How to Mine Decred
In this article we’ll reveal to you all the ways of profitable Decred mining. The newest change to the algorithm also makes it mineable by ASICs. At this article we want to show you all the important information to setup a successful Decred Mining. The key details are: …more
- Choice of competitve Mining Hardware
- Proper Setup and Configuration
- Recommended Mining Pools
If you can’t be bothered to set up mining gear or deal with the configuration, there is another option – Cloud Mining. Keep on reading while we explore the entire process of mining Decred in detail.
Why You Should Mine Decred
The idea behind DCR is that it focuses on convenience in the context of day-to-day transactions – they are faster, and the network is kept decentralized. Decred is gaining more and more popularity, so its price is rising accordingly. Here are few reasons why mining Decred is worth your time:
- It has one of the biggest development teams in the crypto world.
- Decred holders can vote on proposed soft or hard forks so they can further improve the network
- The Proof-of-Stake and Proof-of-Work hybrid system eliminates the weaknesses of using only one protocol.
Best Way to Mine Decred
Mining Decred with ASICs is the best and most profitable way after the latest upgrade in the network. In fact, with the rising popularity of Decred, you will be making a lot of profits in no time. We have even prepared constantly updated reviews on all profitable ASIC machines, which you can check here – mining hardware. One of the benefits of this hardware is that it’s pretty easy to be configured to a pool. We have covered the whole process in a few easy-to-follow steps. You have probably figured that pool mining is your best option and will provide you with constant stable income. Keep on reading to see what the minimum requirements for successful mining are.
What do You Need to Start Mining Decred
Well, if you have acquired an ASIC machine, you are ready to jump right into it. Now, let’s see what else you will be needing for the mining. One of the main things you will need is a wallet. It is what actually creates the bridge between the mining gear and the mining pools (or the mining world). There are different wallets, some of them have similarities, but for the most part, each offers different features. More on the different wallets and how to choose one you can read here – wallets.com.
Here we have summed up a list with the rest of the requirements for you to mine Decred:
- Competitive Mining Hardware (ASIC)
- A Decred Wallet to receive your Coins
- Sufficient electric capacity
- Fast internet connectivity (min 1 MB/s)
What Else You Need to Consider
Firstly, you need to be online 24/7. Think really carefully about the internet connection – is it reliable or not, because a few milliseconds can compromise your Decred mining process and end up losing money. Why? Because whenever you solve a new block, you send the results for approval in that very moment. If you have bad connection, somebody can beat you to it and take the reward.
Having in mind your choice of hardware, in this case ASIC, you can expect to have to deal with – noise/heat/electricity consumption.
We have created a dedicated page, where we explain basic and even some creative solutions for dealing with the hardware cooling and noise with it all – Ventilation, noise and cooling decision for your hardware.
We have to mention, that you can also mine DCR solo, but it’s not as efficient as pool mining and won’t bring you as many earnings. Something else worth your attention is the cloud mining. We’ll cover more on it later in the article.
Which Decred Mining Hardware to buy
Let us introduce to you the latest ASIC Machines used to mine for Decred. Compared to ASIC performance, mining with CPUs or GPUs can become a waste of time and money.
Innosilicon D9 DecredMaster Miner
There was a new ASIC miner based on the algorithm of DCR, which was announced earlier this year by Innosilicon. The Innosilicon D9 DecredMaster ASIC miner is capable of 2.1 TH/s hash rate for mining, with consumption of 900 Watts of power. The machine is priced at $2850 USD with power supply included, and ships within 3 business days.
Setup Hardware and Software / Configuration
Check this step-by-step Decred mining guide to get you started with the basics of connecting, configuring and running your device.
We picked DragonMint B29 from HalongMining for our configuration guide.
-
01. Connecting the Cables
- Connect all the cables for power supply to the PCIE sockets located on your ASIC miner.
- Connect a LAN from your internet network to the LAN port of your ASIC control board.
- Connect the power supply unit to the electricity and you are ready to continue.
-
02. Choose a Mining Pool
As we mentioned above, mining with a pool is always recommended over solo mining. That’s why we’ve provided a table with some of the best Decred mining pools for you:
CoinMine/dcr
.Server locations:
...Reward system: PPLNSAverage fee: 1.0%Our choiceLuxor.tech
.Server locations:
...Reward system: PPSAverage fee: 3.0%f2pool.com
.Server locations:
.Reward system: PPS+Average fee: 0.0%Choose a mining pool and register your account in their website if its required.
When choosing a pool there are several key parameters that you should look for:
- Reward system – the method of payment used by the pool.
- Fee – the fee that is collected from the miners.
- Pool Latency – the closer the server is located the lower the latency is.
-
03. Finding the IP Address of the Device
You can easily find it using the DragonMint IP scanner or by using the administration panel of your internet router.
-
04. Enter the Address into Your Browser and Login with the Default Credentials
- Username: admin
- Password: dragonadmin
The username and password may be different for other models so it’s best if you read your device manual.
-
05. Add Pool Info to ASIC Settings
Go to Settings > Pools where you can fill in all three groups of mining pools, so you can use the failover function in case some of the pools are not responding. Example for luxor.tech pool:
-
06. Restart the Hardware
After entering the required fields click Update Pools and wait for a few minutes for the miner to restart.
-
07. Check the Status
Go to Miner Status where you can monitor the activity of your device. If you experience a problem, you can always contact their support via Twitter https://twitter.com/LuxorTechTeam or Discord https://discordapp.com/invite/5qPRbDS
Decred Cloud Mining
Cloud mining or cloud hashing enables users to purchase mining capacity, produced by hardware in data centers. It enables people mining for Decred to buy the equipment, configuring the mining software, paying high electricity bills or other issues of that kind.
Nicehash and Rocket Mining, have been offering cloud mining contracts for several years now. You can visit their official pages to see all their options. They basically offer the current best cost/profit ratio. You can also check how profitable signing a Decred mining contract will be for you. If you use our Decred mining calculator, it will do most of the work for you. For cloud mining estimation you just need to enter the contract hash rate and the pool’s fee. What is left for you is to check whether your income is higher than the cost of the service. After all you’re here for the income, right?
Decred Calculator
Mining calculators help miners to easily estimate what will their profit be, using their available hash rate for a period of time. They take into account key parameters such as the current network difficulty and the price of the given crypto coin.
We have provided you with a simple and easy to use Decred mining calculator, that can give you an idea on how many coins you can expect to mine in a day, week, month and year, with your hash rate.
Most people are aware that currently Ethereum (ETH) is probably the most profitable coin to mine with GPUs, however DCR is not that far behind and you can easily compare your expected profit with that from mining Decred, if you are currently mining Ethereum.
Disclaimer: Your profitability depends a lot on the network difficulty and the coin price. Remember that Cryptocurrencies are unregulated, and their value can fluctuate.
FAQ
How long does it take to mine 1 Decred?
If you are mining with one of the ASIC machines we’ve mentioned in the article, the approximate time it would take you to mine 1 Decred would be a week or so.
Is it worth to mine Bitcoin?
As long as your earnings cover the electricity bill and make some profit to return of investment its worth mining. You can make the exact calculations with the help of our Calculator.
How much DCR you can mine in one day?
It depends on the hash rate of your equipment. Use our Decred mining calculator to make that estimation.
How to set up a Decred wallet
The easiest way to set up a DCR wallet is to download the official GUI wallet from the official website – (https://www.decred.org/downloads/).
Is it worth mining Decred?
Depends on your expectations of your future development, real life applications and other.
About Decred
Decred’s concept is focused on establishing equality between miners and users – that’s the basic improvement from Bitcoin. That’s what’s pushing DCR to make their community also their biggest strength. Their community grows and the team behind the coin encourages their members to constantly improve the system. The network has user-friendly wallet apps, which allow you to send and receive crypto easily. Launched on the 8th of February 2016, DCR had accomplished much progress in the previous two years. Since their Coinbase talk presentation, Decred’s price jumped drastically – from $1.20 to $89.64 in one year! The community behind it are proving that even though Bitcoin is the leading crypto power, other smaller crypto currencies, such as DCR, also deserve some attention.
Decred’s Team
The vision for a new currency called “Decred” took shape as a finished product in April 2014 thanks to Adam Mckenzie, and over the years the team behind it has acquired many new members, including the lead developer Dave Collins. The fundamental idea was for DCR to be the first ever decentralized autonomous entity. Many of its developers participated in the Bitcoin project, so they all tried to implement their knowledge in the community. This created some pressure among the team members and consequently, the lead Alex Jacob-Pitt and a few other developers, founded Company 0 and launched Decred by themselves in February 2016.
Decred’s Hashing Algorithm
The hashing algorithm used by DCR is Blake 256, which is a function based on Dan Bernstein’s ChaCha cipher but created as a round. There are two different sizes. ChaCha uses the 4×4 array of words and Blake combines 8 words hash value with 16 words message. Blake 256 and 224 uses 32-bit words to produce sizes of 256 and 224 bits, respectively the 512 and 384-bit words create sizes of 512 and 384 bits. When run on 64-bit system, Blake is faster than Sha-1 / 2 / 3 and MD5.
Decred Forks
Decred is designed to give a solution to the scalability problem in the Bitcoin’s core. The hard fork of Bitcoin, which split to Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash was caused by a rift in the community. DCR is created to avoid similar situations by giving its community the opportunity to vote for the future development of the currency. It’s a decentralized and self-governing blockchain, which means it can’t lead to a hard fork, unless the majority of stake-holders decide to do it. This is what makes Decred very appealing to miners and a competitive cryptocurrency on the market.
Decred Regulations
The table below will show you exactly which regulator covers you in your country, and what protection is offered.
| Regulator | Countries Covered | Protection Offered | Additional Protection Offered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) | UK, Ireland and Germany | All client funds are held in a segregated client bank account | Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) may cover up to £50,000 |
| Cyprus Securities Exchange (CySEC) | Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and Uruguay. | All client funds are held in a segregated client bank account | The Investor Compensation Fund may provide up to €30,000 |
| Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) | Australia, New Zealand and South Africa | All client funds are held in a segregated client bank account |
Sources:
https://twitter.com/decredproject