# Mining¶

Mining in the context of cryptocurrency such as Dash refers to the process of searching for solutions to cryptographically difficult problems as a method of securing blocks on the blockchain. The process of mining creates new currency tokens as a reward to the miner. Mining is possible on a range of hardware. Dash implements an algorithm known as X11, which the miner must solve in order to earn rewards.

The simplest and most general hardware available for mining is the general purpose CPU present in every computer. A CPU is designed to be versatile but offers less efficiency than a GPU, which is designed to rapidly calculate millions of vectors in parallel. While specific CPU instruction enhancements related to cryptography such as AES or AVX can provide a decent boost, GPUs offer a significant performance increase due to their multiple pipelines capable of processing the predictably repetitive calculations associated with cryptocurrency mining. Finally, ASICs are relatively inflexible and can only process the specific function(s) for which they were designed, but at an even faster rate than the more general purpose GPUs and CPUs. A number of X11 ASICs are now available on the market, which have quickly made CPU and GPU mining uneconomic due to the increased difficulty of hashing arising from the rapidly increasing hash rate. The result is a currency which is more secure against brute force attacks on the Dash blockchain.

The profitability of mining is determined by the hashrate of your mining device, the current network difficulty and the costs of your hardware and electricity. The following links provide up to date information:

## Masternodes vs. Mining¶

Dash, like Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies, is based on a decentralized ledger of all transactions, known as a blockchain. This blockchain is secured through a consensus mechanism; in the case of both Dash and Bitcoin, the consensus mechanism is Proof of Work (PoW). Miners attempt to solve difficult problems with specialized computers, and when they solve the problem, they receive the right to add a new block to the blockchain. If all the other people running the software agree that the problem was solved correctly, the block is added to the blockchain and the miner is rewarded.

Dash works a little differently from Bitcoin, however, because it has a two-tier network. The second tier is powered by masternodes (Full Nodes), which enable financial privacy (PrivateSend), instant transactions (InstantSend), and the decentralized governance and budget system. Because this second tier is so important, masternodes are also rewarded when miners discover new blocks. The breakdown is as follows: 45% of the block reward goes to the miner, 45% goes to masternodes, and 10% is reserved for the budget system (created by superblocks every month).

The masternode system is referred to as Proof of Service (PoSe), since the masternodes provide crucial services to the network. In fact, the entire network is overseen by the masternodes, which have the power to reject improperly formed blocks from miners. If a miner tried to take the entire block reward for themselves or tried to run an old version of the Dash software, the masternode network would orphan that block, and it would not be added to the blockchain.

In short, miners power the first tier, which is the basic sending and receiving of funds and prevention of doublespending. Masternodes power the second tier, which provide the added features that make Dash different from other cryptocurrencies. Masternodes do not mine, and mining computers cannot serve as masternodes. Additionally, each masternode is “secured” by 1000 DASH. Those DASH remain under the sole control of their owner at all times, and can still be freely spent. The funds are not locked in any way. However, if the funds are moved or spent, the associated masternode will go offline and stop receiving rewards.

## Mining Pools¶

Mining Dash in pools is more likely to generate rewards than solo mining directly on the blockchain. Mining dash using P2Pool is strongly encouraged, since it is a good way to distribute, rather than centralize, the hashing power. The following site lists Dash P2Pool mining pools near you, simply choose a pool with favourable fees and ping time and enter your Dash payment address as username and anything as password.

If you would like to set up your own P2Pool, documentation of the process is available here and the code for p2pool-dash is available on GitHub.

Other pools are also available and may be advantageous for different reasons such as ping latency, uptime, fee, users, etc.:

DISCLAIMER: This list is provided for informational purposes only. Services listed here have not been evaluated or endorsed by the Dash developers and no guarantees are made as to the accuracy of this information. Please exercise discretion when using third-party services. If you’d like to be added to this list please reach out to leon.white@dash.org

In addition to joining a pool, you will also need to create a Dash address to receive your payout. To do this in Dash Core wallet, see here.

## CPU Mining¶

This documentation describes how to mine Dash under the Windows operating system using just the CPU in your computer. Please note that the prevalence of GPU and ASIC miners mean that unless you have free electricity, this is highly unlikely to be profitable! Since this is the case, the software in this guide has not been updated in several years, and is intended for experimental purposes and testnet only.

This is a fairly simple procedure and examples will be given in order to achieve the fastest possible hash rate for your CPU, but remember that more optimized miners do exist, so we advise you to keep an eye out on mining sites such as these in order to keep up with the latest information and releases.

### Mining software¶

The first step is to download appropriate mining software. A good basic miner for modern CPUs can be found here:

This software depends on your CPU supporting the AES-NI and AVX instruction sets. You can use CPU-Z to check if this is the case for your CPU:

If your CPU does not support AES-NI and AVX, then you can try more generalized software which does not require specific instruction sets, such as these:

Our goal here is to choose mining software that supports the maximum possible instruction sets available on your CPU, and then try to increase the hash speed. Once you have made your choice, click Releases and download and extract the zip file. The different *.exe files indicate which specific processor optimizations they support. The folder should look something like this:

### Configuration¶

Begin by selecting a mining pool and generating a Dash address as described in the Mining Pools section above. Keep all your mining files in a single folder. In this example we will work from the Desktop. The node selected for this example is from the p2poolming.us list and is located in China:

http://118.184.180.43:7903/static/

Next, open Notepad and type in on one line the command we will use to start the miner, followed by pause on the second line. The general format is as follows:

pause

Where:

• minerd = the executable miner daemon file you choose to use
• a = algorithm, which is X11 for Dash
• o = URL of your mining pool, including the protocol and port
• p = password, can often be set to x
• t = number of threads used
• pause = keeps the window open in the case of errors

For the CPU in the example above, the command may be:

minerd-avx-aes-sse2-sss3.exe -a X11 -o stratum+tcp://118.184.180.43:7903 -u XwZRjo1f6gmq3LCv7X1Hi5h3NkvDMHvu8G -p x -t 8
pause

Click File, then Save As. Change Save as type to All Files, then type the file name as startminer.bat and save it in the same folder as the unzipped minerd files.

### Testing¶

You are now ready to start! Keep an eye on your CPU usage in Task Manager (right click the taskbar to open this) and be careful that the CPU temperature does not exceed your maximum rating (around 64°C). If you have temperature or desktop stability problems, reduce t to ~2 threads and try that first. If t is left out, the machine will default to the maximum number of threads. After running the miner for a while, take a look at the hash speed and payouts in your mining pool. You can identify your miner by the wallet address on the page.

### Tips¶

Reduce the number of threads for added desktop usability and heat reduction. If the CPU temperature is too high, consider fitting a new fan and check that the heat sink thermal paste on the CPU is adequate. Tweak the processor clock speed for added performance using a motherboard controller like AI Suite for Asus motherboards. Reduction of CPU core voltage will result in lower temperature but increased instability.

Try to select a pool that is nearby to reduce network latency. If the node appears slow, switch to another location. Please distribute the hashing power globally to different pools to avoid forking.

## GPU Mining¶

This guide consolidates several other guides on how to use your GPU (the processor on your graphics card) to mine Dash using the X11 algorithm on Windows. Please note that the growing market for ASIC miners means that this if probably not going to be profitable! A lot of the software and binaries described here also have not been updated for several years, so this guide should be used for experimental purposes only.

This guide will cover the process of downloading and configuring the mining software, followed by some suggestions for optimizations. This technology can change rapidly, so we advise you to keep an eye out on mining sites such as these in order to keep up with the latest information and releases.

### Mining software¶

As for CPU mining, a range of mining software is available for GPU mining. Most of it based on sgminer compiled with different optimizations specific to different hardware. A good approach is to identify your graphics hardware, then choose an appropriate build of sgminer. You can use GPU-Z to identify your GPU hardware:

Next, download the mining software. Most of these are based on the original sgminer, but this is not suitable for the X11 algorithm, offers no compiled binaries and hasn’t been updated in years. We will describe using pre-compiled binary software maintained by newer developers only.

AMD

NVIDIA

Download your chosen release and extract the zip file to a known location. The folder should look something like this:

The sgminer file is the executable file, while the various files with .cl extensions define the various algorithms supported by sgminer. In this case, we are interested in the darkcoin.cl and darkcoin-mod.cl implementations of X11. Note that the name of the executable file may be different for miners with different optimizations, for example ccminer for NVIDIA cards.

### Configuration¶

Begin by selecting a mining pool and generating a Dash address as described in the Mining Pools section above. Keep all your mining files in a single folder. In this example we will work from the Desktop. The node selected for this example is from the p2poolming.us list and is located in China:

http://118.184.180.43:7903/static/

Next, open Notepad and create the basic configuration. The general format is as follows:

{
"pools" : [
{
"pass" : "x",
"algorithm":"darkcoin"
}
]
}

Where:

• pools = defines a list of pools (in this case, only one) towards which the hashing power is directed
• url = URL of your mining pool, including the protocol and port
• pass = password, can often be set to x
• algorithm = hashing algorithm to use, in this case darkcoin (for historic reasons) or darkcoin-mod

For the pool above, the configuration may be:

Click File, then Save As. Change Save as type to All Files, then type the file name as sgminer.conf and save it in the same folder as the unzipped sgminer files.

### Testing¶

Double click your sgminer.exe and a Command Prompt window should appear immediately. If it disappears too quickly, check your configuration for missing commas, unclosed brackets or incorrect file name. The program will compile a special binary specific to your GPU and store it in the folder, then begin hashing.

### Optimization¶

#### Wolf0 binaries¶

In 2015, a user named Wolf0 created special binary files (*.bin) for certain AMD graphics cards using the following GPU families:

• Cape Verde: 7730/7750/7770
• Pitcairn: 7850/7870/R9 270/R9 270X
• Tahiti: 7870XT/7950/7970/R9 280/R9 280X
• Hawaii: R9 290/R9 290X/R9 295X2

If this matches your GPU hardware, you can try to replace the file generated automatically the first time you ran sgminer with these special binaries. Take careful note of the algorithm and GPU model, find the right file from Wolf0’s Reddit thread, and place it in the sgminer folder with the exact same name as the automatically generated file, overwriting it.

#### Algorithm¶

A simple change is to replace the darkcoin algorithm with darkcoin-mod in your sgminer.conf file and compare performance. Monitor the hashrate and GPU temperature over some time and choose the algorithm that works best on your hardware.

#### xintensity¶

This is the main option to play around with to improve performance. Intensity correlates with the size of work being submitted at any one time to a GPU. The higher the number the larger the size of work. Generally speaking, finding an optimal value rather than the highest value is the correct approach as hash rate rises up to a point with higher intensities but above that, the device may be very slow to return responses, or produce errors

xintensity is a new setting that replaces the older intensity setting. It should be inserted together with the worksize setting after the pools : [ ] section as follows:

{
"pools" : [
{
"pass" : "x",
"algorithm":"darkcoin"
}
],
"xintensity" : "64",
"worksize": "64"
}

From the documentation:

This new setting allows for a much finer grained intensity setting and also opens up for dual GPU threads on devices not previously able to. Note: make sure to use lower thread-concurrency values when you increase CPU threads. It is simply a shader multiplier, obviously based on the amount of shaders you got on a card, this should allow the same value to scale with different card models.

Try xintensity = 64 first and play around with the number to see which gives you the best performance with the lowest error rate. The higher the number the larger the size of work. Generally speaking finding an optimal value rather than the highest value is the correct approach as hash rate rises up to a point with higher intensities but above that, the device may be very slow to return responses, or produce errors. Or you can Google around for your card with the recommended xintensity setting. Do not change the worksize setting, particularly if using Wolf0’s binaries. Save sgminer.conf in the same folder as your sgminer.exe.

### Tips¶

• Installing the latest display drivers can often improve performance. These can be found here for NVIDIA and AMD.
• If you have problems with old driver versions, try to use a Display Driver Uninstaller tool in safe mode to make sure there is no trace of previous versions.
• If you are feeling adventurous, you can try to overclock your GPU to squeeze out some more performance (at your own risk) using Afterburner. You can do this both by increasing the clock rate and decreasing the voltage to manage heat. Be aware of your maximum GPU temperature, anything above 90 °C risks permanent damage to your GPU.
• If you have a Crossfire setup, disable Crossfire in your ATI Catalyst settings or things will be funky.
• Changing the graphics driver version can influence performance. Some report for AMD cards suggest that Catalyst 14.7-RC3 may offer increased performance.
• You can also try mining under Linux, or compiling your own mining binary from source with specific optimisations for your hardware under either Windows or Linux.

## ASIC Mining¶

ASIC stands for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit and describes a type of processor that is designed for one purpose only. ASICs are a popular choice for mining cryptocurrency because they can offer a higher efficiency than CPU or GPU miners, resulting in higher profit.

Please note that the information on this page may become obsolete very quickly due to the rapidly changing market and difficulty of mining Dash. You are responsible for carrying out your own research and any listing on this page should not be considered an endorsement of any particular product. A good place to begin your research is the mining section of the Dash Forums.

The following X11 ASIC miners are available on the market today, click the product name to visit the manufacturer’s website:

Name Hash rate Power Weight Dimensions (mm) Price
Baikal BK-X 10 GH/s ±5% 800 W 3.8 kg 312 x 125 x 130 $999 Bitmain Antminer D3 17 GH/s ±5% 970 W 6.5 kg 320 x 130 x 190$133
iBelink DM56G 56 GH/s ±5% 2100 W 17 kg 490 x 390 x 180 $1,800 Innosilicon A5 32 GH/s ±8% 750 W 3.1 kg 400 x 135 x 158$990
Spondoolies SPx36 540 GH/s ±10% 4400 W 19.5 kg 640 X 525 X 185 \$15,500

The following ASIC miners are either no longer easily available or obsolete due to the increase in difficulty on the network.

Name Hash rate Power Weight Dimensions (mm)
Baikal Mini 150 MH/s ±10% 40 W .475 kg 140 x 100 x 95
Baikal Giant+ A2000 2000 MH/s ±10% 430 W 3 kg 300 x 140 x 125
Baikal Giant A900 900 MH/s ±5% 217 W 2.5 kg 300 x 123 x 123
Baikal Quad Cube 1200 MH/s ±10% 300 W 3 kg 135 x 135 x 425
iBelink DM384M 384 MH/s ±10% 715 W 21 kg 490 x 350 x 180
iBelink DM11G 11 GH/s ±5% 810 W 22 kg 490 x 350 x 180
iBelink DM22G 22 GH/s ±5% 810 W 19 kg 490 x 350 x 180
Pinidea DR-1 500 MH/s ±10% 320 W 4.5 kg 290 x 130 x 150
Pinidea DR-2 450 MH/s ±5% 335 W 4.5 kg 200 x 165 x 135
Pinidea DR-3 600 MH/s ±5% 345 W 4.5 kg 200 x 165 x 135
Pinidea DU-1 9 MH/s ±5% 7 W   50 x 50 x 30
Pinidea DRX-Kuznetsov 900 MH/s ±5% 650 W   280 x 180 x 150
Pinidea DRX-Varyag 1200 MH/s ±5% 850 W   280 x 180 x 150