Zcash (ZEC), which has a market cap of about $3 billion, is currently ranked 49th by total market cap. The market price of Zcash coin has increased exponentially over the past few months, despite the recent decrease in mining reward and rise in mining difficulty, making it one of the most popular cryptocurrency mining options. The Zcash repository is regularly updated, and it remains popular among blockchain developers.
This step-by-step guide on how to mine Zcash will introduce you to the fundamentals of mining and explain how Zcash mining rig is built and why Zcash mining hardware mostly consists of ASIC miner farms.
Zcash Mining Basics
Zcash uses a proof of work algorithm just like with Bitcoin mining, on top of it, ZEC mining implements the “Equihash” algorithm, that runs on ewbf miner. The Equihash algorithm was chosen because it lessens the difficulty of mining that is related to GPU or CPU hardware.
As a result, the Zcash network is ideal for new miners to join without making significant initial investments, similar to mining Ethereum in its early years. All you need to start mining Zcash is a basic GPU miner, a Zcash mining pool, and Zcash mining software like the multi-purpose Nicehash miner or the cuda zcash miner from ewbf.
Several mining farms also offer to sell you a cloud mining contract that gives you access to a predetermined Zcash cloud mining hashrate for a predetermined period of time.
What is Zcash?
This alternative coin was initially a fork of Bitcoin and was initially known as the Zerocash Protocol. The blockchain industry eventually changed the name to Zerocash and then, in 2016, to Zcash. Along with Dash and Monero, the currency is one of the original trio of privacy coins. Specifically in terms of privacy and transparency, it differs from Bitcoin.
All transactional data, including payment destination, transaction existence, and even transaction amount, is securely encrypted by the blockchain.
How to Mine Zcash
Pool Mining
Pool Mining combines individual GPU and CPU miner effort with other miners. Depending on the amount of computing power that each miner contributed to the network, the rewards of successful block verification are distributed among all miners within a pool.
Despite the fact that the reward is easily reduced in proportion to the number of miners in a pool, the likelihood of a successful block verification is high. However, most of the time, joining a mining pool requires payment. The NiceHash EQM is one of the most well-liked and straightforward products on the market.
Solo Mining
Solo mining is almost becoming obsolete in the era of profitable mining since advanced GPU technology has skyrocketed the network hash rate. Low processing power equipment cannot make any money as a result, almost. This is so that rewards are distributed evenly based on the hashing power provided by the participants, whose combined processing power ensures this.
Block Rewards
After each block has been verified, the Zcash blockchain distributes a reward worth 3,125 ZEC. Approximately every 75 seconds, a block verification will occur. If you’re a part of a mining pool, the block reward is split among the pool members according to how much computing power each member contributed to mining the block.
Best Way to Mine Zcash
When we’re talking about the best ways to mine Zcash, there’s no doubt that ASIC mining will outperform GPUs. Unlike ASIC miners, which have a fixed algorithm that cannot be changed, video cards allow you to choose to mine a variety of coins using a variety of algorithms. Now, don’t be hesitant to select an Nvidia GPU over an AMD alternative if you come across a good deal. When comparing those two, NVidia is certainly better. We’ll show you a list of the best ASICs and GPUs for mining Zcash later on in this article.
Last but not least, we advise you to join a pool if you want to maximize the benefits of mining Zcash. Mining pools combine the hash power of multiple miners, increasing their efficiency and ability to generate consistent income. Sounds great, right?
What You Need to Start Mining Zcash
If you’re mining ZEC with Zcash, you can either use your current computer or build a specialized one. Although they can be used to mine, laptops are less efficient than desktop PCs. Here are the basics you need to have covered if you want to start Zcash mining:
- Hardware – ASIC or GPU
- A Zcash Wallet
- Internet Connection – min 1MB/s with preferably no Traffic Limitation
- Enough Electrical Network Capacity for your prefered Setup
Keep reading to learn more about each detail because we have covered them all in depth in this article.
What Else You Need to Consider?
ZEC mining typically uses a lot of electricity and produces warm, humid air. You need to have prepared with at least a fan or better, an air conditioning system, to cool down your devices. More thorough details on the subject are available here.
You should also prepare a wallet; there are many GUI ones available on the market. This will allow you to use your coins and receive the Zcash mining reward. We recommend, that you visit our crypto wallets page, to make the best decision for yourself.
Make sure you carefully choose between solo mining and pool mining. We don’t recommend the first option because it’s going to take you a lot of time and it’s also a big investment. Additionally, it does not ensure immediate results. Mining in a pool combines the resources of the miners and produces a significant amount of hashing power. As a result, short-term earnings are significantly more frequent.
Another piece of advice from us: compare the features of various mining pools before choosing one.
You can move on to setting up your hardware now that you’ve decided on a wallet and a pool.
Best Choice of Zcash Mining Hardware to Buy
Bitmain has released a new cryptocurrency mining hardware, dedicated to the Equihash algorithm, which is used by the privacy-oriented Zcash. Its brand name is Antminer Z15. This is your best choice of hardware to mine Zcash at the moment. However, we are aware that it might not be simple to obtain, so there are alternate options, such as Innosilicon’s A9 ZMaster.
Setup Hardware and Software / Configuration
This section is going to present you the ultimate guide on how to setup and configurate your Bitmain Antminer Z15 is an example of a Zcash miner.
Get more information on How to Set up Antminer Z15
Let’s First Review the Steps for ASIC Miner Configuration
01. Connect Your Hardware
Connect your hardware to the electricity network and to the internet. You simply need to plug the cables into the appropriate sockets, which is fairly simple.
02. Choose a Mining Pool
Select the mining pool you want to join. Here is a list with suggested Zcash mining pools and their fees and reward systems:
Flypool
Reward system:PPLNS
Average fee:1%
F2pool
Reward system:PPS
Average fee:3%
Dwarfpool
Reward system:HBPPS
Average fee:1%
You can find out more about the Zcash mining pools on our mining pools page. More information on the rewards programs and fees is available there as well.
03. Access Your Miner
Enter the miner’s IP address or hostname in your browser. The default username for all Antminers is “root”, with default password “root”. (Read your hardware manual to check for the default login credentials and how to find the IP address of your machine)
04. Setup Pool Information and Restart
Go to the Miner Configuration tab. There you can enter 3 mining pools. Then, if the first pool is empty, it will automatically direct you to the second one.
Below is the configuration example of Antminer Z15 connected to Flypool:
URL: eu1-zcash.flypool.org:3333
Worker: Your Zcash address, for example.: t1ZW4wTjMXsFvEGsCxtrzUrkBJhv5aoTRC7
Password: Leave blank
Click “Save&Apply” and your After a few minutes, Antminer ought to be operational. If you see “Accepted” share, it means you are mining.
Zcash GPU Mining Setup
1. Install Drivers
For AMD GPU Miners
Access www.AMD.com and click the “Support & Drivers” tab.’ Then click “Display Results” after entering the GPU’s specifications.’ By clicking the ensuing “Download Button,” you can download the most recent drivers.’ But click the “Previous Drivers & Software” tab if you want to download an earlier version.’ However, for modern cards, we advise using the most recent miner drivers.
For Nvidia GPU Mining
Download the most recent drivers for NVIDIA GPUs from the NVIDIA website. The highlighted search bar is where you should enter the specifics of your GPU setup. Click the search button. Green is used to highlight the button. For the newest drivers, click the top results.
Note: After installing either of the drivers, restart your computer as you would normally do after installing any computer driver, then go to the Device Manager. From here, confirm that each driver was correctly installed and is being recognized by your Windows system.
2. Get a Zcash Wallet
After earning coins, you must keep them safely. Utilizing a hardware wallet is a safe place to start. However, there are three different types of wallets: hardware, exchange, and internet. You can find the Zcash client wallet by visiting the official Zcash website. However, a hardware wallet like the Trezor or Ledger Nano S is the safest choice.
3. Download Mining Software
Go to Bitcointalk.com and download the EWFB Zcash Mining Program for Zcash. Make sure the download is coming from an official Bitcointalk thread in order to prevent malware from being downloaded. You must find the most recent version of the file that is compressed.
4. Adjust Windows Settings
Windows Sleep Mode should be disabled. Never let the computer go to sleep while mining. Put 16GB/16384MB in the system setting page. Turn off all Windows updates as they could interfere with Zcash mining software. Make sure Windows Defender does not classify the EWFB program as malware as well.
5. Join a Pool
The majority of lone miners join mining pools to guarantee consistent profits. There are many Zcash mining pools available; we’ll try Luxor Pool.
6. Configure BAT File to Start Your Miner
Depending on the PC and GPU type you’re using, click the Windows — Nvidia Tab to create a BAT file. A miner script is displayed on the page that appears after clicking the tab. Copy this and paste it into the EWFB miner program’s “Flypool bat file” folder.
A bat file contains the instructions for starting/running the mining software. Afterward, include your Zcash wallet address on the bat file and finally save the bat file with a .bat extension.
How Much Can You Earn?
The Zcash mining reward is influenced by a number of variables.
First, the equipment and electricity supply in an area will hugely influence the amount of reward. If you’re a part of a mining pool or going it alone, that’s another crucial consideration. Cryptocompare.com provides a calculator where you can input the amount of power consumption, hash rate, and the cost of electricity per hour. Let’s take a look at how much can Antminer Z15 earn each day.
[qn_miner id=”12″ field=”desc-profitability”]
A specific profit ratio is calculated by the mining calculator for both the month and the day. To help you choose which hardware and software to buy first, we advise you to perform this calculation. Using the calculator will help you decide whether your capital investment is worthwhile considering the potential profit.
Conclusion
Mining Zcash has been popular for several years as a great alternative to Bitcoin or Ethereum mining. Like all cryptocurrencies, mining has become more demanding in terms of hardware power. However, the basic setup still remains the same. Therefore, we hope this guide helped you.