Dogecoin Mining Essentials: How to Mine Dogecoin on PC
With the price of Doge (the currency of the Dogecoin platform) continuously rising and with there being no sign of the trend stopping anytime, the mining of the platform’s digital currency is worthwhile looking at.
According to Market Realist, Dogecoin is expected to rise even further by about 60-per-cent, towards the end of 2021.
The optimism behind the rise in the value of Dogecoin is also the presumed value an investor will get if he chooses to mine it.
Before getting to Dogecoin mining essentials, let’s first understand what this coin is all about and how the coin works
SEE ALSO: 15 top US Companies that Accept Dogecoin as Payment
What Is Dogecoin?
Dogecoin is a technology that enables an entity (individual, group, organization, government, etc) to transfer economic value to another entity; by economic value, I mean a thing that can be converted to money.
To use the technology, you will have to buy a desired amount of Doge from a holder or owner— afterward, you will send the Doges to the person you want to transfer economic value to.
Afterward, the person who was sent the Dogecoin can then sell them to another person who will then give them cash.
Yes, the basic idea is just to transfer money from one person to another.
The reasons why miners ignore existing solutions like Wire Transfer, PayPal, etc and instead go for technologies like Dogecoin are that —
1: Dogecoin transactions are sometimes cheaper;
2: Because of the way Dogecoin works, governmental entities have no control over Dogecoin transactions; in other words, your government can not stall your transaction, seize your money, ask you to present all sorts of documents just to get your money, etc;
3: Because of the way Dogecoin works, you can receive economic value without revealing your identity (this is a great thing for people who want privacy); etc.
So in summary, Dogecoin is a means of transferring economic value.
Mining Dogecoin
Dogecoin is collectively powered by the computers of so many independent miners around the world.
When a Dogecoin user tries to initialize a transaction, it is one of these computers that will execute the transaction. The mining process entails solving a complex mathematical puzzle with very powerful computing power.
When a block of Doge is completed, the miner earns a fraction of the Dogecoin.
Dogecoin miners earn 10,000DOGE per block completed.
Round the clock, there is always a Doge transaction requiring validation. Because there will be a monetary reward, there are typically thousands of mining computers vying to complete the block and secure the transaction into the blockchain.
Success rate (more earnings) is determined by the power of the miners, mostly ASIC miners are used to mine. To increase your chances, you’d require miners with more power.
See this post for recommended GPU miners.
The whole cycle of solving a puzzle, carrying out a transaction, and receiving a monetary reward (in the form of Doge) is what is known as mining.
In direct terms, Dogecoin mining is the cycle of processing a Dogecoin transaction and getting rewarded for it.
SEE ALSO: How to Mine Ripple XRP on Android and PC
SEE ALSO: 10 Best Bitcoin Mining Software for Windows, Mac and Linux
How to Mine Dogecoin
1: Cloud Mining
Some companies rent out computers (servers), it’s all about renting computing space or a mining plan. These companies are called cloud computing providers
If you do not have a lot of money right now or do not want to invest all your money at first, you can rent a computer (server) from a cloud provider.
With many cloud mining providers spring up, choosing one that meets all your mining needs without exorbitant maintenance fees and other admin charges could pile up running costs down the road.
We’ve written a post that will help choose one of the best and legit cloud mining platforms out there.
Cloud is a less expensive way to get into mining as a beginner, it’s a way to test the waters before making any upfront investment in computers.
But, cloud mining could become less cost-effective in the long run.
SEE ALSO: 10 Legit Bitcoin Mining Sites For New Miners
SEE ALSO: Best 7 Mining GPU Graphics Cards To Consider
SEE ALSO: How to Download and Earn with Honeyminer
2. Get a Computer with a High Hash Rate
To mine Dogecoin profitably, you will need a computer with a high hash rate.
Hash rate is the unit of measurement for the amount of computing power being consumed by a network to continually operate, usually in hash per second H/s.
The hash rate of a mining computer is the determining factor of how fast a computer solves the complex puzzle and possibly wins a reward.
A computer with a hash rate of 90 Th/s outmatches a computer with a hash rate of 750Mh/s.
But a computer system with extreme capabilities doesn’t come cheap. See this post to know more about ASIC miners and running costs.
There are three ways to get around this without compromising on hash rate.
3. Rent a Mining Computer
When renting a computer, you want to make sure that you focus more on graphics processing capability.
Computers with higher graphics processing capabilities have higher hash rates — a computer’s processing speed is not what necessarily improves the hash rate.
To make things easy, as regards getting a computer that would produce a high hash rate, get a computer that satisfies or exceeds the following specs:
A: Graphics processing unit with 4 decent cores;
B: CPU as powerful as a typical Intel Celeron;
C: Storage of 600GB (SSD); and
D: RAM of 4 GB.
Choice of Operating System
I will suggest that you rent a computer running Red Hat Linux 8 (RHEL 8).
Other available operating systems should work fine, but from experience, RHEL 8 is the best in this type of scenario.
Setting Your Computer Up
Getting a computer is not where it all ends — at this point, you only have a dumb computer that can not do much.
To equip your computer with the capability to mine Dogecoin, you need to install Dogecoin mining software on it.
CGMiner and CUDAMiner are two of the most credible Dogecoin mining software.
4. Buy a Mining Computer and Set It Up
Renting computers to mine Dogecoin may sometimes be a bad idea in terms of cost in the long run…
For instance:
(i) at times, the cost of renting computers outweighs the money being made from mining with them;
(ii) some cloud providers frown at using their computers for cryptocurrency mining.
If for one reason or the other, renting a computer is not a good idea, you may buy a computer.
As regards what type of computer to buy, buy a computer that satisfies or exceeds the following specs:
A: Graphics processing unit with 4 decent cores;
B: CPU as powerful as a typical Intel Celeron;
C: Storage of 400GB (SSD); and
D: RAM of 4 GB.
Additionally note, buying a Mac computer for mining is not recommended.
Mac computers are powerful, but for so many reasons like cost-effectiveness, cooling, etc, they are best avoided.
Choice of Operating System
I will suggest that you run Ubuntu on your computer.
Other available OS should work fine, but from experience, Ubuntu is the best. In this case, I recommend Ubuntu, not RHEL 8, because RHEL 8 lacks GUI; the OS is instead a CLI OS — using a command-line interface (CLI) for a local computer is not wise.
If you do not know how to install an OS, do not bother yourself: just get a computer that comes with Windows 10. Yes, I recommend Ubuntu, but Windows 10 is also just fine.
Setting Your Computer Up
Getting a computer is not where it ends — at this point, you only have a dumb computer that can not do much. To equip your computer with the capability to mine Dogecoin, you need to install Dogecoin mining software on it.
CGMiner and CUDAMiner are two of the most credible Dogecoin mining software.
5. Buy an ASIC Miner (Recommended)
When trying to get a computer for Doge mining, there is another option, the option is getting an Application-specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Miner.
ASIC Miner is a fancy term for computers that are more optimized for mining, compared to standard computers. ASICs are more cost-effective and usually come equipped with all the software needed to mine Doge.
ASICs will have been the option most people should consider, but ASICs have one flaw which does not make them ideal for everyone.
ASICs can not be used for other things aside from mining; if you buy an ASIC Miner and later in the future you decide to stop mining cryptocurrencies, the miner will hardly be useful for other general computing tasks (e.g. browsing the web, playing games, etc).
ASICs are great, you should consider them also. If you do not mind their flaws, consider them — if you mind their flaws, just go with a standard computer.
The following are the names of some of the most popular ASIC Doge miners:
1: Antminer L3;
2: Antminer L3+; and
3: Antminer L3++.
Connect It to the Internet
Dogecoin is a technology that makes use of the internet. To mine Doge, you need to be connected to the internet.
For Those Who Rented Their Computers
If you rented your computers, your computers are most likely connected to the internet already. If they are not connected, connecting them should be easy to do in your cloud provider’s control panel.
For Those Who Bought Computers
If you bought your computers, you will have to get fast internet; by good internet access with low latency and high speed. Fast internet and a Virtual Private Server- VPS will boost your mining capabilities.
Power Up
After setting up, your mining computer and the Doge mining software are ready to mine.
Note:
Starting up the Dogecoin mining software will require that you provide the address of a Dogecoin wallet, where its earnings will be sent to.
Consequently, you will have to get a Dogecoin wallet.
Ledger Nano and Trezor Model wallets are compatible with mining other cryptocurrencies asides from Bitcoin.
For example, mining Ethereum, Cardano, and Dogecoin to Ledger wallets are fine. But mining Bitcoin directly to the Ledger wallet is difficult for Bitcoin and other Unspent transaction UTXO coins.
I will recommend that you get one of them. Note, Nano Ledger X and Trezor Model T are paid wallets.
If you can not afford any of the above-mentioned wallets, you may consider any of the popular software wallets.
Mining Pool
Doge mining is now a highly competitive endeavor. There are now hundreds of thousands of mining computers all around the world.
Consequently, the competition is fair for Dogecoin, unlike BTC and ETH mining. However, investing hugely in computing power is the way to stay ahead of the competition.
To stay ahead also without investing huge upfront capital in mining rigs is to join a mining pool (a large setup of interlinked mining computers delivering enormous hashing rates).
By doing this, these computers solve these tasks faster and more often than they would have won as different independent units.
So, you decide if you’ll invest capital in a mining computer and start mining Dogecoin yourself or join a mining pool.
Read More
