Beginner’s Guide to Ethereum mining

By : Steven Hay | final updated : 3/7/22
Important update: For our readers who are looking to make a profit with crypto, we recommend looking into Ethereum staking as an alternate for mining .
Ethereum mine is no long recommended ; Ethereum is expected to amply move into a PoS algorithm in 2022, which will render mine disused. Two staking alternatives we recommend looking into are CEX.io and Binance .
The article below is kept for historic purposes and will no longer be updated.

Getting started with Ethereum Mining is reasonably easy. All you need is a Graphics Processing Unit ( GPU ) and you can start generating Ether. In this post I ’ thousand going to cover what Ethereum mining is in a nutshell and what you need to do in decree to mine Ethereum productively .

Ethereum Mining Summary

Ethereum mining is the process of maintaining the Ethereum ledger through solving complex mathematical problems. Unlike Bitcoin mine, Ethereum mine can be done with a graphic Processing Unit ( GPU ) alone .

How to Start Mining Ethereum

• Step 1 – Install your GPUs and set up your computer
• Step 2 – Get an Ethereum wallet (Mist or MyEtherWallet)
• Step 3 – Join an Ethereum mining pool
• Step 4 – Start mining!

That ’ s it ! If you want a detailed explanation about Ethereum mine keep on reading. here ’ s what I ’ ll screen :

Don’t like to read? Watch the video version of this guide:

1. Ethereum mining in a nutshell

At its core, Ethereum works very similar to Bitcoin. It ’ s a decentralized daybook that is verified and updated by participants of the Ethereum network .
Ethereum is requires mining fair like Bitcoin. The only direction to update a new block of Ethereum transactions is by mining that engine block. The best room to understand Ethereum mining thoroughly is to read ( or watch ) our guide on Bitcoin mine .
however, while conceptually the two are much alike, there are significant technical differences. Some are more obvious ; for example, Ethereum blocks are added every 15 seconds ( on average ) while Bitcoin blocks which are added every 10 minutes ( on average ).
As a reward, Ethereum miners receive 2 ETH plus all transaction and code-processing fees ( aka boast ) contained in their block, plus a possible bonus for any uncles they include .
As for the mine algorithm, Ethereum uses a hash algorithm known as Ethash which is different than Bitcoin ’ randomness hashcash. Ethash is ill-sorted with the especial hash hardware ( ASICs ) developed for Bitcoin mining .
furthermore, it ’ s a memory-hard algorithm ; meaning it ’ sulfur designed to resist the development of Ethereum-mining ASICs. rather, Ethash is intentionally best-suited to GPU-mining .

Hashrate, Difficulty and Price

Assuming the measure of hardware dedicated to Ethereum mining is rising, why aren ’ t blocks being mined ever more quickly. How come the modal 15 second block time remains ceaseless ?
The answer is Difficulty .
By automatically adjusting the computational difficulty of solving a auction block, the Ethereum blockchain is able to maintain ~15 second intervals. You ’ ll notice Difficulty close tracks hashrate .
The future obvious doubt is what drives changes in hashrate and difficulty in the first place ?
The answer is price !
As can be seen in the effigy below, hashrate has followed ( with some appreciable imprison ) the ETH price :

Chart of Ethereum ’ s US Dollar value, courtesy of Trading View
Having said all that, it ’ randomness important to know that Ethereum is planned to move from a proofread of work system that requires mining to a validation of interest arrangement that renders mining useless. It ’ south ill-defined when this change will happen precisely .

2. Is Ethereum Worth Mining?

well, here are some commodity reasons to mine Ethereum :

• Mining can be a great way to subsidize the purchase of a new, high end GPU (or two or three…).
• As Ethereum is easily traded for Bitcoins (BTC), it’s a cheap way to slowly build up a holding position in Bitcoin.
• ETH can also be sold directly for cash on several major exchanges, such as CEX.io, Kraken, Gemini and Coinbase.
• Mining can be a cheap entry ticket to the Ethereum markets, loved by traders for their high volatility. If you’re a good and / or lucky trader, you can maximize your profits.
• Building a large ETH position now, in the Proof of Work mining phase, will enable you to earn interest on your holdings if / when Ethereum switches to a Proof of Stake.
• If you believe in the Ethereum concept (despite the failure of the DAO and doubts regarding the viability of Ethereum’s approach), you can support and gain a voice in the Ethereum network through mining.

3. Is Ethereum Mining Profitable?

With a clear sympathize of Ethereum mine and authoritative concepts like Difficulty, it ’ mho fourth dimension to perform some economic calculations .
This footstep is identical authoritative and you should not skip it. While mining earns money it besides costs money and if you make the wrong decisions you may end up with negative ROI ( i.e. paying more than you earned ) .
fortunately, we created an Ethereum mine profitableness calculator so it is fairly easy to find out if you ’ re going to be profitable or not .

In the calculator fill up in the data as follows :
Difficulty Factor, Block reward and  ETH/USD rate: These fields are updated automatically. You can enter your own values manually to simulate scenarios .
Hashrate, Power (Watts): Use this table to find the parameters per your GPU ’ s make and model. Make sure the hash pace measurement is identical between the mesa and the calculator i.e. MH/s, KH/s etc .
Pool Fees % (optional): Enter your mining fees if you ’ re mining via a mining pool ( normally run about 1 % plus a 1 ETH payout fee ). Leave this blank if you ’ re mine on your own ( not recommended )
Hardware cost (USD): Put here ( in USD ) how much you paid ( or about to pay ) for your GPU and any other mine equipment .
Power Cost (USD/kWh): Enter your electricity price, as appears on your utility poster. Use this list for the USA or this list for elsewhere in the world .

The profitableness end product will appear below the calculator as you enter the values :

* In the model above I used a 1080Ti GPU with a residential power price of 20 cents per kWh, with no mining pool. As can be seen in this exercise, this apparatus will make me lose money, even after a year of mining…
Most importantly, it is all-important to understand that difficulty and price are variables i.e. they can and will probably change significantly over time. The profitableness score you get is only true to the moment of calculation .

Profitability Warning

Ethereum is scheduled to switch to a Proof of Stake model at some unspecified date, meaning it will no retentive be mineable. Before any serious outgo of capital, foster research into Ethereum ’ second prospects is warranted .
While GPUs may be set to mining other coins and their costs partially recouped through resale, GPUs depreciate quickly. This is particularly true of cards that are used for constant, intensive workplace of mine .

4. Choosing your Mining Hardware

experiment with respective GPU selections in the calculator will reveal a card with the best price to performance to power pulmonary tuberculosis combination ( expressed as MH/s per Currency Unit ). Keep in mind that AMD cards outperform NVidia for cryptocurrency mine purposes .
The tease should have at least 3 gigs of RAM or it won ’ triiodothyronine be able to properly mine Ethereum. This is due to the growing DAG file ( directed acyclic graph ) used in the Ethereum Proof of Work hashing process .
For a dispatch list of Ethereum mining hardware read this post .

5. Operating System Requirements

This template covers using Windows 10 ( make certain it ’ mho 64 snatch ). There are besides diverse distributions of Linux that can be used ( not covered here ). Windows is the easiest to configure and get improving and running fast. There is no Mac version at this time .
There could be a very drawn-out post on all the hardware requirements and considerations, but to cover the important things at a eminent horizontal surface, here are some primary coil considerations for building a mining outfit :

• You want to get a motherboard with enough PCI-E slots to support the number of cards you are running.
• If using more than one GPU, you’ll want to get a powered pci-e riser for each additional GPU
• For Power Supplies, you want to double check that your PSU has enough connections to support the number of GPU’s you are running and enough overall wattage to support your total system power draw (and to give yourself some buffer of at least 10-15%).
• You want to get a simple low end CPU and at least 4GB of RAM. Make sure your motherboard, CPU and RAM are compatible (i.e. LGA 1151 motherboards need an 1151 socket CPU, and DDR4 RAM / LGA 1150 motherboards need an 1150 CPU and DDR3 RAM)
• Don’t forget a power button!  Pick up a simple PC power button switch which connects onto the headers of the motherboard so you can turn your system on/off
• A standard keyboard, mouse and monitor are needed.  If managing your rig remotely (not covered here in this beginner guide) you will want to get a headless HDMI dummy plug to plug into your rig so it boots into Windows properly for remote access.

A helpful locate for identifying how many 6 or 8 fall PCI-E exponent connections your GPU will require is Realhardtechx.com and to get a sense of your overall system exponent absorb, you can use outervision .
pro tip : If build up multiple rigs stick with the same stigmatize Power Supply Unit ( PSU ) as you can use extra cables on your early systems if needed ( e.g. I use alone EVGA G2 PSU ’ s so if I have supernumerary VGA, sata or molex cables from one build up I can use them on another build up ) .
a retentive as your system meets the general requirements and has at least one GPU with at least 3GB of RAM, you can mine Ethereum. Some Gaming laptops do have high end cards, but with the considerable hotness generated from mining there could be other impacts to your laptop so it ’ randomness best to go with a background build up .
Virtualized environments that you can rent normally do not have adequate knock-down dedicated GPU in them, or are plainly not profitable if they do .

6. Step by Step Guide for Mining Ethereum on a PC

I ’ meter going to assume you ’ re running Windows so we ’ ll concentrate on mining Ethereum on that platform .
The solid process of getting a wallet setup, downloading your miner, configuring things in Windows and setting up your batch file to run should take less than 10 minutes .

Step 1: Install Drivers

AMD GPU’s: Go to amd.com then choose “ Support & Drivers ” .
enter your GPU information and suction stop “ Display Results ”

Click the Download push button for the stream driver. alternatively, choose “ Download Previous Drivers & Software ” on the right hand side to choose older versions. This is recommended since some driver versions are known as great for mine ( based on your cards ) e.g. :

• R9 and older – use 15.12
• RX 4XX Series – use 16.9.2 or 16.10.3
• RX 5XX Series – as these are newer I’d recommend going with current driver for now

Nvidia GPU’s: To get the latest Nvidia GeForce drivers go to https : //www.geforce.com/drivers. Enter your card information and snap “ Start Search ”. Download the current driver interpretation from the results .

Install your GPU Drivers like you normally would ( Next, future, Ok, etc. ) and boot. You know your GPU ’ randomness are recognized correctly if you go into Device Manager ( search in Windows search bar ) and you don ’ t see any warning marks on your GPU ’ randomness. It should look something like this :

Some miners have had success installing all GPU ’ second at once and then installing the drivers. Others prefer a different method acting in which they install a single card first base, install the drivers and shut down the system .
While the arrangement is off they install the rest of the GPU ’ sulfur. once done, they turn it back on and let them all be recognized by Windows. Notice that you ’ ll credibly feel the system lagging and experience some flickers or brief black screens while each card is detected by Windows .
Bottom line, I ’ ve had success both ways, indeed if you run into an issue with one method, equitable delete the drivers and try the other method. If you do need to remove your drivers, use the DDU ( Display Driver Uninstaller ) program from Guru3d.com to remove everything cleanly and then start over .
Note: Steps 2-4 excuse how to download the official Ethereum wallet, but that would require you to wait for the wax Ethereum blockchain to sync. To skip this and get going much faster, jump depressed to step 4 ( easy ) and create a wallet using MyEtherWallet alternatively .

Step 2: Get an Ethereum Client (advanced)

For a deeper explanation of how Ethereum wallets work make sure to watch our Etherueum Whiteboard Tuesday episode about Ethereum wallets .
In this lead I will show you how to install Mist, with its friendly and familiar GUI :

The Mist package contains the Ethereum wallet which you ’ ll motivation to receive any mining profits. Mist besides includes an Ethereum browser with respective functions, such as message, a social network and tutorials .
As a tip, these tutorials and the social net are helpful learn resources. Don ’ triiodothyronine be scared to ask the Ethereals if you experience trouble with any part of this process .
To download Mist, head over to https : //github.com/ethereum/mist/releases and select the most holocene release :

Select the latest unblock, it ’ ll have the highest number : Scroll down to the Downloads. You can choose Mist or the standalone Ethereum wallet.

Choose a memorable download booklet for the “ Ethereum Wallet ” zip code file. Extract it with a desirable file extraction creature, and notice to which folder it was extracted to. Navigate to the raw booklet, locate and run the Ethereum app .

Download the Blockchain

The future step is fair to wait, as the Ethereum blockchain downloads and synchronize. It ’ s a very big file so this process may take a while…
When it completes, spend a few minutes to familiarise yourself with the Mist app ; the interface is reasonably self-explanatory. The app international relations and security network ’ t so far fully polished so expect a few bugs .

Set up your Wallet

Open the Ethereum wallet and generate a new account and contract based wallet. This wallet will contain the payout address to which you ’ ll receive mining rewards from your pool or directly from the blockchain .

Add your new score, give it a memorable mine diagnose. Store the password securely !

After generating the Account, add a wallet and write down or copy to a textbook file the unique address. This savoir-faire will start with the characters “ 0x ”. It ’ s necessary for receiving ETH mine rewards !

A Note on Geth:

Mist besides contains Geth, a popular command line interface. You may choose to get alone the latest Geth app for your system, it ’ s able to perform all the functions of Mist ( and more ) from the command trace .
Geth ( an abbreviation for “ go-ethereum ” ) allows your miner to interact more directly with the Ethereum network, but requires some program cognition .
As you become more adept in Ethereum mine and cryptography, Geth will become more useful to you, but for immediately this is not recommended as the easiest path to getting started with Ethereum mining .

Step 2: Get an Ethereum Client (beginners)

If you want to skip the retentive time it takes Mist to download the Ethereum blockchain head over to MyEtherWallet.com
Please beware of phishing websites. Always triple-check the world. The real site is MyEtherWallet department of transportation com .
Enter a strong password and click “ Create New Wallet ” :

Download your “ Keystore File ” and click the “ I understand. Continue. ” button .

Save the private keystone provided .
A dear drill is to open a notepad and enroll in your information – password, private key, and your Ethereum address ( which you ’ ll get curtly ). Save that text file along with your Keystore File, in an encrypted charge ( using WinRar or exchangeable course of study ) .
Afterwards, storehouse a copy of that on a USB drive or cloud force and delete the person files ( storing entirely the encrypted file digitally ) .

Click on Save Your Address and then select the “ Keystore File ” radio button. Click on “ Select Wallet File ”, browse to your recently downloaded Keystore File ( which starts with “ UTC… ” ) and select it .

You ’ ll then be prompted to enter your password again

once unlock you can scroll down and see “ Your Address ” – this is your Ethereum Wallet address that we will use for mine. Save it to a divide notepad textbook file and save it on your Desktop for easy access
It ’ south approve to share this cover as this is how people will send you Ether and how you will receive your mining payouts, but never share your Private winder !

Step 3: Download Miner

We are going to be using the very popular Ethereum mine software called Claymore Miner .
Go to Claymore ’ s original Bitcointalk train of thought and download the current adaptation from the Google or Mega download links he provides ( don ’ triiodothyronine use other people ’ south links ). The current version as of the time of this write is 14.6 and you ’ ll want to get the Catalyst and Cuda version ( not the Linux version ) .
note, when downloading the Claymore Miner, Windows may issue a warning, but if you used Claymore ’ s download link you can ignore this .
once downloaded, extract the folder to your Desktop for slowly access .

Step 4: Windows Settings

Some settings should be modified in Windows to get you ready for mining :
inaugural, you don ’ triiodothyronine want your calculator to go to Sleep as it will interrupt your mine so go into your Power Settings and set it to “ Never ” turn off/sleep .
next, Modify your system page file and manually set it to 16384 MB ( this is 16GB ) .
To minimize the disruptions to your mine and settings you may want to besides disable Windows Updates. If you feel more secure leaving them on, you can do therefore and precisely understand there are identical frequent updates that sometimes reboot your organization without your interest and therefore stop your mine .
finally, if you are running Windows Defender or some other anti-virus platform, add an exception to it so that it does not flag the Claymore mining feasible “ EthDcrMiner64.exe ” as a virus or try to disable/delete it .

Step 5: Join a Mining Pool

The adjacent step is to set up pool-mining, as solo-mining is improbable to make you any Ethereum unless you have a warehouse full of GPUs .
Your foremost footfall will be to choose an Ethereum mine pool. There are batch to choose from but I recommend Nanopool or Etheremine. The home page or help section of a mine pond web site most probable contains instructions on how to mine on their pool using the popular Claymore miner .
For the aim of this guide we will use Etheremine. directly on the home page of Ethermine.org you ’ ll see a section called “ Stratum mode using Claymores Miner ”. Open your Claymore miner booklet on your background, right click on the text file called “ Start ” and choose “ Edit ” .
Go to the Ethermine site, highlight and replicate all the text in the beginning box under “ then start your miners by… ”

Depending on your placement, you want to connect to the closest server to you and update the server string of text for the waiter :

 : eu1.ethermine.org4444

To the most allow class server for you based on your location :

 North America ( East ) : us1.ethermine.org:4444 or us1.ethermine.org:14444

 North America ( West ) : us2.ethermine.org:4444 or us2.ethermine.org:14444

 Europe ( France ) : eu1.ethermine.org:4444 or eu1.ethermine.org:14444

 Europe ( Germany ) : eu2.ethermine.org:4444 or eu2.ethermine.org:14444

 asia : asia1.ethermine.org:4444 or asia1.ethermine.org:14444

In this exercise I ’ ve update mine for the US East Coast, so inside your Text charge you should immediately have :
setx GPU_FORCE_64BIT_PTR 0
setx GPU_MAX_HEAP_SIZE 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_SINGLE_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
EthDcrMiner64.exe -epool us1.ethermine.org:4444 -ewal . -epsw x

• Replace “” with your Ethereum Wallet address (which starts with 0x…),copy that from your other text file and paste it here.
• Replace “” with any name you would like to create for your miner.  We’ll use “MiningRig1” for our example, so you now have:

setx GPU_FORCE_64BIT_PTR 0
setx GPU_MAX_HEAP_SIZE 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_SINGLE_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
EthDcrMiner64.exe -epool us1.ethermine.org:4444 -ewal 0x46064Df3e898488B19bC985A0973be51698bD6bb.MiningRig1 -epsw adam
Save your file as Batch file with the bat extension. To do that, choose File > Save As and then in the box, choose a name for it and then type “ .bat ” after the name. In the ‘ Save as type ’ corner, make sure you select “ All Files ”, and then click Save .
Congrats ! You now have a batch file ready to mine ! Create a shortcut for the modern Bat file and send it to your background. You can then delete the text file translation of the file .

Step 6: Start Mining

Double click your Bat file to start the miner. The miner will start, run the setx commands to set those environment variables, initialize each of your GPU ’ mho, build the DAG file on each of your GPU ’ mho and start hashing off. Let it run for approximately 20 seconds and then click “ s ” to display your Hashing speed .
You can now use this information in the Ethereum mine calculator again to determine a more accurate representation of your earnings .
To monitor your earnings on the pool, go back to Ethermine.org and paste your wallet address into the Address window up at the lead. Click the ‘ Check Status ’ button :

7. Frequently Asked Questions

Can I mine with my CPU instead of a GPU ?

GPUs are thus much faster, that CPU-mining is nobelium longer profitable or worthwhile. even entry-level GPUs are about 200 times faster than CPUs for mine purposes .

Can I use any ETH wallet address for mining?

You can use any ETH wallet address for mining, but some exchanges do not allow mine or do not allow very small deposits so double bridle with the site if mining directly to a web-deposit address. If the wallets in this station preceptor ’ thyroxine work out for you, you can find a complete list of commend Ethereum wallets hera. Just make sure to check that the wallet you choose is suitable for mining .

What about cloud mining sites?

Short Answer – DO NOT buy into Ethereum cloud mine sites or related investment programs .
99.9 % of cloud mining sites are Ponzi schemes or fractional reservation Ponzi ’ mho. even though there are a few that have been around a long time, there have been no 3rd party audit of the hashing baron sold and profits are normally very low unless you are promoting heavy and getting others to join in ( another red ease up of ponzi related action ) .

How Many Ethereum Can Be Mined?

Unlike Bitcoin, there is no limit to the amount of Ethereum that can be generated. Each day around 13,500 Ether are mined.

8. Conclusion

I hope you found this steer useful ! If you run into any issues or have questions, please comment below and we will try to help. Note, we are not covering more advance steps of mine such as overclocking and undervolting, bios flash, distant access and monitor, or Dual mining .
If interested in taking your mining to the future charge from here, sign up for Crypto Mining Academy, where I go into massive astuteness and detail at every mistreat of this action in a comprehensive course. happy mining !
This article was written with the help of Ian MacPhee. For additional info my username is Techman34 (on the Ethereum forum) or contact me at [email protected]