How to mine Horizen
Horizen (the newly rebranded ZenCash (ZEN)) is an anonymous which provides you with an access to a secure and private platform for money, messages and media. We recommend you mine it with GPUs or ASICs. When you combine the ASIC with a suitable pool and a secure wallet, you will have the winning formula for profitable Horizen mining. Here is everything you need to consider before starting: …more
- Choosing a suitable ZEN hardware
- Configuring your software and hardware
- Horizen Mining Pool setup
Cloud mining is always an option, more on it you can find later on in the article. What else is there? Basically, everything you need to know on how to mine Horizen profitably.
Why should you mine Horizen?
The vast number of unique features is what makes Horizen (ZEN) exclusive. Some of the top implementations are ZenChat – messages during a private transaction, ZenPub – anonymous publications to the blockchain, ZenHide – not recognizable as a cryptocurrency. Horizen is accomplishing transactions using a regular T address and a private Z one, which is obscuring the sender and recipient’s addresses, as well as the amount sent. This means total privacy. We say these features should be tempting enough to get you to start mining Horizen, so dive in!
Best way to mine Horizon
Firstly, we’ll begin by saying that Horizen is in fact mineable by ASIC machines, so it’s safe to say that this is also the best way of mining it. It can also be mined with GPUs, but of course the profitability will be much lower when compared to the powerful and efficient ASIC miners.
Moreover, our thorough research has shown that mining Horizen with Nvidia is more profitable, compared to using an AMD. We’re going to give you some options, providing you with the best mining card and ASIC machine options, so you could make the best choice for yourself. Lastly, the best way to mine Horizen is in a pool, using the official wallet.
What do you need to start mining Horizon?
First and foremost is your choice of hardware. Another important factor to consider after this is the internet connection – aim for unlimited traffic. It would benefit you greatly if you can measure the network’s latency. Do that by checking the ping to your Horizen mining pool address. Next thing in line is the wallet. This is a program, helping you manage your coins and access the network. Make sure to consider the capacity of the electricity you’re going to use.
The requirements are as follows:
- Hardware – ASIC of your choice or Nvidia GPU set
- Strong and stable Internet connection with unlimited traffic
- Enough electric capacity
- Wallet to store your earnings
What else you need to consider?
Every piece of machinery needs adequate ventilation, so it can work efficiently and within normal temperatures. Have in mind that the ZEN mining hardware is also producing excessive noise, but we’ve provided you with some suggestions on how to handle both problems: (Ventilation, noise and cooling decisions for your hardware).
Another thing you should consider prior to mining, is choosing how to do it exactly – mine by yourself (solo mining) or in a team (pool mining). You should know that solo mining is not recommended, because finding a block alone depends mostly on your luck and sometimes payouts can take months or even years. When mining in a pool, you’re combining your power with others and every time the pool finds a block, the reward is split proportionally.
Of course, there’s always another option – cloud mining. You just sign a contract with a provider and all your worries about hardware equipment, electricity or any other technical details are gone. So, you’re basically authorizing a middleman to mine for you and manage your funds.
You will definitely need a wallet, so visit the Horizen official website (Official Horizen Website) in order to choose the right one for you. You can choose from desktop wallets (Windows, Mac and Linux), a mobile wallet (for Android), a web wallet and a paper one. There’s also one more option of 3rd party wallets. In order to make the best choice for yourself, check our page.
Best choice of Horizen mining hardware to buy
Since the most profitable way of mining is done using ASIC hardware, we will show you some of the best machines that are currently available on the market. Your ZEN mining profitability depends on the hashrate and power consumption of the device, so what you need to find is the right balance between them.
There are two ASIC machines you can buy:
recommended horizon mining hardware
If you still want to try mining Horizen with graphic cards you can choose your preferred one from the list below:
recommended horizon mining hardware
Our Horizen mining calculator can help you with the calculation of the coins you’re going to earn, according to the characteristics of your ZEN hardware.
Setup hardware and software / Configuration
We are going to provide you with a step-by-step configuration guide that takes you through everything you have to complete to begin mining. Our example will be based on the configuration of Antminer Z9 mini with Luckpool:
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1. Connect Your Hardware
Just plug the cables from the power supply unit to the hashing boards of the miner and connect it to the electricity network. Connect a LAN cable for internet into the network port of the device.
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2. Choose which mining pool you want to join.
Your choice should be based on the reward system and the fee taken by the pool.
Suprnova.cc
Server locations:.Reward system: PPLNSAverage fee: 1.0%Our choiceMiningspeed.com
Server locations:. ..Reward system: PPLNTAverage fee: 0.8%Luckpool.org
Server locations:. .Reward system: PPLTSAverage fee: 0.5%If you want to learn more about different mining pools and reward systems, you can visit our dedicated mining pools website.
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3. Discover the IP address of the machine
To access the configuration of your mining hardware you need its IP address. Your Antminer device is configured by default to get an IP address from the DHCP server of your network which is usually the internet router. Therefore, you need to access the DHCP server on your router or scan the network to verify the IP address that was given to Antminer. Another option is to use an IP Address reporting software from the device manufacturer’s website.
Here is an example for an Antminer’s IP: 192.168.6.15
In your browser type the IP of the miner and hit Enter. You will be asked for username and password which by default are both “root”.
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4. Pool and wallet configuration
Click on the Miner Configuration tab where you can fill in 3 groups of mining pools. If the first group is dead, then it will automatically point to the second group.
Below is the configuration example of Luckpool.net:
pool url: stratum+tcp://eu.luckpool.net:3060
worker: YourHorizenWalletAddress
password: 123 or leave random
A working configuration should look like this:
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5. Click Save & Apply and the machine will restart.
After a few minutes you should see accepted shares which means you are mining. In the Miner Status page you can check the statistics of the hashrate, accepted shares, uptime and temperatures of the ant miner.
Horizen Cloud mining
If you don’t want to deal with any equipment or power consumption problems, you should definitely use the cloud mining option. Firstly, check the conditions of the contract, if they suit your needs, choose a middleman. You can do that by comparing a bunch of companies, until you find the right one for you. Check our cloud mining page to see more in-depth information on all that.
Some of the related providers are Nicehash, which has the basic advantage of lack of prepaid fees, so you pay as you mine. Another option is MiningRigRentals, which offers great amounts of hash power, depending on how much you are willing to pay.
Horizen calculator
The Horizen mining calculator provides an estimation, of how much you might earn from mining. Values like ZEN network difficulty and coin price are automatically included, so you should enter only a couple of things:
- Hash rate: The hashrate of all your mining devices
- Power: The total power consumption of the miners
- Cost: the cost per kilowatt hour you pay for electricity
- Pool fee: enter the pool fee if there is any
After the calculation is done, you should be able to see how much you’re going to earn per hour, day, week, month or a year.
Disclaimer:Remember that the results of the calculator are based on fluctuating variables like network difficulty and the coin price, so they are completely accurate only for the moment of the calculation.
FAQ
How long does it take to mine 1 ZEN?
If your hashrate is for example about 550 sol/s, it will take you roughly 30 days to mine 1 ZEN.
How much you can mine in one day?
Following the same example, you’re going to mine 0,03 coins per day.
How to setup a Horizen masternode?
You can read the setup guide on our page focusing on Masternodes.
Is it worth mining ZEN?
You’re can calculate that, using the Horizen Mining Calculator.
What’s the profitability of mining Horizen?
You can easy check it out, using the Horizen Mining Calculator.
Is Horizen legal?
Note that mining in countries such as Algeria, Bolivia, Ecuador, Bangladesh, Nepal and Macedonia is banned. There are some countries in which trading is legal, but you aren’t allowed to use cryptocurrency as a payment tool – Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
About Horizen
ZEN is a privacy platform built on zero-knowledge technology with a decentralized and secure structure. Horizen, one of its features, has an open sourced code with the purpose to set an ethic structure of its community. About 1000 forum members, developers, miners, traders, investors, partner organizations and bloggers are a part of it. ZEN is currently working on its ecosystem, which will support the network of contributors from various industries. Its values are collaboration, collective aid and inclusiveness. The Horizen roadmap is upgrading every year with accomplished goals and news about the future. The team strongly believes that cryptography and the blockchain technology are going to be the future of the 21 century – a better world, achieved by accelerating innovations, improving and empowering the values of cryptocurrencies.
Horizen Team
The Horizen team consists of many departments – engineering, user experience, marketing, operations, finance, legal, business development and also some partners and advisors. There are three early founders of the project – Joshua Yabut, Rob Viglione and Rolf Versluis and each one is a leader within his professional domain. The core team has a makes the important decisions, having an independent budget to efficiently execute tasks and fully operate the network.
Horizen Algorithm
The algorithm of Horizen is Equihash, based on the Proof-of-Work model. The block reward is separated as follows – 3,5% for the secure nodes, 8,5% for the Horizen team treasury and 88% for the miners. The dividing period of the coins is same as the Bitcoin – every 4 years. The total supply is once again similar to BTC – 21 million. Basically, it’s a fork of ZClassic, which is a fork of ZCash.
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