Want to get started in cryptocurrency mining? Before taking the plunge into this world, it's crucial to be well prepared. Finding the right recipe for real efficiency isn't that simple.
According to the latest edition of the report " Web3 and crypto in France and Europe " published by the Adan association for the development of digital assets, nearly 6.5 million French people own crypto-assets. The most represented age group is 18-34, illustrating the particular appeal of a young population.
Significantly, awareness of crypto-assets is highest among crypto-currencies, with 10% of French people owning them, compared with 6% for NFTs and 6% for stablecoins, two other emerging crypto-asset categories.
Based on the most-searched crypto-currencies on Google during the month of October, a study by webmarketing agency Seeders shows that Bitcoin is very clearly the most popular crypto-currency in France. It is followed by Shiba Uni, Helium and Dogecoin. Ethereum is notably absent from the Top 10. Could this have anything to do with Ethereum's price?
Failing to mine Ethereum
Ethereum has long been associated with fairly profitable mining, despite its energy-hungry nature, which has repeatedly made headlines. This place now seems to be occupied by the explosion of generative AI, with AI models, training and queries consuming a lot of energy.
Since The Merge event in 2022, Ethereum has made a major transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake for its underlying blockchain technology, to ensure its integrity and validate transactions.
However, proof of work is still widely used in other cryptocurrency blockchains. This is the case for Bitcoin... which is therefore the most popular cryptocurrency of all, but also for Dogecoin, while there is Ethereum Classic as a kind of alternative to the original Ethereum.
CPU, GPU or ASIC for cryptocurrency mining
When it comes to cryptocurrency mining, and in the quest for optimization, there are obviously choices to be made, starting with hardware.
CPU (Central Processing Unit) mining remains unsuitable and is reserved for niche uses. The balance is tipped in favor of GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) mining. Graphics cards are prized for their versatility. They can be used to mine a multitude of cryptocurrencies, particularly those based on algorithms less complex than the SHA-256 used by Bitcoin.
With their prerogatives of efficiency and processing speed, ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) have an interesting card to play. The idea is to use systems specifically designed for cryptocurrency mining. The trade-off is a high acquisition cost, while a lack of versatility can be a hindrance.
Aside from the starting price itself and a more or less long-term vision, the choice of hardware means finding the right balance, taking into consideration the hashrate (or hash rate) intimately linked to the computing power as a whole for validating new blocks, and the inevitable issue of power consumption, which remains a critical factor.
In order to maintain relatively reasonable power consumption and improve performance, adjustment and control techniques such as overclocking and undervolting can come into play. The key is to use them at the right moment, while ensuring that your equipment is properly maintained to avoid premature degradation.
Not everyone can take the plunge with their eyes closed
Beyond the hardware, the choice of software or mining platform, and its configuration, is also of great importance for optimization. And there are different solutions for different types of hardware and mining algorithms.
These few points make it clear that optimizing cryptocurrency mining hardware is a relatively complex process, requiring technical expertise in a range of fields and a good deal of planning. It's certainly not within everyone's grasp, and underlines the need for some form of professionalization, or even access to cheap electricity.
Competition with industrial players with vast infrastructures is likely to increase the pressure on "amateurs". For the latter, it may be necessary to decide not to go it alone, and to join mining pools, for example, to combine computing power and claim more regular rewards.
