How I Crypto Mined At Home(Winning!)

Now I wish this was a story about how I become a crypto millionaire or ended up driving one of the “Lambos” you see on Instagram Get Rich Quick Ads, but it isn’t that type of story. It was a simple way how I crypto mined at home, and the reward was more than expected.

This adventure was one of my experiments of building a Passive Income Generator at home, with almost no knowledge of what I was doing. Glad the outcome was good, but I would never recommend any would enter any financial exercise without proper research. But this was fun.

This post was about when I was a Scout Leader, and the Scouts of my Troop were interested in talking about Cryptocurrency. My Son also became very interested in Cryptocurrency, especially the concept of “mining.” As typical, I was one of the only leaders interested in talking with the Scouts at their level and had the techie imagination to make things happen.

We are a Minecraft family, meaning almost every family member has a Minecraft account, and virtual mining was a cool concept. We even were running a local Minecraft server in our own home. So being a parent, your children’s hobbies become your hobby. My Son and I started working on figuring how we can mine Crypto(Cryptocurrency abbreviated) at home, figuring it will be as easy as printing our own money.

We had to address some immediate questions:

Can I Mine My Own Cryptocurrency?

This was more a question of how?

Using bitcoin as the Crypto, I was only interested in; I researched how they were made. A mathematical problem(an encrypted file) was sent public, and the first to solve(decrypt) this problem received the coin. The encryption was created using a known algorithm. Each time a coin was decrypted, more difficult coins/problems were being released. Each time the problem became more demanding and more challenging.

Now the answer to the big picture ‘how’ was easy. I had to decrypt these coins/problems.

There were still software options to install on your computer that ‘could’ mine(decrypt) for Cryptocurrency(I was only interested in Bitcoin), and I had spare computers to use, but with further research, this wasn’t a good idea. Home computers are built to be flexible. They can be used for office solutions, gaming, photo editing, etc.

So there is a lot of fluff designed into a primary home computer that would not be used for just mathematical calculations. I found mining cryptocurrency on a home computer could be done, but the path of least resistance was a very focused hardware-based solution.

I found there were explicitly designed hardware-based solutions for decrypting Cryptocurrency(Mining Crypto), and they were Reduced Instruction Set Computers(RISC). There are no keyboards, monitors, video games, just tiny computers built from scratch to focus only on specific tasks, this case mining crypto. These dedicated RISC’s (called “miners“) ran 100% full power from start to finish, but they were just tools; something had to handle the administration tasks of mining.

The administration tasks were necessary to control the mining operation. The administration of keys, keeping track of data sharing, etc.

With this information, I just found myself asking more questions.

Is It Even Possible To Mine Bitcoin At Home?

Each time I went down the rabbit hole of mining bitcoin, I found mining required specialized hardware, login information, and a plan to maximize computing efforts. There were so many steps required, and once I started, I learned the absolute truth. It was going to be difficult, but it was doable. My Son and I were going to set up a mining rig at home.

Without heavy funding, I could not hope to succeed in mining a single bitcoin. The mathematical problems have become so complex, a hobbyist miner like myself had a better chance of winning the lottery than mining coins alone.

It can be done, but I was unsure of any success…

What Is The Fastest Way To Mine Bitcoin?

Let’s say I take all the steps to build a bitcoin mining operation; how can I increase the speed at which I mine coins? Of course, one way is to buy more hardware; faster equipment would solve this. However, I am looking at this as a hobbyist and just experimenting. Am I doomed to building and getting nothing from this crypto mining experiment?

A solution… I am limited by the energy(hardware amount, electricity, time) I can apply to mine for each coin, but I can combine my efforts with others. I have mathematically no chance of solving the solutions needed to mine Bitcoins, but we could pool our efforts if I became part of a team.

I found exactly what I needed, A Mining Pool. There are pools online where you can join and combine your efforts to solving/mining for Bitcoin. Tasks are shared throughout the pool members to mine coins. Once a coin is solved, the fraction of that coin is shared with every pool member. The pool member’s reward(the fraction of coin) is based on how much mining power the member contributed to the solution for that coin.

Now there is an admin fee by the pool creator, but better a percentage of something than the whole thing of nothing.

How I Crypto Mined At Home, With A Mining Rig.

Was I going to build a mining rig from scratch?

Maybe…

Buy A Pre-built Mining Rig? Find Crypto Mining Rigs For Sale?

Ebay?

I could do all the research on how to mine for crypto, but applying the information to plan the hardware and applying the knowledge was different. I wasn’t even sure how much does a crypto mining machine cost? Pre-built or home-built.

A Little Crypto Knowledge Can Be Dangerous and Costly.

Now I got lost in my research and again brought back to why I was doing this. My plan to mine crypto at home was a proof of concept: a project involving my Son, and a talking point with his fellow Scouts. I wanted to encourage these young men to see a goal, research, and work towards that goal and either fail or achieve that goal. Then reevaluate your efforts and rewards.

We Were Going To Build An At Home Mining Rig!

Our Crypto Miner Shopping List:

A computer – we decided to put to use one of the Raspberry Pi’s we had used in earlier computer experiments, with an SD-card, of course.

RISC Miners – AntMiners U2’s were coming on eBay and were affordable.

The RISC Miners were USB and powered by USB, so they needed a powered USB strip.

Software – Since we decided to use a Raspberry Pi, we went with MinePeon(a whole Pi OS dedicated to crypto mining and interfaced well with mining pools).

Accounts – Setup a coin base account, my crypto wallet, and join a crypto mining pool.

Basic Steps We Took To Build Crypto Mining Rig:

Step 1: This is too important to skip, setup up a crypto wallet ASAP. Any second that you start making crypto coins, you need to have somewhere to put it. I used CoinBase, but there are several others today.

Step 2: Join a mining pool. I used slush pool, which was free to set up, and I felt that we had the best chance of succeeding with the number of members. I joined Slush Pool. Visit Slush Pool: Slush Pool

Step 3: Installed MinePeon onto the SD-Card.

Step 4: Inserted the SD-Card into the RaspberryPI.

Step 5: Connected Powered USB Strip and installed RISC Miners(My Ant Miners)

Step 6: Booted RaspberryPi.

Step 7: Followed setup instructions to RaspberryPI and entered information into the MinePeon to collaborate this computer work with the pool members.

Step 8: I watched it overheat. (later had to direct a fan on the Ant Miners, they run hot and only had passive heat sinks)

The Crypto Rig Was Completed And Mining.

My Son was a part of this operation but not much of a storyteller. So had to encourage him to share his experiences with his fellow Scouts.

It was good to see my Son and his friends talking about technology and learning the truth about mining bitcoins. It takes money, knowledge, and patience. These young men thought it was a get-rich-quick scheme, but now they have a better understanding. It is not a get rich quick, and it is not a scheme.

The true return from our mining rig was how this group of teens(especially my Son) shared lessons learned from research, cost analysis, working with computer hardware outside the PC, and learning about operating systems other than windows. Also, the importance of investing with the understanding of a free market.

How Much Money Can You Make With A Mining Rig?

Examining small things with a microscope.

Purely semantics, money is something that has an intrinsic value. Bitcoin is just a set of electronic digits in some crypto wallet(Mine Is Coin Base). But Bitcoin(BTC) has continued to surprise me. It is worth what people are willing to pay for BTC and continues to grow in value over time.

Now back to the original questions, how much money can you make with a mining rig? The answer is based on the effort/time/money you invest in it. I instead wrap up the experiment and let you decide. Read on…

How Much Did My Crypto-Miner Make?

Remember, I only built one mining with a few RISC miners.

I looked at the transaction history of my crypto mining pool record, and I have accumulated, over three months, 0.00007048 BTC. Amounts to about < $5 at the time of this writing(2021).

Is Crypto Mining At Home Worth It?

This question deserves two parts answers.

Momentarily, no. Even with the increasing value of bitcoin, I will most likely never recover the cost of equipment, time, and ELECTRICITY used to create my fractional BTC.

Studying is important, but learning from experience is more important.

Educationally, yes! I got to work with my Son, and we discussed computer solutions and problem-solving. Most importantly, it talked about something most parents don’t talk about with their children, finances. We discussed the differences between currency and money.

Return on investment(ROI), Capital expenditures, and Cost Analyst were terms I never figured I would get him to talk about with me. Real parenting win.

We also took our experience and newly gained knowledge back to his fellow scouts. We demystified cryptocurrency to them, and hopefully, my Son could share his new financial understanding with them.

Do We Still Mine Cryptocurrency At Home?

No. The mining rig was disassembled after seeing lower and lower returns on the initial investment. The equipment had an upfront cost and the amount of electricity had a continued operating cost. So the at-home crypto mining idea was abandoned, and we moved on.

The RaspberryPi was turning into our favorite mining at-home operation; it became a Minecraft server.

Note: You reach Chicken apocalypse levels sooner on a RaspberryPi vs. an average desktop computer.

How Did We Move On With CryptoCurrency?

I will cover this with another post but simply put, I let others work for me…

What Are Your Crypto Mining Experiences?

Would you mind leaving a comment and telling me about your experiences with crypto mining at home?

Our experiment was done years ago(about 2014-ish), clearly apparent from my photo, and I wondered if it would be fun to retry.

Thank you.

Crypto-mining Update: Again trying crypto-mining, but this time not as a pool miner, but as a solo miner: Solo Mining Bitcoin For Passive Income?

Tom, Growing His Passive Income Generators.