The RVN project developers were inspired by the movie “Game of Thrones,” where ravens are used to deliver statements of truth. In the same way, the crypto project seeks to deliver messages of truth by faithfully verifying the ownership of a specific asset.
On January 3, 2018, a Bitcoin hard fork gave birth to Ravencoin and with a market capitalization of $132,222,131 a price of $0.0204, and a circulating supply of 6,451,385,000 RVN, it’s evident Ravencoin is steadily gaining traction among the crypto community. But, as cryptocurrency mining using power-hungry ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) devices gets less profitable for home miners, miners turn to ASIC-resistant cryptocurrencies like Ravencoin to make profits.
This guide will cover how to mine Ravencoin (RVN), the best GPU cards for mining Ravencoin, and whether mining RVN is still a profitable venture.
RVN has a maximum supply of 21 billion coins and a transaction speed of 60 seconds. Miners on the network take home 5,000 RVN coins for each block mined.
Is mining Ravencoin profitable?
The profitability margin depends on various factors. For the Ravencoin (RVN) mining venture to be profitable, factors such as the hash rate, power cost, and other overhead costs must be considered. With Ravencoin mining using low power consuming devices, the power cost is considerably reduced compared to when using ASICs and other power-intensive devices.
The actual profit margin can be determined by using a Ravencoin profitability calculator. The calculator considers the Ravencoin mining hash rate, power consumption in watts, hardware costs, and the mining difficulty.
It also considers the electricity costs, mining pool fees, block reward, exchange rate, and maintenance fees. The report generated by the calculator indicates how many RVNs can be accumulated in an hour, a day, week, month, and year plus the pool fees, rewards, profits, and cost within each time frame.
Can you mine Ravencoin?
Please note, that RavenCoin uses the ASIC-resistant algorithm, so it can be mined only on GPUs. Since its launch, the crypto has been having a hard time being ASIC-resistant. This has necessitated the project to undergo hard forks to introduce new mining algorithms.
For instance, during its launch, RVN made use of the X16R mining algorithm. Unfortunately, it was not the best in keeping ASIC miners away. In October 2019, the project changed to the X16Rv2 algorithm. Again, these did little to deter ASIC and FPGA miners from the network putting GPU miners at a disadvantage.
In May 2020, the RVN mining algorithm was changed to KAWPOW, a derivative of the ProgPOW algorithm such as the one projected to power Ethereum mining.
How do I start mining Ravencoin?
Key ingredients to conduct RVN mining include:
- Ravencoin mining hardware
- Ravencoin (RVN) Wallet
- Ravencoin mining software
- Ravencoin mining pool
Let’s get them up and running.
RVN mining hardware
RVN is resistant to specialized mining devices such as ASICs and FPGAs. Therefore, RVN mining makes use of GPUs.
GPU RVN mining using Nvidia
Nvidia is among the top manufacturers of cryptocurrency mining graphics card processing units (GPU). Nvidia GPUs are compatible with the CCMiner mining software.
To kick start the process of interfacing an Nvidia GPU card to an existing mining pool, download the CCMiner from Github.
However, the process may differ depending on whether the mining software is being installed on in Windows or Linux operating system.
For those on Windows, the software is downloaded as a zipped folder and needs to be extracted. Among the extracted files, there’s a folder with the actual miner software installer. In this folder, create a new batch file.
In the file, include the following command:
ccminer-x64.exe -a algorithm -o stratum+tcp://mining_pool:port -u wallet_public_key -p c=coin_symbol
Edit the command to include specific details. For example, change the “algorithm” with the one you’re using, it can be “X16Rv2,” erase “mining_pool” and input your mining pool, let’s use hash4.life. Swap “wallet_public_key” with your RVN wallet address and “coin_symbol” with RVN.
To activate these changes, double click on the batch file. If the amendments are effective, a CMD window will appear, indicating an active session. Some details displayed include the type of Nvidia GPU, it’s speed, GPU temperature, clock speed, and the hash rate.
For those on Linux (HiveOS), you need to login to your HiveOS account, and add RVN wallet under the wallet section. For the address, either insert the RVN wallet address or your pool username. Finish the process by providing a worker name. Note that the worker name and password are created on the mining pool’s website.
The next step on HiveOS is to access the “Flight Sheets” section and enter RVN and wallet. Choose the mining URL, select the CCMiner mining software. Click the rocket ship icon to set CCMiner and provided a wallet address as the defaults.
Top Nvidia cards that can be used to mine RVN
- GTX 1050 Ti
- GeForce GTX 1070 Ti
- GeForce GTX 1070
- GeForce GX 1060
- RTX 2080 Ti
- GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
How to mine Ravencoin using AMD GPU
The process of mining RVN using AMD graphics cards is similar to using Nvidia cards. But, the difference lies in how the cards interface with the mining pool.
With Nvidia making use of CCMiner, AMD supports the sgminer mining software. The software can be used on both Windows and Linux-based systems.
Whether you’re using the card on Windows or Linux:
- Download sgminer (comes as a zipped folder)
- Extract the files
- Locate the folder with the miner and create a new batch file (for Windows) or a new script file (on Linux) inside the folder.
- To make it simple, copy and paste ( sgminer -k algorithm -o stratum+tcp://mining_pool:port -u wallet_public_key -p c=coin_symbol ) in the batch file.
- Edit the instructions to include the algorithm, mining pool, port, wallet address, and coin symbol.
- Double click the batch file to run it. If everything is done correctly, the window that pops up should indicate the speed of all the GPUs in your rig, the fan speed, and the speed of individual GPUs, among other details.
Top AMD cards for mining RVN
- RX Vega 56
- Radeon RX 570
- Radeon RX 580
- RX Radeon VII
- RX Vega 64
Note that the setup may not successfully connect to the mining pool if the virtual memory allocated is below 16 Gigabytes. Virtual memory settings can be set on the system and security section on a computer. In most cases, the computer automatically manages the virtual memory settings. To change this, choose custom size and enter the size in Megabytes. Therefore, to allocate 16GB input 16000.
Best Ravencoin (RVN) wallets
While the best wallet for miners is Ravencoin’s wallet, like other cryptocurrency wallets that provide the same security, performance, and reliance include:
- Edge Flare
- Trustwallet
- Guarda
- Trezor (Hardware)
- Official RVN mobile wallet
- Pocket Raven (Web)
- Penfold (Paper wallet)
- Traysi (Paper wallet)
- Ravencoin Paper (Paper Wallet)
RVN mining pools
Before powering your RVN mining hardware, it’s essential first to choose a mining pool. While solo mining is still possible with RVN, it can take months before finding a block. A mining pool combines several GPUs’ power and rewards miners depending on the amount of power contributed. Although the payouts can be small, they’re frequent. Pool fees are also low.
Popular RVN mining pools include, but not limited to, Nanopool, 2miners, Coinblockers, Bsod, Minermore, Cryptopool.party, Ravenminer, Suprnova.cc, Coinotron, Hash4life, Wattum, and ZPool.
Examples in this post will make use of Hash4life.
Pool-based Ravencoin mining, as with any other cryptocurrency pool mining activities, presents a unique challenge; rejected or stale shares.
In crypto pool mining, a share is an accounting metric that represents how much power a miner has contributed to the pool. When the contributed power is used to discover a block, it said to have been a successful share.
Rejected shares represent mining power contributed by an individual miner in a pool, but the power was not used to mine a new block. Consequently, the miner isn’t rewarded. In some cases, a miner’s computing power can be used in a pool, but the share is not registered on time. These shares are rejected, and the miner is not rewarded.
Using accepted shares, miners are paid using methods such as:
- PPS (pay-per-share) – Payouts are instantly made from the pool’s balance.
- PROP (Proportional) – Payouts made proportionately to the miner’s shares after every mining round.
- SMPPS (Shared Maximum Pay Per Share) – Instantly payouts but puts a cap on the maximum pool earnings.
- ESMPPS (Equalized Shared Maximum Pay Per Share) – Can be compared to SMPPS, but payouts are equally distributed.
Mostly, rejected shares emanate from latency in the network connection. Therefore, the best way to minimize latency is by using a stable internet connection and choosing the closest server. Also, if possible, try to reduce the intensity of the miner.
Conclusion
By now, it’s not a question of how to mine Ravencoin but whether you’re ready to start. However, with RVN continually changing its algorithm, choosing a compatible mining software or pool should be dictated by whether it supports the new mining algorithm. Mining software that supports the KAPOW algorithm includes, KAWPOWMINER, TT-Miner, TREX, Bminer, and Gminer, among others.
Although ASIC-resistant devices used for RVN are not power-hungry, the cost of power varies across countries affecting the profitability margin. The debate on which GPU is the best for RVN mining is yet to have an inclusive answer. Before embarking on this journey, it’s important to first understand what is cryptocurrency mining.
