Over the 10 years of its existence, the cryptocurrency mining industry has evolved beyond recognition. Miners began to pool in order to increase the likelihood of finding a block and receiving rewards.
The service of remote computing power leasing — cloud mining has become popular. The next stage in the evolution of cryptocurrency mining was the appearance of the NiceHash service, which offered users something even more revolutionary.
In our review you will learn how to register, set up equipment, buy capacities on the Nayshash website and where to download Nicehash Miner.
- What is NiceHash?
- Registration and Settings at NiceHash
- How to Buy Power on Nicehash
- How and Where to Download NiceHash Miner. Capacity Sales
- Commissions at NiceHash
- NiceHash Calculator
- Advantages and Disadvantages of NiceHash
- How Nicehash Differs From Cloud Mining Services
- NiceHash Miner Reviews
What is NiceHash?
NiceHash is a cryptocurrency mining power exchange. In fact, Nicehash is an intermediary between sellers of excess hashrate and buyers of the missing.
It has been working since 2014. It is registered in Slovenia, but it has servers in many countries of the world (Japan, USA, India, Brazil, etc.). In 2017, it underwent a hacker attack, the result of which was the theft of a large amount in BTC and service outages. However, NiceHash recovered from this unpleasant incident, launched a program to return funds to affected customers and until today has a stable and trouble-free operation.
Nicehash’s work is organized as a real-time open market, where buyers create orders indicating the pool, speed and mining algorithm, as well as the price that they are willing to pay for it. In turn, owners of mining equipment, who are connected to the system through NiceHash software, execute such orders, directing their computing power to the indicated pool for mining, for which they receive payment in bitcoins. At the same time, the cryptocurrency mined under the transaction becomes the property of the buyer.
For both types of users, NiceHash is convenient in its own way:
- Those who want to do mining do not need to study the technical component of this process, buy equipment and configure it;
- Owners of computing power get the opportunity to earn money without having to delve into working with pools and setting up various mining software — NiceHash Miner automatically reconfigures to the most profitable variants.
Registration and Settings at NiceHash
To start working with Nicehash, you need to register a new account on the service website, indicating the email address, password and country of location.
Then, confirmation of the reliability of the specified mailbox will be required by entering the code from the letter sent to it. After this action, you can enter the site using the login (email) and password.
Getting Started with Nicehash
The first thing a user sees when entering an account is an office with sections:
- Mining status — this displays a list of equipment added to NiceHash to provide computing power;
- My active orders — shows open positions for the purchase of a hashrate through the site’s capacity market;
- My Wallets — a list of user wallets with a positive balance (supported by BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, LTC and ZEC);
- Recent Activity — A history of recent funds deposit / withdrawal operations.
For a new account, they, of course, will initially be empty.
Setting NiceHash Miner
Available in the user’s account, the My Settings menu allows you to personalize the process of working with NiceHash Miner. In total there are 8 sections:
- My profile is setting up public (avatar, nickname) and private (name, phone number, address, etc.) information. It is optional.
- Account settings — change the language of the interface and the currency of the display of the wallet balance.
- Security — change password, enable two-factor authentication, view account activity history.
- Notifications — settings for receiving emails by email with notifications about events in the user account (service news, receipt of deposit, receipt of payments for mining, execution of orders, etc.).
- My organizations — in case the user is not just a private person, but represents the interests of a company, data about it is indicated here.
- API keys — creating keys with different access levels for automated account management through third-party applications.
- Addresses for withdrawal — a list of external wallets to which funds can be sent from the user's balance.
- Purchase — enable / disable the ability to create orders in the Power Market.
Extra NiceHash Tools
In addition to the functionality directly related to mining, there is a section “Exchange” on Nicehash, in which there are two financial and trading instruments:
- Currency exchange — allows you to mutually convert the cryptocurrencies on the balance sheet with an initial commission of 0.5% (decreases with increasing trading volumes):
- Trades — open exchange Exchange cryptocurrency interface, which can be traded altcoins from wallets in the user's account to the BTC pairs.
True, if with the first tool you can exchange any volumes, since the service is provided directly by NiceHash, you won’t work on the exchange with large orders.
How to Buy Power on Nicehash
To purchase a hashrate, you need to go to the “Power Market” tab from the User’s Account. Already existing orders of other users for the selected hash algorithm and the total value of the mining speed available on the market are displayed here.
To get the opportunity to create your orders, you need to use the “Enable purchase” button and confirm this intention by entering the code from the letter sent by the service.
Creating a purchase order is available in two market directions — USA (USA) and EU (Europe). You can choose both options, although it is recommended to use the one that is more suitable for the current location of the user.
In the form of the created order, you need to specify: mining pool (register the host name, access data and hashing algorithm), the price of purchased capacities (BTC / TH / day), the hash limit and the total amount that will ultimately be debited from the user during the execution of the transaction.
The duration of mining, which is immediately approximately estimated and displayed by the system at the time of its registration, will depend on the price and amount specified in the order (minimum 0.005 BTC).
To add a request to the queue, you need to ensure the availability of the right amount of BTC on the balance. To do this, you need to make a deposit to the address that is available in the "Wallets" menu.
A capacity purchase order can be standard or fixed. In the first case, it will take a place in the list of market offers, depending on the price specified by the user and will be processed only if all the more expensive orders are completed. And if the order starts to be executed and after that a more profitable order appears in the feed, it will be suspended, and in order to continue mining cryptocurrencies, it will be necessary to increase prices.
In fixed orders, the price is calculated by the system. At the same time, it will be slightly higher than the average for the market, but on the other hand, the application is fixed at the top of the feed and cannot be suspended after the start of processing due to the appearance of a better order.
When NiceHash connects miners to the application, the acquired capacities are redirected to the pool selected by the buyer and the mining process starts.
How and Where to Download NiceHash Miner. Capacity Sales
To sell the hash of your equipment through NiceHash, you need to go to the “Mining” tab on the toolbar of the site and click “Add New Rig”. A window for choosing a mining method will appear:
- On video cards and processors via NiceHash Miner;
- On mining farms with NiceHash OS installed;
- On ASIC miners via stratum servers Nicehash.
Next, the user is prompted to download the necessary software, for example, NiceHash Miner.
By the way, when downloading and installing it on a computer, some browsers and antivirus programs may “swear” for the presence of trojans or other malicious elements in the executable file. The developers claim that there are no viruses in their program, therefore, they recommend adding it to the antivirus exclusion list for trouble-free operation.
All the user needs to do after starting the miner is to wait for the system to automatically check for supported equipment (powerful AMD / Nvidia graphics cards and Intel / AMD processors), indicate the appropriate option for the geographical location, BTC-address (issued in the office on the website) to receive a fee for renting out their computing power and the name of the computer.
Next, you need to run the benchmark to determine the most cost-effective algorithms.
At this point, the running software is synchronized with the user’s account on the site, which results in the appearance of the tested devices in the list of rigs in the “Mining” section.
Mining will begin immediately after clicking the Start button opposite the selected equipment via the site interface or NiceHash Miner. Confirmation that everything works is a change in device load metrics. (in the application interface) and the appearance of a command prompt window with the process displayed in detail. The earned reward will be automatically credited to the specified wallet.
To maximize the profit from the sale of computing power, you can optimize the performance of NiceHash Miner by manually changing the application settings. In the General section, the interface language, currency and time units are selected. It also indicates the cost of electricity and the minimum profit at which mining will continue. You can also set the option "Get, despite the profit."
On the Advanced Settings tab, options are set to personalize the application. For example, the combination of the options “autostart mining”, “minimize to tray” and “start at Windows startup” will help make the mining process even easier. The user does not have to be distracted from his affairs, run the software and click the “Start” button in the equipment list — everything will happen automatically, immediately minimized.
In the “Devices / Algorithms” settings section, you can specify the energy level of the devices used for mining, and also note the algorithms between which, if necessary, NiceHash Miner can switch.
Commissions at NiceHash
For all services provided to users, Nicehash charges a fee, the amount of which varies depending on the type of operation.
So, for the creation of each order, 0.0001 BTC is removed from the buyer's balance, which guarantees protection against spam in the order feed. + 3% of the amount that will be spent by the user as part of the execution of the order is also added to this non-refundable commission.
As for sellers, they are charged a commission of 2% of profit, regardless of the type of hardware and software used.
The withdrawal of funds from the site is subject to deductions, the size of which varies for different currencies and payment channels. If we are talking about bitcoin, then when requesting a withdrawal to any wallet, 0.07% of the amount or higher is charged (depending on the current state of the network); to Coinbase account — for free; through Payeer — 0.95%.
For Ethereum, the withdrawal fee will be 0.48% of the amount, Litecoin — 0.22%, Ripple — 0.1%, Zcash — 0.03%, Bitcoin Cash — 0.1%.
In general, commission deductions on NiceHash are not very high. However, the fact that fees for depositing cryptocurrencies into service wallets is also upsetting, which depend on the size of the deposit.
NiceHash Calculator
One of the most popular NiceHash tools is a profitability calculator that allows you to evaluate the profitability of mining equipment. To use this functionality, you need to find the link “Calculate profitability”, located on the main page of the site (for this it is not necessary to be a registered user).
To start the Nicehash calculator, you need to specify the currency, the cost of electricity, the type and model, as well as the number of devices. On the same page, the current TOP-5 mining devices by the level of profitability for each of the three types is always displayed (CPU, GPU and ASIC).
After clicking on the “Calculate” button, the results of the profitability of the equipment in question for the day / week / month are displayed taking into account and excluding electricity costs, as well as average figures for the same time periods in the form of a graph.
Statistical data is taken from the profitability history of devices of the corresponding model used by NiceHash miners.
There are times when the list of equipment in the profitability calculator does not include the desired video card or processor. You can try to fix this situation by installing NiceHash Miner on your PC and launching the benchmark. If testing shows that there is a suitable device in the system under study that has not been previously used by Nicehash miners, its productivity indicators will be added to the overall service base. After some time, this model will become available in the profitability calculator.
Advantages and Disadvantages of NiceHash
Studying all the tools available at NiceHash and the nuances of their work allows us to highlight a number of the following advantages of the service:
- Ease of use for both buyers and sellers;
- Due to the presence of a “live” capacity market, the cost of buying a hashrate can change, while cloud mining services offer a fixed fee;
- There are no restrictions on the size of the acquired Nicehash hashrate (within the total capacity available on the market);
- Support for dozens of popular hashing algorithms;
- The ability to cancel created orders for the purchase of Nicehash capacity even if they are partially executed;
- Automatic configuration of NiceHash Miner and switching between hashing algorithms depending on changes in their profitability;
- The presence of an internal exchange of funds between wallets;
- No prepayment;
- Low commission fees;
- Stable payments;
- A long life (5 years) suggests that NiceHash is clearly not a scam.
As for the shortcomings, Nicehash, of course, has them, but in much smaller quantities:
- Profitability when using Nicehash is significantly lower than when mining on your own equipment;
- Hacking Nicehash in 2017 indicates a weak security system at that time (not the fact that it was improved);
- The service limits the freedom of users in choosing a payment method — the purchase of capacities is available only for BTC, which, as you know, is a rather slow means of payment with high commissions;
- This type of remote mining is not suitable for long-term investment, as transaction execution time rarely exceeds 10 days.
How Nicehash Differs From Cloud Mining Services
At first glance, the services provided by NiceHash seem very similar to cloud mining. Yes, here we are also talking about the remote lease of computing power.
In addition, there are several other different moments:
- On Nicehash, the buyer pays only for the work performed by the miners, while long-term contracts with forward payments are concluded with cloud services;
- The price of computing power on NiceHash is formed on the basis of the market for offers, and in cloud mining is set by the service provider;
- Cloud services most often impose their cryptocurrency mining conditions, while Nicehash gives users freedom in such things as choosing and setting up a mining pool.
NiceHash Miner Reviews
Present on the network reviews about working with the NiceHash service mainly relate to the points already voiced above. This is praised primarily for the simplicity and automation of many processes, recommending for use to beginners who do not want to delve into the technical details of cryptocurrency mining.
But Nicehash has dissatisfied customers who do not like the level of profit. In particular, the network contains references to a strong drop in profitability after the service switched to a new platform, which took place several months ago.
Mixed reviews can also be found in the NiceHash topics on the Bitcointalk forum. For example, there are often opinions about the late addition of new hashing algorithms, when mining on them already becomes unprofitable.
“GPU mining is currently not profitable. Nicehash introduced new algorithms too late to change anything. The Zhash algorithm was supposed to be introduced a few months ago, but was introduced this month. Using a GPU for mining is no longer profitable … hashrate and network complexity are reduced, which means that many miners have disappeared. It's too late, guys ... you have to implement new algorithms much faster to be competitive. ”
writes ender2002, user of Bitcointalk
At the same time, some continue to praise the service both for the new interface of the site, and for the level of profit received with its help.
“Nicehash is a good service, I set up my mining equipment on it and earn almost 5% more compared to any other pool. The new user interface is just a terrific good team! ”
the riverdip user shares his impressions
In any case, I am glad that new reviews about NiceHash are constantly appearing on the network, and there are practically no negative ones among them. This suggests that despite the relatively low profitability, the service still manages to expand its circle of users at the expense of newcomers, while leaving most of them quite satisfied with its services. More advanced miners simply do not stay on this platform, realizing that it is more profitable to mine cryptocurrencies in direct contact with pools.
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