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The amount of computing power dedicated to bitcoin mining rose to record levels as more companies used the energy and data center space freed up by the Ethereum network upgrade. This was reported by Bloomberg.

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Mining complexity, a measure of bitcoin miners’ computing power for the blockchain, jumped 13.6 percent in the two weeks ended Monday. It was also the biggest two-week adjustment since last May. Analysts say the increase is partly due to a decline in ether mining.

Ethereum’s technical update, known as Merge, took mining capacity completely out of the process. Alternative cryptocurrency mining also collapsed.

Ethereum miners have had to shut down their rigs because they no longer receive token rewards after the merge, leaving extra space in data centers to house bitcoin mining machines.

“Rack space for bitcoin miners has been limited, freeing up space paves the way for machines previously offline,” said Ethan Vera, chief operating officer of crypto-mining company Luxor Technologies.

In the past two weeks, he estimated that about 4 percent of current computing power has shifted from ether mining to bitcoin miners.

Higher levels of processing power are expected to reduce the mining income of bitcoin miners, who have already been hit by low bitcoin prices and soaring energy prices. The higher the mining power, the fewer bitcoins each miner will get, since the network only yields a limited number of tokens.

Ether mining consumed about half the energy used to mine bitcoins before the merger. While small-scale miners use the video cards of their copios, industrial-scale crypto miners use tens of thousands of dedicated devices (ASICs) at their facilities.

With the onset of cold weather, the cost of electricity is expected to rise even more – in many countries, the price of electricity changes dynamically depending on demand. With relatively small margins right now, mining depends on cheap electricity.

Cryptocurrencies are grabbing all the headlines. Since the first bitcoin appeared (2009) until today, the popularity of these digital assets has not stopped growing. They have been a true revolution in the world of transactions and have become a source of income for some, through trading or mining. The value of cryptocurrencies faces an upward trend (1 bitcoin, for example, is already around 50,000 euros) and therefore, many have seen mining as a good business.

Miners” are those users who are in charge of verifying the transactions made through computational resources, as well as recording them in a new block of the blockchain chain. It could be said that miners are the backbone of the system. As a reward for this work, they get a financial commission. In this article we will explain how to mine cryptocurrencies with a PC. If you are looking for components to start mining, please visit our IT section.

CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING: WHAT IS IT?

Because cryptocurrencies are part of a decentralized system, they require a tool to verify all the operations performed. Thus, mining cryptocurrencies does not consist of creating new coins, but is the process through which a user validates and verifies cryptocurrency transactions on the blockchain. To do this, all nodes in the blockchain network participate in solving the algorithm that the blockchain entails. In this “riddle”, a random number is considered and a cryptographic function is applied, to result in a hash that meets one characteristic: it must have a certain number of leading zeros. In order to solve these mathematical problems, computers work automatically and therefore require a great deal of computing power. Only then can new blocks of transactions be recorded in the register. The miners receive a new mathematical problem every ten minutes, and the fastest to solve it gets the new coins that are put into circulation. For example, in the case of bitcoin mining, miners get 6.25 bitcoins for each new block validated.

The hash rate indicates the volume of calculations per second (hashes) that the computer can process. As of today, the most common hash rate for Bitcoin mining will be several TeraHashes per second (TH/s), while in Ethereum mining it is several GigaHashes per second (GH/s).

These are the algorithms that can be mined, depending on the different cryptocurrencies:

– SHA256 to mine Bitcoin, Bitshares, EmerCoin, Digibyte, etc.

– Scrypt to mine Litecoin, DogeCoin, FedoraCoin, etc.

– Ethash to mine Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, etc.

– X11 to mine Dash, FuelCoin, StartCoin, VCash, etc.

– Equihash to mine Zcash, BitcoinGold, Zencash, etc.

– Cryptonight to mine Monero, Aeon, Electroneum, etc.

HOW TO MINE CRYPTOCURRENCIES WITH PC

Now that you know the theory, you may wonder how to mine cryptocurrencies with a PC. You should know that the first bitcoins were mined making use, solely and exclusively, of the processors or CPUs of computer equipment. This was because very few people were mining and it did not require so much computing speed. As more people started mining, the process became more complicated. Thus, faced with a more “competitive” environment, miners began to rely on GPUs (graphics cards), because these greatly enhanced computing power.

Later, with the advent of Bitcoin 0.2 software, specialized machines began to be used for computing: the so-called ASICs. ASICs are computers that have several processors, which work simultaneously. As you can imagine, the power of these computers is enormous.

To mine cryptocurrencies with PC you will need to use a specific mining application. These are some of the most outstanding tools: CG Miner, BFG Miner, BTC Miner, Easy Miner, Py Miner, Multi Miner or Bit Miner.

CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING HARDWARE

Now that you know how to mine cryptocurrencies with PC, let’s get to know the hardware you need. It is all about getting a working system with the highest possible hash rate.

• ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) chips: these are chips programmed to perform a specific task, for example mining only the SHA256 algorithm.
  These machines are the most common in the Bitcoin mining ecosystem. However, they could be used to mine other cryptocurrencies. Some of the most prominent ASIC manufacturers are: Bitmain, Canaan or Asicminer.
• GPUs (Graphic Processor Unit): this is what we know as the graphics card of a computer or video card. These have a higher hash rate than ordinary CPUs, which means they can solve mathematical problems much faster. They are most commonly used in Ethereum and Ethereum Classic mining, for example. Some of the featured GPU’s are Gigabyte Radeon RX Vega 64, Gigabyte Radeon RX Vega 56, Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080Ti, Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070Ti or Gigabyte Radeon RX 580. Cryptocurrency mining rigs are built by integrating various GPU’s (from 6).
• Other components you will need to assemble a mining rig are: motherboard, power supply, cooling, CPU and cabinet.

Since the mining system will be running at maximum power for long periods of time, it is important to go for efficient equipment. The ideal is to find a balance between the power of the components and their energy consumption. This way, you won’t be surprised when you receive your electricity bill.

Due to the cryptocurrency boom, the graphics card market has exploded. The supply of GPU’s was unable to meet the demand, so acquiring one of these devices became a complex task.

Core Scientific, a Wall Street-listed company, was hurt by the falling price and rising cost of electricity. It follows the failures of FTX, Three Arrows Capital and Celsius.

Core Scientific, one of New york’s largest publicly traded cryptocurrency mining companies, said it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the latest in a string of failures affecting the industry.

The Austin, Texas-based company attributed its bankruptcy to falling Bitcoin prices, rising mining energy costs and an unpaid debt of USD 7 million from U.S. cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, one of its largest customers.

Core Scientific declared in court that it had suffered a net loss of USD 434.8 million in the quarter ended September 30, 2022, and that it had only USD 4 million of liquidity at the time of filing for bankruptcy.

The company hired restructuring advisors in October and has since initiated negotiations with its creditors on a possible bankruptcy filing.

This year, the crypto ecosystem lost more than $1 trillion in value, and rising interest rates in the United States exacerbated fears of an economic downturn. The slump wiped out key players in the sector, such as cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and the firm Celsius.

The biggest blow came after major cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy last month. Its rapid fall prompted harsh regulatory scrutiny over how cryptocurrencies hold funds and conduct business operations.

After rapid growth in 2020 and 2021, Bitcoin – by far the most popular digital currency – fell by more than 60% this year, putting pressure on the cryptocurrency mining sector.

Processing Bitcoin transactions and “mining” new tokens is done by powerful computers connected to a global network, competing against each other to solve complex mathematical puzzles. But the business has become less profitable as the price of Bitcoin fell while energy costs soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Celsius, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July, owns several pieces of Bitcoin mining equipment housed at the Core Scientific facility. Celsius’ bankruptcy prevented Core Scientific from collecting the higher electricity bills the company is racking up at a rate of USD 900,000 a month, according to court filings.

Core Scientific said it will not liquidate the company and intends to pursue a restructuring backed by creditors holding more than 50% of the company’s convertible bonds.

Those creditors agreed to contribute up to $56 million in debtor-in-possession financing, and the convertible bondholders would ultimately hold 97% of Core Scientific’s shares if the restructuring is approved in court.

The company’s stock lost approximately 98% of its value so far in 2022, reducing its market capitalization to about USD 78 million. In its bankruptcy petition, Core Scientific said it has between USD 1 billion and USD 10 billion in assets and liabilities, and between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors.

Core Scientific went public in 2021 in a deal that at the time valued the miner at USD4.3 billion.

Analysts of the cryptocurrency market continue to note the decline in the cost of ASIC-mainers. Now they are sold with huge discounts, if we draw a parallel with the prices of 2021.

Antminer S19 XP Hyd (255Th) Specifications

Antminer S19 XP Hyd. (255Th) specifications, computing power consumption, power supply, usage environment and other related information are shown in the tables:

So, for example, a miner with at least 38 J/Th is now available for up to $763. This is 3% less than at the beginning of November. This family includes models Antminer S19, S19j and S19 Pro from Bitmain, Whatsminer M30s, M30s+ and M30s++ series from MicroBTC.

The equipment is priced from $469 to $888 ($13.06 per 1 Th) with a capacity of 38 J/Th to 68 J/Th. These are Antminer S17 and T17 series from Bitmain and Whatsminer M20, M21 and M32 series from MicroBTC.

If you compare the current prices of BTC miners with their cost at the end of 2021, the equipment has fallen in price by 80% on average. The drop in prices began in January of this year and continues to this day.

At the same time, market researchers note large deals on the purchase and sale of already used miners.