It Is All About BTC, LTC, ETH, DOGE, KAS mining as well as other alternative crypto currencies
We have compiled a new Windows binary from of sgminer version 5.1.1 from the latestsource as it includes some fixes and optimizations since our last binary release. The latest sgminer 5.1.1 should also have better performing WhirlpoolX implementation thanks to Wolf0’s kernel getting integrated. The idea of the official sgminer is that it combines almost all of the available algorithms in a single miner package and that is what makes it useful for GPU miners along with a functionality that should allow you to easily switch between them. Do not that the performance of all of the various kernels included in the official sgminer may not be as optimized as in some dedicated releases for a specific crypto algorithm out there.
– To download and try the latest sgminer 5.1.1 miner binary for Windows OS…
Over the past year and so we have seen many cloud mining services come with big promises and then go either turning out to be scams or failing due to some bad business planning etc. We’ve tested quite a few of these and lost some money on some, on some we’ve won even though they are no longer available, but there are still a few services that are still here, work fine and pay regularly to their users though we actually had some doubts about some of these.
One of the earliest large scale cloud mining operations, namely Cex has transitioned to an crypto currency exchange only and while it was operating as a cloud mining service the chance to actually perform well was to not only cloud mine, but trade your hashrate all of the time. This was true for many cloud mining operations that came with a built in market where users can sell hashrate, though this allows you to exit at any time by selling your hashrate. We did not like this concept that much as it takes a lot of your time to actually make profit and one of the goals of going the cloud mining way is exactly to save you the trouble of needing to spend a lot of time on the mining-related things.
Some Chinese ASIC manufacturers started promising cloud mining operations, but failed miserably or are going that road pretty fast. A recent example is the AMHash operation that had various issues pretty much from the start and is pretty much dead now. ZeusHash was another promising start with Litecoin cloud mining from a Scrypt ASIC manufacturer that has transitioned to a Bitcoin only and not very profitable at that cloud mining operation. Then there is Hashnest operated by BitMain that also had a fair share of issues and has been constantly changing what they are offering, making it harder for users.
We are not going to even mention various services that looked promising or not, but ended up being scams or services that were betting on the price of Bitcoin only going up or down for that matter and ended up disappearing because of that. So where are we currently cloud mining at and what is left as services that have been here long enough to be considered safer?
– Genesis Mining is one of the most serious entrants into the cloud mining world that we’ve been using for about 10 months already. The company is trying to be very open and transparent regarding its mining operations including hardware manufacturers partnerships to counter the mistrust caused by a lot of anonymous scams. Daily payouts, transparency, multiple ways to purchasing cloud mining hashrate.
– Bitcoin Cloud Services is a more anonymous cloud mining operation that we started using about the same time as Genesis Mining, though it is apparently a year old now and currently running an extended price promotion to celebrate their birthday. Have changed their initial offer, but are still here and pay out mined earnings on a daily basis, offer attractive pricing and anonymity is a plus for some people.
– ScryptCC left us with mixed feelings once we started using it back in February last year, looked promising and worked fine unless you had an issue and needed to deal with support. Well, they are still here and we are still mining with not that much hashrate, but the service is still paying out. There are some people complaining from issues with it apparently, so support could still be an issue, but unless you have to deal with it seems to be Ok. Still we would not advice to go with larger investment there.
The service for renting and leasing hashrate NiceHashhas just announced that it has turned 1 year old and has launched a new functionality for people interested in solo mining for a specific crypto currency and testing their luck in a so called blockchain lottery. This is a great option for people that do not have a lot of hashrate to test their luck for solving a block of either Bitcoin, Litecoin or Dash (the former Darkcoin) and thus playing a sort of Blockchain Lottery. If you are lucky enough you may be able to hit a block for far less time than what your available hashrate should normally do and get much higher profit from the BTC, LTC or Dash block than for the same time spent mining in a pool sharing the profit. Do note that there is always the chance that you may end up needing more time than expected and that is why it is called a lottery, because the results depend on your luck.
You can start solo mining and trying your luck very easily as there is no need to make registration to start using the new service. You just need to point your mining software to the right stratum server, depending on the coin you want to try – Bitcoin, Litecoin or Dash and use a wallet address for the chosen coin for username along with any password. You can also add workers if you want to monitor separate status for different miners for example, all f the workers will be solo mining with combined hashrate for you. If you find a block, 99.5% of the block reward + transaction fees get generated directly at your address. The only drawback is that if you stop mining before hitting a block then you are not going to get anything and all of your time mining will be for nothing, so if you decide to give it a try make sure you either give up soon after you start or wait for a block before stopping.
– To check out the new Nicehash Multi-Algorithm Solo Mining functionality…