[GUIDE] Mining with NiceHash - updated

[WkdPaul]

"A guide on mining with Nicehash?" I hear you say, bear with me here, since NiceHash is here to stay and since "it's so simple anyone can use", might as well make a guide explaining the do's and don't that some might overlook when using such softwares!

 

I assume no liability for anything that you do as a result of this guide.  Proceed at your own risk.

 

Before you start mining, keep in mind that not all GPUs are profitable depending on your location because electrical fees, there are a few profitability calculators out there, but here are a some that you can use to see if all this is even worth it for you. Don't forget to enter the correct amount you're paying for you electricity.

 

NiceHash profitability calculator (quick and dirty, might not be 100% accurate but is good for estimations)

 

What to mine (more complex than above, give you more options to tweak and is more accurate)

 

Cryptocompare calculator (you will need to know your GPU hash rate with specific algorithms, different from the 2 above where you can simply select your GPU)

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Now that's out of the way, first things first, things you will need to start mining ;

 

1. An external Bitcoin wallet,
2. The NiceHash miner,
3. A computer with a compatible GPU,
4. Some time to set it all up!

 

1. Bitcoin Wallet

 

The wallet is VERY important, this is where your payments are going to be sent. NiceHash pays in Bitcoins, BUT you are NOT mining (creating) Bitcoins.

 

For those that might be new to this, NiceHash was hacked, and that resulted in the totality of their Bitcoins (and their client's) to be stolen (over 4700 BTC). And this is where people lost money, the internal NiceHash wallet isn't a real Bitcoin wallet, it's a wallet that is outside of the blockchain. The blockchain is basically a big public ledger, so if the transaction isn't on the ledger, it means that for all intent and purposes, the transaction never took place.

 

What I will advise, is to use your own wallet instead of the NiceHash internal wallet, but be warned that as of January of 2018, the volume of BTC transactions being too high and also, the transfer fees being high, NiceHash is sometimes withholding the external wallet payments (the weekly 0.01 BTC payments), meaning you might not get paid if the volume and fess are too high, NiceHash will skip a payment window in hope the next time the fees and volume might be lower. From NiceHash website ;

Quote

Once per week for external wallet unpaid balances, greater than 0.01 BTC.**

 

** Schedule is adjusted accordingly to blockchain conditions. We are already actively working on implementing alternative crypto-currencies for payments.

 

Ok, but now what?

 

Use an external wallet, and for best security, use an offline paper wallets. As a rule of thumb, if the wallet isn't on the blockchain, don't use it. Some prefer online wallets, some prefer offline wallets. it's really up to your personal preference but using an internal wallet (like the NiceHash wallet) is what lead to so many people loosing money when NiceHash was hacked.

 

Here is a list of wallets in no particular order, do with it as you want (for disclosure purposes, the ones marked with an asterisk are the ones I'm personally using) ;

BitAddress.org (PAPER WALLET)*

Coinomi (MOBILE WALLET)*

Copay (MOBILE WALLET)*

Breadwallet (MOBILE WALLET)

Mycelium (MOBILE WALLET)

GreenAddress (MOBILE WALLET)

Armory (DESKTOP WALLET)*

 

There are a lot more than this, some might have better suggestions in the Folding@home, Boinc, and Coin Mining section. A Google search on the type of wallet you're looking for will most certainly give you even more results, make sure to look into the wallet you're going to use.

 

 

2. The NiceHash miner

 

FYI, before anything, be aware that mining softwares are often flagged as malware by anti-virus softwares and the likes, so after the installation but before using NiceHash, make sure to white list the folder it's in.

 

 

Now, onto the software, since NiceHash came back, they modified the mining software, so if you have an nVidia card, you'll have to use the following version ;

NiceHash miner v2.0.1.5

NiceHash miner is available on GitHub ;

https://github.com/nicehash/NiceHashMiner

 

 

AMD owners will have to use the legacy version since NiceHash turned off AMD support in the latest version ;

NiceHash Legacy version (I would recommend the 1.8.1.5 version)

 

 

Old information about the V2 miner.

Spoiler

 

NiceHash miner v2 (for the legacy version, scroll down)

The setup is straight forward, the v2 is an installer and the legacy version is a standalone, so for the legacy version, simply unpack the zip at your prefered location and create shortcuts as needed.

 

The v2 installer is easy and you might have some redist installer popup, don't worry that's normal.

 

 

The NiceHash miner will need different Visual C++ Redistributable Packages, here's the GitHub page on it ;

https://github.com/nicehash/NiceHashMiner/blob/master/doc/Troubleshooting.md#msvcp

 

Direct links in case the GitHub page becomes unavailable ;

2013 Redist. ; https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=40784

2015 Resist ; https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=48145

2017 Redist ; https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=746572

 

 

Agree to the licence and then you should be met with the miner interface (ignore the 0 devices, that screenshot was taken from my laptop) ;

 

 

 

 

Now, click on the HARWARE DETAILS button, now from this window, you can either click on the BENCHMARK ALL button or open the drop down menu (by clicking the arrow) and change the selected algorithm that you want to benchmark and use, but before using a selected algorithm, it has to be benchmarked, so I would simply click on the benchmark all when it's the first time (here's the instructions for manual benchmarking ; https://github.com/nicehash/NiceHashMiner/blob/master/doc/Advanced/ManualBenchmarking.md)

 

This is also where you can enable or disable "devices", like multiple GPUs or if you also want to use your CPU.

 

Benchmarking should look like this ;

 

 

Now, you can rename your worker (the mining PC) by clicking the worker button, by default it should be worker1.

 

Then, the important part is to write your bitcoin wallet so that you can get paid, click on the wallet button and paste/write down your wallet address, it should look similar to this;

 

 

 

 

When it's all done (benchmarks and writing your wallet address), you can now start mining!

 

 

 

 

NiceHash Legacy miner

 

The legacy miner has a different UI, but works the same way, you have to benchmark first, you can select/deselect devices and algorithms, you can rename your "worker" and you'll have to write you wallet address in the appropriate location.

 

When opening it for the first time, you'll have to agree with the licence, then it will verify your hardware and download the miners, this can take a few minutes to complete.

 

When done, you'll be in the main window of the legacy miner, as you can see, the wallet address and the miner's name is there and not in another window, so first, add you wallet address;

 

 

 

For the benchmarking, it's similar, you simply click on the device checkbox to enable it and you can benchmark all or simply select the algorithms you want to use and benchmark ;

 

 

Same here, when you're done benchmarking and have entered your bitcoin wallet address, simply click on the strart button to start mining

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Advanced setup

 

 

Now, let's say you want to have a mining rig that you manage remotely and you want it to boot on it's own if there was a blackout, to mine automatically when it starts and to keep going if the network is down (it won't mine but it's going to keep the mining window open and wait for the network to come back on).

 

Well, here are a few tricks that should help you with that;

• Set your BIOS/UEFI to start on power loss
• Set your Windows user to login automatically
• Set your remote software to start on Windows start
• Set NiceHash to start on Windows start

 

This section won't have screenshots, I'll only list a set of instructions that should be easy to follow.

 

 

• Set your BIOS/UEFI to start on power loss

-Restart you PC and go into the BIOS/UEFI

-Somewhere in the "Advaced" settings, or in the "Power" settings, look for an option called something like "Restore on AC / Power loss" and set that to "ON" or "Enable"

 

 

• Set your Windows user to login automatically

This should work with Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10;

-Open the RUN window by holding the Windows key and pressing the R key

-In the RUN dialog, type netplwiz

-In the User Accounts dialog box, click the account you want to automatically log on to. Clear the Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer check box.

-Click OK. 
-In the Automatically Log On dialog box, enter the user’s password twice and click OK. 

 

Now every time Windows will start, you will be logged in automatically.

 

 

• Set your remote software to start on Windows start

In the options of your software, there should be an option so that is start when Windows start, for exemple, in TeamViewer, it's in the options under General and is called Start TeamViewer with Windows

 

Alternatively, if you can't find the option for the remote software you're using, you could Google it or simply add a shortcut to the Windows startup folder, anything put into that folder will be opened/executed at Windows startup.

 

 

 

• Set NiceHash to start on Windows start

In the legacy miner, click on the Settings button, now in the settings window, enable "Autostart mining" (at the top) and "Run with Windows" (almost at the bottom).

 

 

 

I might add more information later, the information contained here is subject to change due to it's nature (software updates and such).

Edited March 12, 2020 by wkdpaul
updated

[WkdPaul]

--UPDATED--

 

LOTS of information is out of date, GDax was renamed to Coinbase Pro, there's new versions of the mining software (both legacy and the "new" one), withdraws from NiceHash are back to 0.001 BTC, etc... 

 

Included list of supported countries

Added details for purchases

Added informations about the current volume and transfer fees.

 

 

Here's a quick guide on using the NiceHash internal wallet ... carefully!

 

 

The high volume and fees that were associated with this part of the guide is now gone since the value crash that recently happened (Jan-Feb. 2018). I personally switched back to mining on my external wallet and I will advise anyone and everyone to do the same for safety reasons.

 

 

 

The following is working as of January of 2018, I can't promise that it will stay like this and work forever, or that those transfers are going to be free forever.

 

Transfers from Coinbase Pro (previously GDax) aren't free anymore !

 

Also, standard disclaimer, I assume no liability for anything that you do as a result of this BTC transfer guide. Proceed at your own risk.

 

I know I just said you shouldn't use NiceHash internal wallet since that's off the blockchain and isn't safe. But again, stay with me on this as you can withdraw your fund from the internal wallet, to your external wallet for free (as long as you hit the minimum of 0.002 BTC).

 

This technique can also be used to PAY for thing and avoid fees that are currently associated with the high fees because of the blockchain high volume. I personally used Gdax Coinbase Pro to buy an Amazon Canada gift card through the site https://coincards.ca/ (I'm not responsible for any problems that could occur in using coincards.ca services, the fact that it worked for me doesn't mean problems can't arise).

 

 

So, here we go!

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE

You can verify here if your country is supported by Gdax Coinbase Pro, if it isn't then free transfers won't be possible, unfortunately.

Supported Countires ;

Spoiler

Availability of trading has since changed, please visit Coinbase Pro for a list of supported countries ;

 

https://www.coinbase.com/places

 

 

 

Depricated BTC transfers for free, this doesn't work anymore since GDax changed to Coinbase Pro.

Spoiler

 

The complete hoop jumping that we're going to do is ;

• Transfer your BTC from NiceHash to Coinbase (free)
• Transfer your BTC from Coinbase to Gdax (free)
• Transfer from Gdax to your external wallet (free)

 

 

 

 

Now with the registrations;

 

• So, first step is to create an account with NiceHash
•  

Spoiler

 

Depricated steps, Coinbase Pro doesn't offer free transfers to external wallets.

• Second step is to create an account and get verified on Coinbase
• Third step is to create an account and get verified on Gdax (Gdax is owned by Coinbase, so make sure to have a verified Coinbase account first as this will speed up the verification process!)

 

Just those 3 steps may have taken you a while, I know it took me 2 days to get verified on Gdax because of the registration spike all exchanges are getting right now!

 

 

 

 

NiceHash steps

Now that it's all done and that you have mined enough to withdraw from NiceHash (0.002 BTC, previous minimum was 0.001), login into your NiceHash account and go into your wallet;

 

 

 

Even if Coinbase Pro doesn't offer free withdrawals, it's still possible to transfer funds to Coinbase if needed, but this step is NOT mandatory !!

 

Click on the Withdraw button (the orange one on the left), you'll get a popup with an option to send your BTC to Coinbase, click on that and enter the amount you want to send to your Coinbase account (simply enter your email) ;

 

 

Spoiler

 

Minimums are back to 0.001 ...

 

 

IMPORTANT : NEW MINIMUM FOR WITHDRAWALS IS 0.002 BTC, NOT 0.001 ANYMORE.

 

 

 

Depricated GDax steps

Spoiler

 

Now, you should get multiple email notifications telling you about the transfer, go to your Coinbase account and you should see the BTC were transfered successfully (don't mind the Gdax for now, we'll get to it soon) ;

 

 

Spoiler

 

Gdax steps

Now time to head to Gdax!!!

 

After logging in, in the main window, hover your mouse to the right of your account avatar, over the burger menu, and click on ACCOUNTS ;

 

 

 

 

In the Accounts windows, click on the arrow DOWN to grab the BTC from your Coinbase account;

 

 

That next window is pretty self explanatory, simply select the BTC source (if you have other coins than BTC on Coinbase), enter the amount to transfer, and click on "Deposit funds" ;

 

 

 

Now once the funds show up, click on the UP arrow to send the funds to your external wallet (FINALLY!!!!), again, this is pretty self explanatory also, click on BTC address (not Coinbase obviously) and fill out the form with your BTC address that you made at the beginning of this guide, and click on "GET CODE" to receive an SMS code to enter as the "Two Factor Code".

 

This is also here that you can pay for anything you want in BitCoins, the store you're purchasing something from should supply you with a BitCoin wallet and a specific BTC ammount to transfer, this usually has to be done within 15 minutes for the transaction to be accepted. ;

 

 

And now, all the transactions can be viewed on Coinbase, all was done without any fees!!!

 

 

Edited March 12, 2020 by wkdpaul
MORE UPDATES

[NoxiousOdor]

That is a handy dandy guide thanks for posting

[imreloadin]

So I just started mining using your guide and everything has been going well.

This afternoon however something weird happened, in the below screenshot it previously showed the dollar amount of the bitcoin I had received in USD in the circled portion but now it shows $0.00 even though the amount of bitcoin is still there:

 

I checked my wallet and nothing has been deposited there so I'm not sure why it no longer says the dollar amount, any insight would be appreciated.

[WkdPaul]

11 minutes ago, imreloadin said:

*snip*

 

The mining software is buggy at times, I'm mining on 2 different rigs and one of them won't show my balance correctly from time to time (it often show USD 0.99 regardless of the BTC balance).

 

To make sure, just check your online stats (click the link above the "USD 0.00" in your mining window) and that should be reporting the right amounts on the right under "Unpaid Balance" ;

 

[link293]

According to NiceHash's calculator, I see a 1080 ti's profitability is around $8 a day but after some reddit research I'm seeing the profitability consistently decline.  While this is somewhat expected, I can't find actual numbers on what the profitability slid to and from in a given time period, say 2017.  Anyone know those numbers, or better yet have a graph so we can *try* to estimate future profitability (with the caveat obviously being no one has any idea what cryptos will do)? 

[WkdPaul]

@link293 Not sure if anyone ever made something like this, now that you mention it I think it would be very interesting. I'll try to see if someone somewhere ever did that!

[WkdPaul]

Updated the NiceHash internal wallet withdraw post because they changed the minimum withdraw amount from 0.001 BTC to 0.002 BTC.

Spoiler

 

 

This has to do with a problem with the Coinbase API, they are working on a fix and withdraws should go back to 0.001BTC soon, there are no ETA as of now though.

Edited January 14, 2018 by wkdpaul

[Canada EH]

On 1/5/2018 at 12:33 PM, wkdpaul said:

A computer with a compatible GPU,

You got a list or link of gpu's to use?

[WkdPaul]

1 hour ago, Canada EH said:

You got a list or link of gpu's to use?

That would make for a long post, there are a LOT of compatible GPUs, but depending on your electricity cost, not all of them are worth it.

 

But here's a quick and dirty list ;

 

on the AMD side, anything from the HD7850 and up (not sure about the R5 240 and under or the R5 340 and under)

 

on Nvidia side, anything from the GTX 750ti and up (not sure about the GT 740 and under and the GT 8xx series, but the GT 1030 CAN BE profitable)

 

Other older GPU might classify but I'm not too sure.

[leeab37]

Solid quick start guide. Thanks

[Noyu]

this is a solid guide. I do have a question though.

so initially I setup a miner to send coins directly to an external wallet (CoinsPH).

but I just realized that the payouts would probably take 1-2 months because of the 0.01BTC minimum.

 

can I easily change BTC address to the NiceHash internal wallet without affecting my current BTC balance?

I plan on following your guide and withdraw everytime I hit the minimum withdrawal amt (0.002 BTC)

[WkdPaul]

5 minutes ago, Noyu said:

this is a solid guide. I do have a question though.

so initially I setup a miner to send coins directly to an external wallet (CoinsPH).

but I just realized that the payouts would probably take 1-2 months because of the 0.01BTC minimum.

 

can I easily change BTC address to the NiceHash internal wallet without affecting my current BTC balance?

I plan on following your guide and withdraw everytime I hit the minimum withdrawal amt (0.002 BTC)

You can't transfer the unpaid balance, I switched to the internal wallet myself and I have about 0.0025 BTC in unpaid balance on my external wallet, I don't plan on going back to it until the payments fees go back down.

Edited January 18, 2018 by wkdpaul

[Noyu]

3 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

You can't transfer the unpaid balance, I switched to the internal wallet myself and I have about 0.0025 BTC in unpaid balance on my external wallet, I don't plan on going back to it until the payments fees go back down.

 

 

hnooooooooooooooooooeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh

[WkdPaul]

8 minutes ago, Noyu said:

 

 

hnooooooooooooooooooeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh

ouch ... sorry about that, I'll update the thread to include a list of the supported countires!

[Noyu]

14 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

ouch ... sorry about that, I'll update the thread to include a list of the supported countires!

yes please.

looks like I'm stuck with LOONG payouts for now.. I'll ask around local forums as well.

[Noyu]

29 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

ouch ... sorry about that, I'll update the thread to include a list of the supported countires!

So I was googling:

Can't we just "SEND" BTC from Coinbase to an external wallet using this function:

 

currently greyed out due to the 0 balance

[WkdPaul]

Just now, Noyu said:

So I was googling:

Can't we just "SEND" BTC from Coinbase to an external wallet using this function:

 

currently greyed out due to the 0 balance

Yes, but sending BTC on Coinbase isn't free while it is on Gdax (last time I checked the fees were around $15 USD on Coinbase because of the high volume).

[Noyu]

Just now, wkdpaul said:

Yes, but sending BTC on Coinbase isn't free while it is on Gdax (last time I checked the fees were around $15 USD on Coinbase because of the high volume).

oooooooooooh okay okay. weird how this is not specified anywhere on the multiple blogposts I've read ahaha

 

thanks again man!

[WkdPaul]

Added a disclaimer about whitelisting the NiceHash folder with your anti-virus since they often flag the mining scripts as malware.

 

Also added informations on how to use Gdax to pay for things using BTC (my second reply about using NiceHash internal wallet)

[WkdPaul]

Seems like the volume problem has sorted itself out.

 

I added a notification in the section where I explain how to use the internal wallet.

 

Until fess go back to $20-25 per transaction, using an external wallet SHOULD be the preferred choice.