In the early years of Litecoin’s existence, the problem of finding hashes for blockchain records could be solved on any computer. After the coin gained popularity, the difficulty of mining has grown so much that even with the use of a high-performance ASIC, finding a solution can take several weeks. Therefore, miners work through Litecoin pools, which combine and coordinate hash calculations. With their help, it is possible to receive a stable income. Moreover, even in the long term, the profitability of collective mining is higher than when trying to mine on your own.
Litecoin Mining Basics
When studying the basics of modern mining, first of all, you should emphasize that this process involves the use of a video card and a central processor. With the help of this equipment, network operations are processed when mining LTC coins.
Mining Litecoin first of all requires the purchase of appropriate equipment. In addition, you should download, install and properly configure the software. As a result, the process of searching for blocks will start, for which the user receives a reward. For one block, the user receives about 50 LTC coins. This is about 5 thousand dollars.
Litecoin mining pool
To make a profit when mining on a CPU, it is important to choose the right pool. Below is a rating of the best Russian-language pools and their key characteristics.
Antpool
Antpool.com.
According to many miners, this is the best pool for litecoin mining. The hashrate for LTC is approximately 25 TH/s. There are 3 payment modes:
- Solo mining (25 LTC per block).
- PPS, reward is proportional to the invested power. Commission 2.5%.
- PPLNS. Reward for the balls. There is no commission.
Litecoin cloud mining is also provided; you can earn money without investment, not counting the cost of equipment.
Litecoinpool
Litecoinpool.org.
Payments are instant, in PPS mode the commission is 1.5%.
MinerGate
minergate.com.
Commission for PPLNS – 1%, for PPS – 1.5%. There is a referral program, 30% per referral.
Ak47pool
Ak47pool.com.
The hashrate on LTC is approximately 40 GH/s. There are daily payouts, for Litecoin the minimum amount is 0.01 LTC.
How to mine Litecoin?
How to start mining LTC crypto coins? First you need to think carefully about how you plan to mine Litecoins - solo or in a pool. Platforms for collective cryptocurrency mining help maximize profits, so this option is considered more profitable.
The Litecoin mining algorithm does not allow you to earn money using the computing power of an ordinary central processor. Therefore, it makes sense to think about purchasing an ASIC device or GPU farm.
Be sure to create a wallet to which profits will be redirected. Download the official Wallet from the Litecoin cryptocurrency developer website. There will be no problems with installation.
How to start mining Litecoin?
Directly to start mining (given that all other conditions for upgrading and installing a special program have already been met), the miner needs to perform the following steps:
- Using the Internet, download and install a litecoin wallet (litecoin-qt) on your computer. When downloading, it is best to give preference to the latest version - as a rule, it will be the most modernized and improved
- Configure the installed miner program (configure it).
- You can mine cryptocurrency yourself, or you can also mine it in a pool - if you choose the second option, then the next step is to select a suitable pool and register in it
When all the mentioned operations are completed successfully, you can start mining
How to mine Litecoins with ASICs?
The most expensive, but at the same time profitable option. In principle, ASIC devices seem to be a particularly good solution in light of the increased complexity of the network and the outflow of power to industries that are more profitable for processor equipment.
The key stumbling block is the cost of integrated circuits. For example, the Bitmain L3+ model with a hashrate of 504 MH/s will cost about $1000. The device consumes 600 W in 1 hour. The equipment will pay for itself in about six months, provided that the price of Litecoin does not collapse.
Keep in mind that the complexity of the network is constantly growing, which means that the mining speed will decrease. However, in any case, integrated circuits remain the most profitable computing equipment.
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The most effective way to mine cryptocurrencies is mining in pools. By uniting with other network participants in special groups, miners sum up their power and thereby increase the likelihood of finding a block. The chance of solving the problem increases noticeably, and the reward for mining a new block is divided among all participants, according to the resources spent. This does not cancel mining alone, but it definitely allows you to earn more.
Many cryptocurrencies have pools and are mined. Coinlife has collected in one review the largest and most famous mining pools, which make up more than 80% of the Bitcoin network hashrate.
Before taking a closer look at them, it's worth expanding your vocabulary by understanding the mining reward methods that exist in the pools.
PPS (Pay per Share) - the method is based on a fixed payment for the power provided by the miner. The price is determined based on the total complexity of the network and the amount of reward per block.
PPLNS (Pay Per Last N Shares) – the method is focused on payment for found blocks. The profit on a pool with the PPLNS reward method will be floating: plus or minus 30% of the fixed cost of the power of equipment that operates according to the PPS method of calculating pool rewards.
FPPS (The Full Pay-per-Share) is an improved PPLNS method, in which the pool also distributes transaction fees among miners, which adds 10-20% to their income.
Solo- mining. As for the reward, even if you are in a pool, you can essentially mine alone. That is, receive coins only using your own resources and do not share them with anyone. If a block is found, you will only share a small commission with the pool.
GPU farms
Video cards are the main method of mining not only Litecoin, but also many other digital currencies. Mining Litecoin using a PC is gradually losing efficiency. It is simply unprofitable to mine LTC coins on GPU devices. The payback period for equipment significantly exceeds the warranty on video cards.
For clarity, let's consider a specific example. Let's imagine that you decide to assemble a farm from Radeon RX 480 video cards. This is a relatively cheap model with a maximum hashrate of 29MH/s.
A farm of 10 cards will cost almost $3,000. Total performance – 290 MH/s. In one hour, such an installation will consume about 3 kW.
Such a farm will take almost twice as long to pay for itself than an integrated circuit. In the near future, the situation will not change for the better, because the rise in the value of cryptocurrency will become a catalyst for an increase in the number of miners using ASIC devices. Naturally, this will cause an increase in the complexity of the network.
Setting up a computer for Litecoin mining on video cards is simply pointless. There is a great risk that the expensive equipment purchased will never pay for itself.
Mining on ASIC
The hashrate provided by specialized integrated circuits is many times higher than the performance of the most powerful video card. Therefore, mining litecoins on ASIC brings maximum profit.
To mine, you also need to register on the pool. Next you should do the following:
- connect the Internet cable to the ASIC,
- turn on the device,
- open the ASIC web interface in the browser,
- register the pool address and port, worker login and password.
After completing the settings, the device will begin mining crypto coins.
Litecoin mining pools
Solo mining of the Litecoin cryptocurrency is ineffective, so it makes sense to think about joining the pool. Let's consider the most productive resources.
AntPool:
- Mining speed – 27.3 TH/s.
- The number of active users is more than 30 thousand.
- Efficiency – 100%.
- Blocks found - over 41 thousand.
- Block generation time is no more than 12 minutes.
- The number of active walkers is 7 thousand.
- The share of the Litecoin network is 26%.
LitecoinPool:
- Mining speed – 22.6 TH/s.
- The number of active users is more than 11 thousand.
- Efficiency – 100%.
- Blocks found - over 40 thousand.
- Block generation time is no more than 12 minutes.
- The number of active walkers is 138 thousand.
- The share of the Litecoin network is 20%.
F2pool:
- Mining speed – 15.6 TH/s.
- The number of active users is more than 7 thousand.
- Efficiency – 100%.
- Blocks found - 80 thousand.
- Block generation time is no more than 12 minutes.
- The number of active walkers is 40 thousand.
- The share of the Litecoin network is 18%.
These are the main Mining pools for LTC mining.
Solo mining Litecoin
It should also be mentioned that those who want to earn crypto money without the participation of partners and joining various pools have a similar opportunity. It appeared thanks to the already mentioned ASICs, which help reduce costs and more actively mine Litecoin. The mining algorithm will remain the same, and the only feature of this approach will be the absence of other miners.
The result of choosing this option will be the fact that the miner will not have to share possible revenue with other people, but the mining process itself will become more complicated, and, accordingly, costs will increase. In addition, to get decent returns, you need to have decent equipment that can effectively process large flows of information. If it is not there, it is wiser to think about joining the pool.
Best Litecoin Mining Software
To earn a stable income from cryptocurrency mining, learn how to properly manage the process. To do this you will need special software. There are many different options; it will be extremely difficult for a beginner to choose truly effective software from such a wide range.
The best miners for mining Litecoin :
When choosing a miner, be sure to read the instructions in order to correctly configure the software for the computing power used.
Setting up Litecoin mining comes down to the fact that the user downloads an archive with the program from Bitcointalk or GitHub. He unpacks it, and then opens a batch file with a notepad to register the server, worker and wallet used. Miners are predominantly console applications, so the program is controlled via the command line.
To use ASIC equipment, special programs are not needed, except in situations when it comes to industrial scale. In this case, special software is ordered to maximize profits.
The presence of a special program will significantly increase the performance of integrated circuits. Therefore, the costs of creating software are more than justified.
Cloud mining Litecoin
Recently, this method of mining Litecoins has become increasingly popular. Particular demand for cloud mining arose as a result of the price collapse of cryptocurrency, as a result of which the costs of purchasing equipment became unreasonably high. The main advantages of cloud mining:
- Minimum investment. Purchasing contracts to rent computing power requires little capital investment. Payments are transferred to your wallet balance automatically.
- No financial costs for maintaining and maintaining the farm. The company leasing the capacity resolves these issues independently, and a small commission is deducted from you.
- There are no additional costs. The user will not have to pay electricity bills.
- On average, the profitability of a contract is 20% of its original cost. You can increase your profit by taking part in a promotion or receiving a discount.
Flaws:
- A large number of scammers. There is always a risk of being deceived, so cooperate with proven services.
- Even if the value of the cryptocurrency drops significantly, you still will not be able to change the terms of the contract.
- There is no ability to switch between mining algorithms. Mining is carried out for a specific cryptocurrency.
Best Litecoin Mining Pools
Below you can see a list of the most popular platforms with a description of their pros and cons. So, here we go:
- Antpool is a pool owned by Bitmain, which produces Antminer ASICs for mining bitcoins, litecoins and some other top currencies. It tops the ranking due to its large total hashrate and high reliability of the resource. It allows you to choose between two reward options - PPS and PPLNS. In the first case, the commission is 2.5%, in the second, no commission is taken from miners. The site produces 26% of litecoins and is distinguished by a high-quality translation of the interface into Russian, which is important for novice miners. Payments are made automatically. In addition to mining in a pool, mining in solo mode is possible.
- Litecoinpool is a pool with good functionality and high reliability, which started working immediately after the appearance of Litecoin. Its share in the network is 20%. It became the first platform where the TLS encryption protocol was used, providing reliable protection against fraudsters. The resource has a good reputation and protects miners from MITM attacks. At the user's request, payments are made manually or automatically.
- F2pool is a Chinese service that started operating in 2013. This is a reliable pool, which includes 18% of the network capacity. The site takes a 4% commission and distributes the received litecoins using the PPS system. The minimum amount for withdrawal is 0.02 LTC. A simple interface allows you to understand the settings, despite the lack of a Russian version of the site. In addition to litecoins, the resource allows you to mine several popular cryptocurrencies. User reviews indicate the high reliability of the resource. However, the high commission raises complaints.
- Multipool is one of the first multi-currency platforms where you can mine coins based on the SHA-256, Scrypt and X11 algorithms. Payments are made using the PROP and PPLNS systems. The peculiarity of the pool is its cooperation with exchanges where you can immediately exchange coins for real money. Earnings are withdrawn automatically after accumulating a set amount. Coins can be withdrawn manually. In this case, the amount is unlimited, but you will have to pay a withdrawal fee.
- Give-me-coin is the last site on the list, which began operating in 2013. In addition to Litecoin, it supports working with bitcoins, percoins and other coins. Its advantages include fast and simple registration, reliable protection against DDoS attacks and the PPLNS system, which pays for the last 10 shares. Instant payment of earnings takes place automatically. However, the low overall hashrate of the pool has little effect on profitability.
It’s worth choosing a pool empirically: connect the farm in series to several sites and compare the amount of earnings for the same period. This is a more accurate way than comparing reward systems and commission percentages.
