This makes very much sense, using paper and hardware wallet. Thank you. However, reinstall OS, antivirus, anti-malware does not guarantee it can eliminate the unknown viruses/keyloggers 100% and also there are some virus/keylogger that can hide in storage MBR that you do not know about and connecting a new PC/equipment to your home network might get infected through your other equipment that is also connected to the same home network.




2FA is not as secure if they already hacked and have access to your email without your knowledge and if your handphone is also hacked together, then they can re-route handphone text messages to the hacker first before it reaches you.





Even if you know your system is compromised and you wipe you PC clean, are you an expert enough of a person to trust that the PC is totally wiped out clean? What about viruses that can create hidden folders/directories in harddisk/usb storage MBR that a full format cannot remove them that you don't know about? Once you install the new OS, you would think the system is clean but in actual fact is not.

I'm not saying that I would knowingly use a hacked PC to transact. That would be suicide. Do you not know that virus/keylogger can reside in your harddisk/USB drive/memory stick MBR and even if you format them normally, the virus/keylogger is still there? What happens when you use it because you thought it was free from virus/keylogger?

And if your entire connected equipment in your home network is infected and you have failed to remove them all, any one of them that is still infected can infect the new PC that you intend to buy the moment you connect to your home network to gain internet access, just like a daisy chain effect.

Then the hacker/virus/keylogger will just wait patiently in the background for you to slip up to steal your coins.

Makes sense. A combination of paper wallet and hardware wallet is the way to go.

I'm buying those crytos that are relatively cheap and hodl for long term as I believe in the crypto ecosystem. As I'm just starting off with cryptos, I'd buy some first and then try my hand later on mining them.

Guys, I intend to buy substantial amount of various cryptocurrencies as investment. Being pretty new to cryptocurrencies and having heard of horror experiences of coins being stolen, I want to take precautions first before I begin investing.

Assuming that I already know that my home internet network has been compromised/hacked whereby the hackers know of my intention to buy said cryptocurrencies. Let's just say the hackers already have a virtual mirror copy of my PC and is able to see/monitor/record what I'm doing on my PC in realtime or they have injected keylogging virus to find private keys, my questions are:

1. What would then be the safest procedure and method to create and store the cryptocurrencies I intend to purchase with the knowledge even if someone is watching or have planted keylogger virus, that's all they can do but can't steal it? If you suggest hardware wallets, what if I intend to buy and invest in cryptocurrencies that hardware wallets such as trezor or ledger have yet to support?

2. Let say one of the coins I plan to invest is 20 ethereum coins and to store them in paper wallet. Should I store all of them in a single paper wallet or create several paper wallets with different values in them (eg 5 wallets x 2 coins + 10 wallets x 1 coin) so that whenever there is a need to sell/use them, I just retrieve one paper wallet from storage rather than going through a sweeping process with one wallet whenever I want to retrieve a portion of the coins in the wallet. What are the pros and cons here?

Thanks all.

What are your thoughts on my following intentions detailed earlier at the start of thread? Anyone?

1. Hardware - To buy some used GPUs to mix with new ones of the same form factor and other computer parts to reduce costs especially parts that are not directly used for hashing (eg motherboard, RAM, PSU, SSDs).

2. GPU hashing and power saving optimization - If a mixture of different brands of the same form factor (eg all are 580s but of different brands), do I still have to tweak each of the cards invidually or I can just optimize one and then copy the parameters to the other cards to get the same performance. (see question below as well)

3. If I were to build about 8 rigs, then it would be at least 8 x 6 = 48 cards to tweak. Now, if I'm able to get existing parameters to optimize any card either for BIOS flashing or using software like MSI afterburner, which method should I use to get all the cards (new + used) optimized and stable in minutes rather than having to manually tune them up individually?

The Nvidia cards you recommended are not good for mining in terms of overall cost effectiveness and computational power especially for eth.

1. Antminer or ASIC gets obsolete fast. See my previous answer to adaseb. What would you do when your running costs overtakes the value of Bitcoin you mine?

2. You could set auto restart on BIOS and what was the reason of the rig not working even when you have teamviewer available to remote troubleshoot when your system crashed?

That's the reason why I try to mitigate that as much as possible by setting up rig autorestart procedures for power outages and using vnc/teamviewer for remote rig troubleshooting. What do you think?

1. I have considered Antminer or ASIC. However, each model tends to get obsolete fast especially mining for Bitcoin ie. cannot maintain profitability over the long run and needs to be upgraded very often. So, what would you do after the fact when the machine(s) gets obsolete for Bitcoin mining? Do you then use it to mine other coins with similar algorithm or you would just link it to nicehash?

2. Why do you recommend that I buy those "Wifi cold power cycle" switches? If their rigs are LAN wired to the router, I don't need any wifi power cycling, right?

3. What was the reason(s) that cause the freezes on your end? Did you put in any remote monitoring/resetting to your rig so you don't have to physically be there? 

Hi guys,

I plan to set up mining rigs for my family members in their respective homes. As my family members are not familiar with crypto mining, they will rely on me completely from setting up, monitoring to trouble shooting the rigs for them. Hence, I would like to know your advise whether what I have in mind at the moment would serve as the best solution in terms of mining rig budgeting, mining rig stability and GPU hashing optimization, centralized remote monitoring, resetting and troubleshooting for all the rigs in different locations while serving ONE primary objective - Because I'm a working man, I do not wish to have the rigs crash often to prevent frequent visits to physical site so that it's problem free for a long time.

Mining Rig Hardware Consideration

I intend to build about 6 - 8 rigs with 2 rigs each for each household ie, 3 to 4 different physical locations. In order to save some costs and also due to new GPU is always shortage of supply, I intend to source some parts that are used and some new for these rigs.

1. GPU - Any used/new RX580 8GB cards that are readily available for sale. Because getting new GPUs is a problem, is it advisable that maybe I can mix and match used and new GPUs with the same form factor? Eg, I buy 3 used (easier to obtain) and 3 new RX580 8GB GPU card for a rig but they are of different brands. I know that even for the same form factor they would have their own subtle differences as well e.g overclocked and non overclocked or even slight different in core/memory speed. How will this effect the stability of the rig in the long run by doing so?

2. Motherboard - Good idea to buy it used? I think mining motherboards are quite resilient so there shouldn't be any problem if I were to buy them used, right?

3. RAM - Will buy used item. They normally last a lifetime.

4. PSU - Good idea to buy it used? Maybe the PSU for the GPUs I will get a new unit while for the motherboard i will get it used.

5. PCIe Risers - New

6. SSD - Will buy used item.


Operating Systems

1. Rig OS - Windows 10 (It's just that I'm more familiar with it than Linux)

2. Mining OS - Simplemining. Are there any other windows based mining OS I can use besides simplemining? It has to be easy to use and configure with minimal tinkering. I'm not the trial and error hobbyist type.


GPU Hashing and Power Savings Optimization (Overclocking core speed and undervolting the cards)

1. If I were to get different brands with the same form factor (ie different brands of RX580s), do I have to overclock/undervolt each and single GPU manually or can I just randomly optimize one card and use that single optimized settings for all the other cards with the same form factor to maximize the hashrate and minimize power usage?

2. Is it way much faster to optimize any GPU cards that I intend to use by BIOS flashing i.e. strapping existing optimized performance timing parameters (from other users) via Polaris BIOS editor rather than tweaking it myself via MSI afterburner software? My objective here is to save time and effort to get ANY type of GPU that I buy optimized and stable in the shortest amount of time (rather than trial and error like doing as a hobby because I work and don't have the time to tinker around with it). Apart from what I have in mind here, are there any better ideas how I can quickly just get a reference setting for any type of GPU cards to get it optimized in terms of higher hash / power consumption / stability within minutes and not going through with overnight stability tests?

3. I may not have the same type of mining motherboards, RAM, PSUs, SSDs for all the 6 - 8 rigs that I intend to build if I decide to get some of the parts as used items. Is this a good idea/worth it to save money on initial investment vs keeping track of so many different brands and models on the different rigs? Or should I just buy all of them new with the same make and models to save me the pain of troubleshooting in case I bought some unreliable used parts.

4. Also, if I have an already optimized card in one motherboard and if I were to switch that optimized card into another motherboard, will the card maintain it's optimized performance or will it experience a drop in overall performance? In another word, are the performance of the tweaked GPUs independent of the different types of motherboards and parts used for building the rig?

5. I know that different coin algorithms will use more of different resources within the GPU ie If mining ethereum, monero, etc it will be GPU memory intensive while other crypto algorithms are GPU clock speed intensive. So, if I want to mine different coins from time to time, do I also have to change the GPU settings each time to ensure the GPU hashrate is optimized for the different coin I intend to mine?

Overall Stability Issues:

Now, because of the mere fact that I'm doing this alone, I want it to be as painless for me in terms of getting the rigs as stable as possible with a combination of GPU tweaking and used/new parts used for rig procurement. This means I do not want to run the rigs too hard in order to prolong the life of the optimized GPUs as much as possible and not to have the rig crash often so that it's problem free for a long time.

What would you do differently if you were me from what I have suggested above?


Centralized Remote Monitoring, Auto Restart, and Troubleshooting

1. Remote Monitoring and troubleshooting - VNC or Teamviewer is better for tweaking rig system remotely in case of problems?

2. Handphone app (Android/IOS) - Which software would your recommend to use for keeping track of all the rig conditions ie GPU Usage graphs, temps, clock graphs, power draw graphs, online status per GPU, and total Up time, with a down time notification of when a GPU fails or if a system crashes by any means? It is better to show family members on a user friendly GUI handphone app rather than accessing the mining rig software.

3. How to streamline autorestart when during power outage/disruption, GPU hang, system stop or crash.

4. How to remote hard boot on/off.


Thanks all for your inputs. Cheers and have a good weekend!