イーサリアムをマイニングする方法：NiceHash、マイニングプール、最適な設定

最終的に、鉱夫の目標は、すべてのことを考慮して、利益を最大化することです。つまり、ハードウェアのコスト、メモリ速度、GPUクロック、プールマイニング料金（またはNiceHash料金）、電力消費、マイニングPCの管理に必要な時間、ハードウェアの保守または交換のコストなどのバランスを取ることを意味します。これらすべての要素の最適なバランスを見つけることは複雑であり、ハッシュパフォーマンスの最後のビットをすべて追いかけたくなるかもしれませんが、それは最善の長期的な解決策ではない可能性があります。

たとえば、ファンの速度を50％から80％にすることを意味する場合、ハッシュレートをさらに5％増やすことは、それだけの価値はありません。より大規模なマイニングファームを構築する場合（これも、さまざまな理由で推奨されるものではありません）、効率が最優先事項になります。 The RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 might be the fastest GPUs for mining, but from an efficiency and price perspective, RTX 3060 Ti might be a better choice. Two 3060 Ti cards for example will basically match a single RTX 3090 while using less than half as much power. But let's take things a step further.

A mining farm with a 400 Amp limit (48kW) could run around 150 RTX 3090 GPUs, using six GPUs per PC with just 25 PCs total, and would be capable of around 17.2GH/s. Alternatively, in the same power limit, dropping down to RTX 3080 GPUs would allow for approximately 192 RTX 3080 GPUs spread across 32 PCs, generating around 18GH/s of hashing power (for Ethereum). Finally, using RTX 3060 Ti, it would be possible to install about 60 PCs with six GPUs each, with an output of about 21.6GH/s. (That's only a rough estimate and does not include AC or other items that potentially need power.)

But what would those mining farms cost? We've put together a rough estimate of hardware costs per PC. That includes an 80 Plus Platinum PSU (two for the 3080/3090 builds), PCIe riser adapters, fans, a basic CPU, a motherboard with at least six PCIe slots, 16GB memory, and SSD storage. Plus all the GPUs, naturally, at current eBay prices 。 Without the GPUs, the price per PC is around $760 for the RTX 3060 Ti builds (one PSU) and $1,015 per PC for the 3080/3090 builds (two PSUs). Median prices at eBay on the 3060 Ti are currently $925, $1,600 for the 3080, and $2,600 for the 3090.

That gives a total cost of $6,310 for each mining PC using RTX 3060 Ti cards (assuming you can even acquire enough of them), $10,615 for the 3080 PC, and $16,615 for the 3090 build. Yeah, that's a ton of money. You can get about 360MH/s from the 3060 Ti PC, 570MH/s from the 3080 build, and 690MH/s from the 3090 PC. Power estimates based on our testing indicate the 3060 Ti PC would use about 800W, including PSU inefficiency and the rest of the PC, while the 3080 would need around 1500W and the 3090 would consume 1900W.

Based on those prices, power use, and hash rates, we can determine approximate break-even time (not including rental space or AC). The 3090 PCs would currently net about $22.20 per day, so it would take ~748 days to break even — assuming nothing changes with Ethereum prices or difficulty, which is obviously not going to be correct. The RTX 3080 PC would net around $18.50 per day, requiring ~574 days to break even. Finally, the RTX 3060 Ti build would net approximately $12 per day and require ~526 days to break even.

Hopefully, that explains how far things have fallen. Factor in the warehouse space to accommodate all those PCs, power distribution, and paying someone (even yourself) to build and maintain all the mining PCs would also be necessary. If you're doing a bunch of mining rigs, you'd be using a lot of electricity, and power use would probably be 50% higher than the pure PC power use once you factor in IT infrastructure and cooling. Those would add to the cost, pushing back the break even point, and if things take a change for the worse (as they did in 2014 and 2018), the whole operation comes crashing down.

Don't Forget Nvidia's LHR Limiter

If all of that weren't already bad enough (for miners), Nvidia also updated all of its Ampere GPUs with LHR limiters — Lite Hash Rate. Basically, LHR models are the main type of RTX 30-series cards you'll now find, and hash rates can be cut by 50% relative to the original models. Non-LHR cards cost more, but would probably be worth the premium if you're serious about mining. Note that the RTX 3090 does not have an LHR variant, but of course the cost of those cards is already prohibitively high and other models are a better choice.

AMD for its part has done nothing to directly curb mining performance or profitability. The RDNA2 architecture relies on a large Infinity Cache to boost gaming performance, and that doesn't really help much with mining performance, so even the RX 6900 XT as an example only gets about the same mining performance as a (non-LHR) RTX 3070/3060 Ti.

Also, note that the LHR limiter only affects Ethereum mining. That's going to end in the coming months regardless, and it's possible some other coin (more likely coins) will take Ethereum's place as the best option for GPU mining. Note that right now, however, the best non-ETH coins tend to generate about half as much value per day.

The Power of Mining

Bottom line:We're not big fans of large cryptocoin mining farms. There are arguably worse ways to use power and money, but there are also a lot of better ways — ways that don't carry nearly the volatility and risk of coin mining. Never mind the fact that procuring all of the necessary equipment takes time and a lot of money, or that it makes it difficult for PC enthusiasts to upgrade their PCs. The bigger issue, by far, is that it's putting a ton of computing power to the task of merely securing the blockchain.

Best-case, using the most efficient hardware, the Ethereum network would currently use over a billion watts of power, and Bitcoin would use over 5.5 billion watts — but it's actually a lot more in both cases, as a large chunk of the hashing isn't done by the absolute most efficient hardware. Digiconomist pegs the current power use of the Ethereum network at around 110 TWh per year, and 260 kWh per transaction. Basically, Ethereum hashing uses 300 GWh every day, which would cost around $30 million. There's $26 in power costs (using $0.10 per kWh) just to send Ethereum from one wallet to another. It offsets those costs by minting (creating) about $35 million in new Ethereum coins per day (at current rates).

Ethereum aims to 'solve' all of these issues by switching from proof of work to proof of stake in the coming months. That's great for power consumption, but it remains to be seen whether Ethereum will continue to be popular once mining stops, and there will still be plenty of other alternative coins that still use proof of work.

Looking at all the costs and power going into these networks, it's difficult to remain optimistic about their long-term potential. We're strip-mining digital coins, basically, and that's unsustainable. At some point, this all hits a plateau, and short of zero point energy or some future technology that allows for clean power far beyond what we currently use, there's a very good chance the viability of mining eventually stops. Maybe that's not this year or next year, but the growth in hash rates, power use, and prices obviously can't go up indefinitely, and it won't. Cryptocurrency networks are designed to find a 'stable' equilibrium, which effectively means getting enough people to believe in and use the coin to make it viable. Equilibrium almost certainly isn't going to be highly profitable.

Do you still want to mine?それはあなたの選択です。 We've provided the information here that allows you to get started. We've also provided a realistic view of what to expect, so hopefully you fully understand the risks. TL;DR:Don't bet the farm or your retirement on PC hardware and upgrades solely used in pursuit of mining. We also recommend mining at conservative settings until you've at least paid for the hardware you bought, which could take over two years. We'll see how long this crazy cryptocurrency ride remains viable, but don't be surprised if that's not nearly as long as you'd need to turn a healthy profit, as that ship likely already sailed.