Crypto mining is cool, however, the whole procedure starting from the get go and through is nothing but a whole lot of confusion and questions like “what to do” and “how”.
So, if you’re interested in crypto mining, wanting to give it a go but don’t actually know what the real deal is and how it\’s done, MinerGate might be the solution for you.
MinerGate offers a “download and run” process for people who want to mine crypto assets without the complexities of traditional mining. Hang around till the end of this guide as we will be covering MinerGate’s features, services, products, pool fees, cryptocurrencies supported along with pros & cons.
MinerGate Overview
MinerGate is a multi-currency mining platform which was founded in 2014. The platform allows users to mine cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and a few alternate coins.
More than 3 million miners are part of MinerGate’s community and they reportedly paid them $20 million back in 2017.
Which devices can we use for mining?
If you do not have high-end advanced hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, no worries you can use any of the following strategies as an alternative:
- Normal work PC which can be Mac, Windows or Linux.
- Through a CPU Cloud computing service called Paperspace. An online computer can be set up and you can use GPU or CPU for mining.
- USB ASIC 2.4 Gh Bitcoin miner, you can create a USB rig with proper ventilation for mining though the income won’t be very profitable.
- Android smartphones can support and increase the hashrate with other computers, again not a very profitable option.
MinerGate’s User Interface
Sign up – Users can register for an account on the MinerGate platform by filling up the form asking for the user\’s email and password.
Dashboard – The platform’s dashboard displays a number of information for quick references. The following are the details that are shown on the interface:
- Account balance – shows the total of all the confirmed balances of every cryptocurrency that the user has mined till date.
- Now mining – displays the number of digital currencies that a user is currently mining, no matter if it\’s being done via devices or software versions.
- Total mined – represents the total sum of all the mined crypto coins on the user\’s account, including both the confirmed and unconfirmed balances.
- Billing Balance – shows confirm balance of a specific currency that is available for the withdrawals.
- Users’ hashrate as well as pool hashrate of the particular crypto currency.
- The name along with the icon of the crypto currency being mined, its good shares, bad shares, unconfirmed balance, total number of miners, etc.
MinerGate Pool Fees
The fee structure varies depending upon the crypto coins, PPS (pay per share) and PPLNS (pay per last N shares) method.
The following are the pool fee that is charged:
Zcash, Bitcoin Gold, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic and Aeon coin are charged 1% for PPLNS method. Litecoin and GRIN are charged 0% on both PPS and PPLNS. Bytecoin, Monero and Monero-Classic are charged 1.5% for PPS and 1% on PPLNS.
Pool discounts
MinerGate offers pool discounts when users help them translate the MinerGate platform in one or the other languages.
Users can simply translate the work and submit it; upon approval the discounts are provided.
Cryptocurrencies Supported
MinerGate currently supports a total of 8 cryptocurrencies. The users can mine any of the coins from the following:
- Zcash (ZEC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Ethereum Classic (ETC)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Bytecoin (BCN)
- Monero (XMR)
- Monero-Classic (XMC)
- Bitcoin Gold (BTG)
MinerGate features
Merged Mining & CryptoNight AISCs
The platform supports and provides merged mining services which refers to concurrent mining of two crypto assets based on the same type of CryptoNote algorithm.
It enables users to mine multiple cryptocurrencies at a time in order to generate maximum profit. One can mine Monero Classic (XMC) or Bytecoin (BCN) in addition to their main coin.
CryptoNight ASICs supported by MinerGate are Bitmain ANTMINER X3, Baikal Giant-N, PinIdea RR-200 and DragonMint X1/X2.
Dedicated Mining Software
MinerGate has integrated Smart mining and Benchmark testing tools on their platform. Let’s see what these are designed for.
Smart Mining
The feature is intended to automatically mine the most profitable coin based on computing power of the user’s device and mined currency exchange rates.
Benchmark Testing Tools
With the help of this functionality users can analyze their hardware’s performance by gaining information about earned crypto in a specific period of time.
One can also find best hardware alternatives by looking at the list of benchmark users.
Supported Miners
MinerGate supports a total of 15 miners, some of which include, Bminer, GrinPro Miner, Mainnet GrinGoldMiner, nheqminer, Claymore\’s Zcash AMD GPU miner, Ethminer, Genoil\’s Ethereum GPU Miner, GrinPro Miner, Claymore\’s CryptoNote AMD GPU Miner, etc.
MinerGate services
Blockchain Explorer
It is a tool that enables users to check the status of a certain transaction and find the related information about it from the blockchain network. It supports and allows users to choose from a wide range of cryptocurrencies. One can find the following details for every digital currency:
- Timestamp (UTC) of the block,
- Block height,
- Size,
- Transactions and
- Block hash
Users can search for their transaction or block by entering block hash, block height, transaction hash and payment id. One can also look at all the unconfirmed transactions of any cryptocurrency in real time.
Mining Profitability Calculator
The calculator is designed to help users estimate their mining profits for all the cryptocurrencies that are offered by MinerGate.
The calculator generates the predictions of mining profitability on the basis of the formula given below and has to strictly meet the predefined conditions.
Reward = ((hashrate * block_reward) / current_difficulty * 2^13) * (1 – pool_fee) * 3600
The said constraints include current pool fee, 0% bad shares, network difficulty, block reward, transactions amount and fee.
The four currency algorithm options offered to the users are as follows:
- Ethereum and Ethereum Classic calculator – allows users to calculate profit for Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.
- Cryptonote and CryptoNight calculator – calculates the profit for Monero, Monero Classic, Bytecoin, Fantomcoin and DigitalNote .
- Scrypt algorithm calculator – calculates the profit for Litecoin.
- Equihash Mining Calculator – calculates profit for ZCash and Bitcoin Gold.
Pool Stats
Pool stats display information related to all the blocks in the blockchain network, which are unlocked by the pool for every supported digital currency. The page shows details such as pool hashrate, world hashrate, reward method, height of the block, unlock time, status and block hash.
Service Monitor
It is in a way a very crucial feature that is provided by MinerGate for their user base. The Service monitor broadcasts and updates the users with the news of MinerGate state and issues, if any occurred. Every cryptocurrency has three statuses which are online, offline and delayed and time-period reference stating when the problem was first noticed or happened.
Lumi Wallet
Lumi Wallet app enables users to generate and perform all operations with their private key from iOS or Android-based devices. The company states that it’s the most secure and private mobile wallet from which data leak or fraud is quite out of the question.
Some of the features of Lumi wallet as described by MinerGate are as follows:
- Privacy: The wallet does not gather or use any client’s personal data.
- Cold storage: The wallet holds the users’ crypto funds in an offline environment and only clients themselves have access to their private keys.
- Security measures: Wallet is stored locally on the user\’s device and can be recovered using 12-word seed.
- Easy to use interface: Sleek interface for both mobile app and website.
MinerGate Tokens
MinerGate has launched their own cryptographic utility token which could be used on the EOS blockchain and grants users access to the services and functionalities of the MinerGate platform.
Through this token, miners can take part in the future development process of MinerGate, become a part of a loyal community and get to first hand explore the EOS network.
Security Measures
- MinerGate strongly recommends users to create a complex password when registering for an account.
- Two factor authentication ensures that the access to the account is only granted to the authorized users.
- Users can enable email confirmation in order to link their MinerGate account with their respective mail ids.
- MinerGate platform is SSL certified therefore ensuring that the hackers or third party with malicious intentions cannot gain access to users’ funds and information.
Customer Care Support
MinerGate provides a considerable number of articles regarding their services and products, in-depth blogs, FAQs along with an official forum for announcing new updates.
One can contact MinerGate’s representatives by submitting a request ticket. Users can connect with the company through social media platforms such as Twitter, Telegram, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram etc.
Pros
- Platform provides an option for merged mining without the risk of losing the main coin’s hashrate.
- Super easy to use interface, uncomplicated way of mining and is compatible with Mac, Windows and Linux.
- Provides a plethora of useful tools like smart mining, pool stats, service monitor, profit estimation calculators, wallet, etc.
Cons
- Supports a limited number of cryptocurrencies and therefore fewer mining pool options.
- No phone call services offered.
MinerGate Review – Summary
Wrapping up our MinerGate review by summing up all the points that we have covered so far in this guide.
- The platform uses industry level robust security measures such as SSL and offers 2FA and email confirmation functionality.
- Provides advanced tools and features for profitable mining and supports enough variety of crypto assets to mine from.
- Has a pretty good help center with extensive articles, virtual communities and ticket submission for queries but lacks phone call services.
- Offers PPS and PPLNS rewards methods.