Home mining for non-KYC Bitcoin

[fillippone]

Hi,
I found this VERY interesting article about mining.
The article twists the perspective from pure economic profit, to something maybe more important: generating pure, anonymous Bitcoins.

Home mining for non-KYC Bitcoin.

An article on setting up an ASIC Bitcoin miner at home with the goal of generating a non-KYC stack. Procurement, electrical infrastructure, ventilation requirements, noise treatment, connecting to a pool, and operational costs/rewards will be covered here. Additionally, community questions from Twitter are answered individually at the end. Several additional resources are presented as well.

Have you ever considered mining Bitcoin at home? Maybe you have but were deterred by naysayers telling you that home miners cannot compete with industrial-sized players. Or maybe you heard it's too complicated to configure your own setup. Or that residential electrical costs make it so that you will never be profitable.

Join me as I set out to put the FUD to the test and find out for myself what the truth of the matter is. You know how the saying goes, "Don't trust, verify".
<...>
If you have had an interest in mining at home but have been told it's not profitable then his guide will change your mind.

TOC

• Procurement
• Electrical
• Noise Treatment
• Ventilation
• Connecting to a pool
• Operating costs/rewards
• Questions & Answers
• Resources

Something I think it's worth mentioning is that probably (not really sure about this) is that this kind of coinbase-like BTC's probably have a higher price than "dirty" bitcoins.
I am not technical about mining, but I think this might give a new perspective on the activity.

[NeuroticFish]

Home mining is unprofitable in many countries because of the electricity. And some may not have the skills to buy the right hardware and do all that's needed.
I don't know, it may be easier and cheaper to find pool owners or miners and strike a deal. Freshly mined coins are not a "wow" yet and afaik they are not more expensive than the market price. Am I missing something?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Freshly mined coins are not a "wow" yet and afaik they are not more expensive than the market price. Am I missing something?

Nope. There is not a secondary market for new vs used or possibly 'dirty' BTC (yet).
Also, 'mining non-KYC Bitcoin' is simply an eyeball catcher tagline. Unless you mine on a pool that requires KYC, all newly mined coins are non-KYC. More to the point - who the f*** cares? New coins are new coins regardless of where they were mined - end of story.

[fillippone]

Bitcoin magazine just released an updated version of the above article:

WHY (AND HOW) YOU CAN MINE BITCOIN AT HOME

Recent events in the Bitcoin mining industry demonstrate that mining non-KYC bitcoin at home is a viable option for many. Here’s how.

This article focuses on establishing a timeline of recent mining-related events, the economics of mining at home for the average U.S. resident, some speculation on the economical future limits and some steps you can take to start mining non-KYC bitcoin at home.

The article focuses on the changes in the scenario since the original publication. Higher prices with China ban, primarily.

[hatshepsut93]

Home mining is practically illegal in many places, because it's generally illegal to use home electricity for some sort of commercial purpose, and running even one 1-1.5 kWT PSU  24/7 definitely falls within this category. Residential electricity is sold much cheaper than the commercial one, so it's kinda stealing to use it for mining. Plus it's also a fire hazard.

Getting into mining just to obtain "virgin bitcoin" is a really stupid idea, it's crazy inefficient and virgin bitcoins wouldn't give you any good benefits anyway. Every coin is tainted to some extent, exchanges only freeze coins that come directly or almost directly from darknet markets or hackers, there's very low chance for a regular non-criminal user to have their coins wrongfully frozen. And if you trade on p2p exchanges, you have even less reasons to care about taint.

[mk4]

Knowing that you're going to use ASICS and a good amount of electricity(hence you're most probably going to get taxed), how likely are you going to mine without a certain level of government intervention? Unless you're going to mine fully through renewables. Besides mining through renewables, mixing or applying CJ to your bitcoin and then doing a good number of hops in a span of months seems to still be the best option as far as I know.

[fillippone]

Home mining is practically illegal in many places, because it's generally illegal to use home electricity for some sort of commercial purpose, and running even one 1-1.5 kWT PSU  24/7 definitely falls within this category. Residential electricity is sold much cheaper than the commercial one, so it's kinda stealing to use it for mining. Plus it's also a fire hazard.

Getting into mining just to obtain "virgin bitcoin" is a really stupid idea, it's crazy inefficient and virgin bitcoins wouldn't give you any good benefits anyway. Every coin is tainted to some extent, exchanges only freeze coins that come directly or almost directly from darknet markets or hackers, there's very low chance for a regular non-criminal user to have their coins wrongfully frozen. And if you trade on p2p exchanges, you have even less reasons to care about taint.

You would be surprised of how many cases can get your coins frozen on an exchange or cause you headaches when cashing out. As long as there is a price spread for newly mined bitcoins, this means this idea is not stupid, but answer a specific need.

Regarding home mining security and legality, of course it is in the good interest of each one of us to assess the involved risks.

[BitMaxz]

The article itself talks about mining at home and planning to buy s19 pro but end up buying Whatsminer m31 which is less hashrate and power-hungry compared to antminer s19 pro.
The article is focused on how to mine at home which is I think he is focused on building a box to reduce the noise of the miner and build a circuit with 30amp that can handle 3300+ watts or above. The article itself explains what other beginners did just to mine at home(Buying ASIC machine, modify the home circuit, and making your own miner noise reduction.)

This kind of article is for beginners or newbies to help them mine at home.


Anyway, I agree with some posts above but I don't know if it is unprofitable in other countries but here in my country with electricity cost of 0.18/kwh it's still profitable with the ROI of 6 months(It also depends on the market condition) for s19 pro but the article itself bought m31s+ with 1 yr ROI. So if you are living with less than 18 cents just like mine then you can probably make a profit and get the ROI fast(Depends on the market condition) for now.

[yhiaali3]

The idea of ​​mining at home is an attractive idea in theory, but in practice there are many problems. First, the problem of electricity and the higher the electricity bill, the higher the consumption. For example, the electricity bill in my country is of an upward type, meaning the higher the consumption, the higher the price of kilowatts. This means that you will eventually get Month on a higher bill at a higher kilowatt price.
In addition to the noise caused by the mining device, where the noise rate is high and may lead to complaints from the neighbors, you may also need to provide cooling for the mining device, and these are additional costs, so I do not know if the idea is good in practice.

[countryfree]

Funny! I gave up the idea of home mining in 2015, or maybe before that.

There are people who invest millions in mining. I sure can invest thousands, but as rule of thumb, I don't want to compete with guys who are one thousand times more powerful than I am.

[hatshepsut93]

You would be surprised of how many cases can get your coins frozen on an exchange or cause you headaches when cashing out. As long as there is a price spread for newly mined bitcoins, this means this idea is not stupid, but answer a specific need.

Regarding home mining security and legality, of course it is in the good interest of each one of us to assess the involved risks.

Just because something is being actively sold, doesn't mean that it is objectively valuable. People are spending tons of money on antiviruses that give them a false sense of security and don't stop all malware, or essential oils and other alternative medicine stuff that hasn't been proven scientifically. Or maybe the demand for virgin bitcoins is driven by actual criminals who exchange their dirty coins for it as an alternative to mixing.

IMO if you don't engage with illegal services the chance of getting your funds wrongfully frozen is so low that it's not worth it paying the premium on virgin bitcoin or trying to mine it.

[fillippone]

IMO if you don't engage with illegal services the chance of getting your funds wrongfully frozen is so low that it's not worth it paying the premium on virgin bitcoin or trying to mine it.

Well, never say never. Exchanges are already doing heuristic-based chain analysis on your coins, and for sure IRS (or your own version of it) is soon going to do that.
Privacy is an important subject, whose value is often appreciated only when lost.

You can read more on this thread of mine:
A Treatise on Bitcoin and Privacy

I fully agree not everything has value, but everything has a price. If someone is interested paying an extra premium for newly mined bitcoins, I am happy to factor it in my business plan.

[NeuroticFish]

For now, from what I know, there are 2 problems here:
1. Home mining is in many places unprofitable.
2. "Clean" coins are overrated. From what I know there are far too few who want to pay for something as close as possible to freshly mined coins.

If one has too many solar panels on his roof then yes, it may worth to take a look, but otherwise the better chance is that's not economically viable at this point.

[franky1]

the article seems to be a "noob hope" article.
its tries to highlight a hope of profitability by explaining step by step everything involved. but the crux is when actually doing it. it ends up unprofitable

the article has too many variables and what is not said is the competition
asic farms that easily set up industrial units.
asic farms that get whole sale prices on next gen asics due to bulk purchase
asic farms actually move to a location of good electric contracts

and lets not forget. the "virgin coins" sold on OTC get the best deals in bulk. so trying to sell 0.0001btc on an OTC wont get you a premium, compared to someone offering 6.25 coin+

so here is a better solution to earn more..
DONT MINE
just have a good internet connection and offer to be a mining pool where others do the work for you. and you take a 1% cut from everyone

yep
imagine it this way
imagine a pool of say 65000 asics dotted around the world.
you can either be one of them asics. getting just 0.000099 every time the pool solves a block
(6.25reward+0.25txfee/65000users-1%pool admin fee)

or. just having good internet and a stratum script. let others do all the work and you get to keep
0.065(all miners 1% pool admin fee added up) plus any mergemine coins

so which is cheaper and easier and less costly.
hobby mining for 0.000099 or being a pool for 0.065

the secret is you dont need your own asics to run a pool. you just have to publicise your pool well to get others to mine for you

[dkbit98]

Home mining is possible but not so profitable unless you have free electricity, and isolated underground bunker full o asic miners (and snacks).
Having two tier Bitcoins is generally a bad idea and I would rather have ALL dirty Bitcoins that kyc and non-kyc Bitcoins.
Even better option would be some miracle code update that will introduce additional privacy layer for Bitcoin, that will make regulators very angry, but I think that governments and their officials are way overrated parasites.

Home mining is practically illegal in many places, because it's generally illegal to use home electricity for some sort of commercial purpose, and running even one 1-1.5 kWT PSU  24/7 definitely falls within this category. Residential electricity is sold much cheaper than the commercial one, so it's kinda stealing to use it for mining.

If you have money and resources you can always have your own electricity that is not connected with main electric grid, maybe your own solar or mini hydro plant, that is good not only for Bitcoin mining, but for keeping you independent in case of some disasters or planned cyber attacks that will turn off electricity.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Home mining is practically illegal in many places, because it's generally illegal to use home electricity for some sort of commercial purpose, and running even one 1-1.5 kWT PSU  24/7 definitely falls within this category. Residential electricity is sold much cheaper than the commercial one, so it's kinda stealing to use it for mining. Plus it's also a fire hazard.
<snip>

Emphasis above is mine. Where do you live that residential power is cheaper than commercial/industrial rates? Sure as hell not in the US! Here most commercial rates start at a bit over 1/2 residential power rates and go down from there depending on how much power a business needs. The fire hazard part is only valid if the house was improperly wired to begin with or the homeowner decided to do a crappy DIY job.

Also running a *small* business out of your home for the most part is not restricted here...

[hatshepsut93]

Well, never say never. Exchanges are already doing heuristic-based chain analysis on your coins, and for sure IRS (or your own version of it) is soon going to do that.
Privacy is an important subject, whose value is often appreciated only when lost.

You can read more on this thread of mine:
A Treatise on Bitcoin and Privacy

If you want 100% privacy and financial freedom, you simply avoid all centralized exchanges, instead of trying to sneak past their internal rules and protocols. If you want general privacy, than mixing will always be better than mining virgin bitcoins, because it's more private (the fact of owning virgin bitcoin already reveals that you are doing mining), it's cheaper (some mixers have zero or close to zero fees) and much easier (you can mix almost any amount, while with mining you have to wait and take business risks).

Emphasis above is mine. Where do you live that residential power is cheaper than commercial/industrial rates? Sure as hell not in the US! Here most commercial rates start at a bit over 1/2 residential power rates and go down from there depending on how much power a business needs. The fire hazard part is only valid if the house was improperly wired to begin with or the homeowner decided to do a crappy DIY job.

Also running a *small* business out of your home for the most part is not restricted here...

Yes, I don't live in the US and I live in an apartment, which is where my point of view about electricity prices and regulations comes from. I wanted to remind people that not everyone has the same conditions,

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Home mining is practically illegal in many places, because it's generally illegal to use home electricity for some sort of commercial purpose, and running even one 1-1.5 kWT PSU  24/7 definitely falls within this category.

Really?  I have never heard that before.  Do you know which countries have laws against people using their electricity at home for "commercial purpose(s)"?  I'm assuming this isn't against the law in the US given how many American Youtubers make videos about mining at home, and I've certainly never heard that you can't do what you want with your electricity.  That sounds insane.

I've never mined btc, but I've read a lot about it and watched tons of videos relating to it.  If I had way more money than I do and if I had a bigger place to live, I'd probably jump right in.  I read most of that article OP linked to, and it sounds reasonable.  The way he wrote about bitcoin reminds me of satoshi's vision of it, free from governments and banks.  It's truly sad that governments are starting to strangle bitcoiners with regulations lately after so many years of tacit approval of crypto.

[HaleyOccam]

Home mining is practically illegal in many places, because it's generally illegal to use home electricity for some sort of commercial purpose, and running even one 1-1.5 kWT PSU  24/7 definitely falls within this category.

Really?  I have never heard that before.  Do you know which countries have laws against people using their electricity at home for "commercial purpose(s)"?  I'm assuming this isn't against the law in the US given how many American Youtubers make videos about mining at home, and I've certainly never heard that you can't do what you want with your electricity.  That sounds insane.

I've never mined btc, but I've read a lot about it and watched tons of videos relating to it.  If I had way more money than I do and if I had a bigger place to live, I'd probably jump right in.  I read most of that article OP linked to, and it sounds reasonable.  The way he wrote about bitcoin reminds me of satoshi's vision of it, free from governments and banks.  It's truly sad that governments are starting to strangle bitcoiners with regulations lately after so many years of tacit approval of crypto.

There is only one reason. Bitcoin has moved their cakes, so the policies of many sovereign countries are very unfriendly. Regardless of the existing systems and ideologies of the country, it is a centralized “rule”. Bitcoin is like a small fire, he needs time.

[pooya87]

generating pure, anonymous Bitcoins.

It is more complicated than that.
1. Purity
The coinbase transaction doesn't just contain the block reward, it contains the fees and the reward goes to an address that can also receive more transactions (example the community trolling MARA pool's address after their "censored block").
2. Anonymity
Coinbase transactions are as anonymous as any other transaction on bitcoin's blockchain if not less anonymous since the block has to be broadcast by the miner and be seen for the first time coming from there.

Something I think it's worth mentioning is that probably (not really sure about this) is that this kind of coinbase-like BTC's probably have a higher price than "dirty" bitcoins.

There isn't exactly a market for this type of things but I have heard (don't know how reliable it is) that miners have sold their "virgin coins" at a higher price in the past.