider that Ethereums market cap ATM is just a shard under $1b from an origional $19m crowd fund. People still have that money to spend, and obviously some are spending it on huge GPU farms.

Because of this, mining profits in a months time will probably crash out with the diff explosion. It really has nothing to do with POS. POS and POW will both be running in Serenity up until Metropolis which I believe intends only to run POS. OP is not trolling, just inexperienced and not fully aware of the more likely factors that threaten our POW returns some people like to buy and sell, some like to 'mine' as well. From the initial investors perspective, if you are selling out of eth, what will you buy?

I bought eth directly when it was inexpensive (up to 0.008 BTC/eth), but now I want to mine instead of buying because mining insulates you against price volatility somewhat. I have spent whatever i can spend and or have electricity/AC for during spring. Maybe one or two more cards and that's it. Total of three rigs with up to ~220mh/s in immediate future and total of ~260-270mh/s final.

Will mine whatever i will mine, then hold. Will not convert back to fiat, or at least not for a while. Maybe will sell some to self driving cars with AI later on.

Yes, mining 'right now' is great which is why we're seeing an explosion of farms. If anyone cares to calculate how much some people have made of Ether's 3000% increase in the past 3 months and what this means, then it's kinda obvious how much capital the wiser early adopters have to sink into this.

Further consider that Ethereums market cap ATM is just a shard under $1b from an origional $19m crowd fund. People still have that money to spend, and obviously some are spending it on huge GPU farms.

Because of this, mining profits in a months time will probably crash out with the diff explosion. It really has nothing to do with POS. POS and POW will both be running in Serenity up until Metropolis which I believe intends only to run POS. OP is not trolling, just inexperienced and not fully aware of the more likely factors that threaten our POW returns some people like to buy and sell, some like to 'mine' as well.

From the initial investors perspective, if you are selling out of eth, what will you buy? I bought eth directly when it was inexpensive (up to 0.008 BTC/eth), but now I want to mine instead of buying because mining insulates you against price volatility somewhat. I have spent whatever i can spend and or have electricity/AC for during spring. Maybe one or two more cards and that's it.

Total of three rigs with up to ~220mh/s in immediate future and total of ~260-270mh/s final. Will mine whatever i will mine, then hold. Will not convert back to fiat, or at least not for a while. Maybe will sell some to self driving cars with AI later on.

Yes, mining 'right now' is great which is why we're seeing an explosion of farms. If anyone cares to calculate how much some people have made of Ether's 3000% increase in the past 3 months and what this means, then it's kinda obvious how much capital the wiser early adopters have to sink into this.

Further consider that Ethereums market cap ATM is just a shard under $1b from an origional $19m crowd fund. People still have that money to spend, and obviously some are spending it on huge GPU farms. Because of this, mining profits in a months time will probably crash out with the diff explosion. It really has nothing to do with POS.

POS and POW will both be running in Serenity up until Metropolis which I believe intends only to run POS. OP is not trolling, just inexperienced and not fully aware of the more likely factors that threaten our POW returns some people like to buy and sell, some like to 'mine' as well. From the initial investors perspective, if you are selling out of eth, what will you buy?

I bought eth directly when it was inexpensive (up to 0.008 BTC/eth), but now I want to mine instead of buying because mining insulates you against price volatility somewhat. I have spent whatever i can spend and or have electricity/AC for during spring. Maybe one or two more cards and that's it. Total of three rigs with up to ~220mh/s in immediate future and total of ~260-270mh/s final. Will mine whatever i will mine, then hold. Will not convert back to fiat, or at least not for a while. Maybe will sell some to self driving cars with AI later on.

Some people like to buy and sell, some like to 'mine' as well. From the initial investors perspective, if you are selling out of eth, what will you buy? I bought eth directly when it was inexpensive (up to 0.008 BTC/eth), but now I want to mine instead of buying because mining insulates you against price volatility somewhat. I have spent whatever i can spend and or have electricity/AC for during spring. Maybe one or two more cards and that's it. Total of three rigs with up to ~220mh/s in immediate future and total of ~260-270mh/s final.

Will mine whatever i will mine, then hold. Will not convert back to fiat, or at least not for a while. Maybe will sell some to self driving cars with AI later on I had a few hundred mined eth which I had to sell off at 90c to pay electricity and a BTC loan. It wasn't pretty. But I'll be damned if I sell any more now. I'm buying rigs with with mortgage redraw, effectively borrowing from my house with my eth holdings as security. Well, there's no doubt you're committed I, too, see great value in Ethereum, but the question is how long will it take for that to manifest, and how long will investors' patience hold out.

As we agreed in an earlier exchange, Ethereum wall take a lot longer to be fully baked than anyone can imagine, at this point. One point on which I'm not quite with you is this ETH/BTC inversion scenario.

I personally don't see ETH and BTC as competitors, but rather complimentary. BTC is a store of value, the ultimate number of BTC that will be available is already now; it has no potential for inflation.

ETH will inflate, but it's core value is not as a currency, but as a smart transaction platform. ETH is, essentially, the stock of Ethereum. Ethereum is already working hard to develop a bridge between the BTC blockchain and the ETH blockchain to facilitate smart contracts with BTC as one of the base contract currencies. So, although I see great potential for further grow in ETH as a stock proxy, I don't really see it displacing BTC, and even if it were to do that, certainly not in the timeframe you've proposed.

Obviously, though, no one knows how this very interesting game will play out. -Best Care David.

The question regarding Bitcoin is, 'what gives it value?' It has scarcity based speculative value. It has utilitarian value for the problems it solves by being a geo-politically agnostic currency and it can be traded for goods and services. However, it's value is not related to any physical fundamentals, not even the energy wasted to keep it going. It was always an experiment, a prototype and so the truest value of Bitcoin is what has been learnt in order to give rise to something like Ethereum. And that is a qualitative value rather than quantitative. In the longer term, through IoT in particular, Ethereum will have physically tangible interaction with mainstream society, as common place and commonly used as are mobile apps now.

That is a real social capital. What will Bitcoin have? I also don't understand why people say eth is not intended as a currency. It is both a currency and a commodity, and if you don't own any then you can't interact with those real world Etherum conveniences. I've covered this territory on 'value' in a There is nothing in Bitcoin where I can't see Ethereum doing a better job except for perhaps Bitcoin's deflationary economic philosophy. That's why I'm BTC pessimistic, it's being superseded.

I'm not saying it will disappear but who will want it, who will want to mine it and who will want to maintain it? After a few more days thinking, I'll concede that saying there will be a inversion of the ETH/BTC pair in the short term was a bit preemptive. I was thinking that because BTC is the primary purchasing currency for ETH, that BTC holdings would be sold down to buy ETH.

What I didn't consider is BTC's roll as the cross currency from fiat to Eth, IOW the demand for BTC remains as it's currently the simplest way to purchase ETH. That all changes once ETH/fiat exchanges are established, again driving down the demand for BTC. Some people like to buy and sell, some like to 'mine' as well. From the initial investors perspective, if you are selling out of eth, what will you buy? I bought eth directly when it was inexpensive (up to 0.008 BTC/eth), but now I want to mine instead of buying because mining insulates you against price volatility somewhat. I have spent whatever i can spend and or have electricity/AC for during spring. Maybe one or two more cards and that's it.

Total of three rigs with up to ~220mh/s in immediate future and total of ~260-270mh/s final. Will mine whatever i will mine, then hold. Will not convert back to fiat, or at least not for a while. Maybe will sell some to self driving cars with AI later on I had a few hundred mined eth which I had to sell off at 90c to pay electricity and a BTC loan. It wasn't pretty. But I'll be damned if I sell any more now.

I'm buying rigs with with mortgage redraw, effectively borrowing from my house with my eth holdings as security. When I hear stuff like this people selling their homes orcretirement to buy miners it tells me things are out of hand What if the price tanks back to 2 or 3 then what will you do? It's the Wild Wild West of crypto nothing is promised I understand investing in mining it's really too late to buy large amounts of eth at current prices, like Someone said mining at least insulates you from price fluctuations since you can always sell your hardware But buying can work well too I made 3 btc playing the market this weekend sold a bunch at 15 Then bought back on the huge dump at 12 It's so easy to do this if I had 10k fiat available I could make 300 a day just following the whales.

I'm buying rigs with with mortgage redraw, effectively borrowing from my house with my eth holdings as security. When I hear stuff like this people selling their homes orcretirement to buy miners it tells me things are out of hand Perhaps I made a bit too dramatic a statement.

What I've done is redraw a few $1000 from advanced payments on my house, to pay for mining gear instead of funding it from my current ethereum holdings. The holdings though humble compared to many other early adopters, are still in excess of what I've redrawn. My first rig was funded with a BTCJam loan because Ethereum was still so conceptual and I didn't want to mess with things on the home front. Now there's a whole lot more confidence in the platform.