Mining for Renderers
Mining for Renderers.
A Guide to (quick and easy) Mining for Renderers.
Most information, for non-miners, is spotty. Let’s clear that up first.
(Before you read the rest)… Yes, you can make money and it’s easy to set up.
What is mining? (there’s lots of this info – here’s a quick version).
In order to chain transactions of a cryptocurrency (the blockchain), a block needs to match a timestamp+code that starts with lots of zeros. This becomes statistically harder as the ‘difficulty’ goes up – and requires lots and lots of computing power around the world to ‘solve the puzzle.’ This is where miners come in. Imagine Folding@Home, where computers from around the world help fold proteins to help the world medically. Except, it’s everyone for themselves, and money, and the blockchain, in that order.
Now, one CPU trying to solve a Bitcoin puzzle, in 2017 would take 2 million years, statistically, to solve a puzzle, and it’s only gotten more difficult since.
Bitcoin isn’t the only game.
Bitcoin started the craze years ago. But, there’s THOUSANDS of cryptocurrencies (heard of Dogecoin? LiteCoin? Ethereum?). However, most (99%+++) are also known as “s**t coins.” This is because anyone can ‘copy’ the Bitcoin, or other coin code, tweak the hash formulas, call it their own, and release it, usually under a theme/guise. Some of them actually have honest intentions of helping a cause, and it may take off quickly, only to crash quickly too. Later, the only spikes are due to pump-and-dump from whales looking to make a (lot) of bucks.
However, some stick around. Some of the most popular ones are listed in exchanges like Coinbase, Bittrex, and others – names like Ethereum, Litecoin, and Dogecoin. Tweets from Muskateers help too.
GPUs can’t mine Bitcoin, effectively. But others it can, and you can exchange.
The hashing formula for Bitcoin is very “application specific” / hardware-dependent. However, lots of other cryptos use GPU-friendly hashing algorithms. And you can convert those to Bitcoin.WhatToMine.com is a site that shows, in today’s exchange-rates/difficulties what your GPUs would make, in profit (minus electricity). Note that, you may not want to jump at the top listed items since, unless they are already wildly popular, may be today’s pump-and-dump s**t coin. Choosing a popular one, near the top, is good. As of Feb-2020, Ethereum fits that nicely. A single 2080 would make $5/day. A 3080 makes $11.25/day.
You shouldn’t mine alone.
Mining alone means taking a chance, against the world, that you, and you alone, will find the puzzle, and be rewarded handsomely for it. This is extremely rare. You would have much better chances playing MegaMillions (lottery).However, you don’t have to go it alone. ‘Pools’ are set up to co-mine. When anyone in the pool finds a block, they all share, based on how many blocks they all tried to find (GPU power). The pool takes a small percentage (i.e. 1%) as a reward, but 99% of something dependable is usually much better than 100% of something improbable.To mine at a pool, you simply provide a wallet-address, and all the rewards get sent to that address.
What’s an address?
A wallet address is a long alphanumeric code that, combined with your wallet’s passcode/phrase, gives you access to that money in the address. It’s a crypto-bank account with a value, starting at zero. You can provide that address to anyone to send you crypto-cash – anyone can send to you, but only you can send from it. ‘Sending’ turns into a transaction that becomes part of the block that miners find the solution to, which then gets logged in the blockchain for eternity, in order for the whole cycle to work.
How do I get a wallet/an address for mining?
Ok this one is a little tricky. You can get an address easily at exchanges for normal transactions (purchases, etc). However, they DO NOT accept mining to those addresses. Here’s why. Every time to send crypto, you pay a fee (that goes to the miners – see how that works?). But the fee is not based on how much money you send, it’s based on how many transactions/bytes you are sending. Here’s a scenario. Person (A) gets $1 million dollars in crypto into their wallet, then sends it to another wallet. That’s ONE transaction in and out – or ~307 bytes. That may cost $5. However, Person (B) gets $0.10 in 1,000 transactions – or $100 total. Then they send $100 to another wallet. That’s 153k bytes, or $2041 worth of transactions to send $100. Therefore, it can’t be sent - not worth it. So, exchanges don’t deal with small values like mining.
To solve that, a pool receives the big payout, then keeps track of how much each miner makes. Each week, or after a certain level, they pay out an amount to your address. It’s large and good.
Using a pool, I have coin delivered to an address on an app on my phone. This is detailed later.
How do I mine?
You run software on your computer that gets a block from the pool, tries to find solutions (hashes), submits them (with your wallet-address) which then receives rewards when blocks are found by the whole pool. This command-line software uses parameters to specify the wallet-address, the pool-url, and even specifics like how hard to push the GPU, and which GPUs to push differently. A miner simply runs the software, and forgets it… until you start rendering and realize that something is slow, or your other software hangs because it can’t use all the RAM, or something else. Then you remember the mining, and either shut it off or run it lighter, while rendering. (Same thing with VR gaming. RecRoom seems to have no problem, but BeatSaber seriously lags during mining).
Does the software have viruses? Will my disk be held hostage? I’ve heard stories.
Sure, if you get it in the wrong place, it’s possible. However, if you find a specific coin, go to their official site, follow their links to the right wallet software, and then google that to see if it’s still being maintained. If so, it’s good. When you download it, however, Google or Edge may complain about malicious code. Do search that specific term/complaint. Usually, it’s just warning you that you are downloading something that has mining code in it. Most people downloading a graphics program, for example, don’t expect secret/hidden mining code. However, you expect mining code, so those types of ‘malicious’ code are simply what you were looking for on purpose.
The instructions later point to mining software (T-Rex) that I use reliably for a long time now.
There are two types of wallets… local and hosted.
Local wallets require downloading the Core program (i.e. DogeCoin / BitCore), and running it for DAYS, sometimes WEEKS, and GIGS of downloads to get ‘up to date’ and have a working wallet address. Sure, you can do that, but, it’s a hassle at least – but, potentially more secure. (Then again, if you only ever expect to receive a few hundred at a time and send it off to, like Coinbase, then you don’t need to be super-duper secure).
Hosted wallets are on websites, like Coinbase, that you can easily get an address to receive coin. That’s what I use now.
What I do.
I have a really simple setup, no need for a local wallet. Fire and forget. I mine Ethereum with my RTX/GTX cards, and get paid to my MEW (Android) wallet. I then send it to Bittrex to exchange at higher rates to Bitcoin (can use Coinbase too).
Getting started doing what I do, step by step.
1.
Get an Ethereum Wallet and Address.
a.
(On your phone): Go here to click on the Google
Play/Apple Store link to get the MEW (MyEtherWallet) app. https://www.myetherwallet.com/ Sign up/Sign
in.
b.
After installing the phone app… on your Main
Account Wallet page (in the app), click the ‘Receive’ button to reveal your
public address to receive funds (i.e. 0x1092D1FA417A4197c5A7759066b3Af992a76ec60).
You can copy that later (well, yours) when you need it.
2.
Get mining software. I use T-Rex. (another is
NiceHash).
a.
Go here: https://github.com/trexminer/T-Rex/releases
to get the release (i.e. latest ZIP). There are different versions based on
your Cuda version. If you don’t know your Cuda version, this page may help: https://docs.nvidia.com/deploy/cuda-compatibility/index.html
However, if you run the wrong one – it will let you know immediately, and
you can download another version.
b.
(Read and Google the specific ‘malicious’ warning
code when you download it). It’s almost certainly simply trying to prevent an
unwilling customer from downloading hidden mining software. But, that’s what
you want.
c.
Unzip the Zip. In that directory are MANY
bat/cmd files to run different algorithms based on different coins you might
mine. This guide is mining ETH, and, I recommend using ethermine.org as the
pool because they have the highest percent of miners in the world (so they will
mostly get all the rewards). So, copy the file:
ETH-ethermine.bat to a new file named ETH-THIS-ONE.bat
d.
Go to ethermine.org and find the closest node to
you (for ping expediency). Mining doesn’t use a lot of data/bandwidth, however,
it is beneficial to rapidly respond when it does deliver a block/hash. https://ethermine.org/start
e.
Copy the server address, like us2.ethermine.org.
f.
Edit the new file ETH-THIS-ONE.bat.
i.
Replace the part after “tcp://” with that server
address.
ii.
Replace the long code after “-u” with YOUR ETH
address (copy it correctly!!)
iii.
If you have multiple computers, name the computer
it’s on after “-w” so you know which one is/isn’t working later.
iv.
The final string should look something like this
(this is mostly mine):
t-rex.exe -a ethash -o stratum+tcp://us2.ethermine.org:4444 -u 0x1092D1FA417A4197c5A7759066b3Af992a76ec60 -p x -w rig0
This tells t-rex to use the ethash algorithm at the us2.ethermine.org
pool, and rewards go to (that address). The name here is ‘rig0’ so you know
what worker stopped working from the web page (later).
g.
Double click that ETH-THIS-ONE.bat file to start
the miner.
h.
Troubleshooting, and tweaking…
i.
I actually have a few extra parameters on mine
that target the GPUs. One machine has a 1080ti and a 960 for extra monitors. I
use “-i 23,10” which means hit the first GPU (1080ti) with 23 (out of 25)
workload, and the second (960) with 10 (out of 25) workload. Otherwise it lags
terribly on those monitors. Also, I have “--kernel 0,2” which means use the 3rd
kernel of the 960 card instead of the 1st (defaults to zero). This
was because I had some issue with the 960. So, my full line is:
t-rex.exe -i 23,10 --kernel 0,2 -a ethash -o
stratum+tcp://us2.ethermine.org:4444 -u
0x1092D1FA417A4197c5A7759066b3Af992a76ec60 -p x -w rig0
ii.
If you want to run your GPU at TOP WORKLOAD,
then “-i 25” is the magic parameter.
iii.
However, if you want to run it less (lower temperature,
etc), then even “-i 20” works well. You can experiment and see what temps it
shows in T-Rex.
iv.
The full list of parameters is here: https://github.com/trexminer/T-Rex
v.
IF the software complains (immediately) that you
have the wrong Cuda version, download another (there is currently Cuda9, Cuda10
and Cuda11).
i.
Now, you should be mining. Yay! Here’s how to
see progress.
i.
Go here: https://ethermine.org/
ii.
Enter in your wallet address (“miner address”)
in the search bar.
iii.
(After a few minutes from starting) you should
see your mining progress.
iv.
NOTE: clicking the arrows next to your “Unpaid
Balance” shows how much you would make in ETH/BTC/USD. And the arrows next to “Daily”
show day/week/month amounts!
v.
(optional) You can add an email address to the ethermine.org
to let you know when a worker goes inactive, like when Windows updates.
j.
Got multiple computers?
i.
Copy the downloaded/unzipped directory with the
BAT file you edited.
ii.
On each computer, EDIT that file and only change
the name of the worker “-w <newname>”. This is just so you know which computer
is working, or not, in the ethermine progress page.
iii.
Run the BAT file.
iv.
(might want to consider starting at boot up in
case your OS decides to update nightly/weekly).
k.
Ok, how do I get paid?
i.
Only after you get 0.05 ETH (may be sooner for
those with lots of cards), you will get 0.05 ETH sent to your MEW wallet (currently
$80). After that, every 0.05 ETH, or every WEEK (whichever is sooner), you will
get a payment. (Or, 0.01 every 2 weeks for very low balances).
l.
Ok, what do I do with that payment?
i.
Inside the MEW wallet, you can trade tokens for
other things. Even ‘wrapped bitcoin’ which tracks the cost of bitcoin, or
wrapped USD, etc. BUT (WARNING), it’s 2.5% expensive to buy things there!!
ii.
I either (a) send it off to Bittrex (another
exchange you can register with (fully (not anonymous))), and trade it at an
exact rate to whatever, or, send it off to Coinbase to switch for cash (also
not anonymous).
iii.
Or – just keep it in your MEW wallet and
(hopefully) watch ETH grow.
m.
Also, do the right things…
i.
You are renderers, so, I’m sure you have the
latest graphics drivers. But, if you don’t … ? … do get them. They often have
to compensate for OS changes each time the OS updates.
ii.
Also, this is income… gotta claim it on your
taxes and pay taxes on profit (deduct your electricity costs if you can,
although those are very small in comparison). The small hassle of claiming it
will beat getting challenged on it later!
n.
That’s it.
i.
If this has been helpful to you, let me know.
ii.
And, because I’ve been asked, if you feel inclined,
here’s my ETH address:
0x1092D1FA417A4197c5A7759066b3Af992a76ec60
Good
mining! -Jim
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