Time to mine ethereum

How to Mine Ethereum and Ethereum Classic on 4GB GPUs

The end of 2020 is complicated for Ethereum miners. Starting from epoch 382 (December 16), all 4GB GPUs will stop mining the cryptocurrency. The problem is the gradually increasing DAG file size. Luckily, the developers are working hard to find a solution, and they already have one.

UPD: lolMiner developers released v1.22 version. It’s Linux only release that targets improvements of the performance of the so-called zombie mode. It improves the performance of zombie mode on RX 400 and RX 500 GPUs in Linux. Performance increases by 7-11% on epoch 393 and 15-20% on epoch 400. You can download it here.

Here is a graph of the GPUs hashrate as the DAG file grows.

DAG is a data block uploaded to the GPU memory when a miner launches. It’s essential to mining because it helps devices to find blocks, ensure the network security, and get a reward for the completed work.

DAG is gradually increasing in size. It grows by 8MB every 30 thousand blocks. With time, GPUs can’t process the file anymore, so miners are forced to mine other cryptocurrencies. In mid-December, 4GB GPUs will stop mining Ethereum. However, the developers have found a way to let them mine Ethereum for longer.

Some 4GB GPUs already can’t mine Ethereum. Possible reasons are old mining software, GPUs from different brands, or Windows OS that is more demanding to resources. The problem is obvious.

What to Do If GPUs Can’t Mine Ethereum

The lolMiner developers (we talk about the miner here) are aware of the upcoming 4GB GPU problem. They have released the updated software version adding the so-called zombie mode for cryptocurrency mining. This mode will enable 4GB GPUs to mine Ethereum even at the beginning of 2021.

Why the zombie mode? Here is a quote by the project developer Wilke Trei, known as Lolliedieb.
I was asked why zombie mode. Well, I found that term fitting. These are cards that are supposed to be dead, yet they continue mining but gradually slower. Like an undead (GPU jargon).

Ethereum mining will be possible with gradually degrading performance.

The new mode is working. As a proof, the developer showed a screenshot where he is mining the cryptocurrency in the test network on epoch 390. The graphics card with 4GB of RAM keeps mining with the hash rate of 23 MH/s.

The developer concluded the following.

This mode enables Ethereum mining after epoch 381, the last epoch that lets GPUs work at full capacity. GPU performance will gradually degrade. Hash rate will go down to 95% on epoch 382, and to 55% on epoch 390. It will be only 22% on epoch 400, but mining will go on.

GPUs will give out over 50% of their efficiency in the course of the next eleven epochs. It means 60 additional days of mining after the official shutdown.
In the table below, the developer shows the performance of the AMD RX 580 that normally gives out 30 MH/s. On December 21, it will give out 27.63 MH/s, or 92% of full capacity.

Hash Rate in the Zombie Mode of RX 580 4G is presented below.

Zombie mode will work both on Windows and Linux. Windows will not provide the best results, as you can see in the table.

Does it make sense to mine this way? It does. Along with 4GB GPUs, 4GB ASICs will also stop mining Ethereum. The network hash rate will decrease significantly which will lead to lower mining difficulty. The remaining GPUs will make more profit from ETH than before. The advantages are obvious.

Here is what the developer says.

What to do with all 4GB devices? ETC, Beam, and Heaven mining difficulty may skyrocket, so 50% of the profit from 4GB GPUs might still be better than the profit from altcoins.

The developers believe that mining with 4GB GPUs in the new mode after the DAG file increase can bring even better results than before. When miners start having problems with DAG, they are forced to switch to other cryptocurrencies which will make their mining difficulty go up.

How to Set Up the Software for 4GB GPU Mining

The only parameter you can change in the lolMiner zombie mode is “keepfree”. It gives the number of megabytes the miner won’t use on the card to reserve it for the system.

By default, this value is set to 56MB in Windows and 5MB in Linux, which should work fine. Here is a bat file setting for Windows.

This one is for Linux.

The developer says that if everything is working and mining is on, there is no need to adjust anything. If you are having problems, run a benchmark using the following command. This one is for Windows.

This one is for Linux.

Then see how your miner operates. If it freezes, increase keepfree by 8MB and try again.

For better performance, you can try to decrease the value by 8MB – 48MB for Windows and 0MB for Linux. If it worked, you can try to lower it even more. Repeat until your miner launches and operates properly.

We recommend mining Ethereum in the 2Miners pool. It has a user-friendly interface, advanced settings, and the support of multiple languages.

LolMiner has definitely brought some good news. Ethereum mining will go on, and GPU owners will keep making a profit from it. Hopefully, we will see a similar approach to other cryptocurrencies in the future.

Recently TeamRedMiner has launched the 0.7.20 miner version with the advanced mining mode. It is similar to the zombie mode and offers a compromise between the GPU efficiency and overall possibility of mining.

Phoenix Miner also supports 4GB mining with no additional settings required.

4GB GPU Mining Tuning and Troubleshooting

All GPU’s have a different amount of memory (RAM) even if they are stated as 4GB. They could have 3896MB / 3996MB / 4024MB / 4096MB for example. Each miner has a special parameter that regulates the amount of memory used for mining. Here is how to set it up for each miner:

According to TeamRedMiner Devs the expected range for N is 4070-4078. You really want to run with the highest N possible for your rig. If the rig fails to allocate the RAM on startup or the miner crashes after 5-10 mins every time, lower the number (N) in small steps until the miner runs ok.
The default number N = 4072

The idea is quite simple. You could increase the N number until the miner works fine and doesn’t crash. The higher this N number is the higher hashrate you could get.

Ethereum Classic Mining with 4GB GPUs

Wilke says that the zombie mode is only available for AMD for now, but Nvidia support is coming soon.

It also supports Windows with a smooth mining launch. During Ethereum Classic mining tests, GPUs give out 17.32 MH/s instead of 21.5 MH/s. Such cutback is quite acceptable.

Mining ETC with 4GB GPUs is possible. Miners have a choice now. Ethereum Classic has already cut the DAG size down, so that 3GB GPUs could mine cryptocurrencies. We have an article about this update.

[Update] LolMiner Benchmark on 380 and 385 Epoch ETC Mining

Check the new screenshot provided by the lolMiner developers below for AMD RX580 GPU. On the left, you find the performance on epoch 385. On the right epoch 380. Hashrate has dropped from 29.5 MH/s to 22.2 MH/s but the card is still mining even 3 epochs above its limit.

If you want to get the latest updates follow us on TWITTER or join our Telegram Chat.

The 2Miners pool co-founder, businessman, miner. In 2017 started mining cryptocurrencies and built many rigs on his own. As a result, he gained lots of practical knowledge and became interested in sharing it with others. In his articles on 2Miners, he shares useful tips that he tried and tested himself. For example, Darek gives advice on how to buy hardware components for the basic mining rig and how to connect them to each other correctly. He also explained lots of complicated terms in simple words, such as shares, mining luck, block types, and cryptocurrency wallets. After the pool was launched, he published a series of articles ‘Crypto Mythbusters’ where he explained how to protect the network against 51% attack, talked about cryptocurrency mining difficulty and difficulties of launching your own node.

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How to Mine Ethereum: Mining and Profitability

Ethereum is the top altcoin. It is a blockchain based platform for decentralized applications created by Vitalik Buterin and also the second best cryptocurrency in the world. Let’s talk about Ethereum mining, ETH profitability, and the future of the project.

Look what we have – a short mining video guide!

What is Ethereum?

Developers see Ethereum as a blockchain platform for applications, which is confirmed by the info on the website of the project and many world famous games. The most popular one is Cryptokitties – users have spent millions of dollars on it.

Hodlers see Ether mainly as a cryptocurrency. As of now, it ranks second in the updated CoinMarketCap chart, and its market capitalization is $28 billion.

As of February 20 2020, its price is $255. The circulating supply is over 109 million coins with a 24-hour trading volume equal to $23 billion.

Where to Buy Ethereum?

After Bitcoin, Ethereum is the most popular currency so that means you can find it practically anywhere.

Ethereum is traded on at least 400 crypto exchanges. The most popular among them are Bitfinex, Binance, GDAX, Huobi, and OKEx. In the last 24 hours, they traded hundreds of millions dollars’ worth of ETH, which is quite impressive.

Ethereum (ETH) Future

Ethereum boasts a great team of developers headed by Vitalik Buterin that actively promote the project. And it’s not just mere words, and it’s about real actions and benefits to users.

The most talked-about upgrade is a transition to Proof-of-Stake, which will allow you to earn at the expense of 32 ETH shares. Have a look at the expert roundup: Upcoming Ethereum POS Switch prepared by 2Miners.

Ethereum Wallet

A small amount may be stored on exchanges. If you want to be less prone to cyber attacks, install the wallet on your computer. You can download bunch of wallets.

• MetaMask — browser extension and mobile wallet for iOS and Android;
• MyCrypto — web-based wallet;
• TrustWallet — mobile wallet for iOS and Android;
• MyEtherWallet — client-side wallet;
• Opera — major browser with integrated wallet.

Once you create the wallet, you can start mining.

Ethereum (ETH) Mining

They based Ethereum on the Ethash/Dagger-Hashimoto algorithm. You can mine it using 4GB+ AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.

Another option is ASIC-miner by Bitmain, Innosilicon and so on. Read our post “Innosilicon A10 for Ethereum Mining: Specs, Profitability and Setup Guide”.

What is Ethereum Mining Like in Reality?

Ethereum is the most popular altcoin and mined on over 10 million GPUs. It’s sad to say, but if you buy a mining rig with 8 GPUs, you are unlikely to become a millionaire. On the other hand, you can get steady income if you mine in the pool with other miners. Mining solo makes sense only if you have a lot of graphics cards.

Ethereum: Is it best to Mine Solo or in the pool? ETH Mining Calculator

2CryptoCalc mining calculator proves our previous point. Let’s say we have a rig with eight GTX 1070. In theory, it may find one block every three months. The calculator recommends mining solo only if you could find at least 2-3 blocks in 24 hours.

For example, here are the results for ten rigs with eight Nvidia GTX 1070 graphics cards.

It is impossible to earn anything in SOLO mode. It is better for you to join PPLNS pool and get a little less than $49.

Ethereum (ETH) mining profitability

Let’s estimate the potential profits using 2CryptoCalc. We enter the parameters of 300 Nvidia GeForce 1070Ti GPUs and calculate. Daily income is just above $ 180.

You will get approximately $5404 per month.

It’s possible to calculate the potential profits using 2CryptoCalc even for one GPU.

Ethereum Mining Difficulty

Ethereum network difficulty is 2.21 Ph. This value maintains a balance between the number of miners online and the block time. So difficult alterations allow you to see how popular the coin is among rig owners. Once the number of miners decreases, the difficulty goes down.

Getting Started. The Best Ethereum Miner

As of now, one found block is worth 2 ETH or $506 plus the blockchain transaction fees.

It is difficult to get this amount when mining solo, so we recommend mining on our Ethereum Mining Pool. To get started, download the latest version of Claymore’s Dual Ethereum GPU Miner from here. The password for the archive is 2miners.

First, change the wallet address to your own in /ETHASH/eth-pool.bat. Then launch the bat file. You will see a lot of numbers on the screen, among which you will find hashrate for each graphics card. The mining is on now – if everything goes well, coins will come into the wallet every two hours.

Settings for PhoenixMiner:

Settings for Claymore’s Dual Ethereum GPU Miner:

ASIC Settings:

Conclusion. Q&A

Is Ethereum mining a profitable business?

Yes, it is. In theory, if you buy 500 Nvidia 1070 Ti, you will get $300 a day. In reality, you can get less or more. This is a decent amount of money, so it won’t take long to cover the costs.

Is it easy to mine Ethereum? Is it worth it nowadays?

Everyone mines Ether, the hash rate is exceptionally high, and so is the difficulty. Besides, the currency is very popular, and users genuinely believe it has potential. Why not consider this project then?

Just remember to put your resources into perspective – mine solo only if you have enough power to do so.

How to mine Ethereum on a laptop or smartphone?

If it is a gaming laptop, it may bring around $1 a day. The steps to get started are the same as for a mining rig. Smartphones won’t do for mining.

Can you use the same hardware to mine both Ethereum and Bitcoin?

No, you can’t. Bitcoin is mined only by ASIC-miners today. Solving a block on graphics cards is impossible. For Ethereum it’s the other way round.

Can an Ethereum mining rig mine other coins?

Definitely. Any cryptocurrency available on 2Miners will do.

Should I mine Ethereum or Ethereum Classic?

It is much easier to mine Ethereum Classic – read this article to find out more. However, it is less profitable. One found block is worth 4 ETC or $34. The same goes for mining pools.

Where to buy hardware for Ethereum mining?

You can build your own rig following our instructions, or you can buy one. The latter option is faster but more costly. If you are willing to try, building your own rig can be a lot of fun – it’s like a Lego toy for adults.

Why does Ethereum mining difficulty increase when the currency rate goes down by 50%?

It is because of the trust the community has with Ethereum. Rig owners know for sure that the rate will increase in the future, so they switch their power to Ethereum. They do it to earn more coins through inexperienced miners that stop mining the currency when its rate goes down. But in the end, it goes up.

Don’t forget to read our articles about other cryptocurrencies.

Miner since 2017, the 2Miners pool co-founder. Became interested in cryptocurrencies at the dawn of the latest bull run and bought his first graphics cards. After having built and set up a few mining rigs, he realized that existing mining pools didn’t satisfy him – that’s how the idea of creating the 2Miners pool was born. John published a series of articles about the basics of cryptocurrency mining. He gave valuable tips on how to buy ASICs and GPUs from abroad and then shared their mining performance. On the website, you can find early articles about cryptocurrency mining, blockchain in general and mining pool operation principles. The readers gave positive feedback on John’s practical guides, such as building an Ethereum mining rig and Nvidia 1080ti overclocking.

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