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  • - Hey guys, this is Austin.

  • This computer is making me money right now.

  • While that might sound like some scummy pop-up ad,

  • in reality, it's all thanks to Cryptomining.

  • You've probably heard of cryptocurrency,

  • such as Bitcoin and Litecoin.

  • These are digital currencies that are worth

  • real world money.

  • For example, a single bitcoin goes for about $2400

  • right now.

  • This has become a really big industry.

  • Not only has Bitcoin been recognized as legal currency

  • in places like Japan, but you can spend Bitcoin

  • at a lot of online retailers, such as Microsoft,

  • buying games on Steam.

  • You could even purchase things with PayPal

  • using Bitcoin.

  • It is a big deal.

  • For example, if you fire up a mining program

  • on your computer, it'll immediately start

  • crunching the numbers on different transactions

  • that come it's way.

  • As a reward for doing all that hard work,

  • you'll gain tiny, tiny amounts of cryptocurrency.

  • Typically, this doesn't really equal much.

  • However, as things like Bitcoin become

  • more and more valuable, it can actually add up.

  • There are two different ways of getting your hands

  • on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

  • The first is really straightforward.

  • You can buy and sell them just like anything else.

  • So, the market will go up and down and it does that a lot,

  • but the theory is, you buy 'em for cheap, sell 'em

  • for more and you make a profit just like the stock market.

  • The other is by mining.

  • So, every transaction is public.

  • So what that means is that some computer has to do

  • the work of deciding that hey, someone has money,

  • it needs to go to the other person.

  • Make sure that's a legit transaction.

  • In the early days, you could use an ordinary gaming PC

  • to mine Bitcoin, but as it's gotten more popular

  • and more importantly, there's more and more competition

  • for mining, it is pretty crazy to use

  • a standard gaming PC to mine Bitcoin today.

  • There has been other cryptocurrencies that have sprung up

  • over the years.

  • So, back in 2013, I had a few different Litecoin

  • mining rigs set up and generally speaking,

  • if you have a PC with a solid GPU, you can make that work.

  • However, the issue is, as things get more and more popular,

  • people design what are called ASICs, which are literally

  • custom-designed chips that are purely made

  • to destroy a PC at mining.

  • Today though, cryptomining has seen a major resurgence

  • and a lot of that is thanks to a new option called Ethereum.

  • Now, this is something that actually does make sense

  • to mine on a standard gaming PC.

  • So, we've been using this CyberPower PC that we did

  • a video on recently which actually is now down to $650,

  • which is kind of funny because thanks to cryptomining,

  • even the graphics card itself sometimes will go for $650.

  • Generally speaking, higher end AMD cards

  • like the RX 580 that's inside is going to be your

  • best bet for cryptomining.

  • NVIDIA options also do work pretty well too.

  • If you have a lower end card that's maybe a little bit

  • older that's gonna draw a lot of power,

  • you wanna try mining on the CPU, it's generally not

  • going to be worth it.

  • Cryptomining really is all about the GPU.

  • The actual setup for mining is surprisingly straightforward,

  • a lot better than it used to be.

  • So you just need three things, a PC to do your mining,

  • a Bitcoin wallet and a mining program.

  • There are lots of options for creating a wallet,

  • but I use Coinbase.

  • Not only is it fairly simple as they do pretty much

  • all the work for you, but not only can you buy Bitcoin,

  • but more importantly, you can sell them or just spend them.

  • For the mining program, a really easy option

  • is to use Nicehash.

  • So, this runs as a normal Windows app

  • and all you need to do is let it do it's initial setup,

  • give it your Bitcoin wallet address

  • and it handles everything else from there.

  • Nicehash does take three percent of everything that you mine

  • but in return, it's a completely automatic setup,

  • so if you're not super familiar with this stuff,

  • it works pretty well and it's even smart enough

  • to automatically pick between different algorithms

  • based on what's going to be most profitable.

  • The cool thing is, since this is just a normal

  • Windows program, you can mine whenever you want.

  • So, say you wanna actually play some games on your game PC,

  • just stop mining for a few minutes.

  • Once you're done, turn it back on.

  • So I'm about to throw some numbers at you guys,

  • but please take all these with a giant grain of salt.

  • This can go way up and way down pretty much at any point.

  • So right now, with this setup over the last few days,

  • it's averaged making about $2.10 a day.

  • So, of course, you do have to keep the electricity bill

  • in mind.

  • So with this system and the electricity rates here,

  • it's pulling about 25 cents worth of power a day.

  • That might not sound like much, but when you add it up,

  • that's about $57 a month or about $690 a year,

  • which is actually enough to pay for the entire system.

  • But, and there's a giant but,

  • this changes all the time, seriously.

  • So, just today, as we've been filming this video,

  • prices have changed a lot.

  • So, earlier this morning, we were making about

  • $1.90 a day.

  • However, right now, we're doing about $2.31 in mining.

  • It really does change on an almost hourly basis.

  • All of this is just an example with this single graphics

  • card inside this system.

  • So if you have a really beefy system

  • with say, a pair of 1080 Ti's, you can be making

  • a lot more money.

  • On the other hand, if you have an older graphics card,

  • it might not even make sense to mine in the first place.

  • So, there is a cool calculator.

  • I have that linked into the description

  • where you can plug in what your hardware is.

  • It'll tell you roughly about how much

  • you would make per day.

  • What doesn't really make sense is going out and buying

  • a bunch of hardware just to start mining.

  • So, this has actually made graphic cards

  • not only out of stock in a lot of places,

  • almost more important than that, really, really expensive.

  • One things that makes a little bit more sense

  • is if you already have a gaming PC and you just wanna

  • give this a try.

  • It is kinda fun.

  • The thing you need to keep in mind though

  • is that this is going to be essentially running

  • your GPU at 100% 24/7.

  • It's not necessarily going to immediately break

  • or anything, but it will definitely shorten

  • the lifespan of your card.

  • This definitely isn't for everyone,

  • but as a nerd, there's actually something kind of fun

  • about this.

  • So, what do you guys think about mining cryptocurrencies?

  • Let me know in the comments below and I will catch you

  • in the next one.

- Hey guys, this is Austin.

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