Mining on HDD (hard drive) is the extraction of cryptocurrencies using hard drives — HDD or SSD. Storage devices consume significantly less electricity, are much less demanding on cooling systems, are relatively inexpensive and easier to maintain and configure. Mining on the hard drive is due to the use of a special Proof-of-Capacity (PoC) consensus algorithm.
Cryptocurrencies such as Burst, Sia and Storj are possible to mine on the HDD. They are little known, but without problems it is possible to exchange these tokens for coins such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
- What is Mining on HDD and How Does it Works
- Types of Hard Drives for Cryptocurrency Mining
- The Best HDD for Mining
- Seagate ST8000 AS0002
- What Cryptocurrencies You Can Mine on the HDD
- How to Mine On Your Hard Drive
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Mining on a Hard Drive
- Is it Profitable to Mine on HDD in 2020
What is Mining on HDD and How Does it Works
Mining on HDD is a cryptocurrency mining process using hard drive using the Proof-of-Capacity (PoC) algorithm.
This algorithm for computing the hash function uses large amounts of physical memory on the user's hard drives. During the block search at the first stage, a number of hash-sum variants are stored on the free space of the hard disk’s memory, and at the second stage of mining, these options are already applied.
In fact, the software when mining on the HDD performs a process called plotting — data volume generation (PLOTS) occurs. The efficiency of mining and its profitability for the user depend on the number of recorded “plots” (which reflect the internal volume of the hard drive).
In Proof-of-Capacity (PoC) itself, such advanced versions of the algorithm as Proof-of-Storage (PoS) and Proof-of-Retrievability (PoR) exist and work. Proof-of-Storage uses the full amount of hard disk to calculate user revenue, and in Proof-of-Retrievability, the number of data downloads from the drive is responsible for this indicator.
It should be noted here, that in terms of internal capacity, drives like HDD (hard disc drive) are leading, while SSDs and SSDs are the undisputed leader in terms of information transfer speed.
Types of Hard Drives for Cryptocurrency Mining
There are two types of hard drives for cryptocurrency mining:
- HDD;
- SSD.
Hard disks like HDD, based on the technology of magnetic plates with a redhead, are a long-standing standard for storing information in digital form and have existed on the market of computer components for a very long time, known for their reliability and sophisticated technology. At the same time, their data transfer speed is low and has long been limited by technology limitations.
SSD drives have appeared on the computer components market relatively recently, but immediately entrenched as uncompromising decisions regarding the speed of information transfer and reliability, due to the lack of moving parts.
However, solid state drives have a significant drawback — a limited number of records of information in the internal volume. That is, the more intensively the information is overwritten on an SSD type — that is, the hard drive will more quickly exhaust a limited number of write cycles and will work in read-only mode (can only read already recorded information, but not add new data to disk).
The Best HDD for Mining
The best HDDs for mining can be determined by the following parameters:
- The amount of internal memory of the drive;
- Spindle rotation speed;
- The amount of buffer in the controller.
The spindle speed is directly responsible for the data transfer rate from the hard drive plates to the interface. In ordinary models, it is approximately equal to 7200 rpm. But there were also specialized models of the Western Digital Raptor series hard drive with spindle speeds of 10,000 and even 15,000 rpm, known for their high performance.
The volume of the memory buffer in the internal controller of the drive controls the amount of data that will be available to the system immediately, without accessing the internal storage, this is, so to speak, the RAM of the hard drive.
Below we will briefly describe the best cryptocurrency mining HDDs
Toshiba HDWD130EZSTA
Characteristics:
Seagate ST8000 AS0002
Characteristics:
Western Digital WD Red
Characteristics:
Seagate ST10000 VN0004
Characteristics:
What Cryptocurrencies You Can Mine on the HDD
Using mining on the HDD, you can mine three cryptocurrencies:
- Burst;
- Sia;
- Storj
Sia
To mine Siacoin on HDD, the user needs to lease the internal volume of their drives to other users and companies, moreover, with the prerequisite of constant access (drives must always be online).
The user sets the rental price for his volumes, but specifying a price higher than the standard, as a rule, leads to a drop in interest among customers.
Storj
In the case of Storj, the main emphasis is on the confidentiality and security of customer data, and the user will receive coins not only for the used amount of his memory, but also for the number of accesses and downloads of information from the drive.
Mining Storj has its own characteristics:
- The volume of the drive should be more than 500 GB;
- The user must have a wallet that supports Ethereum and ERC-20 standard tokens;
- Mandatory static IP address;
- Correctly configured port forwarding on the used network equipment (router);
- Time synchronization;
- Installed Storj share software.
Burstcoin (Burst)
Burstcoin (Burst) is an internal cryptocurrency of the Burstcoin blockchain platform of the same name. Burstcoin uses the Proof-of-Capacity (PoC) consensus algorithm and its mining is more effective the higher the spindle speed of the hard drive. Under the spindle speed is meant the number of revolutions of the magnetic plates of the hard drive per minute.
The internal coin of this platform, Burstcoin can easily be exchanged for such popular cryptocurrencies as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). The Burstcoin platform also supports smart contract technology, and offers users to participate in auctions for the sale and purchase of any property, both real and virtual.
How to Mine On Your Hard Drive
How to Mine Burst
First, the user needs to download the software for setting up mining on the HDD and the corresponding wallet for cryptocurrency.
You must also download from the network and install the latest version of the Java framework on your PC.
You need to put the archives from the software for setting up mining on the HDD in the root section (folder) of the particular drive that you decided to use in mining.
Initiate the run.bat file.
Use the file with the link Burst_Wallet.url or enter this address in the search bar of the browser http: // localhost: 8125 /.
Create a new account in the appeared page of the Burst Wallet wallet and be sure to record the seed phrase — it is secret and needs to be saved. The user will need the secret phrase for unhindered access to the token repository; it is best to save it in the passphrases.txt document, which is located in the same folder as the configuration files for the mining software.
You need to run an executable file called run_dump_address.bat and it will create your unique account number in the address.txt file.
Edit run_generate.bat as instructed.
Run run_generate.bat and watch how rafts are generated.
As soon as the generation of rafts is over, you need to configure and run run_mine.bat
It is quite possible to mine the Burst cryptocurrency in the mining pool, as the complexity of the network grows, and mining alone becomes increasingly less profitable.
How to Mine Sia
The mining algorithm for the Sia cryptocurrency HDD is as follows:
- At the beginning of mining Sia coins, you need to download and install the Sia Coin Wallet program.
- After that, you need to download the blockchain archive with files for synchronizing Sia Coin Wallet. For best performance, download the consensus.db file from the Sia platform and send it to a directory located at C \ Sia-UI \ sia \ consensus.
- Having created the wallet, you need to save the private key and password and get the address.After that, you need to purchase 2,000 Sia tokens — they will be needed to register an account on the platform with the same name. At the end, you must specify the size of the hard drive (only drives from 35 GB are accepted).
How to Mine Storj
To successfully earn Storj tokens, the user will need to follow a short instruction:
- It is necessary to indicate to the platform the way to the drive with which the user will mine tokens.
- Create a dynamic domain name in DynDNS format.
- Create a port of transfer.
- Indicate the address of a wallet that supports Ethereum cryptocurrency
Advantages and Disadvantages of Mining on a Hard Drive
Mining on a hard drive requires much less financial investment, as:
Of the minuses of mining on the hard disk, the following points can be mentioned:
Is it Profitable to Mine on HDD in 2020
Now the payback of mining on the hard drive is almost negligible, and is interesting to users only when saving tokens in anticipation of a large-scale pump.
So, while maintaining the current cost of tokens when purchasing $ 2,000 hard drives and connecting them to a mining pool, you can recover financial costs only after 3 years.
Talking about some kind of profitability with such numbers is simply impossible, unless the hard disks got you in large numbers and for nothing.
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