Let's get the headline out of the way right now: I just deposited $120 of BTC in my wallet , simply from mining on a laptop.
How did that happen?
I have confessed how Brave browser was my first crypto gateway drug, and how the many lures of free crypto from faucets and free money from lending through BlockFi and Celsius got me to hand over my hard-earned cash to Cryptoworld. But I haven't written about secret third pillar of my tumble into a deep Fascination with Cryptoworld: my quest to be a miner on the cheap and with literally no knowledge or skills.
What could go wrong?
Well, I could buy the wrong Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), I could melt down my GPU, I could burn out my CPU, I could get loaded up with malware and viruses, I could use more electricity than I earn, I could get scammed by phony cloud miners, among other things. Good thing I had random internet sites to guide me!
Maybe I am being too alarmist. The truth is that there are a LOT of resources out there dedicated to helping amateurs and hobbyists mine a little crypto without investing thousands of dollars in GPUs or ASIC rigs, learning computer assembly skills for the control motherboards, or parsing through mining packages on GitHub.
You can add to that collection of resources the report you are now reading, the firsthand experience of a tech-unsavvy guy who also happens to be a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to computer gear.
When I first heard that you could mine bitcoin with your laptop or PC I was pretty amazed. Visions of becoming a Bitcoin millionaire danced through my head. Writers on business, finance, and economics news aggregators implied I could just log onto some website and use my laptop like I always do, while in the background a gentle purring of algorithms would turn my 6 year old HP into a ferocious engine for cryptocurrency riches. Could it be that easy?
You probably can tell that I am writing this article from my robot-crewed organic super yacht as we cruise the lush islands of Indonesia. The private chefs and masseuses who wait on me 24 hours a day keep getting in the way of my keyboard, but my dedication to you, my dear reader, will give me the grit I need to keep typing. Hold on a second... "Hey, Mr. The Wknd, could you be quiet for a second? I'm not in the mood for yet another private concert! Yeah, pass the message on to Radiohead, too, while you're at it."
Ok, maybe that is a slight exaggeration. For non-techy cheapos, there is never going to be easy wealth. But, there are ways to get set up with your very own mini-rig and lend your processing power to a cloud mining collective that really does pay.
Here is how I did it.
1. I read many, many reviews of GPUs, CPUs, and laptops, and pored through retailer websites big and small. Because I was going to be using a computer to mine, I wanted a new one, no risk that someone hawking their used gear might have left behind some nosy software. Also, because I wanted to keep investment to a minimum and am as freaked out as anyone else is about how our reckless energy consumption is risking life as we know it, I didn't want an electricity-gobbling monster. I didn't really know what my electricity price was, but that cost can be a major factor for some of the bigass GPUs that are at the top of the mining prowess table. I was looking for the sweet spot of upfront cost, operating costs, and payout. I created a spreadsheet that calculated expected payoff time based on cost and mining rate for all the models I considered.
When I say I read many reviews, I would estimate that I read 25 or so tech website reviews, watched 10-12 YouTube GPU reviews, and explored 4-5 mining advice and payout estimator websites. I mostly relied on going back and forth between whattomine.com, minerstat.com, miningcharts.com, and betterhash.net. If you can figure them out, each of these sites will let you input a huge range of GPU and CPU configurations to estimate potential earnings. Getting into the guts of some of these sites can be tricky. For example, if you got to the landing page of minerstat.com, I don't think you'll ever find your way to the really cool pages, where you can see precise estimates for individual processors. Here is the page I used in my considerations of the GPU I finally bought: https://minerstat.com/hardware/nvidia-gtx-1660ti
It is much easier to do internet searches like "gpu for mining 1660ti" than to try to mump about on the sites themselves. It pains me to say this, but when I tried to recreate my process using Presearch, I got nowhere and had to use other search engines. Google, and even frigging Bing, had not problem guiding me to the rich guts of these sites. If you include search terms to compare multiple GPUs, you can get side by side comparisons, too.
And one final tip, pay attention to the site navigator headings. For example, on minerstat at the top of the page it says something along the lines of Hardware>>GPU Mining>>Nvidia GTX... If you click on the GPU Mining, you can browse individual GPU products from Nvidia, AMD, and more!
2. Because I am cheap, I needed to get a product that I actually could use even if the mining didn't pay off. That ruled out desktop PCs and anything larger than 15" laptops.
This combination led me to gaming PCs. If you try to configure a business or home PC with one of these specialized GPUs, even one that is an older model like the one I selected, you will kill your budget. Gaming PCs cut back on some of the productivity and finish touches you would expect from biz models and put their money into processing power. Much cheaper. I chose Lenovo because it seemed a bit more reliable in review than other cheap, but pretty well-regarded makers, such as MSI. Lenovo has lots of different models with lots of different specifications and, surprise, surprise, I mostly went with the cheapest one.
3. I favored Nvidia over AMD because I bought some Nvidia stock a couple of years ago and like the company (a little full disclosure there). Other people can come to different conclusions. From reviews, it seems like the latest AMD monsters are as good as if not better than Nvidia's, but as far as I could tell, for stuff in my price range, Nvidia was easier to find, cheaper, and more efficient. As always, do your own research.
I chose the model I already linked to, the GTX Geforce 1660Ti. It is pretty dang powerful and noticeably cheaper than more recent models that sport similar performance metrics. I spent hours and hours deliberating. As so often seems the case with tech, the tradeoffs and sheer number of specs can make you insane. I just had to call it, and I opted for a beginner model with a bit of kick. I opted for the max GBs associated with that GPU (which seems like consistent advise no matter what model you choose), and for the newest generation CPU, Intel Core i7 8GB. That is a lot of power for a regular dude like me, and the laptop, and especially the power brick, is substantial...no flimsy plastic crap cracker and definitely no elegant aluminum tech eye candy. Just a solid black brick with huge ventilation holes on the bottom.
My total cost was about $1100, of which about $350 was paying extra for the more powerful GPU and CPUs. I usually keep laptops a long time (one of the justifications for the purchase was that my current model is 6+ years old, which is what I am writing on now) and usually get the best CPU available, so in my mind, if the laptop worked as good as the old one, then I would pay off the GPU cost with $300 in successful mining.
4. I chose to go with CudoMiner. This is really a collective service that allows you to rent out your processor to mining collectives. You create an account at CudoMiner.com, which gives you the mining console. From there, you download the actual mining software to your computer. The console is where you go to get your BTC withdrawals, and also allows you to monitor and even control your mining computer remotely. Its main rival in the "mining for dummies" segment is Honeyminer. I liked that CudoMiner gave me more control over what I would mine, how intensively, and GPU/CPU/both configurations. I tried Honeyminer, but didn't like it, and for my set up at least, with Cudo I got a lot higher hashrate (how many Satoshis, or gwei or whatever, you mine per second). Something to note is that there is a .002BTC minimum withdrawal requirement.
5. Next, endlessly mess around with your firewall, antivirus, and malware software to allow the frigging mining software to work. Essentially, Cudo and Honeyminer enable miners in their system to portion out mining algorithyms to your computer, creating constant large uploads and downloads. PC security software hates that. HATES that. Configuring the security software was by far the most frustrating and time consuming part of the journey once I had finished reviewing and deciding on a GPU. My setup does best mining Ethereum, though it also sometimes gets used to mine Bitcoin Gold and Monero.
6. Rev it up and wait.
7. Keep waiting. But also wonder why your mining rate isn't as good as what is shown on Minerstat.com. Then realize that you aren't mining yourself, you are letting someone else do all the complicated techy algorithm stuff, so you are getting what is left over after Cudo and the mysterious miners take their cut. If you had the tech chops and weren't scared of GitHub, you could do better than I'm doing.
8. Put money in your wallet! I leave the laptop running almost all the time. I power down every couple of days thinking that it needs a break. I don't know if that is magical thinking or just dumb, but it makes me think I am not killing my GPU quite as fast. I don't know. But, in a typical week, about the only thing this PC is doing is mining away, probably about 155-160 hours per week. After 6 weeks, I deposited .00384 BTC or about $120 at the time. I was pretty freaking excited! As long as the laptop and GPU hold up, the extra GPU investment will be paid back in another 10 weeks or so, and the laptop itself will be paid for by the end of the year. And best of all, I am getting BTC directly, for zero effort at this point.
I hope this helps other aspiring miners see just how possible it really is to be a mini miner. Even when you're a tech ignorant cheapskate!
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If you found this article helpful, consider following me on PublishOx. And if you are interested in mining, please check out Cudo through my referral link.
I deposit my mined BTC to Celsius, where it earns 6.20% APY at the moment. If you haven't opened a Celsius account, you can get $30 free after depositing $200 (although I am noticing that there seems to be a current promo where you would get $40 in DAI after depositing $200, so I'm not sure which deal would be in effect...either way, free crypto!).
