How miners can increase their income. Mining several cryptocurrencies at once

In 2021, Nvidia released a new line of RTX 3000 Lite Hash Rate (LHR) graphics cards, which automatically lower the hash rate by 50% when mining Ethereum. This decision was made in order to reduce miners' interest in the graphics cards. But those restrictions did not stop them; some time later, they managed to unlock additional capacity that made LHR cards 74% more efficient.

The mining community is constantly looking for new ways to increase income. Mining two cryptocurrencies simultaneously is one such way. By 2022, enthusiasts have learned how to use different combinations of coins. Learn more about how to set up dual mining and which pairs of cryptocurrencies are the most profitable.

What is dual mining?

Dual mining, or paired mining, is a technology that allows you to mine two cryptocurrencies in parallel on the same device. Accordingly, dual mining takes place in two chains simultaneously, using the Auxiliary Proof of Work (AuxPoW) algorithm. With this system, one of the assets will be the “parent” and the other will be the “auxiliary.”

When dual mining is done with a graphics card, one cryptocurrency uses the graphics processing unit (GPU) and the other uses the central processing unit (CPU). There are also special ASIC miners for mining two cryptocurrencies simultaneously. Gridseed GC3355 belongs to such hardware, you can mine Litecoin together with Dogecoin on such models.

Pairs with Ethereum

Ethereum uses the Ethash hashing algorithm, besides ETH it is used by other cryptocurrencies: Ethereum Classic (ETC), Musicoin (MUSIC), Ubiq (UBQ), Expanse (EXP). Paired with ETH and the previously listed coins you can mine: Alephium (ALPH), Conflux (CFX), Ergo (ERG), RavenCoin (RVN), TonCoin (TON), etc. The profitability of each combination can be calculated using the WhatToMine service.

It is worth noting that dual mining requires a large amount of video memory, as the GPU must store two complete sets of data from each blockchain, which are called directed acyclic graphs (DAGs).

ETH + ERG. This combination requires 8GB of video memory. Mining on RTX 3080Ti can achieve hashing speeds of 35 Mh/s for ETH and 180 Mh/s for ERGO.

ETH + RVN. Dual Ravencoin and Ethereum mining requires at least 10GB of video memory on Windows and 8GB on Linux. Using 3080Ti produces a hashing speed of 35 Mh/s for ETH and 29 Mh/s for Ravencoin.

ETH + CFX. Ethereum and Conflux is the only combination that requires 10 GB of video memory. With the 3080Ti, ETH/CFX hashing speeds reach 36 Mh/s and 60 Mh/s, respectively.

ETH + TON. This bind requires less than 8 GB of video memory. Hashing speeds on 3080Ti will reach 87 Mh/s for ETH and 263 Mh/s for TON. This combination is considered the most profitable as of the end of April 2022, generating 50% more revenue compared to single Ethereum mining.

Setup for Ethereum + Ergo

To start dual ETH + ERG mining, you need to use Claymore's Dual Ethereum Miner for Windows. First of all, you need to register wallets for the selected cryptocurrencies. Secondly, choose the mining pools that support these two assets.

Next, move on to configuring the miner. To do this create a .bat file in the folder with the program. The first part of the file will be for Ethereum, the second one for Ergo.

The final version of the file should look like this:

EthDcrMiner64.exe -epool “Ethereum pool address” -ewal “Ethereum wallet address” -eworker “worker name in Ethereum pool” 
-epsw “worker password in Ethereum pool” -dpool “Decred pool address” -dwal “Ergo wallet address”
-dworker “worker name in Ergo pool ” -dpsw “worker password in Ergo pool” -dcri 30

Note: for some pools it is not necessary to specify the password and the name of the worker, as well as a wallet address, as funds can be credited directly to the platform. There are ready-made presets and services for creating .bat files on the Internet.

The -dcri parameter is responsible for the intensity of Ergo mining, it is recommended to set the parameter at 30 to 45; if you increase the intensity, the hashing speed of coins will start to decrease, and the graphics card will overheat.

After these settings, you need to run Claymore through the previously created .bat file, and then the program will display the hashrate and temperature data in the console. When mining in pairs, the graphics card heats up much faster, so it is recommended to set the maximum allowable temperature at which the process will be automatically interrupted. You can experiment with the settings to achieve the optimal hashrate.

Setup for Ethereum + Toncoin

In February 2022, the developers of lolMiner managed to implement a dual-mining feature for TON and ETH. Mining these two coins is almost 50% more profitable than single Ethereum mining. TON mining requires only 2 to 3 GB of video memory, so it can be done on weaker devices.

First, you need to register wallets for both coins. Next, download lolMiner, the program is available for Windows, Linux, RaveOS, HiveOS. There will be five .bat files in the downloaded archive:

• dual_mine_eth_aleph_herominer.bat
• dual_mine_eth_aleph_woolypooly.bat
• dual_mine_eth_ton_icemining.bat
• dual_mine_eth_ton_toncoinpool.bat
• dual_mine_eth_ton_tonwales.bat

These files are for different TON pools, let's take TonWales as an example.

Note: lolMiner uses the Ethermine pool for ETH mining by default. It is recommended to change it, as the service no longer works with users from Russia.

Open the required .bat in notepad, find the following lines and change the parameters to your own:

set “POOL=pool for Ethereum (default is Ethermine)”
set “WALLET=Ethereum wallet address.device name”
set “TONPOOL=https://server1.whalestonpool.com”
set “TONWALLET=Tomcoin wallet address”

Then run lolMiner through the created file. Mining efficiency will be different on different devices, but considering the profitability of both coins, dual mining will always be more profitable than mining only Ethereum. Detailed statistics on ETH + TON mining can be found at Hashrate.no.

Dual mining of LTC + DOGE and other cryptocurrencies

The Litecoin network uses the Scrypt hashing algorithm. Cryptocurrencies with this algorithm can be effectively mined only on ASIC devices. Dogecoin can be mined in tandem with LTC, but weak ASIC models can be unprofitable if the price of coins decreases.

Litecoin and Doge mining is called merged: this means that it does not separate the hash rate for the two cryptocurrencies, but uses common capacities. As of early 2022, there are two main variants of merged mining: Bitcoin (BTC) and Namecoin (NMC), Litecoin (LTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE). Earlier Litecoin was mined together with Myriadcoin (XMY), but now this combination is not profitable because of the low price of the second coin.

Following pools enable mining LTC + DOGE:

• F2pool
• Litecoinpool
• EMCD

In 2021, Binance launched its own pool for mining these coins in pairs. For each service, setup is slightly different, detailed instructions are on the official website of each pool.

Advantages and disadvantages of dual mining

Pros:

• Using the full potential of the device. Dual mining uses all the processing power of the device, especially if it is a graphics card with LHR.
• Software. There are many software programs for dual mining, which solve all the main problems when setting up.
• It does not slow down Ethereum mining. When pair mining with ETH, its hashrate will not decrease.

Cons:

• Hardware wear and tear. During high loads, graphics cards and ASIC miners heat up a lot, so all fans and other components of the device work at maximum. This significantly reduces the service life of the devices.
• Increased power consumption. With the load on the graphics card, the power consumption also increases, hence the bills for it will be higher.

Dual mining is an interesting opportunity to unlock the full potential of the hardware. Considering the ease of setup, you can experiment with different pairs and find the most profitable one. However, you should be careful and make sure that the hardware does not overheat, and that mining does not become unprofitable due to falling asset rates.