The crypto industry continues to actively develop, attracting the interest of new users. Many people want to engage in cryptocurrency mining because they see the value of Bitcoin and popular altcoins rising every day.
Mining is a truly unique way to earn money, since you can get your profit without any investments at all, and with a minimum expenditure of free time. Beginners are wondering what Internet speed is needed for mining? The extraction of digital currency is based on the processing of gigabytes of information; in order to give a specific answer to this question, you need to carefully study the features of the mined coin.
Mining speed depends on the Internet, but not directly. That is, if the Internet speed is 500 MB/s, this does not mean that in a few hours you will get 10-20 Bitcoins. There is a relationship, but it manifests itself somewhat differently.
Remember that only generated keys for already found blocks are sent to the server, and the processed information remains on the computer. Therefore, even a slow Internet is quite suitable for mining, the main thing is to have powerful equipment.
How does the mining process work?
In part, cryptocurrency mining is indeed somewhat reminiscent of the process of extracting gold from natural sources. The coins are kept on record and the precious metals are buried underground. Accordingly, in order to obtain a resource, it must first be discovered.
Mining differs depending on what kind of digital currency we are talking about. To give beginners a general idea of this process, let’s consider a specific example – Bitcoin generation.
The BTC protocol provides for a total of 21 million coins issued. To mine Bitcoins, users use their equipment to solve computational problems, ensuring transactions are confirmed and recorded in the Blockchain. For maintaining the functionality of the network, they receive a reward - Bitcoin coins.
There is such a thing as “Nodes” - this is a powerful computer that runs network software; in fact, it relays information. Any user can launch this node; just download special software.
Miners are mining nodes. Users of this group form blocks from transactions and then add them to chains. To mine coins, you need to solve complex cryptographic problems. Therefore, mining requires powerful equipment. This applies to Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins.
The difficulty of mining cryptocurrency is gradually increasing. The more coins are mined, the more difficult it is to find a block and, accordingly, to receive a reward. Because of this feature, in 2020 it is simply impossible to mine BTC on a regular computer. To solve complex problems, special equipment is required - ASIC integrated circuits.
What should the data transfer speed be for comfortable mining? There is no exact figure, but a good ping is a prerequisite, especially if the user mines coins through a pool. This is why leading sites place servers all over the world, preventing freezes and all kinds of failures.
Overclocking the card
To achieve maximum results, users can force increase the graphics card's performance. It is worth considering that overclocking the GPU increases power consumption. To overclock cards, special programs are used; you will also need utilities that help monitor performance and basic characteristics.
Overclocking consists of two stages: increasing the frequency and checking the system. For each video card model, you can find detailed overclocking instructions online. With their help, the user can independently change the characteristics and increase productivity. All actions come down to consistent adjustment of indicators. It is important to gradually change the characteristics and find the ideal balance.
How much internet does mining consume?
Miners living in cities mostly subscribe to an unlimited package and therefore do not worry about traffic. However, in rural areas such tariffs are a real rarity. Therefore, many continue to use all kinds of modems and mobile Internet. Therefore, traffic is of enormous importance to them.
Web Traffic – the amount of information transmitted through the Internet channel over a certain time. For example, if you have a tariff of 500 MB per day, then you can transfer information exactly to this size. After which, the Internet will stop working.
How to Mine Bitcoins Using Google Chrome
Quick instructions for installing an extension for bitcoin mining:
- To mine bitcoins using the Google Chrome Internet browser you need to install an extension on your browser using https://getcryptotab.com/1627095
2. Click + ADD CHROME AND EARN.
ADD TO CHROME button on the page , click on it and the extension will be installed in the Google CHROME browser (this extension can also be installed on the Yandex Browser and Mozilla Firefox browsers).
3. In the “ Install CryptoTab ” icon, click “ Install extension”
4. Click PROCEED - NEXT - NEXT. Next, click on the icon of this extension (in the upper right corner of the browser) and you will be taken to the Bitcoin mining page.
Not required steps, but recommended
5. Add CryptoSearch and improve Bitcoin mining! 6. Using CryptoSearch you reduce the minimum payout by 40 times and do not pay any commissions.
Further
7. Click to the right of ENTER ( Join icon VK , FB , Google+ and Twitter )
8. Login - Log in to your VK , FB , Google+ and Twitter . This is necessary so that if the extension is deleted, you can log into your account again and save the mined bitcoins.
9. The “ Crypto Tab ” application will receive: a public profile and email. address. Next Edit - Continue as 10. Now your Bitcoin balance and referral network will be automatically saved. 11. To receive payments, you must have a Bitcoin wallet address. 12. If you don’t have it, see FAQ
What kind of internet is needed for mining?
Of course, the best option is an unlimited tariff. After all, the user will have to download the wallet, and synchronization with Blockchain may require downloading gigabytes of information, depending on what kind of digital currency we are talking about. As a result, due to the lack of traffic, the miner will face additional difficulties.
Internet speed for mining is not of fundamental importance. Tariffs of 50 MB/s and 100 MB/s do not in any way affect the efficiency of cryptocurrency mining.
What is the problem
The AsicBoost method was invented by Timo Hanke in collaboration with Sergio Demian Lerner (working at RSK Labs, which was funded by Bitmain) and patented. Everything related to Bitcoin has always been free and open source. This is part of the ideology.
But this development has a patent, that is, royalties must be paid to the authors for its use. And this makes mining unequal: advantage can be bought. Therefore, the technology is considered alien to mining.
It was believed that Bitmain was using stealth mining with AsicBoost and was therefore blocking the adoption of segwit. Allegedly, this improvement in the Mainnet made Asikbust incompatible.
But Bitmain themselves said that they do not use the technology on the main network. There were also arguments that segwit does not cancel its use, it simply makes it less profitable.
Questions that arise regarding AsicBoost are as follows:
- Is the competitive advantage it provides acceptable?
- Is it acceptable to use programs that run on the original system.
Currently, miners have an unspoken agreement not to use the program as it damages the network.
However, this opinion is not unanimous. Some see this as a way to ensure efficiency in the extraction process. Now competition is growing, and Bitcoin farms are not available to everyone, so technology is being used more often to speed up mining.
One thing is for sure, the technology discriminates against those who do not have the right to use it, which leads to an unbalanced mining process.
How much internet does mining consume?
Each novice miner will be able to carry out special calculations to determine the amount of traffic consumed by the farm. As an example, let's take a GPU farm consisting of 5 video cards. Let us immediately note that ASIC mining will require more traffic, since it is more powerful equipment.
During the day, no more than 120 Mbit will be used, respectively, for the farm to operate correctly, a speed of more than 0.001 Mbit/s is needed; of course, any provider will be able to satisfy this need. On average, stable mobile Internet operates at a speed of 3 Mbit/s, which is quite enough for a farm.
However, how much traffic do you need? The answer to this question directly depends on the performance of the GPU. The way it is connected also has a significant impact. To check your traffic on your cell phone, you must perform the following steps:
- We connect a new tariff plan, preferably with traffic over 200 Mbit. We use data transfer exclusively for cryptocurrency mining and not for any other purposes.
- We launch the software and start mining the previously selected coin.
- After 24 hours, we send a request to the mobile operator about the remaining traffic. For example, subscribers of the MTS network will be able to make a corresponding request by sending a question mark to the short number 5340.
- We receive the answer, and then subtract from the original tariff plan (for example, 200 Mbit) from the value sent by the operator. The difference is the amount of traffic consumed by the farm in 24 hours.
Using a similar principle, the traffic consumed by computing equipment is calculated for 1 hour. However, such calculations are absolutely less informative. It is more expedient to use the indicator per day, and then divide it by the number of hours that the farm worked.
Please note that results may vary. The model of the card used is of enormous importance. As practice shows, the more powerful the equipment, the more electricity and traffic it consumes. This feature should be taken into account.
Internet requirements are not limited to speed and traffic; for comfortable mining, it is very important to select the appropriate network equipment.
Internet connection types | network hardware |
Wired | Standard twisted pair |
telephone wire | |
Optical fiber | |
Coaxial | |
Wireless | Mobile Internet – 2G, 3G, 4G |
WiFi |
A wireless connection is less stable than a cable connection, and failures are possible. Low ping is also extremely important - a guarantee of stable digital currency production.
What will you need?
The process of mining bitcoins is not as complicated as it seems at first glance. To mine bitcoins you need to get a suitable video card model and select software. You will also need to create a Bitcoin wallet to receive funds.
You should start preparing by choosing a wallet into which the earned coins will be received. There are many wallets that are designed to store access keys to bitcoins:
- desktop (for PCs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS);
- mobile (for smartphones on Android, Windows Mobile and iOS);
- hardware (special devices that resemble a flash drive; they are expensive, but provide the safest storage);
- web wallets (online services).
When choosing a wallet, study how you can spend cryptocurrency and how secure the chosen service is. A useful feature is backup. If you do not create a copy, then if the keys are lost, it will be impossible to restore the wallet.
Choosing a video card is an important preparatory stage. An AMD or Nvidia video card is suitable for mining. Laptop hardware is not suitable for mining. It is better to choose a top-end video card, an AMD card, but models from the 5XXX series and higher are suitable. Your future earnings will depend on the performance of your video card, so you should not save at this stage.
Selecting software is the next step in preparation. Special programs allow you to use the capabilities of your computer and receive rewards for it. There are many client programs that are suitable for mining, the most popular of them are:
- Bitminer;
- BFGMiner;
How to find out the ping to the pool?
Previously, we looked at how much Internet resource is consumed for mining.
But in order for computing equipment to function continuously, it is important to take ping into account. What ping is needed for the best cryptocurrency mining? The optimal indicator is a speed of 10-15 ms. 70 ms is enough speed for greater profit. A ping greater than a sufficient value can negatively impact the final result. Despite this, equipment with a response speed of 200ms can function at 100%.
The following factors affect ping:
- Internet speed. Packets will arrive with a delay if the transmission speed is insufficient. The minimum speed of 50 Mbit/s and the maximum of 300 Mbit/s are not able to affect ping.
- Internet stability. Any interruption in traffic for a miner is the reason for an increase in ping.
- Server location. Popular pools provide a couple of servers in different locations around the world to increase the number of users.
Calculating ping to the pool:
To display the control panel in Windows, you need to click on 2 buttons Win (with the Windows icon) + R.
Enter the value cmd in the panel, the Windows console is activated.
The address of the pool server is entered into the console. “Eth-ru.dwarfpool.com” for example, and the word ping is written before the address.
The maximum and minimum ping values are calculated, the user also receives the average value, which is the most informative.
The maximum and minimum ping will be calculated, as well as the average value, which is the most informative.
What internet speed is needed for mining?
The traffic consumed, and therefore the minimum Internet speed for mining, depends on the performance of the video card or ASIC, the cryptocurrency algorithm and the mining method. To effectively earn cryptocurrency with one video card through a pool, a connection speed of 20-40 kbps is required. The number of video cards certainly affects these requirements. But current tariff proposals more than cover these requirements. It is enough to connect the mobile Internet via a 3G modem to a 6-card farm so that it can mine digital coins.
Ping affects performance, so you will have to monitor this parameter regardless of your Internet connection method.
But this requirement applies specifically to the mining of new coins on video cards or ASICs. You won’t be able to start mining with a “thick” cryptocurrency wallet on a weak connection. You will need to download the entire transaction chain - blockchain. For Bitcoin it exceeds 120 gigabytes. Wallets of younger currencies managed to grow by only 20-30 gigabytes, which is also too much for a slow channel. For 3G plans it is also expensive.
Does ping and internet speed affect mining?
Internet speed is the bandwidth of the channel. Simply put, how much data will be transmitted over a channel during a time interval. Indicators are calculated in Kbit/s, Kb/s and Mbit/s, Mb/s.
What speed is needed for mining was discussed earlier. To calculate your Internet speed, you can use specialized free services. Eg:
- ping-test.ru;
- 2ip.ru/speed/;
- speedtest.net/ru.
The results obtained include three indicators:
- ping is the time during which data packets are exchanged between the user’s and provider’s equipment.
- Incoming speed is the amount of data received per second.
- Outgoing speed is the number of information transmitted by the provider per second.
The lower the ping, the better for the miner. The previous section discussed optimal ping performance. As for speed, for mining digital currency on an ASIC device, a speed of 10 Kb/s is sufficient; if GPUs are used, then 30 Kb/s.
The user must understand that stability is a prerequisite, not high speed. If necessary and desired, you can mine coins using the following connection types: 2G, 3G, DSL, Dial-up and others.
A farm of 4 GPUs can even be served with a Dial-up connection. Internet traffic is at a minimum level, and the cost of paid resources is small. This is why many users consider mining on a 3G modem. It is enough to purchase this equipment and locate the farm near the receiving tower. The Internet connection will be highly stable, and there is no need for a LAN line.
Is it possible to work with an inexpensive connection? If the user has decided to purchase a budget package, you need to pay attention to points that can affect the result:
- Stability.
- Practicality of the equipment.
- Application of remote control.
As a result, the extraction of digital currency depends on the speed only from the most powerful organizations that contain dedicated premises for farms. For the rest, mobile Internet is suitable, if it is stable. If the user will not connect a monitor and other equipment to the farm, purchasing DSL or 3G is considered the best option. Due to this, you can easily boot devices and make changes to parameters remotely.
Speed or ping
Despite the huge volume of processed information and the high operating hashrate, miners absolutely do not require a high-speed channel.
The Internet requirements here are quite modest, and in most cases the minimum speed indicators, which are implemented in the cheapest packages from any provider, are sufficient. If we understand in detail what the minimum speed is and how much ping should be (the server response time from the moment the signal is sent from the computer until the moment it returns), then we should consider the following nuances:
- to calculate for one video card, 10-15 kb/s is required, depending on the manufacturer and generation;
- a stable Internet guarantees the continuity of the flow of calculations;
- the lower the ping, the faster the data exchange with the blockchain.
Thus, a farm of 4 video cards can be served even by an ancient Dial-up connection. As a result, Internet traffic remains at a minimum level, and the monthly paid resource is consumed very slowly. That is why most users seek to purchase 3G modems and set up a farm near the receiving tower - such Internet is very stable and does not require a LAN line.
Is it possible to get by with the cheapest connection?
It’s worth noting right away that there should be stability, not high speed. If desired, you can successfully mine on connection types such as 2G, 3g, DSL, Dial-up and others. When purchasing a budget package, special attention will need to be paid to three factors that affect the result:
- stability;
- ease of use of the equipment;
- use of remote control.
Thus, mining depends on speed only for very large organizations that maintain dedicated premises with farms. For everyone else, the cheapest mobile Internet will do, if it is stable enough.
If you do not plan to connect a monitor and other equipment to the farm, then it is better to purchase at least DSL or 3G, because they allow you to easily download miners and change operating settings remotely.
Do you need internet for mining?
Yes, definitely. Without the Internet, the farm will not work. Despite the large volume of processed data and high operating hashrate, miners do not need a high-speed channel. The recommended Internet requirements are very simple. Most often, to mine cryptographic coins, the minimum speed available in inexpensive packages from providers is sufficient.
Therefore, does speed affect mining? No, it is important that the data transfer is stable and there is an optimal ping. The larger the ping, the greater the chance that the pool will receive information about the calculated shares with a delay. It is important that the ping is lower.
What kind of internet is needed for mining: other connection parameters
In addition to the speed and time of packet exchange, there is also a parameter for the amount of information transmitted per unit of time - traffic. Most miners have an unlimited tariff in connected Internet packages, but sometimes it is limited by the number of megabytes per day or month. This is important because connection stability is important for mining, and if the megabytes are exhausted, the connection will be interrupted.
As an approximate calculation, for a mining farm of 5 video cards, you need about 120 Mbit with a speed of 0.001 Mbit/sec. (with round-the-clock operation without shutdown). With a stable Internet connection speed of 3 Mbit/sec. should be enough. But actual traffic also depends on the type of video card and hardware manufacturer.
You can calculate the traffic consumption of a mobile operator by conducting a simple experiment:
- buy a new package of services and do not spend it on anything other than mining for 24 hours;
- start mining cryptocurrency;
- a day later, find out from the mobile operator’s service how much traffic is left. (In MTS, for example, to do this you need to send the request “?” (in the form of a question mark) to number 5340;
- subtract the result from the total traffic volume.
The type of Internet connection does not matter for mining. This can be a wired (fiber optic, telephone cable, twisted pair, coaxial) or wireless connection (Wi-Fi, mobile Internet). Often the cable from the router is separated and connected to each computer or farm separately. When choosing a Wi-Fi connection, you should take special care to protect your farm from hackers.
Ping to pool
A nick generator
To keep mining devices running at all times, ping must be taken into account. The most suitable value is 70 ms, however, a range of ten to twenty ms is sufficient.
Important! A ping size greater than 70 ms can have a negative impact on the results.
However, devices with a value size that exceeds 200 ms can operate quite efficiently and stably.
The following parameters affect ping:
- overall connection speed. If the speed is low, the packages will be delayed during delivery. The lowest speed of 50 megabits per second and the highest, which reaches 300, cannot affect the value;
- connection stability. Ping increases in case of any connection loss;
- server location. The most advanced pools may have several servers in different countries in order to increase the number of users.
The ping to the pool is calculated as follows:
- you should open the line via the main menu or by pressing Win+R;
- enter the command cmd in the line, which will launch the command line of the operating system;
- the pool address should be entered into it. Before the address you need to write ping;
The results will indicate the highest and lowest values available. You can calculate the average value, which will be as realistic as possible.
How does mining work?
To understand what kind of Internet you need, you must first decide what happens during mining and how it is all interconnected. It must be said that mining is divided into two types. These are solo mining and mining using pools .
During solo mining, you need to download the entire blockchain (transaction archive) of the cryptocurrency you are going to mine onto your computer, and then form blocks of unconfirmed transactions one by one and try to calculate the hash for them. If your computer can correctly parse the hash the fastest, it will send it to the network and receive a mining reward. In fact, while the hash of one block is being selected, the Internet connection will not be used.
The situation with pools is a little different. Here, several computers combine their power to confirm one block faster. The blockchain does not need to be downloaded, the pool stores it and selects transactions for the block, and then it distributes hash ranges that need to be verified among all miners. The computer and the pool need to constantly interact with each other to coordinate their actions, the miner needs to constantly send verified shares (hash ranges) and receive new tasks. The reward is then divided among all users, depending on the percentage of tasks completed. Now let's move on to the Internet itself.