[BFA] Brute Force Attack Brute Force Attack: Defined in CryptoCurrency

[BFA] Brute Force Attack Brute Force Attack: Defined in CryptoCurrency

Brute Force Attack (BFA)

Moderate

An attempt to crack a password or key through automated trial and error.

What Is a Brute Force Attack?

Brute force attacks involve the use of complex software to flood a system with every potential password or key in order to find the correct value. In theory, such an attack could be used to guess any password or key and gain access to encrypted data. The theoretical amount of time required for a brute force attack to succeed is used as a key measure of the strength of an encryption system.The resources required to conduct a successful brute force attack on a well-secured system are considerable. The amount of time required to guess a password grows exponentially (as opposed to in a linear manner) as the length of the password grows. As such, the bit size of cryptographic keys has gradually increased, from an initial standard of 56 bits up to the modern standard of 128 or 256 bits.Cracking a 256-bit key requires very significant levels of computational power — so much so that serious brute force attacks are generally only possible using supercomputers. 

Supercomputers themselves require extremely tightly controlled environmental conditions, and have very high energy requirements. As such, the most advanced brute force attacks are generally thought to be the preserve of state actors. However, modern GPUs and dedicated hardware known as ASICs — both very widely available — are also very well suited to password-cracking tasks, and are accessible to virtually anybody.Some forms of encryption are theoretically impervious to brute force attack. These include one-time pad cryptography. Rather than the use of brute force, illegitimate access to systems using this type of protection generally rely on exploiting human error in a system’s implementation.

Mooning: Defined in CryptoCurrency

Mooning: Defined in CryptoCurrency

Moon

Easy

A situation where there is a continuous upward movement in the price of a cryptocurrency. Often used in communities to question when a cryptocurrency will experience such a phenomenon, saying

What Does Moon Mean?

If ever you stumble into Crypto Twitter, “moon” is one of the most common terms you’ll encounter among bullish enthusiasts — usually accompanied by rocket emojis.

Since the very early days of Bitcoin, the moon has played a substantial role in conveying the sentiment that people have toward cryptocurrencies.

If a digital asset is “going to the moon,” this means that the person saying it believes that we are currently seeing — or are about to see — dramatic increases in price.

Unusually, “moon” can also end up being used as a verb in this setting. As such, it’s plausible that someone might say that their favorite altcoin is “mooning.”

Just like other terms of crypto parlance, it can be difficult to know the exact provenance of where a word came from. (That said, we do know that the world “HODL” arose from a rather amusing typo in a Bitcoin forum all the way back in 2013.)

It’s very possible that “moon” started to become a common phrase around 2017, which is when Bitcoin broke $20,000 for the very first time — a huge milestone in the cryptocurrency’s long and storied history.

Mnemonics: Defined in CryptoCurrency

Mnemonics: Defined in CryptoCurrency

Image

Mnemonics are memory aids with a system such as letters or associations that help in recall. *see Mnemonic Phrase.

What Are Mnemonics?

Mnemonics are simply songs, abbreviations and rhymes that assist in remembering something.

In the world of cryptocurrencies, mnemonics is a group of words, usually 12 or more that are generated when a new crypto wallet is created.

The whole point of this is to ensure crypto wallets can be accessed if the password is lost.

It is very difficult to retrieve the details of a cryptocurrency wallet given its decentralized and secure nature.

But mnemonic groups can be used to retrieve details.

There are two types of mnemonics used in cryptocurrencies. These include the mnemonic phrase and mnemonic passphrase.

A mnemonic phrase is also called seed key, mnemonic seed, and recovery seed, to name a few abbreviations.

Every time a new crypto wallet is generated, users are encouraged to take note of a mnemonic phrase — 12, 18 or 24 words long — on a piece of paper or to store it in any other safe place.

This ensures that users are not locked out of crypto wallets.

There are many obvious benefits of using a mnemonic phrase, including making the crypto wallet more secure and making it easier to store.

Mnemonic passphrases are an extra added layer of security, building up on mnemonic phrases, and act as a two-factor authentication for the crypto wallet.

They're also known as a mnemonic extension or a seed extension.

Money: Defined in CryptoCurrency

Money: Defined in CryptoCurrency

Macroeconomics:
GUIDE TO ECONOMIC DEPRESSION
GUIDE TO ECONOMIC RECESSION

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• What Is Money?
• Understanding Money
• Functions of Money
• Types of Money

What Is Money?

Money is an economic unit that functions as a generally recognized medium of exchange for transactional purposes in an economy. Money provides the service of reducing transaction cost, namely the double coincidence of wants. Money originates in the form of a commodity, having a physical property to be adopted by market participants as a medium of exchange. Money can be: market-determined, officially issued legal tender or fiat moneys, money substitutes and fiduciary media, and electronic cryptocurrencies. 

Understanding Money: 

Money is commonly referred to as currency. Economically, each government has its own money system. Cryptocurrencies are also being developed for financing and international exchange across the world.

Money is a liquid asset used in the settlement of transactions. It functions based on the general acceptance of its value within a governmental economy and internationally through foreign exchange. The current value of monetary currency is not necessarily derived from the materials used to produce the note or coin. Instead, value is derived from the willingness to agree to a displayed value and rely on it for use in future transactions. This is money's primary function: a generally recognized medium of exchange that people and global economies intend to hold, and are willing to accept as payment for current or future transactions.

Economic money systems began to be developed for the function of exchange. The use of money as currency provides a centralized medium for buying and selling in a market. This was first established to replace bartering. Monetary currency helps to provide a system for overcoming the double coincidence of wants. The double coincidence of wants is a ubiquitous problem in a barter economy, where in order to trade, each party must have something that the other party wants. When all parties use and willingly accept an agreed-upon monetary currency, they can avoid this problem.

In order to be most useful as money, a currency should be: 1) fungible, 2) durable, 3) portable, 4) recognizable, and 5) stable. These properties ensure that the benefit of reducing or eliminating the transaction cost of the double coincidence of wants is not outweighed by other types of transaction costs associated with that specific good.

Fungible:

Units of the good should be of relatively uniform quality so that they are interchangeable with one another. If different units of the good have different qualities, then their value for use in future transactions may not be reliable or consistent. Trying to use a non-fungible good as money results in transaction costs of individually evaluating each unit of the good before an exchange can take place.

Durable:

The physical character of the good should be durable enough to retain its usefulness in future exchanges and be reused multiple times. A perishable good or a good that degrades quickly with use in exchanges will not be as useful for future transactions. Trying to use a non-durable good as money conflicts with money's essentially future-oriented use-value. 

Portable:

It should be divisible into small quantities so that people appreciate its original use value - highly enough that a worthwhile quantity of the good can be conveniently carried or transported. An indivisible good, immovable good, or good of low original use-value can create issues. Trying to use a non-portable good as money could produce transaction costs of either physically transporting large quantities of the low value good or defining practical, transferable ownership of an indivisible or immobile object.  

Recognizable:

The authenticity and quantity of the good should be readily ascertainable to the users so that they can easily agree to the terms of an exchange. Trying to use a non-recognizable good as money produces transaction costs of agreement on the authenticity and quantity of the goods by all parties to an exchange. 

Stable:

The value that people place on a good in terms of the other goods that they are willing to trade should be relatively constant or increasing over time. A good whose value varies widely up and down over time, or consistently loses value over time is less suitable. Trying to use a non-stable good as money produces transaction costs of repeatedly revaluing the good in each successive transaction and the risk that the exchange value of the good might drop below its other direct use-value or not be useful at all, in which case it will no longer circulate as money. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Money is a generally accepted, recognized, and centralized medium of exchange in an economy that is used to facilitate transactional trade for goods and services.
• The use of money eliminates issues from the double coincidence of wants that can occur in bartering.
• Economically, each government has its own money system, defined and monitored by a central authority.
• Cryptocurrencies represent a new form of money, with international exchange opportunities.

Functions of Money:

As stated above, money primarily functions as a medium of exchange. However, it also has developed secondary functions that derive from its use as a medium of exchange. These other functions include: 1) a unit of account, 2) a store of value, and 3) a standard of deferred payment.

Unit of Account:

Due to its use as a medium of exchange for both buying and selling and its use to assign prices to all kinds of other goods and services, money can be used to keep track of the money gained or lost across multiple transactions, and to compare money values of various combinations of different quantities of different goods and services mathematically. This makes things such as accounting for profit and loss of a business, balancing a budget, or valuing the total assets of a company all possible.

Store of Value:

Because money's usefulness as a medium of exchange in transactions is inherently future-oriented, it provides a means to store value obtained through current production or trade for use in the future in the form of other goods and services. In particular trading their non-fungible, non-durable, non-portable, non-recognizable, or non-stable goods or services for money here and now, people can store the value of those goods to trade for goods at other times and places. This facilitates saving for the future and engaging in transactions over long distances possible. 

Standard of Deferred Payment:

To the extent that money is accepted as a general medium of exchange and serves as a useful store of value, it can be used to transfer value for exchange use at different times between people through the tools of credit and debt. One person can loan a quantity of money to another for a period of time to use, and repay another agreed-upon quantity of money at a future date. The stored value represented by the loaned money is transferred from the lender to the borrower in exchange for an agreed quantity of stored value in the future. The borrower can then use and enjoy the value of other goods and services that they can now purchase in exchange for payment at a later date. The lender in effect is able to loan the current use of real goods and services (which he does not himself originally possess) to the borrower. The sellers of the goods are able to receive payment for their goods now, instead of loaning the goods directly to the borrower in hope of future return or repayment. 

Types of Money:

There are several types of money.

Market-Determined Money:

Money originates as a feature of the spontaneous order of markets through the practice of barter (or direct exchange), where people trade one good or service directly for another good or service. In order for a trade to occur in barter, the parties to the exchange must want the good or service that their counter-parties have to offer. This is known as the double coincidence of wants, and it sharply limits the scope of transactions that can occur in a barter economy. 

However certain goods in a barter economy will be generally desired by more people in trade for whatever they have to offer in barter. These tend to be goods that have the best combination of the five properties of money listed above. Over time, these special kinds of goods can come to be desired in trade partly for their wide acceptance as a means to overcome the problem posed by the double coincidence of wants in future transactions with others. Eventually, people can come to desire a good mostly or solely for its use-value in reducing transaction costs in future exchanges.

Such a good can then be called money because it is generally recognized by participants in the economy as a valuable good for its use as a medium to indirectly exchange other goods and services between multiple parties. The physical commodity will still have some other use-value, but the primary use of any source of value has in the market is for its use as money. Historically, precious metals like gold and silver were adopted as these kinds of market-determined moneys.

Legal Tender and Fiat Money:

Sometimes a market-determined money is officially recognized as legal money by a government. Under some circumstances, goods that do not necessarily meet the five properties of optimal market-determined money outlined above, can be used to fulfill the functions of money in an economy. Typically this involves a legal mandate to use a specific good as money (known as a legal tender law) or some kind of prohibition on the use of money (such as the use of cigarettes as a medium of exchange among prison inmates). Legal tender laws specify a certain good as legal money, which courts will recognize as a final means of payment in contracts and the legal means of settling tax bills. By default, the legal tender will typically be used as a medium of exchange by market participants within the political jurisdiction of the authority that declares it to be money.

 

The term fiat money or fiat currency is generally associated with a classification of money that has been authorized for use by a country's government.

Legal tender laws do not always adopt market-determined money as legal tender. A new medium of exchange that does not serve any original non-money use as an economic good can be imposed to replace market-determined money by legal declaration. This type of legal tender can also be called fiat money. Fiat money becomes a medium of exchange through legal imposition on the market, rather than through the process of adoption by the market for easing transactions. Fiat money often does not meet the general characteristics of money and the market-determined money that it replaces. Because the fiat money tends to be less suitable for use as money, market participants may be reluctant to adopt it as money. Prohibitions (or even confiscation) of market-based money are sometimes enacted as part of legal tender laws that impose fiat money on an economy.

Fiat moneys can lead to increased economic transaction costs, market distortions, and unintended consequences to the extent that they do not meet the characteristics that make a particular good suitable to serve as money. For example, in modern times, most countries' legal tender moneys consistently lose value over time, sometimes rapidly, leading to the social costs associated with inflation.

Governmental currencies fall under the category of fiat money. Internationally, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank serve as global watchdogs for the exchange of currencies between countries.1 2 Governments establish their own money system which is monitored primarily by the central bank and Treasury authorities. A governmental currency will have an intranational value and an international value. Established governmental currencies trade 24 hours a day seven days a week on the foreign exchange market, which is the largest financial trading market worldwide. Governments can establish formal and informal trade relations to peg currency values to one another for reduced volatility. Governmental currencies may also be free-floating.

Money Substitutes and Fiduciary Media:

Physical units of currency (cash) can circulate from hand to hand in the course of economic transactions, or by being reassigned from person to person for accounting purposes while being held on deposit at a bank or similar institution. In the second case, tokens or paper notes that substitute for and represent the deposited money are passed from person to person in daily transactions and settled later by financial institutions. Paper notes and checks are examples of these kinds of money substitutes. The use of money substitutes can increase the portability and durability of money, as well as reducing other risks. Money substitutes enhance the function of money by allowing people to simultaneously enjoy the use of their money in day-to-day transactions while also keeping the money secure from theft or physical damage. 

Normally, however, banks issue a larger (often much larger) quantity of money substitutes than the amount of physical currency entrusted to them by depositors. By simultaneously issuing money substitutes corresponding to the same units of physical money to both the depositors and borrowers to whom the bank makes loans, in a process known as fractional reserve banking, banks can dramatically expand the supply of money available for transactions beyond the available supply of physical money. The new money substitutes that do not correspond to new units of physical money are called fiduciary media of exchange since they exist solely as entries in the accounting and financial system of the banks. Though widely accepted today, the use of fiduciary media has been controversial. Some economists believe that the (over)issuance of a fiduciary is to blame for business cycles and economic recessions, while others welcome it as a means to allow the expansion of money supply to suit the needs of the economy. 

In the U.S., the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department monitor several types of money supplies for the purpose of regulating and mitigating monetary issues.34

Cryptocurrencies:

Cryptocurrencies are peer-based money, such as bitcoin. This type of money is electronically based on electronic accounting entries that can be used as a medium of exchange. Cryptocurrencies share many characteristics of both market-determined money and fiat money.

 

Cryptocurrencies are a type of money that can be used to facilitate international transactions.

Cryptocurrencies first originated as accounting units assigned to users as compensation in return for helping to process and verify transactions in a cryptocurrency blockchain. They have also evolved to become a new form of coin offering that helps to serve as financing for new technological business initiatives and companies. Cryptocurrencies are becoming more widely used and adopted as a medium of exchange for daily transactions. However, cryptocurrencies do pose many risks. As such, they are being researched and regulated by authorities on an ongoing basis.

Mixing Service: Defined in CryptoCurrency

Mixing Service (Tumbler):
Defined in CryptoCurrency

 
A mixing service, also known as a “tumbler”, lets you send in your cryptocurrency and get the same amount back, minus fees, from other people.


The purpose of a mixing service is to improve the privacy and anonymity of digital money by making it harder to track what the cryptocurrency was used for and who it belongs to. 

Coin Mixer:

A cryptocurrency mixer is a tool for improving the anonymity of cryptocurrencies. The algorithm is rather simple—a user sends their cryptocurrency to a mixer's address which is registered for each user individually. The coins are then mixed with transactions of other people or distributed among hundreds of thousands of wallets that belong to a mixer. Once the process is completed, "clean" bitcoins are transferred to the pre-set storage—either back to the sender or the new owner.

Explaining how a coin mixer works, based on the example of a bitcoin transaction sent by a Petya ransomware attack victim. Source: qz.com

The distribution of funds among numerous wallets makes it impossible to establish a link between a sender and a receiver. A user can also break the transaction input into denominations in order to hide the real amount.

The mixers' owners charge a 0.5–3% transaction fee for their services. It is vital to remember, however, that if you send the coins to another person's wallet, you might never get them back.

Using a mixer is not so different from using an exchange platform. You need to enter the address to which you would like to send the mixed bitcoins, set the service fee (it heavily influences the transaction speed), and press "Continue." Next, you will be redirected to the page with the mixer's address to which you need to send your bitcoins in the first place.

Cryptocurrency Dash is also secure when it comes to untraceable transactions. The PrivateSend technology enables users to mix and break the transaction inputs down into standard denominations. The wallet then sends requests to "masternodes" which are responsible for mixing.

Wallets:

What could be an alternative to coin mixers? Think of special wallets with a high degree of anonymity, e.g., Electrum. There are also wallets that have a built-in bitcoin mixing option.

In 2014, Cody Wilson, a crypto enthusiast who has also created a 3D-printed gun, along with Amir Taaki, introduced the Dark Wallet project—a browser plugin and an Ubuntu client.

Dark Wallet is built atop CoinJoin, which implies that all transactions are mixed and it's impossible to find out who was the first to own a cryptocurrency. The more users of the wallet, the better the anonymity.

Cryptocurrency tumbler or cryptocurrency mixing service is a service offered to mix potentially identifiable or 'tainted' cryptocurrency funds with others, so as to obscure the trail back to the fund's original source. This is usually done by pooling together source funds from multiple inputs for a large and random period of time, and then spitting them back out to destination addresses. As all the funds are lumped together and then distributed at random times, it is very difficult to trace exact coins. Tumblers have arisen to improve the anonymity of cryptocurrencies, usually bitcoin (hence Bitcoin mixer), since the currencies provide a public ledger of all transactions.

Tumblers take a percentage transaction fee of the total coins mixed to turn a profit, typically 1–3%. Mixing helps protect privacy and can also be used for money laundering by mixing illegally obtained funds. Mixing large amounts of money may be illegal, being in violation of anti-structuring laws. Financial crimes author Jeffrey Robinson has suggested tumblers should be criminalized due to their potential use in illegal activities, specifically funding terrorism; however, a report from the CTC suggests such use in terrorism-related activities is 'relatively limited'. There has been at least one incident where an exchange has blacklisted "tainted" deposits descending from stolen bitcoins.

The existence of tumblers has made the anonymous use of darknet markets easier and the job of law enforcement harder.

In February 2020, the alleged operator of a cryptocurrency tumbler was indicted on charges of "money laundering conspiracy, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and conducting money transmission without a D.C. license."

Peer-to-peer tumblers:

Peer-to-peer tumblers act as a place of meeting for bitcoin users, instead of taking bitcoins for mixing. Users arrange mixing by themselves. This model solves the problem of stealing, as there is no middleman. When it is completely formed, the exchange of bitcoins between the participants begins. Apart from mixing server, none of the participants can know the connection between the incoming and outgoing addresses of coins.

Money laundering:

In December 2013 cryptocurrency tumbler Bitcoin Fog was used to launder a part of the 96,000 BTC from the robbery of Sheep Marketplace. In February 2015, a total of 7,170 bitcoin was stolen from the Chinese exchange Bter.com and traced back to the same tumbler. In April 2021 U.S. Federal authorities arrested the founder of Bitcoin Fog, a Russian-Swedish man named Roman Sterlingov, on charges of money laundering, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, and money transmission without a license in the District of Columbia. Alleging that during its 10 years of operation it laundered over 1.2 million bitcoin at a value of approximately $335 million.

Wallets in an Anonymous Network:

On the Darknetmarkets website, one can find a guide to preserving privacy when sending payments through the Tor network. For that, a user needs several wallets in both anonymous and open networks, the Tor browser, and mixing services supporting Tor.

Mining Rig: 
Defined in CryptoCurrency

---

---

---

---

---

In-Short:
Mining rigs are defined as computer specially designed to maintain the blockchain, this process is known as mining.

Mining is the process of using computer power to solve a complex math problem, review and verify information, and create a new block so the information can be added to the blockchain.
 
Mining requires expensive mining and a lot computer power. People buy rigs and pay for lots of electricity so they can earn cryptocurrency. Because rigs are built especially for mining, they do the job faster than other computers and can earn more.

Building a Cryptocurrency Mining Rig: How to Keep Costs Small and Profits Big...

There are countless ways to make money with computers, but right now there are few as interesting and potentially lucrative as mining for crypto currency. The decentralization of money has led to a digital gold rush, as individuals, mining pools, and full-fledged mining companies vie for the same blocks. So how do you stake your claim and mine your own minty fresh crypto cash? It’s all about building your rig and balancing performance with efficiency.
Is it still profitable?

The first thing that you need to understand is that, just like rushing out to California, buying a pick, and riding your donkey into the hills, mining cryptocurrency is a bit of a gamble. Even the more obscure blockchains have thousands of miners racing each other to find the winning hash. The greater the competition, the more difficult the challenge and if you don’t win the block, that’s a lot of time and literal energy wasted.

The first decision you need to make is what currency you’re actually mining. This will influence every other decision you make and it is in itself a complicated question. You need to consider the currency’s value and block reward against the difficulty of the hash and how many other miners are chasing the prize. The more difficult the race, the meaner your machine needs to be.

You’ll also need to consider the investment side of the equation. Some mining can be done with the PC you already use, but in most instances getting serious about mining means you’re going to want to invest in a purpose-built system. That means spending real money and it could range from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars depending on the currency you’re chasing and how competitive you want to be.

Of course, that’s just a starting investment. The day-to-day cost, the incremental loss, is electricity. Throwing around hashes in the trillions per second makes a rig mighty hungry, and even moderate mining can make a noticeable impact on your power bill. So not only do you have to be mindful of your rig’s performance, you need to balance your profits against the increase in your electrical bill.
 
If you haven’t already chosen the crypto you covet or even if you have, we recommend checking out a Mining Calculator. WhatToMine.com seems a little daunting at first glance but that’s only because it’s incredibly comprehensive. It can help you determine which currency you should start mining, and which parts are best for your rig by calculating their hashrate and power draw. It can even factor in the price of electricity in your area.

It’s important to remember that there are more ways to make money than just mining for gold. When everyone else heads into the hills to dig, you can make a lot of money selling shovels. We’re of course not encouraging you to start fabricating shovels (that’s a saturated market), no we’re saying that there are ways that you can build a rig, and sell or rent your hashrate power to someone else. Taking some of the risk out of the equation though also diminishing the reward.

What you’ll need: 
The list is pretty short really. You need a crypto wallet to keep your currency. You need mining software to actually do the thing. And of course you need hashrate power, either purchased off someone else, or generated by your own mining rig.

Let’s start with software since it’s probably the least stressful decision you’ll need to make. They’re almost all free and they all do versions of the same thing, but there are still things to consider. The currency you’re mining is most important because you’ll need software that can actually mine that currency. There are also features and customizations offered by some programs that aren’t available universally. Start with the currency compatibility and make your decisions from there.

What’s in a Wallet(?):

You can’t stuff Bitcoin in an old mattress and there’s no Ethereum in the Banana Stand. If you’re going to keep your coin keys safe, you’ll need some sort of storage. There are basically two sorts of storage to choose from and while one is definitely more secure than the other, neither is perfect just yet.

Cold storage refers to actual physical storage devices. They’re referred to as cold storage because they exist offline and are not remotely accessible on their own. This means that no one can just hack in and steal your Litecoin. They have their own password protections as well which makes them doubly secure. That being said you do need to be mindful of compatibility between your wallet and your currency. Physical data storage also opens you up to the possibility of corruption, and unlike traditional money, with digital currency corruption usually leads to less wealth.

Most crypto wallets don’t look like much more than a flash drive so you can easily take them with you wherever you roam. Being small and easily portable like the Ledger Nano S or the BC Vault One is great, but it also means you could lose your money the old fashioned way. By literally losing your wallet. Imagine a thumb drive falls out of your pocket in an Uber, but instead of just losing the digital copy of Alita: Battle Angel you never leave home without, you instead lose several thousand dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency. Which is the greater tragedy? Who can say?

Ledger, Wallet, Keys, and PenLong DescriptionLedger!? I hardly even Augur!

Hot storage on the other hand is all digital and while that makes it less secure in general, it also makes it much more convenient to trade or exchange. Software like coindirect or apps like Trust do take security seriously, and again, if you’re moving small amounts of currency around with any sort of frequency, the freedom and flexibility offered by these digital options may be the right decision for you. Just remember to research the transaction fees associated with each wallet and again, check to make sure it works with the currency you’re mining.

What goes into a rig(?):
There are three basic categories for mining rigs, CPU, GPU, and ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit). Just like everything else, the biggest factor in choosing the right rig is the currency you’re trying to mine. Once upon a time, you could mine Bitcoin with just the CPU in your desktop and a twinkle in your eye. Now very few currencies can be effectively mined with such menial processing power, and if you want to mine Bitcoin specifically, you’re going to need an impressive purpose-built machine.
 
CPU:
CPU mining is kinda just what it sounds like. You’re using the processing power of your CPU to generate hashes. This was fine and good a few years ago, but as crypto mining became more popular it also grew in competition and there’s nothing that breeds like tech advancement like competition. Your CPU just isn’t powerful enough to out-calculate a purpose-built ASIC or a mining rig running six top of the line GPUs.

That being said there are currencies out there that try to protect the average miner from being completely outclassed by those who can afford bigger toys. Monero is one such currency. They design themselves to be “ASIC Resistant” in an attempt to keep their cryptocurrency as decentralized and egalitarian as possible.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPULong DescriptionRippin’ threads and breaking Hz...

If you’re looking to dip your toe into data mining, a high end CPU like AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X is obviously the gold standard. Its sixty-four cores and 128 threads blaze do a lot of work, but it’s the enormous 256 MB L3 cache that really lets the hashrate fly. It can generate 64 MHs which is not a lot compared to other devices we’ll discuss in a second, but mining the right currency that’s more than enough to compete. The upside to CPU mining of course is that this investment is still beneficial to your PC even if mining doesn’t PAN out.

Another drawback to CPU processing besides its hash per second limitations is the risk of overheating. Cranking out that many complex computations can generate dangerous amounts of heat so you’ll want to make sure you have a cooling system that can take the strain.

The Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360 TR4 is designed specifically to keep the Threadripper ripping without excess heat, and it still has a nice RGB style to it. If you want something a little less flashy, the Noctua NH-D15 is an affordable option that still boasts features like PWM and airflow up to 82.52 cfm!

GPU:
MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GPULong DescriptionRTX-cuse me while I hash and mine GPU mining is a little more complicated but a lot more common. It’s really hard to get a bunch of CPUs to work together toward a common goal. It’s a lot easier to connect a bunch of powerful GPUs to one motherboard and set them to a task.

 Choosing the right GPU can be tricky at best, but it’s a thrilling part of the chase and there’s no silver-bullet answer.

Nvidia and AMD are of course the two main contenders and they each have attractive options for both the experienced hash cracker and the more minor miner. The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 is a solid option performance wise but it’s definitely a heavier investment that’s hard to come by. It’s capable of hashrates right around 110 MHs depending on the algorithm you have it hunting.

You can also find success with the XFC Radeon VII which isn’t quite as powerful, but runs more efficiently. Remember that these stats are only half the issue and the price of electricity in your area can greatly affect the balance of this cost-to-profit equation so again, please make sure you’re doing your due diligence.

Motherboard:
But a GPU has to connect to something and just one GPU isn’t going to deliver the hash power you need to be competitive. You’re going to need a motherboard for that rig and the more GPUs it can accommodate, the better. You want a motherboard that can connect at least six GPU. The MSI PRO Z390-A can handle that while also maintaining a respectable price tag. If you’re really going for the gusto you should look into the ASUS B250 Mining Expert that con connect up to nineteen GPUs, for some serious block busting power.

Case / Frame:
Of course all those GPUs won’t fit in your average PC case and you can’t just have them lying around on the floor. You’re going to need a frame for your rig. There are plenty of schematics for building your own mining frame but if you’d rather just invest in one you know you can trust, check our stock.

We have simple low cost options like this ASTARIN 6 GPU Mining Case, but of course you can always spend more. If you want something that can hold more GPU and look a little cleaner, check out this Magnalium Alloy Mining Rig Case that can accommodate up to twelve graphics cards. Just remember that your frame should have at least as many slots as you have GPUs in your rig, and you’re going to have to make sure it fits wherever you plan on keeping it in your home.

PSU:
EVGA Supernova 80+ PSULong DescriptionP.S You need a PSU
You’re going to need to run power to all those GPUs, not to mention the CPU and motherboard. If you’ve ever built a PC from scratch you’re already familiar with calculating a rig’s power draw. 

This isn’t really any different, you’re just using a lot more power hungry components for this type of machine. Remember, it’s important that you not only provide enough power for all the components, your energy consumption is a huge part of your profit equation.

That’s why finding the right power supply is so important. Consider the EVGA Supernova 1600 T2 which is fully modular and boasts an 80+ Titanium efficiency rating. Or you could save a little money with the Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W. It’s only 80+ Gold certified and semi modular but it can move plenty of juice for a much more manageable initial cost. Definitely invest in a PSU with 80 Plus Gold certification or higher.

ASIC:  
We saved the most powerful option for last. ASIC is short for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit, and basically describes a small but mighty computing machine built with one specific purpose in mind, in this case, mining cryptocurrency. They are incredibly powerful, and they lead the pack in their ability to generate hashes. They are also exceedingly expensive, quickly outdated by newer models, and somewhat controversial in their capabilities.

These workhorses are so powerful they can actually alter the landscape of the cryptocurrencies they mine. They can out hash most home-built rigs and are so expensive that your average miner just can afford them. And even if a miner feels like sinking several thousand dollars into a lean mean hash slinging machine, large companies and those with deep pockets can build big enough banks of them to decimate your odds of winning a block.

That’s just the start. Those big banks of ASIC also end up working against the principles that helped make cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin so attractive in the first place. By snatching up a disproportionately large number of blocks, these banks somewhat undermine the concept of decentralized currency.

That’s why some cryptocurrencies are fighting against the tide and attempting to be what’s known as ASIC resistant. Monero specifically tries to limit the amount of ASIC mining that goes into its blockchain. That means less intense competition which in turn means that prospectors can engage competitively at a much lower starting investment. That being said, no mining algorithm is completely ASIC resistant so they are always going to play a role.

If you’re after the big fish, if you’re mining Ethereum or Bitcoin, you’re going to want to look at these devices. They carry a hefty price tag, but they can reap tremendous rewards and as technology nears the cap of physical limitation, the worry of these high-investment machines being quickly outdated is becoming less daunting by the day.

If these are the droids you’re looking for, the last step is making sure, once again, that the device you’re looking to buy is capable of mining the currency you want to mine. ASICs are so specialized that they are specific to different types of hash algorithms. An ASIC designed to mine Bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm can be modified to mine Peercoin because they use the same algorithm. However you can’t use the same machine to mine Dash however, as that cryptocurrency uses the X11 algorithm.

WhatsMiner Doc? / Long DescriptionA Sick ASIC!:
If you’re mining the right currency and have the resources to spend then an ASIC is almost certainly the way to go. If you’re after Bitcoin check out the WhatsMiner ASIC that boasts an insane 33THs hashrate! Of course, there are always options and it’s up to you to do the research and find what’s best for the operation you’re trying to run. Keep in mind that these devices will also need a PSU, so make sure you’re factoring that into your investment calculations.

Mining is inherently risky, with many more ways to spend money than opportunities to make it, but with the appropriate amount of planning and research there is money to be made. And just like the gold rush that sent people running for the California hills, mining cryptocurrencies wouldn’t be nearly as exciting if it were easy.