Siacoin (SC) is the token of Sia, a blockchain-based decentralized cloud storage provider. The developers take pride in the very high level of privacy and security the blockchain offers. One of the best features of the network is that your data is only accessible to you. This article is here to give you and in-depth explanation on the whole process of mining Siacoin. Quick overview of what you can expect to learn: …more

  • What Mining Hardware is compatible with Blake2b Algorithm
  • How to set up and configure the Software and Hardware
  • How to choose a suitable Siacoin Mining Pool

An alternative way to mine Siacoin is through cloud mining. That way you won’t need to trouble yourself with the technical stuff or obtain hardware. You can learn more about that further down in the article.

Why You Should Mine Siacoin?

Users of the Sia platform can greatly benefit from the low prices of its decentralized storage services. What’s even better is that the higher demand of free space in the future will bring the price of Siacoin higher.

Mining Siacoin can bring you a lot of profits. With the current block reward, you have the potential to earn up to 131,263 SC. At the same time, you will be helping to keep the platform secure for all users and miners by spreading the computer power around.

 

Best Way to Mine Siacoin

Mining Siacoin with GPUs is still possible, but not recommended. If you want to make money from Siacoin, you definitely need an ASIC miner.

The creators of Siacoin began the development of Sia ASIC miner (Obelisk SC1), but in January 2018 they were surpassed by the biggest manufacturer of ASIC miners – Bitmain. The Chinese company surprised everyone with their product – Antminer A3 which outperforms Obelisk SC1. As with most other cases, the introduction of an ASIC device made GPUs obsolete.

Currently, the only profitable option of Siacoin mining is by using the Antminer A3, which produces a hashrate of 815GH/s while consuming 1300 Watts of power at a price point of $475.

Once you’re ready with the hardware side of things, we recommend joining a SIA mining pool where you cooperate with other miners. That way, you’ll receive frequent payments (proportionally split) and steadier income.

What do You Need to Start Mining Siacoin?

To mine Siacoin effectively, you need an ASIC miner, electrical grid with enough capacity and 24/7 access to internet. The power consumption of one Antminer A3 is approximately 1300 W and you must calculate carefully how many machines you plan to run and how much power they need. In case you don`t have a wallet to store Siacoin, you need to install Sia-UI from the official web page and then create a wallet.

To summarize the requirements:

  • ASIC miner compatible with the Blake2b Algorithm
  • Enough power line capacity
  • Siacoin Wallet where your coins will be stored
  • Internet Connection with at least 1 MB/s Bandwidth

What Else You Should Consider?

ASIC machine are specially developed to produce higher hash power while consuming a lot of electricity and producing a lot of heat. Different methods of combating such issues are explained in our hardware/cooling article where we troubleshoot problems like:

  • Cooling and Ventilation
  • Cleaning and Maintenance
  • Noise Reduction
  • Power Delivery Issues

After dealing with hardware and electricity aspects, your focus should be on choosing the right wallet. It is a wise idea to consider all options. Mainly you can choose from five major types – mobile, desktop, online, hardware and physical. We went through the Siacoin one in details, including installation, later on in the article. For all the rest, you can read on our wallets webpage.

Now you have it all in front of you. This is the time where to sit and think about the method you would like to follow when mining. You can pick from solo, pool and cloud mining which we are going to explain later in this article.

 Best Hardware for Mining Siacoin

Such a device has few meaningful characteristics – hash rate, power consumption and price. You should carefully research the market to find the best hardware that suits your needs.

To avoid any headbanging while trying to figure everything out, here is a table with top three machines for Siacoin’s algorithm – Blake2b:

recommended siacoin mining hardware

ASIC Antminer A3

Our choice
ASIC Antminer A3
  • 815 GH/s , 1300W
  • Detailed Hardware Review

SiaMaster Innosilicon S11

SiaMaster Innosilicon S11
  • 3.83 TH/s , 1380W
  • Detailed Hardware Review

Once you know the price and performance of each ASIC miner, you can compare them with the help of our calculator.

Using the information from the table above and our Siacoin mining calculator you can easily calculate your approximate profitability.

Keep in mind that the results from the calculator are based on variables such as difficulty and coin price.

 

Setup Hardware and Software

When talking about ASIC miners, the procedure is pretty much the same for every model.

In the following step-by-step guide we will explain to you the process of connecting the cables, choosing a mining pool and configuring your device to become a fully working SIA miner.

  • 01. Plugging in Your Device

    Take the cables coming from the PSU and connect them with the device’s hashing boards and controller board. Afterwards, plug in the power cord to the PSU and the power outlet.

    Now take plug a LAN cable from your internet router to the Ethernet port of the control board:

     An image showing Siacoin mining hardware Antminer in detail.
  • Step 2. Choose a Mining Pool

    Take into consideration how much the pool fee is and what reward system is present. We have created a short list of the most popular Siacoin mining pools with their reward systems and pool fees.

    Antpool

    .

    Server locations:

    .
    Reward system: PPS
    Average fee: 3.0%
    Website
    Our choice

    Siamining

    .

    Server locations:

    . ..
    Reward system: PPS
    Average fee: 3.0%
    Website

    F2pool

    .

    Server locations:

    . .
    Reward system: PPS
    Average fee: 4.0%
    Website

    Choose a mining pool and register your account in their website if its required.

    You can visit our mining pools page to understand more about mining pools, fees and different reward systems.

  • 03. Find the IP Address

    You can find it in the DHCP table of your internet router administration interface or by downloading the IP Reporter tool from Bitmain’s website. To use the tool just run it and click “Start”. After that hold the “IP Report” button located on the miner control board and the IP address of the selected miner will pop up on the screen.

  • 04. Login to the Web Interface

    After we know what the IP of the ASIC is, open your favorite web browser, enter the IP address and hit Enter. A pop-up dialog box will appear where you need to enter a username and password, which by default are both “root”. Example:

    A screenshot showing the sign-in page of the ASIC Antminer software.
  • 05. Enter the Mining Pool Information

    When you are logged into the miner, you can start setting it up. Go to Miner Configuration / General Settings.

    Here you need to fill the pool URL address, worker name and password. Enter your Siacoin wallet address into the worker field. You can separate different workers with a “.” followed by the worker name. For example:

    7bc602bb52256a5b7c5fe4e683c8cf22928fa2dcc2acee24830ce3e73f9b2dd5286f952e447e.work1

    Password field can be left blank or 123 which is by default.

    You can enter more than just one group of pool and worker to use the failover feature if one of the pools isn’t working.

    Your configuration page should look like this:

    A snapshot showing Antminer's miner configuration page with two different Siacoin mining pools.
  • 06. Click Save & Apply and Wait for Miner to Restart

    After successful reboot you can check in the status page for any mining activity. You can monitor the mining process into your mining pool dashboard by pasting your wallet address in the search bar.

 

Siacoin Cloud Mining

All you need to do for cloud mining is to sign a contract, pay the required sum and you will be mining Siacoin right away. You are miles away from any hardware and configuration related issues. The middle man is doing it all for you plus covering the electricity bills, for a fee of course. You just need to provide your wallet address and wait for the rewards to be received.

We can help with the research for reliable third-party providers in our dedicated cloud mining providers webpage. Reputable ones are NiceHash and MiningRigRentals.

However, here is a small list with few points worth looking at when thinking of cloud mining contracts:

  • 01. the provider’s reputation
  • 02. check if the algorithms provided match your choice – be extra careful when reading the contract, the terms and conditions section
  • 03. always pay attention to the maintenance fee of the service and the length of the contract

Keep in mind that there could be some hidden service fees and maintenance fees which should be included in your calculation before you sign the contract.

 

Siacoin Mining Calculator

To help you find out how much you can expect to earn, we’ve provided you with our very own Siacoin mining calculator. Some of the variables that depend on the network, are entered automatically. You only have to enter the hashrate of your equipment, your power consumption and the fee taken by the pool.

After the calculation is done you will receive a rough estimate of your daily, monthly or yearly profit.

Disclaimer: Remember that the calculation is based on the current network difficulty and the coin price, which is volatile. Your expected profit can vary from day to day.

Siacoin Mining Calculator
Hash Rate:
Power Consumption:
Power Costs:
Pool Fee:
Siacoin Price:
Block Reward:
Difficulty:

 

FAQ

How to mine Siacoin?

You can mine Siacoin with ASIC miner for achieving the best possible profit.

What is Siacoin mining algorithm?

Siacoin uses Blake2b algorithm for mining.

Is it worth to mine Siacoin?

It depends on the price and your project expectations. 

Is Siacoin mining profitable?

You can always check your profitability in our Siacoin mining calculator.

Is it legal to mine Siacoin?

You can check our Regulations section to know the few countries where mining is not legal.

Is it safe to mine Siacoin?

Pay attention to our key points and it will be all fine. It is never a bad idea to be a bit more cautious.

Is it possible to mine at Raspberry Pi?

It is possible but don’t expect any profitability out of it.

Is there an App to monitor my Siacoin miners?

You can use MineMonitor for Android and Blockwatch and MyMiner for iOS.

How much you can mine at one day?

This answer depends on your mining power.

How to make your own pool?

Visit our creating your own mining pool page for detailed information.

About Siacoin

Launched in 2015, Sia is reinventing decentralized cloud storage. The creators intend to compete with already existing storage solutions at all levels – P2P and enterprise. The innovation here, is that Sia peers rent storage space from each other. The established contracts can be modified on a later stage. Another interesting feature is the signature. Each input must be signed in every transaction. This cryptographic signature is paired with several things – a time lock, input ID and flags, indicating which part is signed and which not yet.

The fulfillment of any Sia contract needs periodically submitted transactions. This is a nice way to keep track what is going on and when.

The safety aspect of Siacoin is fascinating. It protects the client and the host. Providers can refuse to accept unsecure data or a transfer. They can even refuse to sign a whole contract, until the full file is downloaded. The terms in their contract allow them to protect the system. As far as client protection goes, they can use regenerating codes, which prevents the hosts to go offline. What they do is split the file. Each piece is encrypted and stored in numerous hosts. When needed, they can be downloaded from the closest or the fastest hosts.

The organization behind Sia aims to create a reliable platform for decentralized cloud storage in unreliable environments.

Siacoin Team

The CEO of the company is David Vorick, who is one of the core developers as well. He is supported by the developers’ team, operations, support, marketing, accounting and people dealing with investors. Sia Storage Platform was launched by the 2014 established Nebulous Inc. It is based in Boston, USA. The funding organizations are Raptor Group, First Star Ventures, Fenbushi Capital and INBlockchain.

Siacoin Regulations

You can mine it legally all over the world, just pay attention to this:

  • avoid Bangladesh, Nepal, Macedonia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Algeria as your mining destinations
  • never use cryptocurrency as a payment method in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam

More and more countries see the future of crypto and its integration into our everyday life.  Many of them are even creating regulations to stimulate mining and trading. The digital character of money is here to stay. Use it. 

Sources:

www.sia.tech

https://bitcointalk.org

https://github.com/nebulouslabs

www.telegram.me/siacoin

www.Blog.sia.tech

www.Twitter.com/siatechhq

https://discordapp.com/invite/sia

www.siawiki.tech

Roland Chase

Author

Combining the value of his educational background in Hardware Management Systems and years of practical experience with cryptomining technologies starting at the birth of the disruptive innovation, Roland is now sharing his knowledge with the public.