Experts have named the advantages and disadvantages of small mining farms, which in theory can compete with large data centers in terms of payback
At the beginning of 2021, against the backdrop of the growth of cryptocurrency quotes, interest in mining digital currencies has grown significantly. Google Trends data shows that this trend continues in March, with users actively interested in mining cryptocurrencies on search engines.
However, not everyone who wants to be involved in mining has the resources to organize their own data center. In this case, the only solution is to create a "home farm". The experts explained whether it is worth organizing a farm at home and what problems can be encountered in doing so.
Prospects for "home mining"
Now, thanks to a powerful gaming video card, you can get about $ 10 per day on mining, which shows that "home mining" does not die, says the head of the Six Nines data center Sergey Troshin.
You can start mining cryptocurrency at home with almost any volume, says Philip Modnov, CEO of the digital computing platform LAZM. According to him, "home mining" can bypass large data centers in terms of payback due to the lack of capital investment and operating costs. At average costs, a home mining farm can pay off in 6-8 months, Modnov noted.
“Home mining is not dying, but its share in the total network capacity is negligible. Conventionally, one 50 MW data center is approximately equal to 3-10 thousand possible home farms. And the aggregate capacity of data centers can be compared with a million home farms, ”explained the CEO of LAZM.
Video cards or ASIC
All industrial farms are in pursuit of reducing energy consumption at the same capacity, that is, paying less for electricity, but at the same time mining more, says Sergei Troshin. According to him, ASIC miners, which have a more efficient ratio of computing power per watt, benefit from this. Video cards are worse in this indicator, but they are more mobile and easily switch between altcoins, says the head of the Six Nines data center.
“A more professional approach is to use video cards, but it is important to be able to manage them correctly,” Troshin said.
Video cards are better suited for mining cryptocurrencies at home than ASICs, says Philip Modnov. He explains this by the fact that GPUs consume significantly less power, they have better heat dissipation, and they also emit less noise. Those wishing to start mining cryptocurrency using video cards Sergey Troshin advised to use the Whattomine service. It shows the most profitable altcoins for mining, revenue and electricity consumption, the expert noted. The CEO of the digital computing platform LAZM said that their clients prefer Ethereum, Ethereum Classic and Ravencoin tokens.
Difficulties in creating a "home farm"
When organizing a mining farm at home, two main problems arise: noise level and high temperatures, warns the head of the Six Nines data center.
According to him, this applies not only to ASICs, but also to video cards. A profitable farm can be made at home, but a comfortable one cannot, Troshin argues. Philip Modnov cited a few more points that will have to be faced: dust and heating of electrical wiring, which in residential buildings is not designed for high electricity consumption.
How much is it?
As an example, consider the creation of a "home farm" of eight Geforce RTX 2060 video cards (this is the newest model among the most popular video cards for mining in Russia). The purchase of graphics processors, according to Avito, will cost an average of 360 thousand rubles in the secondary market (45 thousand for one video card). The necessary components (frame for video cards, motherboard, power supply and RAM) will cost another 50 thousand rubles.
According to the Whattomine service, taking into account the electricity tariff in Moscow (5.66 rubles per kW / h), such a farm can bring in $ 24.26 profit per day if the Conflux (CFX) token is mined using the Octopus algorithm. Ethereum mining is in second place in terms of profitability, thanks to which you can earn $ 20.89 in 24 hours with the current configuration.
Calculations indicate that a farm of eight Geforce RTX 2060 video cards will pay off in 6 months. For six months, the miner's income will be $ 4366.8 (331.7 thousand rubles at the exchange rate as of March 29).