Now I know what this sounds like a scam offering a ‘how-to’ guide to getting rich by solo mining BitCoin for passive income, touting the ease of making tons of money.
Well, this is not me. I am not selling you any ‘how-to’ guide; I am just sharing additional improvements to growing passive income generators with you. First, what is solo mining?
You can read my extended background on mining crypto at home post or stay here and let me catch you up faster. I mined crypto in the past on a project I did with my Son. I had a few AntMiners working with a Raspberry Pi and belonged to a Pool of miners.
I could have been more successful at getting rich, but I enjoyed working with my Son.
Today, my Son is 22 and loves working with his hands. He is early in his career in the HVAC field. I hope projects like our BitCoin mining experience helped.
I’m sorry. I promised a quicker story. As I said, I’ve done Pool Bitcoin Mining, stopped, and started back up with Bitcoin Mining at home, but as a solo miner.
I talked about some pros and cons of Solo Mining, and the pros have won.
How To Start Solo Mining BitCoin?
For me, it was easy. I was cleaning up part of my basement to create a YouTube studio area and found a box with some old computer parts. There, I saw three tiny AntMiners and four larger AntMiners.
Plus, an ‘old’ Raspberry Pi with an SDCard and Power Supply.
I was wondering what I could do with these parts. EBay was a great place to sell used crypto mining parts, especially with the latest Bitcoin bull run. But then I found an article.
A solo miner solved a block and got a reward of about 6.2 Bitcoins. When I read about solo mining years ago, I heard the odds were so small that you consider it only possible to earn any BitCoin if you pool your resources by joining a Bitcoin mining pool.
With dusty Bitcoin mining equipment, I set up the Miner again and let it chug along.
How To Start Solo Mining Bitcoin At My Home:
Parts I Need.
- Bitcoin Miners: got 7, 3 small AntMiners, and 4 Bitmain AntMiner U2 V1.2 SHA-256 Bitcoin Miners.
- Computer to run it all: Using my old Raspberry Pi.
- SD card: using the 16 GB micro I found in the Raspberry Pi, but it might be overkill.
- USB power Supply: It was still attached to my old Raspberry Pi.
- Powered USB Hub: I can’t find mine, but I will be ordering this later to run all my Bitcoin Miners. For now, I’m just using one of the bigger AntMiners.
- It means to talk to my router/network. I am using an older Raspberry Pi, so I am using a LAN cable, but some people I read used WiFi for their Solo Miners.
Now, my parts list has specifics, but they are generalized equipment for mining at home: miners (whatever you want that works) and a working computer(again, whatever works for you) that manages the miners and communicates with the free world.
How To Setup Solo Mining For BitCoin:
I followed very generic steps for the solo mining setup for the equipment I have, so use this as a guide to inspire you, but you will have to tailor these steps to your equipment.
1. Install The Operating System.
I went online and got the Raspberry Pi Imager(https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/).
Using the imager and my SD card, I installed a lite version of Raspberry OS(no GUI).
2. Build And Setup The Raspberry Pi Solo Miner.
a. I installed the SD card on the Raspberry Pi.
b. Plugged in the Powered USB hub to the Raspberry Pi.
c. Plugged the USB CryptoMiners into the Powered USB Hub.
d. Plug the LAN cable into the Raspberry Pi and my network.
e. I powered up the Raspberry Pi with the USB power supply.
3. Boot Up And Update The Raspberry Pi Miner.
I had to search for the Miner’s IP address, and I SSH’d into it using telnet(my terminal) (SSH was turned on by Raspberry Imager).
Once there, I did the typical Linux update commands to get the latest software on my Raspberry Pi.
sudo apt-get update;
sudo apt-get upgrade;
4. Install The Raspberry Pi Cryptomining software.
I went with Bfgminer this time, but others recommend CGMiner as well.
Simple Linux command: sudo apt-get install bfgminer
5. Start CryptoMining.
Using instructions from https://solo.ckpool.org/, I set and started my mining rig with the following Linux commands via the terminal:
cgminer -o stratum+tcp://solo.ckpool.org:3333 -u bc1qlmfg836ggxkjvma8me3s2lyg29zjjef3anmpxn -p x
6. Start CrytoMining In The Background.
Now, if you SSH into your Miner and use the above command, the Miner runs as long as you are logged in.
So, I wanted the Miner to run without having to log in and restart the mining operation, so I put the command into a start-up file for Linux.
The command I used was: sudo nano /etc/rc.local
Once in the file, I added my crypto-mining command:
cgminer -o stratum+tcp://solo.ckpool.org:3333 -u bc1qlmfg836ggxkjvma8me3s2lyg29zjjef3anmpxn -p x
I then rebooted.
Using the instructions on solo.ckpool.org, I checked the status of my mining operation. This way, I could see if the Miner was operating without logging into the Raspberry Pi.
My Solo Mining Operation So far(16th March 2024):
The tiny Raspberry Pi is chugging away; blocks still need to be solved, so my wallet has no block rewards(crypto).
I can see the little LEDs blink, and it’s cool. To help with cooling, I added a small USB fan(very silent) that I found in my spare computer parts box. Now, the miners can operate at full speed without worrying about electronics breaking down.
I am sharing with you what I did and am doing for fun. I think I wasted my time and continue to waste electricity, but I’m hopeful.
I plan to update you guys as my Solo Miner continues to try to solve a block, and I’ll get lucky. Yes, lucky since it will take lots of luck. 😀
 Myself with an interesting Bull Sculpture. Notice: No Lambo’s. :/ | Hi I’m Tom, A Blogger And A PIG Farmer. PIG Farmer as in I grow Passive Income Generators(PIG’s). I’ve been playing with stocks, mutual funds, and options for decades, as well as always working on my side hustle stacks. Unlike what you read online, I’ve yet to find a way to get rich quickly. Get Rich Quick isn’t happening for me. My journey has been long and continues. I hope to have so many PIGs I can stop working at my current job and volunteer as a medical worker overseas. Still waiting, but getting there. I still am a family man, and while on this Journey of Growing PIGs.  I wanted to share my adventures(ups and downs), hoping you will contribute with your feedback and comments. Fun Fact: In my spare time, I am a Band-Dad! |