My first adventures in Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin is in the news lately, due to the meteorite rise in the value. Spurred on by celebrity investors like Elon Musk and others. Because of this, it becomes more profitable to mine than previously. Just getting a tiny bit of bitcoin could worth some money. Some gain from buying stocks and shares. This is another way to gain, by mining!

So with my interest piqued, I started exploring. I have a powerful graphic card (although now a bit obsolete with the introduction of the rtx 3000 series). But nevertheless, the card is able to garner about $6-$9 SGD a day? Small sum, but tangible too. To start off, good to ask, "what is Bitcoin". 

But how does bitcoin actually work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4

by 3Blue1Brown

The YT video that got me started

How to Mine Bitcoin on PC in 2020 & 2021| Beginners Quick Start Guide | Overclocking Basics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmpiSbydoyY&t=698s

by HashRaptor

Is Bitcoin Mining worth for me?

To find out if it is worth mining, go to this calculator and select your card, input your electricity bill per kWh

https://www.nicehash.com/profitability-calculator

I found my electricity charges here. 

https://bestelectricity.com.sg/

Profitability Calculator

About Nicehash

Nicehash is a good place to start. It has an easy UI to make mining easy. However, after mining, your BTC is stored in Nicehash wallet. If anything goes wrong with Nicehash eg. got hacked, all your BTC will be lost. You should periodically pull out your BTC to another wallet. It is recommended to pull to Coinbase as there is no fee (some agreement with Nicehash and Coinbase). So you should create a coinbase account and have it to transfer your funds.

In 6 Dec 2017, Nicehash was hacked, and all 4,736 BTC was lost.  

To use Nicehash, you will need create an account. Download the application for Mac or Win. 

There is a mobile app as well. 

Nicehash dashboard

This is the actual miner. Nicehash computes all the parameter for you.

But it is actually mining to Nicehash wallet

The algo switches around, depending on what is the most profitable

Coinbase

https://www.coinbase.com/dashboard

Note that when you run your Nicehash, your antivirus will sound the alarm. Although of mining software are treated as virus and malware. You will need to create exception to allow the applications to run. If you are not using anti virus, your windows defender will be the one blocking it. Add exception to windows defender. 

My bitdefender got busy!!

Coinbase Dashboard

Coinbase Wallet

Using Nicehash, you are not mining directly to the pool. Instead, Nicehash rents your computing power, and decide which algo to mine. Hence you are not just mining BTC, but others as well. For the use of your computing power, Nicehash pays you a fee, hence the payout every 4 hours. To mine direct to BTC or other coins, it is a more complex process. 

Nicehash Wallet

What is a wallet address?

A wallet address, comprising a string of 26-35 alphanumeric characters, is all it takes to send and receive bitcoin. Any bitcoin address can be used to transfer cryptocurrency to any other address on the network, provided the sender's wallet software supports that address type

eg. My Coinbase wallet 32j6CcKUExo7fCbaPQfyWwtWNXhD1yVmFa

What is a private key?

In Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies, a private key is a 256-bit number, however, this is not the format that it is displayed in. The 256-bit number is represented in hexadecimal- a simpler form. In the early days of Bitcoin you would have one private key that was associated with one public key and one address.

How to transfer BTC from Nicehash to Coinbase

You send the BTC to Coinhako wallet. Usually takes about 10 mins

How to withdraw money from Coinbase

To withdraw money, you will need to transfer from Coinbase to a Singapore Exchange. I am using Coinhako. I think the other one is Binance Singapore.  

About Coinhako (Info from their website)

1. What is Coinhako? How to use Coinhako?

Coinhako is a market leading platform for access to digital assets like Bitcoin in Asia. We were founded in Singapore in 2014, and we are one of oldest platforms today, in the APAC market.

Our services are available for users in:

Singapore:

Trade in SGD, USD and crypto-to-crypto, on top of wallet services that allow you to send and receive a wide variety of digital assets. 

Vietnam:

Trade in VNDT, and crypto-to-crypto, on top of wallet services that allow you to send and receive a wide variety of digital assets.

2. Is Coinhako regulated?

Yes, we are currently regulated under the Payment Services Act in Singapore as an exempted entity – which allows us to continue our business operations legally in Singapore, until the official licenses under the Payment Services Act are issued in Singapore.

As a homegrown company in Singapore, we are working to comply with the Payment Services Act to acquire the necessary licenses and maintain our stronghold as a key cryptocurrency service provider for the local market.

3. Where is Coinhako registered?

Our business is registered as HAKO TECHNOLOGY PTE. LTD., business registration no. 201332728R, in Singapore.

I have not tried the other Binance exchange. 

Registration for Coinhako requires Singpass for authentication. Quite convenient. 

Coinhako Wallet

Very Important** How to get money into your local Bank account

1. Once you have BTC in your Coinhako account, you will have to sell it. (there is a fee)

2. The money will go into your Coinhako account. 

3. From there, you can withdraw it. 

4. Add a payment type to your bank. 

5. All the steps require some fees. I am not sure what is the percentage at this point. I withdraw $65 and was charged $2...so like 3%??

Bitcoin value not in my Coinhako account yet

Sell the BTC

Now it is in my Coinhako account

Now I can click Withdraw

Finally into my POSB account!