Ethereum GPU mining?

[bbhaag]

I was wondering if I could get your guy's opinions on the way I'm mining eth. I'll lay it out with bullet points so it's not as confusing.

• went to https://www.myetherwallet.com/ and created a wallet
• went to https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1433925.0 and downloaded Claymores miner
• went to https://ethermine.org/ and setup Claymore miner according to instructions on page
• tweaked the start.bat file in Claymore to suit my system and started mining. Here is what my start.bat file looks like

setx GPU_FORCE_64BIT_PTR 0
setx GPU_MAX_HEAP_SIZE 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_SINGLE_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
EthDcrMiner64.exe -epool us1.ethermine.org:4444 -ewal 0x3649b1Bf1eC02623fBD996774Ea8eF625679B4c3 -epsw x

So does this seem about right to you guys? Please take a look and offer any suggestions you might have.

 

[Madpacket]

I was wondering if I could get your guy's opinions on the way I'm mining eth. I'll lay it out with bullet points so it's not as confusing.

• went to https://www.myetherwallet.com/ and created a wallet
• went to https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1433925.0 and downloaded Claymores miner
• went to https://ethermine.org/ and setup Claymore miner according to instructions on page
• tweaked the start.bat file in Claymore to suit my system and started mining. Here is what my start.bat file looks like

setx GPU_FORCE_64BIT_PTR 0
setx GPU_MAX_HEAP_SIZE 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_SINGLE_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
EthDcrMiner64.exe -epool us1.ethermine.org:4444 -ewal 0x3649b1Bf1eC02623fBD996774Ea8eF625679B4c3 -epsw x

So does this seem about right to you guys? Please take a look and offer any suggestions you might have.

You forgot a name for your miner. You need to append a name separated by a dot "." to your Ethereum address.

Use a different name per miner to more easily track which miner's are performing at specific speeds or how many stale shares etc.

You can use us2 for west coast instead of us1 east coast which could improve latency depending on where you live. I would also recommend switching to port 1444 for TLS communication.

Also increase your virtual memory to 16GB (min/max) for good measure.

Good luck.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm new myself and using ethminer, but that does look ok I think. I heard some people say to put GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT to 95 but for me it did nothing. Maybe someone else with more experience can chime in.

Also, do you have trouble connecting to ethermine? The only server I can connect to is the asia one. I'm having an issue with the DAG loading so I can't mine yet, but it does run so I'm almost there. I'm hoping when I put in my new 1070 GPU it will work. On night shift so probably won't get around to doing that till the weekend.

Edit: Oh looks like I got beat. Yeah go with the first post.

 

[bbhaag]

You forgot a name for your miner. You need to append a name separated by a dot "." to your Ethereum address.

Use a different name per miner to more easily track which miner's are performing at specific speeds or how many stale shares etc.

You can use us2 for west coast instead of us1 east coast which could improve latency depending on where you live. I would also recommend switching to port 1444 for TLS communication.

Also increase your virtual memory to 16GB (min/max) for good measure.

Good luck.

Thanks for the suggestions. I went ahead and named my miner and then changed over to port 14444 on us east. I'll see how it goes.

I'm new myself and using ethminer, but that does look ok I think. I heard some people say to put GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT to 95 but for me it did nothing. Maybe someone else with more experience can chime in.

Also, do you have trouble connecting to ethermine? The only server I can connect to is the asia one. I'm having an issue with the DAG loading so I can't mine yet, but it does run so I'm almost there. I'm hoping when I put in my new 1070 GPU it will work. On night shift so probably won't get around to doing that till the weekend.

Edit: Oh looks like I got beat. Yeah go with the first post.

I haven't had any trouble connecting yet but I've only tried the us east servers. I'm located in Illinois so I figured they would give me a better connection but who knows. Sounds like you're on the right track and will be mining in no time. That 1070 should be a pretty stout miner.

 

[Madpacket]

FYI to all those trying to sync to the Ethereum blockchain, the Parity team has done some good work to speed things up where normal mechanical hard drives can be used again. More info here:

https://github.com/paritytech/parity/releases/tag/v1.8.6

I plan on running a few nodes myself and will start preparing for proof of stake.

 

[MrTeal]

FYI to all those trying to sync to the Ethereum blockchain, the Parity team has done some good work to speed things up where normal mechanical hard drives can be used again. More info here:

https://github.com/paritytech/parity/releases/tag/v1.8.6

I plan on running a few nodes myself and will start preparing for proof of stake.

That sounds like something I need to look into. I just got done installing the Eth wallet on a computer, and it took several days to download the 190GB blockchain.

 

[Charlie22911]

I’ve got a Dell 7010 SFF with 32GB RAM and a i7 3770 that I’ll probably repurpose as a node for BTC and ETH, with a high cache setting for the latter.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm trying to figure this out, do you need to forward ports for ethereum to work and do you need to download the whole blockchain to use a wallet? I really don't want to have to do that if I don't have to but it seems some things I read hint at having to do that. Do you need to do it on each miner or just on the server that you setup the wallet on? I setup a wallet with geth but then when I go in the geth console to manage it it wants to download the whole blockchain.

 

[DrMrLordX]

You don't have to download the entire blockchain. That is only for those who intend to run a full node. Most new users try Ethereum Wallet which defaults to a full node which is . . . unfortunate.

But you can use something like myetherwallet.com and never download even a bit of the blockchain.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I like the idea of having the wallet local though, but yeah I might just start with a hosted wallet for the time being.

Is there some kind of web front end to geth if I do decide to setup a full node? The commands to do simple things like transfers seem overly complicated and it's hard to do anything because the console is "live" so it's always spitting out info while you're trying to type.

 

[DrMrLordX]

The easiest way to run geth through a GUI is to just run Ethereum Wallet (or Mist). It fires up geth in the background, and then bases its displayed output on whatever is reported to geth.

You can even set up a shortcut directly to geth, launch it from command line (with whatever options you like), and then launch Ethereum Wallet, and it will link into your existing instance of geth rather than loading a second copy. That is how I prefer to run it now (when I do run it) since piping commands directly to geth when launching Ethereum Wallet is kind of a pita. Well not really, I just don't remember how to do it right. Hah.

It would be much better if Ethereum Wallet let you tick checkboxes and/or enter numbers into fields to give you all kinds of "expert" options for geth. As it stands, all you can do is ask it to run a light client, which almost always results in 0 peers.

 

[Madpacket]

Oh man, this latest Korean banning FUD started from some CNBC person misreporting what's happening. People are asking for her to be fired. Crazy.

https://twitter.com/sahelirc/status/951321661076250624

 

[Yakk]

Oh man, this latest Korean banning FUD started from some CNBC person misreporting what's happening. People are asking for her to be fired. Crazy.

https://twitter.com/sahelirc/status/951321661076250624

That is just gross incompetence as a journalist with no fact checking to say something like that.

On the other hand, that fits perfectly with CNBC competence so I don't see them firing her.

 

[IntelUser2000]

I plan on running a few nodes myself and will start preparing for proof of stake.

Vitalik has said it might take something like 1,500 Ethereum to stake initially but ramp down over time, perhaps down to 10 Eth.

Whether average folks will be able to stake depends on how long it takes to go down to low enough levels. If it takes until 2025 or so to do so then it'll be out of reach unless there's a form of pool staking happening.

That is just gross incompetence as a journalist with no fact checking to say something like that.

On the other hand, that fits perfectly with CNBC competence so I don't see them firing her.

She made a mistake, but I think people are somewhat being harsh on her.

https://www.ccn.com/south-korean-ministry-of-finance-does-not-support-cryptocurrency-trading-ban/

It seems even within Korea they are disagreeing on what to do. The problem with the CNBC reporter was that she prematurely(probably based on emotion) reported the ban as being real, while it has been merely the viewpoint of the Ministry of Justice.

“We do not share the same views as the Ministry of Justice on a potential cryptocurrency exchange ban,” MSF said.

Actually, basic google search shows numerous articles reporting the same thing. The guy did say he wants a ban. But newer articles say those within the crypto department disagree with him. Of course Korea is a foreign country, and news agencies are mostly about hyping a topic so more viewers are directed to them. Which results in news agencies reporting it prematurely rather than do a wait-and-see approach.

There's also a report about Australia making tax task force so people can't avoid tax evasion using cryptocurrencies. Like I said, do things legally, because its the best way to keep the entire crypto market floating. I heavily disagree with those that believe in avoiding paying taxes by using cryptos.

 

[DrMrLordX]

If it takes until 2025 or so to do so then it'll be out of reach unless there's a form of pool staking happening.

I strongly suspect that there will be pool miner contracts available from the major mining pools.

Like I said, do things legally, because its the best way to keep the entire crypto market floating. I heavily disagree with those that believe in avoiding paying taxes by using cryptos.

It will be very difficult for frequent traders to accurately calculate their tax exposure; regardless, if you at least pay your national tax authority SOMETHING that will be better than trying to pay them nothing.

 

[ElFenix]

The easiest way to run geth through a GUI is to just run Ethereum Wallet (or Mist). It fires up geth in the background, and then bases its displayed output on whatever is reported to geth.

You can even set up a shortcut directly to geth, launch it from command line (with whatever options you like), and then launch Ethereum Wallet, and it will link into your existing instance of geth rather than loading a second copy. That is how I prefer to run it now (when I do run it) since piping commands directly to geth when launching Ethereum Wallet is kind of a pita. Well not really, I just don't remember how to do it right. Hah.

It would be much better if Ethereum Wallet let you tick checkboxes and/or enter numbers into fields to give you all kinds of "expert" options for geth. As it stands, all you can do is ask it to run a light client, which almost always results in 0 peers.

i set up initially with eth wallet but keeping up with the chain was such a pita i haven't done it in a long time.


i should probably do so at some point. how much hard drive do i need?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Last time I synced the blockchain, it ate around 50 gigs. The longer you stay connected, the more it will eat, but a lot of what you end up downloading is cruft that you don't absolutely need even to run a full node. Eventually they need a geth option to throw out old chaindata.

Allegedly, anyone who has synced the entire blockchain since its main net inception would have downloaded over 300 gigs of blocks + chaindata/chain structure. You do not need that much to run a full node.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Anyone here mining with Vega 64 or Vega FE? I'm trying to get Claymore' s miner working with my Vega FE, but I'm getting the old "cannot build OpenCL program for GPU 0" bug that was common several versions go (last summer).

Obviously I am not using a blockchain driver since there doesn't seem to be one for Vega FE.

edit: nm looks like my use of the -asm 0 switch broke claymore with vega.

Looks like I am getting 36 MH/s right now with -50% power limit, default gpu/mem speed.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Has anyone had success running geth/Ethereum wallet in light mode? I installed geth, ran it with --syncmode light, then ran ethereum wallet with --node-light argument, and PC either can't find peers, or starts syncing, but rolls back immediately due to synchronization failed error.

 

[Madpacket]

Anyone here mining with Vega 64 or Vega FE? I'm trying to get Claymore' s miner working with my Vega FE, but I'm getting the old "cannot build OpenCL program for GPU 0" bug that was common several versions go (last summer).

Obviously I am not using a blockchain driver since there doesn't seem to be one for Vega FE.

edit: nm looks like my use of the -asm 0 switch broke claymore with vega.

Looks like I am getting 36 MH/s right now with -50% power limit, default gpu/mem speed.

I don't have a Vega FE but I'm mining with two WC Vega's with the Blockchain drivers and hitting around 42 to 43Mh each card. -20 power limit, 1000 Core, 1045 memory. 900mv set on the core, 950mv on mem. Not using any of the registry tweaks which apparently can get these up to 45+ Mh each.

 

[IntelUser2000]

It will be very difficult for frequent traders to accurately calculate their tax exposure; regardless, if you at least pay your national tax authority SOMETHING that will be better than trying to pay them nothing.

In Canada, I've read about it and it looks like I'll pay based on two things:

1. Whether mining or not: If mining has happened, then the taxes paid are equivalent to if you were a small business. 12% or something
2. You pay capital gain tax if you sell any cryptos or convert to fiat money. It's similar to selling stocks. In Canada, capital gains are treated as 0.5x income gain. So 10K gain is equal to you gaining 5K in annual income

#1 gets complicated. I have to calculate out every 1 Eth mined as income based on the pricing of Eth at the time of mining.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I don't have a Vega FE but I'm mining with two WC Vega's with the Blockchain drivers and hitting around 42 to 43Mh each card. -20 power limit, 1000 Core, 1045 memory. 900mv set on the core, 950mv on mem. Not using any of the registry tweaks which apparently can get these up to 45+ Mh each.

Not bad. I may stick with the settings I'm using now for awhile since the power consumption is so low. Total system power usage according to my Kill-a-Watt on a 750W EVGA P2 running an 1800x (stock) with DDR4-2133 (16 GB) is in the range of 220-230W.

That's with Waterfox, too.

That is a hell of a lot more efficient than my old 390. Only thing I don't like is that the default intensity setting of 8 is making the desktop unusable. Intensity 7 isn't much better.

#1 gets complicated. I have to calculate out every 1 Eth mined as income based on the pricing of Eth at the time of mining.

Safe bet is to do an average price for ETH on a month-by-month basis, and then assign that price to any ETH mined that month. Or you may be able to plug in a pool's reported payout statements into something like bitcoin.tax .

 

[IntelUser2000]

I tried Bitcoin.tax, but the stupid site doesn't want to gather data for mining from ethermine. It says it'll calculate once available, but I've last done that few weeks ago and still hasn't come in.

 

[Madpacket]

There's a bunch of tax laws around small business that confuse me. For example if you mined more than $500,000 worth of crypto you're no longer in that small business tax bracket. I'm not sure if you're expected to pay capital gains on mined coins plus business taxes?

The accountant that I'm working with told me to simplify things by finding the initial cost basis and then subtract your capital gains. For example say if you wired $40,000 to an exchange and bought that much worth of Ether last year and you just held. Now it's worth $400,000 so you would calculate capital gains off of $360,000. The capital gain percentage being determined by your income tax bracket (different in some provinces).

I'm still trying to figure it all out but I'm setting aside 25% for whatever I cashed out in 2017 for tax purposes.

 

[Madpacket]

Not bad. I may stick with the settings I'm using now for awhile since the power consumption is so low. Total system power usage according to my Kill-a-Watt on a 750W EVGA P2 running an 1800x (stock) with DDR4-2133 (16 GB) is in the range of 220-230W.

That's with Waterfox, too.

That is a hell of a lot more efficient than my old 390. Only thing I don't like is that the default intensity setting of 8 is making the desktop unusable. Intensity 7 isn't much better.

Nice power consumption. I think I'm closer to 500W with an 850 P2 and a 1700X. You could mine XMR with your 1800X at around 600Kh which is still profitable. You can do both at the same time. That's how I keep things warm in my computer room