[Diary] An adventure in mining (by RTX 3060)

[joker_josue]

An adventure in mining
This topic recreates the information from the original topic, here...
Aiming to share my mining experience with other users.
This topic will be updated gradually, after the original topic.
I apologize for my English, as I am not fluent.

TIMELINE
Chronology of events, based on the original topic.

• April 10, 2021 (1st Part) - Explanation of the purpose and how it all started.
• April 10, 2021 (2nd Part) - Explanation of what I did to start mining.
• April 16, 2021 - Report what happened in the first week.
• April 24, 2021 - Report of what happened during the second week of mining.
• May 01, 2021: FIRST 22 DAYS > HOW IS CHIA - Report of what happened in the first 22 days of mining.
• May 09, 2021: FIRST WEEK OF MAY 2021 > BEYOND THE OBJECTIVE - Report of the first days of the month of May.
• May 16, 2021: HASH IN HIGH vs BITCOIN IN FALL > THE FILE - Report of the week of May in which the value of the hash was high.
• May 23, 2021: ANOTHER GOOD WEEK > ELECTRICITY INVOICE - Report for another week and information on electricity consumed.
• May 30, 2021: THE MONTH OF MAY - Report on the month of May 2021.
• June 06, 2021: BACK TO NORMAL > A NEW PROJECT - Report on the first week of June and a new project.
• June 13, 2021: MAINTENANCE WEEK - Report of a small maintenance done to the PC.
• June 20, 2021: NORMALITY WEEK AND EXCEL CORRECTIONS - Report on how it was another week and about an excel correction.
• June 27, 2021: SUMMER HAS ARRIVED > THETA NETWORK - Report on the week the summer started and information about the THETA project.
• July 04, 2021: THREE MONTHS LATER > NOTES ON EXTRAS - Report on the last 3 months of the adventure.
• July 11, 2021: MIDDLE OF ADVENTURE > POOL IN CHIA - Report of reaching the middle of the adventure and how I started to mine in Chia Pools.
• July 18, 2021: HASHRATE ANALYSIS - Analyze the hash performed.
• July 25, 2021: THETA & MINING - Report on Theta Network and the week's performance in mining.
• August 01, 2021: MONTH OF JULY - The summary of what happened in July 2021.
• August 08, 2021: LONDON FORK ARRIVED - Report of what happened during the week of the London Fork.
• August 15, 2021: PROFITABILITY DOWN AGAIN - A week after the London Fork, profitability is low.
• August 22, 2021: HARDWARE - A description of the computer hardware where I mine.
• August 29, 2021: ONLY 30% TO GOAL - I reached 70% of the goal, only 30% to go.
• September 05, 2021: ALL STABLE - A summary of the month of August.
• September 12, 2021: GENERAL SITUATION POINT - A point of situation since I started this adventure.
• October 03, 2021: ANOTHER MONTH TO MINAR - Report of what happened during the month of September.
• October 10, 2021: PROFITABILITY TO DECREASE - Profitability starts to decrease, phase the previous weeks.
• October 17, 2021: WORST WEEK - The numbers about the worst week of this adventure, to date.
• October 31, 2021: TWO WEEKS, DIFFERENT PROFITS - The two-week report, which had very different performances.
• November 07, 2021: LITTLE LESS - The accounts that show how close the goal was.
• November 14, 2021: FINAL LINE - Report from the penultimate week to the goal.
• November 21, 2021: GOAL ACHIEVED > AND NEXT? - Goal achieved! Overall performance report, and a reflection of what comes next.
• November 28, 2021: SEE NEW PLANS? - Some ideas for other mining plans.
• December 06, 2021: CONTINUE ON NICEHASH? - Analyze the continuity in using NiceHash in mining.
• December 12, 2021: START USING 2MINERS - I started mining through the 2miners pool.
• December 19, 2021: FIRST WEEK AT 2MINERS - Report of the first week of mining in the 2miners pool.
• December 26, 2021: NO BIG DIFFERENCES - First analysis of a full week, where everything went within normality, mining on 2miners.
• January 02, 2022: ONE MORE GPU - Buying one more GPU to mine.
• January 09, 2022: NICEHASH OR 2MINER - Start of a comparison between the two mining platforms.
• January 16, 2022: SECOND WEEK OF COMPARISON - Report on the second week of comparing the two mining rigs.
• January 23, 2022: WEAK WEEK - One week report, with a lower performance than the previous ones.
• January 30, 2022: FALLING BITCOIN - Report on how the decline in the value of Bitcoin ended up influencing mining.
• February 06, 2022: NICEHASH OR 2MINERS - THE RESULT - Summary of the comparison made between the use of the two platforms, during a month.
• February 13, 2022: ADVENTURE EXTRAS - A summary of the current situation, regarding the extras of this adventure.
• February 20, 2022: FORECASTS - Predictions about what might happen to achieve the goal.
• February 27, 2022: EXTRA INTERESTING - Report on a new extra, STEPN.
• March 06, 2022: EVERYTHING IN NORMALITY - A little summary of how things have been going, including the extras of this adventure.
• March 20, 2022: ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS BUT NOTHING SERIOUS - Report of an episode that occurred with my electrical system.
• March 27, 2022: WHAT IF I BUY ANOTHER GPU? - A breakdown of the current price (as of publication date) of GPUs.
• April 03, 2022: ENERGY COST, DOES IT STILL PAY? - Information about the energy cost in this adventure.
• April 10, 2022: A YEAR IN THIS ADVENTURE - A little summary of how was a year in this adventure.
• April 17, 2022: THERE IS STILL TIME - An analysis of how I still have time to reach the goals.
• April 24, 2022: THE RHYTHM IS KEPT - Information on how mining keeps up at a steady pace.
• May 01, 2022: RENDER 20% LESS - Comparison between current profitability and the one it had a year ago.
• May 08, 2022: BITCOIN PRICE VS GPU PRICE - Analyze between the current price of graphics cards and the devaluation of Bitcoin.
• May 15, 2022: LHR 100% UNLOCKED - Week in which the full LHE unlock was achieved.
• May 22, 2022: NINE HOURS WITHOUT MINING - Report on the momentary general power failure, which caused a pause in mining.
• May 29, 2022: ONLY ONE MONTH LEFT - The latest predictions to reach the goal, and information about some extras.
• June 19, 2022: SECOND GOAL ACHIEVED - Second objective of this adventure achieved.
• June 26, 2022: ADVENTURE ALSO HAS EXTRAS - Summary of how the extras of this adventure are going.
• July 03, 2022: FOR NOW, IT'S CONTINUE - Despite the goals achieved, it will be to continue mining.
• July 10, 2022: CONTINUE BUT CALM - New strategy to continue mining.
• July 17, 2022: THE GRAPHIC CARDS - How is the behavior of the graphics cards.
• ^newJuly 24, 2022: "THE MERGE" ANNOUNCED, MORE PROFITABILITY - An analysis of the possible reasons for the increase in profitability.
• ^newJuly 17, 2022: MONTH JULY 2022 - A comparison between the month of July 2021 and 2022 in this adventure.

April 10, 2021 (1st Part)
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this topic is to explain what my mining experience has been like since April 2021. I will try to be as frank as possible, without hiding the numbers, because that is the only way it is possible to understand what pays off or not, since throughout the process I had to rely on figures to suppose. I hope this topic will be of help to me, to collect opinions and ideas, and come to help others who also want to enter this adventure.


HOW EVERYTHING STARTED
The first experience I had in mining, remote in 2013, with an AMD Radeon HD 7770 graphics card, which I managed to receive some satoshis. It had a super low hash capacity, which generated a mere 0.05 BTC every 15/20 days, which at the time was considered very little ... if we knew what I know today, it had not stopped ...
But like most users, I said that because of ASICs, it was no longer worth it to undermine with GPU, I stopped after a few months. But the idea of mining was not put aside, and occasionally the ASIC equipment used and other forms of mining were observed, in the expectation of finding something useful, without a large investment. Until we get to 2021.


2021 - ADVENTURE BEGINS
Due to the appreciation of Bitcoin, the funds I had saved over the years, allowed me to try to invest in a GPU. And I heard again: "With the changes in ETH, it will no longer compensate for undermining with just a GPU ...". But I thought, where have I heard this?  

Even so, after doing the math, I realized that the investment could be recovered in 6/8 months and, if it weren't for this goal, I might never buy such an expensive GPU, to work and play. So, I wanted to enter this adventure. But how?


CHOICE PROCESS
Due to the Bitcoin appreciation, finding a GPU for sale is a real adventure: all sold out or very high prices. A GPU with a PVP of 400 €, costs 2 or 3 times more. So how to do it?

The first thing I did was to establish a maximum amount to spend. How I was going to use some Bitcoin I had to buy the GPU, and I am not rich, neither with € nor BTC (I stopped mining in 2013 because it allegedly did not yield ... 0.05BTC/fortnight... it was misery...   ), had to define a BTC plan, based on GPU prices. With this analysis, I defined 800~900 € of investment. Now was to find a GPU in stock for this plafon.

I started to look in the computer stores for what was in stock, and to check the potential profit. Since my PC is always on, it was easy to analyze cost vs. performance, because I only had to add the cost of the GPU.

After using several sites, some very simple and others very confusing, the site Minerstat was the most practical and gathered the information I needed. Calculates the cost and possible profitability, in an easy way because it lists the largest number of good GPUs to mine.

Between what was in stock and profitability, I chose GPU Nvidia RTX 3060. By my accounts, based on the value of Bitcoin at the time, I recovered the money from the purchase in 6/7 months.


FIRST SCARE
After choosing the GPU, I started researching the mining process through the RTX 3060. I started to be apprehensive, for reading comments that the board is limited by the factory for ETH mining, where the greatest profitability would come from. This meant that the investment would last twice as long, that was not a good thing.

Fortunately, I read articles about a driver, who had "accidentally" escaped (these things, we all know, are always accidental) from NVIDIA that removed the lock. And after several reports here in the forum to be confirmed and other tips - direct connection to PCIe x16 and the screen - I was more happy.


THE PURCHASE
After this analysis, which took 2/3 days, I had to check the stock availability in the different stores again. In the morning I had stock... the night was gone.  
It took three attempts to buy.

The first attempt, buy the ZOTAC GeForce® RTX 3060 Twin Edge OC 12GB GD6 - price of 870€. It was in stock at the end of the day, but the other day in the morning, it was already sold out. I was initially frustrated, but then I found articles with negative feedback on this model. Let's go to a new survey.

I found it in another store, the Asus GeForce RTX 3060 Dual OC 12GB GDDR6 card - price 849€, make the purchase. But, I got the idea that it wasn't going to work. I went back to searching and in another store I found the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 EAGLE OC 12GB model - same price. I made the purchase, but I chose a payment option to pay within 2 days, the GPU being reserved during this time.

This was all on a Saturday, I had to wait until Monday to see if everything was going well. My suspicions were confirmed, the purchase of the Asus model was canceled and the money was returned to me. I advanced to the Gigabyte model, making the payment. But as he had 2 days of reservation, he might not be lucky. Fortunately, a few hours later, I had confirmation that the purchase was made. I already have a new GPU!


DELIVERED
After 2 days, the GPU is delivered at home!  
And now? I can't do anything!  

My goal was to replace my old Radeon HD 7770, with a new GPU, to work, play and mine. Despite having a good monitor, he is 8 years old and uses VGA input. The RTX 3060 only has DisplayPort and HDMI inputs. That is, I forgot to buy the HDMI-VGA adapter.  

The next day, I went to buy a 15€ adapter, to connect the new GPU to the screen.

In short, I bought the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 EAGLE OC 12GB for 849€, plus the adapter for 15€, with a total of 864€.


ASSEMBLY & FIRST IMPRESSIONS
With all the material, play with the mount. Open the PC case, take the opportunity to clean, remove the old GPU and mount the new one. But, it couldn't be that easy…
This GPU is larger, the hard drives were located that does not allow the installation of the GPU. I had to unmount the hard drives, put them in another location, and install the card. Something that took 5 minutes, took 30 minutes...

Turning on the PC, the first thing I do is install the driver, which I had previously downloaded (driver I am using):
https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AImZg23q45RZKlI&cid=DCF42BCB3A71AAE5&id=DCF42BCB3A71AAE5%21129862&parId=DCF42BCB3A71AAE5%21129818

I installed MSI Afterburner, which I had never used before. And I begin to explore the potential of the GPU, even before it undermines. As I usually say, it is to move that one learns, I abused in the tests. I adjust a configuration, apply, and ... PC to. Reset to PC. Fortunately, everything is fine.
We are ready to mine... but how?

^ Back to top ^

April 10, 2021 (2nd Part)
START MINING
As in 2013, I already had mining and, over time, I have been attentive, I knew how I could start. But, recognizing that things change, I had to get a better look at how things are going. Between advice here on the forum and research, I have three possible options, to achieve my first objective (to recover the investment, according to Bitcoin values), which are: to use NiceHash, to use a multipool, or to directly mine ETH.

Directly mine ETH, it’s no longer useful (but I’ll one day try it out). As I want to recover the investment, due to the high rates of ETH, much of the mining was lost in rates and exchange rates. Something for later.

In relation to multipools, there are several options, but it always involves a longer learning curve to configure well. It may have a higher return, but it would also run a greater risk of delaying the goal.

So, I chose NiceHash. Quick to set up and get the GPU to generate revenue right away.
Mining now begins. It is to remain attentive and always look for the best options, for good profitability.


ZERO DAY (09/04/2021)
With everything working, I have to find the best configuration of the card, to be more profitable. I started using the NiceHash common program. But NiceHash has a specific program for NVidea cards, NiceHash Quickminer, which is lighter and more basic. I started using this program for.

Without making additional configurations or overclocking, the GPU allows for +/-40MH/s and a consumption of 130W.
But NiceHash, has a pre-configured overclocking function (which I think you can adjust), which at night I chose the high performance option, making the GPU run at 49MH/s and with practically the same consumption. But during the day, disable this option.

At the end of the first day, the yield was necessary to achieve the goal. But, on the second day I had interesting news.


2nd DAY - CONFIGURATION (10/04/2021)
NiceHash has its own function to manage overclocking. This function has 3 levels of options: light, medium, high.
The high design option, I already knew, I went to test the others. In the light the MH/s are the same as without overclocking with low power consumption (~ 100W). That didn't seem like a bad idea, but it would end up being less profitable.

I tested the medium option, and I liked it. I started to have 45MH/s and a consumption of 105W, this could bring greater profitability, good hash vs low consumption. I left this setup over the course of the day, and it was positive.

I had an active day on the PC, I did some image editing (nothing too busy), about 6 hours in meetings at Zoom. In the end I won more than the day before. It may have been a coincidence, but I think this setting is the best at the moment, between gain vs. consumption. We'll see how it goes over the next few days.


FIRST NUMBERS
As I said at the beginning, I will not hide the numbers. They help, to understand which is the best strategy, and only with real numbers can I help or be helped.

NiceHash makes payments every 4 hours, if you have at least 0.00001BTC pending, otherwise the payment is for the next round. I am on average doing 0.000011 BTC every 4 hours. Which means that I am receiving around 3.1€/day (the current rate - on the day of the original post), as planned.

In the case of configurations, I will show how the card behaves, in NiceHash's overclocking options:

No configuration	Light	Medium	High
DaggerHashimoto:~42.73MH/s Temp. 62ºC Fan 86% Wattage 144W Efficiency 0.30 MH/J	Core clock: 1400 Memory clock: 700 DaggerHashimoto:~43.28MH/s Temp. 60ºC Fan 72% Wattage 100W Eficiência 0.43 MH/J	Core clock: 1500 Memory clock: 1000 DaggerHashimoto:~46.00MH/s Temp. 59ºC Fan 77% Wattage 107W Efficiency 0.42 MH/J	Core clock: 1560 Memory clock: 1200 DaggerHashimoto:~47.48MH/s Temp. 57ºC Fan 80% Wattage 112W Efficiency 0.42 MH/J

The payments I received in the NiceHash wallet:

Dia	Win (€ equivalent on the date of the original post)
1	0.00006215 BTC - €3.12
2	0.00006752 BTC - €3.39

^ Back to top ^

TO BE CONTINUED
April 16, 2021 - FIRST WEEK
April 24, 2021 - SECOND WEEK - NEW APPROACH > BERLIN UPDATE & BITCOIN VALUE > EXTRA FOR ADVENTURE

Changelog:

• 16/04/2022 - Topic totally reorganized, splitting the diaries by several posts, allowing a better reading and more regular updates.
• 19/02/2022 - Added five more pages to the diary, including information about purchasing a new GPU.
• 04/01/2022 - Four more pages of the report, including the page when the goal was achieved.
• 25/12/2021 - Added four more pages to this report.
• 04/12/2021 - Added three more pages to this report.
• 23/11/2021 - Report on what happened the week of the London Fork and the week after
• 11/11/2021 - The summary of what happened in July 2021.
• 19/10/2021 - Added the reports for July 18 and July 25, 2021.
• 28/09/2021 - Report of reaching the middle of the adventure and how I started to mine in Chia Pools.
• 18/08/2021 - Report on the last 3 months of the adventure.
• 07/08/2021 - Report on the week the summer started and information about the THETA project.
• 17/07/2021 - Added two more reports to this diary.
• 04/07/2021 - Report on the first week of June 2021 and a new project.
• 24/06/2021 - Report on the month of May 2021.
• 10/06/2021 - Report for another week and information on electricity consumed.
• 30/05/2021 - Report of the week of May in which the value of the hash was high.
• 26/05/2021 - Report of the first days of the month of May.
• 20/05/2021 - Report of what happened in the first 22 days of mining.
• 14/05/2021 - Report of what happened during the second week of mining.
• 13/05/2021 - Report what happened in the first week.
                    -  Update link for Nvidia driver.
• 09/05/2021 - Reorganization of the topic.
                    - Second part of the account of the first days of this adventure.
• 08/05/2021 - Creation of this topic, based on the original story.

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[1714176250]

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[joker_josue]

Post edited! Due to the reorganization of the topic this post has been edited.


April 16, 2021
FIRST WEEK
In the first week, I monitored everything, to see if I was on the right path towards the goal. Since I have been using it I mentioned Nicehash's overclock media configuration, and I had to see if it was a good configuration or not.

As it is my personal PC, which I use for work and laser, it is normal for the hash to vary. In this average configuration, over the course of this week, the hash varies between 45~47mh / s, with consumption ~107w. Making an average of 46.61MH/s, with a rejection rate of 0.34%, earning an average of 0.00006880 BTC/24h, equal to 3.63€/24h (value the date of the original post).

The graph:


Graph analysis notes:
- On the night of the 9th, I was mining with the high setting, but during the day I was without any setting. At noon the performance dropped, because I had more use of the PC.
- From the 10th, I was always with the average configuration.
- At the end of the 14th, I had a crash because I had to update the PC, being stopped for about 5/10 minutes.
- At the end of the 15th, I had more activity on the PC, and I also felt a slight drop.

In short, in the first week, I think it was positive, with profitability within the expected values.


April 24, 2021
SECOND WEEK - NEW APPROACH
After the first week within expectations, in the second week a comment on the forum, made me think better about the strategy to be used. In the first week, I used NiceHash's "media" setting, which seemed to have a good hash / consumption ratio, but it might not be worth it. Analyze what he did was:

Depending on your energy cost, it is more advantageous to have 49MH / S at 119W than to have 47MH / s at 109W, try to calculate right to optimize your gains, because in case you are losing almost 5% of hashrate and saving almost 10% of energy, however if this energy expenditure is said to be equivalent to R $ 10 at the end of the month and your loss of hashrate is equal to R $ 50 per month, you are losing money.

Based on this analysis, I decided to try and see the results, using the "high" setting, provided by NiceHash. This change was possible, it increased my daily earnings by almost 50%, compared to the previous week.



In the first week I made an average of 0.00006880 BTC/24h, and this week 0.00009840 BTC/24h. Great result.
But was it just because of the configuration changes?


BERLIN UPDATE & BITCOIN VALUE
In the second week of this adventure, the Berlin update, on the Ethereum network, followed shortly. By coincidence or not, even with the "media" configuration, I felt a slight increase in average daily earnings after this update. Days later, there was a devaluation of Bitcoin, over the course of this second week. This combination of factors, updating Berlin, devaluation of Bitcoin and adjustment in the configuration, achieved greater profitability over the second week.

Unfortunately, with the devaluation of Bitcoin, the first objective of this adventure (recovering the investment in the GPU) will take longer. However, as profitability has increased, there have been no changes in the initial estimates. Especially because, possible devaluations, should be considered when making these investments.

In addition, it makes me change the way I look at numbers. Instead of looking at the value earned in €, I now look at the value earned in BTC. Thus, the goal is to mine the same amount of Bitcoins spent on the purchase of the GPU. That is to say, that in two weeks I managed to mine 7% of that amount.


EXTRA FOR ADVENTURE
And since I'm here reporting my adventure in mining, with GPU, why not add "another type" mining?
This week, I discovered the Chia Network, a currency that uses "space proofs" to validate transactions. In other words, the farm (the term used for mining this currency) is the use of disk space, which is allocated to the Chia network. After analyzing the project and about its farm system I thought: why not allocate, at least 1TB that I have free, to try my "luck"? I will then test.

I will explain, according to what I understand, how it works:
To farm, you need to create plots, which are reserves of space used for the validation of blockchain blocks. The size of each plot can vary according to the options defined by the user to make the most of the disk space. The standard size of each plot is +/- 110GB. Thus, the more plots we have, the greater the probability of winning XCH, since at this moment mining is only solo, where each block yields 2XCH. At this moment there is a 50% probability, for those who have 2TB on the network, to be able to earn 2XCH/month.

To create a plot you need temporarily 300GB of space (plots K-32 = 110GB), RAM memory (+/- 4GB) and good processing capacity, and it takes between 6 to 20 hours to create it. It is recommended to use an SSD disk to create the plot and then the 110GB plot is saved on the HDD disk. For all this, the Chia wallet is used. The operation of the portfolio is quite simple, as well as the creation of the plot.

That said, I installed the wallet, and it took almost 8 hours to synchronize with the network (consuming almost 100% CPU processing), and the date of this post was creating my first plot. Not having much more details to present yet.

I can say that to "assemble" this whole structure, you have to have a lot of patience! It takes hours. So, even if you don't win anything on the ground, maybe you can try to win something when the pools come up.

Final note, about this project, it is still facing launch, and you can find out more details here:
https://www.chia.net/
https://github.com/Chia-Network/chia-blockchain/wiki
https://chiadecentral.com/

^ VIEW TIMELINE ^

TO BE CONTINUED
May 01, 2021 - FIRST 22 DAYS > HOW IS CHIA
May 09, 2021 - FIRST WEEK OF MAY 2021 > BEYOND THE OBJECTIVE

[joker_josue]

Post edited! Due to the reorganization of the topic this post has been edited.


May 01, 2021
FIRST 22 DAYS
This adventure started on April 9, 2021, with the first objective of recovering the investment made in the GPU. Arriving on the 30th of April, I already have the first impressions of how this path is beginning to be traveled.

So let's go to this week's chart:


In this last week of April, the average speed accepted was slightly higher than the previous week, with 48.28MH/s. However, the average profitability was about 20% lower, just 0.00007916 BTC/24h, compared to the previous average of 0.00009840 BTC/24h. I estimate that this was the result of the devaluation of Bitcoin earlier in the week, which may have caused a devaluation of the hash value.

So, at the end of the first 22 days, I managed to add about 9.5% of the amount invested in the GPU. If this pace is maintained, I hope that within 7 to 8 months, the investment is recovered. Soon, I will present more details on these numbers.


HOW IS CHIA
Over the course of this week, I set up 5 plots. The creation of plots is a slow process, which requires a lot of RAM and disk with 100% operation. As I am using the computer I use daily, I had to schedule the creation of plots for a period when I used the PC less, or did not need as many resources. Even so, allocating about 4GB RAM and plotting directly on an HDD, it took about 20 hours to create the plot. I had to adjust my way of working, but luckily I managed to manage the situation, without major stress.  

During this period, I realized that the Chia network is growing very fast. When I created the first plot, the estimate for mining a block was 4 years. With the second, it went on for 2 years, and it was only on the 5th plot that the forecast went on for 1 year. In this perspective, apparently with 5 or 6 more plots, the estimate would be only 6 months, but no. When I wrote this post, with the 5 plots, the estimate was again at 2 years old. In other words, the network is growing at a pace where it would require having to allocate more than 12TB in plots, in order to start having a reasonable probability of finding a block. This is not feasible for now. I'm just going to keep the program open, without creating plots, because you never know if I'm lucky enough to mine a block anyway.  

Either way, you can see how things work, and there may soon be news regarding mining pools. At that time, it will be easier to get into the scheme and better manage the situation. Now it is time to listen, and understand how the market will react when the currency is launched in the trade markets.


May 09, 2021
FIRST WEEK OF MAY 2021
After the month of April, having gone well, the beginning of May is being interesting. The value of the hash has been increasing daily, with values above expectations. It would be great to stay that way, but this is truly a roller coaster ride.

In the first days of May, the accepted average speed remained stable at 47.92 MH/s. The daily average earnings was quite good, 0.00009402 BTC/24h, it was not the best I have had so far, but it was the second best.

The graph:


With this result, I have 13% of the goal reached, and if this pace is maintained, within 197 days I reach 100%. I have been preparing an Excel file, with more details on these numbers, which I will soon share.


BEYOND THE OBJECTIVE
The main objective of recovering the GPU investment, will end in a few months, but we have to open the horizons and, prepare / analyze / search, other things related to the crypto world, so as not to miss the boat.

I had already spoken here, about the Chia project, that at the moment I am less active while waiting for the pools with the official protocol to appear. As a curiosity, at the moment with the 5 plots I have, in 4 years I will mine a block. The network is growing very fast.

In the meantime I have been analyzing the Helium network in detail, to check whether or not I make the investment. Currently all hotspots are exhausted and delivery is scheduled for the end of the year. As a reduction in the reward value is expected around that time, the investment has to be very well calculated. In my area, there are not yet many hotspots and probably if I do, I will only be able to connect to two or three other hotspots. So it has to be well studied. But, in the analysis that I have done, it seems to me to be a project with good growth potential and it will certainly appreciate. The community in Portugal seems to be growing and that there is already a good number of hotspots ordered, which will soon start to arrive and increase the network. I'll go with you.

^ VIEW TIMELINE ^

TO BE CONTINUED
May 16, 2021 - HASH IN HIGH vs BITCOIN IN FALL > THE FILE
May 23, 2021 - ANOTHER GOOD WEEK > ELECTRICITY INVOICE

[joker_josue]

Post edited! Due to the reorganization of the topic this post has been edited. The original content of this post was just an announcement for new content.


May 16, 2021
HASH IN HIGH vs BITCOIN IN FALL
The second week in May was fantastic. As I have already pointed out, if the hash value remains at these values, I can recover the Bitcoins spent on purchasing the GPU in almost half the time.

If last week had already been good, with a daily average of 0.00009402 BTC/24h, this week the result was incredible, obtaining an average of 0.00017042 BTC/24h. This is thanks to the hash enhancement, since I still have the same card and the same configuration. And I didn't have a better average, because one day, I had a whole day in a meeting via Zoom.

Here is the graph:


On the contrary, the value of Bitcoin has been steadily devaluing. But that does not concern me, if it means the hash appreciation.  
My idea is simple: I bought the GPU for 0.01804625BTC and that is the amount I intend to recover.


THE FILE
Throughout this report, I have emphasized that I will always present the real numbers of the performance of my mining. Estimates only help to get an idea of what can happen, but it is the actual numbers that show what really happens. Therefore, I believe that with this sharing of information, I can help and be helped, in a more clear and concrete way.

In that sense, I created a file with detailed numbers, to make it easier for everyone to understand how this adventure is going.
You can consult here.

In an initial analysis, I can say that because of the hash appreciation, in the first two weeks of May I already won more than in the three weeks of April. And that at this moment it has already reached 20% of the goal, and there are only 165 days (about 6 months) to reach it.


May 23, 2021
ANOTHER GOOD WEEK
Since last week the hash value has been on the rise, and this week was no exception. The high value was kept, allowing for a good performance. Even so, the daily average BTC was a little lower than last week, where I had 0.00017042 BTC/24h, against 0.00013072 BTC/24h this week. These values are very good, as they are well above initial estimates (about 0.000075 BTC/24h). All in all, I already have 25% of the goal achieved.

Here is this week's chart:


You can also consult the file with all the numbers here.


ELECTRICITY INVOICE
This entire mining process requires above-average energy consumption. I still hadn't revealed the numbers for this consumption. Therefore, and based on the commitment made from the beginning, to reveal all the numbers, more details on this subject follow.

As I said at the beginning, before entering this adventure I normally had my computer turned on 24/7. Since I have never done a specific monitoring of this consumption, it is more complicated to know the difference between what I used to consume and what I consume now. Then I still have to rely on two VAT rates, where kWh is due on the invoice. There are also situations of returns, regarding consumption billed in excess. Not to mention the variations in consumption in the house (hotplate, electric oven, TV, air conditioning, etc.). Anyway, a set of things, which had to be taken into account, to be able to have more accurate figures about the amount I have to pay in relation to mining.

In this sense, to make it easier, I analyzed the average consumption in the last few months before mining and concluded that on average I pay 40~45€ of electricity per month. This way, I will only count as mining expenses, everything that I have to pay above this 45€ (except for any extra consumption that I know I had at home). So, with this formula, in the first month of mining I spent 13.07€ on electricity.

Now the question arises how do I put this value in BTC. Since the value of Bitcoin is always changing, I will exchange it on the day I pay the invoice, recording what I had to pay in BTC that day. In the file, you can already find the information regarding electricity.

As a final note, the file shows electricity expenses, I will not consider it as an expense for the objective. Because, if I bought the GPU without using Bitcoin or mining, the amount paid was much higher than what I'll pay for electricity. Therefore, information is presented but not considered to achieve the objective.

^ VIEW TIMELINE ^

TO BE CONTINUED
May 30, 2021 - THE MONTH OF MAY
June 06, 2021 - BACK TO NORMAL > A NEW PROJECT

[joker_josue]

Post edited! Due to the reorganization of the topic this post has been edited. The original content of this post was just an announcement for new content.


May 30, 2021
THE MONTH OF MAY
After 4 weeks of mining in May, I can say it was an excellent month, managing to earn a total of 0.00346677BTC. Achieving a daily average of 0.000111831BTC, higher than the month of April (0.000081455BTC) which had fewer days of mining. These values were possible to achieve because there were two weeks where the hash value was high, thus allowing for better performance.

It was also in May that I received the first electricity bill since I started mining (even though I wasn't counting this towards the goal), and because of the devaluation of Bitcoin, the expense amounted to a week of mining.

In relation to this last week, the hash value returned to the most common levels, but I managed to have a daily average of 0.00009864 BTC/24h (last week I had 0.00013072 BTC/24h). Even so, still above initial estimates.

Here is the graph of the week:


Globally, I can say that I've already reached 29% of the goal, with a daily average of 0.00009384BTC. Keeping this pace, within 5 months I will recover the Bitcoin invested in the purchase of the GPU.

You can also consult the file with all the numbers (which already contains the most recent numbers) here.


June 06, 2021
BACK TO NORMAL
The month of May was fantastic, with daily hash values above the average, which allowed for a good progress towards the goal. The first week of June, as was predictable, brought daily values within what was expected, since the beginning of this adventure.

Even so, the daily average was 0.00009016 BTC. As you can see in the graph:


Overall I can say that it has already achieved 30% of the goal, and is expected to be able to gather all the Bitcoin spent on the purchase of the GPU, within 5 months. We'll see how it goes this month.

You can also consult the file with all the numbers (which already contains the most recent numbers) here.


A NEW PROJECT
Although this week was more calm about mining, it was a week where I was involved in another blockchain project. I have already talked here about the Helium Network, which I have been following. In Portugal, a large growth is forecast in the coming months, with more and more hotspots installed and the forecast that in the coming months more hotspots will be working. I believe this is the prediction in almost the entire world.

The Portuguese community is growing, and trying to organize itself in the best way so that hotspots are located in order to maximize gains for everyone. Since many have not yet received the hotspots, there is still a big unknown as to where the hotspots will be installed, which can make it difficult to organize them. In this sense, I started in the last few weeks to develop a platform that will allow the Portuguese community to organize itself better based on the hotspots that are planned to be installed. It will be available soon.

^ VIEW TIMELINE ^

TO BE CONTINUED
June 13, 2021 - MAINTENANCE WEEK
June 20, 2021 - NORMALITY WEEK AND EXCEL CORRECTIONS

[666mrga999]

Impressive how detailed is your report, well done. Was a good read.
But how you managed 47MHs as my 2 RTX 3060 crash after couple of hours if I go above +800 on memory

[joker_josue]

Impressive how detailed is your report, well done. Was a good read.
But how you managed 47MHs as my 2 RTX 3060 crash after couple of hours if I go above +800 on memory

Thanks.

My GPU is connected directly to the motherboard on the PCI-E x16 and is where I have my monitor connected.
I haven't had any difficulties so far, and it has always been on since I installed it.

What is your power supply?

[Grim]

Nicehash ... people really are that dumb

[666mrga999]

Nicehash ... people really are that dumb

I don't understand the hate on Nicehash...

[joker_josue]

Nicehash ... people really are that dumb

I accept suggestions... What do you suggest?

[Skinny48]

Can't someone just mod a driver for rtx3060? This card do 50mh with ease I just hope something comes up one day for this GPU it sucks to buy at 1100$ and get 25MH per this GPU when 600$ card can do 31mh ( gtx1660 super )

[joker_josue]

Can't someone just mod a driver for rtx3060? This card do 50mh with ease I just hope something comes up one day for this GPU it sucks to buy at 1100$ and get 25MH per this GPU when 600$ card can do 31mh ( gtx1660 super )

Use this driver:
https://mega.nz/file/rE1E0JCS#-xL0bc6t2UiuiZ0Vtc-I9hcqGhV0UIr0B6FKJcdy_kE

It works for me. My average is 47MH/s.
According to some reports it is necessary to be directly connected to the PCI-E 16x port and have a connection on HDMI.
As it is my main PC, it is how I have it.

[swogerino]

Can't someone just mod a driver for rtx3060? This card do 50mh with ease I just hope something comes up one day for this GPU it sucks to buy at 1100$ and get 25MH per this GPU when 600$ card can do 31mh ( gtx1660 super )

Use this driver:
https://mega.nz/file/rE1E0JCS#-xL0bc6t2UiuiZ0Vtc-I9hcqGhV0UIr0B6FKJcdy_kE

It works for me. My average is 47MH/s.
According to some reports it is necessary to be directly connected to the PCI-E 16x port and have a connection on HDMI.
As it is my main PC, it is how I have it.

The people having trouble with the hashrate of this card can find the driver by searching "nvidia's geforce 470.05 beta driver" on google.The link on Mega is non existent as Mega.nz removed it.You can put it in another host and people can download and solve their problems.

[sxemini]

Nicehash ... people really are that dumb

I don't understand the hate on Nicehash...

some people behinde nicehash had problems with the law in the past.

You heard from the problems from the phoenixminer developer and nicehash? No? Then find out more about this and you will become scared.

And if Nicehash loose all coins again on a mysterious way, than you understand the hate.

Can't someone just mod a driver for rtx3060? This card do 50mh with ease I just hope something comes up one day for this GPU it sucks to buy at 1100$ and get 25MH per this GPU when 600$ card can do 31mh ( gtx1660 super )

Use this driver:
https://mega.nz/file/rE1E0JCS#-xL0bc6t2UiuiZ0Vtc-I9hcqGhV0UIr0B6FKJcdy_kE

It works for me. My average is 47MH/s.
According to some reports it is necessary to be directly connected to the PCI-E 16x port and have a connection on HDMI.
As it is my main PC, it is how I have it.

The people having trouble with the hashrate of this card can find the driver by searching "nvidia's geforce 470.05 beta driver" on google.The link on Mega is non existent as Mega.nz removed it.You can put it in another host and people can download and solve their problems.

I need 10 seconds to find this driver.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ehoPBLv2bEhC-I40a7YQfbTm_mRaJPAf

[joker_josue]

Can't someone just mod a driver for rtx3060? This card do 50mh with ease I just hope something comes up one day for this GPU it sucks to buy at 1100$ and get 25MH per this GPU when 600$ card can do 31mh ( gtx1660 super )

Use this driver:
https://mega.nz/file/rE1E0JCS#-xL0bc6t2UiuiZ0Vtc-I9hcqGhV0UIr0B6FKJcdy_kE

It works for me. My average is 47MH/s.
According to some reports it is necessary to be directly connected to the PCI-E 16x port and have a connection on HDMI.
As it is my main PC, it is how I have it.

The people having trouble with the hashrate of this card can find the driver by searching "nvidia's geforce 470.05 beta driver" on google.The link on Mega is non existent as Mega.nz removed it.You can put it in another host and people can download and solve their problems.

I updated the driver link, in a housing controlled by me. I hope it helps.
https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AImZg23q45RZKlI&cid=DCF42BCB3A71AAE5&id=DCF42BCB3A71AAE5%21129862&parId=DCF42BCB3A71AAE5%21129818

[joker_josue]

Post edited! Due to the reorganization of the topic this post has been edited. The original content of this post was just an announcement for new content.


June 13, 2021
MAINTENANCE WEEK
Since I'm using my normal PC, I have to keep it up to date with Windows. Before, I used to do this normally, without worrying about when I would restart the PC. But with mining, things have to be better planned so that downtime is minimal. Since the hash value is entering a more "normal" value, this was a good time to take a little break. In addition to the updates, I wanted to upgrade the RAM memory.

Gathered the stuff (the RAM), proceeded to update Windows, and open the PC to install the RAM. Opening the PC, I took the opportunity to do a little cleaning of the equipment, remove some of the dust. Fortunately there was less dust than I expected, thankfully. So it must have taken me about 30 minutes to do this maintenance. Everything went well and it was a short break.

After upgrading, I noticed that when I use the PC more intensively, the mining program sometimes restarts. SSomething that wasn't normal anymore, but sometimes it happens, the difference is that now it's done more often. It might just be a coincidence, because I have to keep in mind that I'm not using the latest official version of the GPU driver, and so small errors can sometimes appear. Either way, I don't see performance differences, so I suppose that's okay.

Despite this short break, this week's mining performance was as expected. The hash value has been going down to the values I had predicted when I started this adventure. Even so, with the pause and the value going down, the weekly average was good, with 0.00008515 BTC/24h. So I have 35% of the long goal, 134 days away from achieving it.



You can also consult the file with all the numbers (which already contains the most recent numbers) here.


June 20, 2021
NORMALITY WEEK AND EXCEL CORRECTIONS
After a set of weeks where the hash value was on the rise, and after a devastating drop in the Bitcoin value, this week will have been the week of stability. Bitcoin without major variations in value, although it remains low. And the hash value returned to what was predicted when I started this adventure. It was good when the hash value was high, as it allowed for a good advance towards the goal, it may rise again.

This week, I kept the average speed at 47.67 MH/s and averaged 0.00007757 BTC/24h, within the initial plan. If you keep these numbers, you are satisfied, as I already have 38% of the goal achieved. Here is the graphic:



In the meantime, I found an error in the accounts I was doing in the file, when calculating the estimated deadline to reach the goal. Instead of calculating the monthly average, I was calculating the median. With this situation fixed, instead of being 125 days to the target, I'm actually 114 days - 4 months, which is on schedule.

You can also consult the file with all the numbers (which already contains the most recent numbers) here.

^ VIEW TIMELINE ^

TO BE CONTINUED
June 27, 2021 - SUMMER HAS ARRIVED > THETA NETWORK
July 04, 2021 - THREE MONTHS LATER > NOTES ON EXTRAS

[Miningminds]

Hello again!

I inform you that I added another part of my report. You can see it here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5336026.msg56961262#post_segundasemana

compañero, tengo una consultilla que hacerte, he leído con interés tu post ya que pensaba agenciarme una rtx 3060 a secas y sumarla en mi rig con 3 rtx 3070

entiendo que en este caso para que "tire" a 47 mhs tendría que ponerla por hdmi la monitor (es mi pc principal este rig), que el riser esté conectado en un pci-16x y tener los conocidos drivers no?

aparte lo que no entiendo es lo que mencionas: "Based on this analysis, I decided to try and see the results, using the "high" setting, provided by NiceHash. This change was possible, it increased my daily earnings by almost 50%, compared to the previous week. "


¿podrías explicarme esto? has incrementado tus ganancias diarias un 50%?? cómo es eso posible?

yo empecé con nicehash pero he pasado hace como 3 semanas a minar sólo eth con phoenix y creo que fue acertado viendo que eth está mucho menos volátil y ha subido mucho más en comparación

gracias de antemano y saludos

[joker_josue]

aparte lo que no entiendo es lo que mencionas: "Based on this analysis, I decided to try and see the results, using the "high" setting, provided by NiceHash. This change was possible, it increased my daily earnings by almost 50%, compared to the previous week. "


¿podrías explicarme esto? has incrementado tus ganancias diarias un 50%?? cómo es eso posible?

I made this observation based on profitability in between two weeks:

In the first week I made an average of 0.00006880 BTC/24h, and this week 0.00009840 BTC/24h. Great result.
But was it just because of the configuration changes?

BERLIN UPDATE & BITCOIN VALUE
In the second week of this adventure, the Berlin update, on the Ethereum network, followed shortly. By coincidence or not, even with the "media" configuration, I felt a slight increase in average daily earnings after this update.

But as I said, this may also have been related to increasing the hash value, due to the bitcoin appreciation and the berlin update.

As I didn’t use a lower setting again, I don’t know if this is related or not. But most likely it was the hash value that increased. As it has been happening for the past few days.

In other words, it was 50% from one week to the next, but in general, it was not that increase, of course.

yo empecé con nicehash pero he pasado hace como 3 semanas a minar sólo eth con phoenix y creo que fue acertado viendo que eth está mucho menos volátil y ha subido mucho más en comparación

By the way, what pool have you been using?

[joker_josue]

Post edited! Due to the reorganization of the topic this post has been edited. The original content of this post was just an announcement for new content.


June 27, 2021
SUMMER HAS ARRIVED
On June 21, 2021, summer officially arrived. In Portugal, summer is usually hot and dry, with temperatures of 32~38 degrees. Heat is the biggest enemy of any electronic system, and in this case mining equipment - my GPU. My house is not very hot, but of course at this time the ambient temperature increases, so I have to start paying attention to the temperature of the GPU, so that it stays at the right temperatures. I was reminded of this fact by an interesting article from NiceHash, which you can see here.

So far everything has been quiet, without having to make any configuration changes. Normally the global temperature of the GPU is around 61º and the VRAM in 58º - very normal values. These values should always be away from 70~80 degrees to avoid problems. So now it's time to pay attention to this aspect as well.

This week was better than last week. The hash value increased again, which allowed it to return to a higher-than-expected yield. With an average hash speed of around 48mh/s, I managed to make an average of 0.00008637 BTC/24h. Looking at the chart, the afternoon of the 22nd stands out, where I had a peak in the hash value, only on that day I got 0.000099950 BTC.



You can also consult the file with all the numbers (which already contains the most recent numbers) here.


THETA NETWORK
This week, I discovered the Theta Network project, for the video streaming industry. Where the end user is invited to provide bandwidth and processing power, to cache the videos and use their processing power to encode videos for content creators, then rewarded with TFuel.

The project is about 2 years old, and allegedly Google/Youtube is interested in the project. And it is now entering a new phase, with the launch of Mainnet 3.0, which could bring more "work" for miners and a possible valorization of TFuel.

During this week I had the Theta Edge Node program running, which is still in beta version, and it will be the program that will manage the work and earnings of the network. There are two ways to work: cache and compute. In "cache" mode, the videos will be cached, as needed by the network, which so far I haven't had any work. In "compute" mode, this is where we encode videos and provide processing power for the Folding@Home network.

So far I've only had jobs in "compute" mode. Where I'm always with a job for Folding@Home and I only had one encoding job. In total I received only 0.21 TFuel, most of which came from this encoding work, with 0.166 TFuel. It's not much, but so far I haven't seen any exorbitant increase in the consumption of PC resources, and so it will be to maintain, in the expectation of coming to value.

This project can be interesting for those who have their PC always on, and thus get some extra income in the future.

You can find out more on the official website: https://www.thetatoken.org


July 04, 2021
THREE MONTHS LATER
This adventure started three months ago, at the beginning of April, when Bitcoin was worth more than €60,000, a figure that ended up falling at the end of the month, to almost half. I made the investment at the ideal time (I invested almost €900 and now the amount invested is worth just over €500), buying an RTX 3060, with the funds I had saved over the last few years in BTC. I started mining on the 9th of April 2020 and after two days looking for the ideal configurations, I still have the GPU mining at a good pace. At the end of these three months, I can say that I managed to recover 45% of the Bitcoin invested in the purchase of the GPU.

In this last month - June, the daily average was 0.00008332 BTC, below the average of May which was 0.00011746 BTC/24h, which I consider a positive result. In the last week, the average speed reduced a little to 46.86 MH/s, due to a slight increase in PC usage, where I had an average of 0.00008749 BTC/24h. In this way, I'm just over 100 days away from reaching the goal.



You can also consult the file with all the numbers (which already contains the most recent numbers) here.


NOTES ON EXTRAS
Right now, in addition to mining via the GPU, I've been looking at two projects that might yield some extras.

One of them is Theta Network, which this week launched Mainnet 3.0. The differences I've felt since the release is that I have some more video encoding jobs. Moving this last week from 0.21 TFuel I had to 1 TFuel. Whether it's going to compensate or not having the program open, I still can't say, because the TFuel value is low. But as the program, it hasn't required a lot of PC resources, so far, I don't see any problems with keeping the program open.

Another project that I've been watching is the Chia Network, it seems that during the next week the official protocol for the pools will be released. In that sense, it could once again be an interesting bet to mine. With that in mind, I took advantage of the income obtained from the campaigns here on the forum, to make a small investment. But I'll give more details later.

^ VIEW TIMELINE ^

TO BE CONTINUED
July 11, 2021 - MIDDLE OF ADVENTURE > POOL IN CHIA
July 18, 2021 - HASHRATE ANALYSIS

[Miningminds]

aparte lo que no entiendo es lo que mencionas: "Based on this analysis, I decided to try and see the results, using the "high" setting, provided by NiceHash. This change was possible, it increased my daily earnings by almost 50%, compared to the previous week. "


¿podrías explicarme esto? has incrementado tus ganancias diarias un 50%?? cómo es eso posible?

I made this observation based on profitability in between two weeks:

In the first week I made an average of 0.00006880 BTC/24h, and this week 0.00009840 BTC/24h. Great result.
But was it just because of the configuration changes?

BERLIN UPDATE & BITCOIN VALUE
In the second week of this adventure, the Berlin update, on the Ethereum network, followed shortly. By coincidence or not, even with the "media" configuration, I felt a slight increase in average daily earnings after this update.

But as I said, this may also have been related to increasing the hash value, due to the bitcoin appreciation and the berlin update.

As I didn’t use a lower setting again, I don’t know if this is related or not. But most likely it was the hash value that increased. As it has been happening for the past few days.

In other words, it was 50% from one week to the next, but in general, it was not that increase, of course.

yo empecé con nicehash pero he pasado hace como 3 semanas a minar sólo eth con phoenix y creo que fue acertado viendo que eth está mucho menos volátil y ha subido mucho más en comparación

By the way, what pool have you been using?

Actually I'm using nanopool (but I am considering to move to ethermine).