How to mine litecoin

How to mine Litecoin

Litecoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open-source software project released under the MIT/X11 license. It was forked from Bitcoin in October 2011. LTC mining uses the Scrypt mining algorithm and has 84 million total mineable coins.

When you mine Litecoin with f2pool, you can receive Dogecoin rewards following the PPLNS mining scheme.

Feel free to check out the Official website and block explorer to get more familiar with Litecoin before continuing. You can also find a summary of Litecoin metrics and other resources on our Litecoin page.

1. Obtain suitable hardware

вњ… Litecoin can be efficiently mined with ASIC mining machines.

вќЊ Litecoin cannot be efficiently mined with CPU or GPU cards.

View our Miners page to discover the most profitable ASIC machines for Litecoin mining.

And don’t forget to check our Mining Hardware Tools page to download the necessary software for setting up your device.

2. Sign up for an f2pool account

Sign up to create an f2pool account, then log in.

3. Configure your mining device

You must use your f2pool mining account and your miner must be connected to one of the f2pool servers listed below for your hashrate and revenue to be recorded and monitored.

You’ll need to enter the following information in your mining device:

URL: An f2pool server URL

Username: miningAccountUsername.workerName

Password: Your choice

The list of f2pool mining pool servers is available here, as well as in the table below. Please use the server closest to your mining operation for a better connection and lower latency.

Your miningAccountUsername is in your Account Settings.

workerName is optional, but we recommend labeling each of your mining devices with a separate workerName for more efficient monitoring.

Litecoin mining pool servers

Location	Server
EU	stratum+tcp://ltc-eu.f2pool.com:8888
NA	stratum+tcp://ltc-na.f2pool.com:8888
CN	stratum+tcp://ltc.f2pool.com:8888

Ports 5200 and 3335 can be used as alternative ports for each server.

4. Add payout address

You’ll need to register a payout address to collect your mining revenue. You can add or change your payout address in your Payout Settings. f2pool distributes mining revenues on a daily basis to every user who reaches the payout threshold, which is 0.02 LTC. Details about our payout method and fees can be found here.

To receive free DOGE by mining Litecoin, you will need to obtain a DOGE wallet address.

If you do not yet have a Litecoin address, you’ll need to get one. We recommend Cobo Wallet or Bixin Wallet. You can also choose an exchange, such as Binance or OKex. Note: You should always do your own due diligence when choosing a wallet provider or exchange.

5. Start mining!

Your machines are now ready to mine! You can manage your account settings and monitor your hashrate, revenue, and payouts in your dashboard or in our f2pool app.

If you run into any problems mining Litecoin, please feel free to reach out to our customer service team at support@f2pool.com, open a support ticket, or start a conversation on reddit.

To stay updated with the latest PoW news and developments, follow us on Twitter!

Источник

How to Mine Litecoin | Beginner’s Guide

A tutorial with everything you need to know to start mining Litecoin.

“I describe Bitcoin as “a digital version of gold” eGold.”
― Arif Naseem

Bitcoin (BTC) has skyrocketed in value in the past few years, well beyond that of mere mortals. Those of us left watching the meteoric BTC rise secretly wish we had cashed in early. Well, let me tell you a secret: with Litecoin (LTC) you still have time.

“Litecoin is the Silver to Bitcoin’s Gold”
― Charlie Li

Both the average consumer and aspiring miner are stuck on the sidelines with Bitcoin – not so with Litecoin. This marvelous counterpoint to Litecoin has, since inception in 2011, clawed its way to fifth place for cryptocurrencies by market cap. $4.5B worth of Litecoin are zipping about in cyberspace, and over 25% of the total supply is still up for grabs.

Litecoin might not have the sky-high prices of crypto gold, but it sure does command a great deal of interest as a viable alternative to BTC. While many average miners are priced out of the BTC mining rush, you can still get into the Litecoin mining game. With a bit of research, you can become a Litecoin miner.

What is Cryptocurrency Mining?

Each cryptocurrency lives on a blockchain, a distributed ledger that records transactions. This ledger is made up of thousands of computers that power the network by running mining software, which constantly solves complex logarithmic equations to confirm transaction information. Mining computers are sporadically rewarded with new coins for solving the equation.

Mining fulfills two functions of the cryptocurrency network. Miners ensure the network is secure and trustworthy by verifying network transactions. Successful miners also receive new coins as a reward, which increases supply and further incentivizes miners to continue supporting the network.

You may be wondering: is mining lucrative? The answer depends on the coin, your resources, and how you choose to go about mining.

What You Need to Know About Litecoin

Before we get into the nitty-gritty on how to mine this precious eSilver, let’s do a quick rundown of just what LTC is and what the main facts.

Charlie Li, former Google employee created Litecoin in 2011 to address some of the shortcomings of BTC. Li created this popular altcoin with a few distinct advantages:

• More total coins: Litecoin’s maximum supply is 84M while BTC tops out at 21M.
• Faster transaction processing: blocks are processed every 2.5 minutes, compared to BTC’s 10 minutes
• Different cryptographic algorithms: LTC utilizes Scrypt instead of the more complex SHA-256 employed by BTC.

LTC is a fork of the original Bitcoin Core client and was designed to be a ‘lighter’ version of BTC, hence the name. Here are some fast facts for the current state of LTC:

• 7,200 Litecoins are mined per day
• A successful mining block earns 12.5 LTC ($875 as of this writing)
• Over 75% of Litecoins have been mined (September 2019)
• The last Litecoin will be mined on or around 2140
• Litecoin halves every four years
• Litecoin will halve 32 total times

Halving is an important element of any cryptocurrency. We won’t get into the details here, but in short, halving decreases the rewards a miner gets for successfully mining a coin. For a more in-depth review, jump over to our article on Bitcoin halving, which shares many similarities with Litecoin. No need to worry now, Litecoin won’t halve again until August 2023.

Ways to Mine Litecoin

Back when LTC started, it was possible to mine with a standard computer’s CPU or GPU. Unfortunately, as coins grow in both age and popularity, it becomes harder and harder to mine with low-cost equipment. The days of easy mining are over, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t profit from LTC mining.

A note of caution: the more powerful your rig the better chance you have of scoring LTC. Keep this in mind when you consider how much you want to invest. The costs of a good rig and 24/7 electricity may be in the thousands of dollars.

There are three ways to begin your LTC mining adventure:

1. Solo mining
2. Part of a mining pool
3. Cloud mining

If you don’t want to share the rewards of mining and are interested in learning the ropes yourself, solo mining is the way to go. The downside here is that you will have to bear the full brunt of the costs of mining. You may go for extended periods without winning any LTC.

On the other hand, a mining pool functions the same as solo mining, except you get to pool your resources with other miners for a better chance to get a payout. Both solo mining and mining with a pool require the purchase of specialized mining hardware, either an ASIC miner or dedicated GPUs.

For those looking to outsource the hardware requirements, cloud mining is the right way to go. This requires you select an appropriate cloud mining company, choose the right mining package, and select a good mining pool.

How to Get Started

So, you’re ready to jump into mining? Not so fast. Unless you are just out for fun, you’ll want to use a Litecoin Profit Calculator to make sure your mining efforts don’t break the bank. Make sure to check in with the calculator when considering your hardware and mining pool costs.

If you have questions or need advice, check out the LTC subreddit. This active subreddit can help you design the best Litecoin miner.

Step 1: Hardware

Your mining computer, or rig, is the critical piece that will determine how effective you are at minting new coins. Litecoin rigs can have from two to five GPUs or more. The rig will also require significant RAM and cooling for the rig. We won’t go into the details of building a rig in this article.

If you’d prefer a more customized option, then an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) is a better bet. This is a dedicated mining machine. For Litecoin, you’ll want to buy an ASIC Scrypt miner. Bonus: You can mine any Scrypt-based cryptocurrency, so you aren’t bound to LTC.

Below are a few Scrypt miners available on the market. Not all miners are created equal, so do your research on power versus affordability.

Step 2: Wallet

If you don’t already have one, you’ll need to select a cryptocurrency wallet to store your newly minted Litecoins. Below are a few different options.

1. Litecoin Core. This is the official wallet of LTC and is a desktop wallet.
2. Atomic Wallet. Another desktop wallet, this time for more than just LTC.
3. LoafWallet. An Android and iOS mobile wallet for LTC.
4. Ledger Nano S. One of many hardware wallets and one of our top picks.

Step 3: Setup the Mining Program

There are several mining programs that to choose from, so make sure you do your research on the best one for your rig. For those who went with an ASIC, it should have mining software already installed. The specifics of configuring a mining program are beyond the scope of this article.

For those looking for more detail, head over to the LTC wiki for mining software.

Step 4 (Optional): Select a Mining Pool

For those interested in pooling mining resources, selecting a pool is a critical part of the process. Pools have different fees and minimum payouts and have certain hardware requirements. Follow these five guidelines when evaluating a pool.

1. Does the pool support my mining hardware? Some pools won’t support GPU- or smartphone-based mining. Make sure you check.
2. How does the pool allocate mining resources? Pools can and do prioritize miners with better hardware, distributing payouts to members with more capital. Check to see how your pool will treat you and your hardware.
3. What is the fee structure? Pool fees vary from 0% to 3% (or more). Be aware of the costs of entering the pool.
4. Is my pool secure? Security is an ever-present problem with cryptocurrencies. As this won’t be going away any time soon, make sure your pool offers a secure connection and can withstand DDoS attacks.
5. Is my pool going to pay me? Pools have thresholds for payment. This means miners with weaker hardware may struggle to get paid over miners with better hardware.

Now that you have an idea of what to look for, here is a selection of mining pools that offer LTC.

Want to avoid the pools with the most users? Check out the hash rate distribution here.

Step 5: Start Mining (Profit)

You are on your way to making LTC bank. Good luck.

Источник

How Do You Mine Litecoin?

First things first. If you’re only interested in owning litecoin, you should probably buy it from an exchange such as Coinbase. If, on the other hand, you want to try your hand at mining litecoin – because you think you have the time and resources necessary to make a profit, because you want to help keep the litecoin network decentralized, or out of a sense of curiosity – this guide will give you a sense of the concepts, an introduction to the vocabulary, and suggestions for further research.

Because the nitty-gritty of litecoin mining depends so much on your hardware, software, operating system and pool, this is not a step-by-step tutorial. If you’ve gotten those variables figured out, there are good guides available online and helpful forums for when search engines fail you. Depending on your level of expertise, you may want to pass over certain sections of this guide. Use the links in the table below to skip to a section.

Investing in cryptocurrencies and other Initial Coin Offerings («ICOs») is highly risky and speculative, and this article is not a recommendation by Investopedia or the writer to invest in cryptocurrencies or other ICOs. Since each individual’s situation is unique, a qualified professional should always be consulted before making any financial decisions. Investopedia makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or timeliness of the information contained herein. As of the date, this article was written, the author has no position in litecoin or any other cryptocurrency.

1. What Is Mining?

In proof-of-work cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and litecoin, mining is the process by which the blockchain – a distributed ledger of all transactions ever made on the network – is maintained. Miners receive transaction data broadcast by the various participants in the network since the last block was found, they assemble those transactions into structures called Merkle trees, and they work to find an acceptable hash.

A hash is a result of running a one-way cryptographic algorithm on a chunk of data: a given dataset will only ever return one hash, but the hash cannot be used to recreate the data. Instead, it serves the purpose of efficiently ensuring that the data has not been tampered with. Change even one number in an arbitrarily long string of transactions, and the hash will come out unrecognizably different. Since every block contains the previous block’s hash, the network can know instantly if someone has tried to insert a bogus transaction anywhere into the ledger, without having to comb through it in its entirety every 2.5 minutes.

The mining process illustrated. This image comes from our bitcoin infographic, but litecoin miners follow the same process.

Why must miners run these hash functions over and over again, if doing it once – a near-instantaneous process for a modern computer – would do the trick? The reason is that, by harnessing a lot of hash power, an attacker could spend some coins, then pile a huge number of spam transactions on top of it – ones that do not reference the attacker’s original spend. In this way they could spend their coins and have them too; this is known as a double-spend attack. By requiring the network to plug through millions or billions of hash functions, the blockchain generates so much «work» that undoing it or overwhelming it would be too expensive. (Since a given set of data only generates one hash output, miners must append meaningless numbers known as nonces to the end and run the function again.)

Mining is competitive. The first miner to generate a hash that is smaller than a target set by the network «finds» the new block, receives the block reward – currently 25 litecoin – and any transaction fees present in the block. Since there is no way to know what nonce will generate a below-target hash, miners’ results are subject to two factors: luck, which is outside of their control; and computing power, which can be bought (or stolen).

To maximize their computing power, miners have developed specialized gear to plow through hash functions as fast as possible. They have assembled enormous collections of these machines, pooled their resources, and concentrated in places where electricity is cheap, so as to maximize profits. These trends have led to the increasing centralization and professionalization of mining.

2. Why Mine Litecoin?

In October 2011 Charlie Lee, then a software engineer at Google, announced the creation of litecoin, a clone of bitcoin with modifications intended to help it scale more effectively. A little over seven years later, the cryptocurrency has demonstrated the kind of staying power other early bitcoin alternatives couldn’t. (Remember SolidCoin?)

Litecoin’s price at the time of writing is just under $180, down precipitously from a high of $420 in December, but orders of magnitude above the sub-$4 levels it traded at 12 months ago. According to BitInfoCharts, average transaction fees in dollar terms are much lower ($0.25) than those for bitcoin ($11.30). With a new block mined every 2.5 minutes – four times faster than bitcoin – litecoin transactions require much less time to gain confirmations. Litecoin can hardly claim to have scaled the way that centralized payment systems like Visa have, but Lee’s claim to have created the «silver to Bitcoin’s gold» has some merit to it.

3. Mining Hardware

One of Lee’s initial claims has not held up, however: the ability to mine litecoin using a computer’s central processing unit (CPU). Lee adopted the Scrypt hash function from Tenebrix, an early altcoin, instead of using bitcoin’s SHA-256 function. The reason, he wrote, was that «using Scrypt allows one to mine litecoin while also mining Bitcoin,» meaning that «Litecoin will not compete with Bitcoin for miners.» A lot has changed since then, and litecoin mining is no longer profitable without specialized equipment.

In the early days, even bitcoin could be mined using a CPU. By 2011, the competition had ramped up, and the only way to mine bitcoin profitably was using a graphics processing unit (GPU). By choosing Scrypt, Lee allowed litecoin to be mined on CPUs, but that didn’t last long either. Soon GPUs were being used to mine litecoin as well. Then application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) were developed to run SHA-256, and bitcoin miners moved away from GPUs.

Lee said in March 2017 that this transition partly explains his creation’s success: litecoin «got lucky where, when bitcoin mining went from GPUs to ASIC, all the bitcoin GPUs were looking for a coin to mine, and litecoin just happened to have transitioned from CPU to GPU at that time.» Soon enough, however, ASICs were developed for Scrypt, and today it would be difficult if not impossible to turn a profit using anything but ASICs. One popular ASIC for Scrypt mining is Bitmain’s Antminer L3+, but batches tend to sell out almost immediately, meaning you have to watch Twitter like a hawk; the company only accepts bitcoin cash and USD wire transfers (for some batches it only takes the former). Innosilicon is accepting pre-orders for a competitor, the A4+ LTCMaster. Other options are available, but the newest ASICs tend to run at least $2,000 and sell out quickly. Older ASICs may not be competitive, making it hard to turn a profit.

Note that Scrypt ASICs can also be used to mine other coins based on the same algorithm; you can choose the most profitable coin to mine based on relative price and difficulty (a parameter the network sets to make sure a new block is mined every 2.5 minutes on average, whatever the total hash power).

As long as you’re aware that you won’t make money, you might have your reasons for mining with a CPU or GPU. It’s a way to get exposure to the process, to familiarize yourself with the vocabulary and concepts, and to avoid dropping thousands of dollars on a pursuit you find out doesn’t interested you.

And if you’re an altruist, offering your tiny sliver of hash-power to the network is a way to reduce its centralization. «Centralized mining is pretty bad for bitcoin and litecoin,» Lee says, «because mining is supposed to be anonymous, where you don’t know who the miners are, and they’re all individually acting selfishly to make the money, which indirectly makes the coin secure.» On the other hand, a laptop’s worth of hash power won’t make a dent in the big miners’ market share, and you’re likely to inflict wear and tear on your equipment.

4. Mining Software

If you are ASIC mining, your hardware likely comes pre-installed with mining software. If you are CPU or GPU mining, you will need to choose your own software, keeping security in mind. A software package could contain malware. You should also watch out for other tricky, if not outright malicious, behavior. It’s easy enough to find yourself accidentally mining on behalf of the software’s developer because their system configures their worker as the default.

GUI versions of mining software are not always available, so you may have to use the command line. The software’s provider and your pool (see next section) should explain the necessary steps. Don’t follow instructions from sources you don’t trust: it’s easy to wreak havoc on your system using the command line, and tricking the inexperienced into doing so is some people’s idea of a good time.

5. Pool or Solo?

Once you’ve decided what equipment you’ll use to mine, you need to decide how to mine: solo or in a pool. Mining alone, you risk going long periods of time without finding a block. When you do find a block mining solo, however, you keep it all – the whole 25 litecoin plus fees. To be clear, this tradeoff exists only if you have a lot of hash power (multiple ASICs). If you’re solo mining using GPU or CPU, you have essentially zero chance of ever earning any litecoin.

Pool mining, in which large numbers of miners combine and distribute the proceeds according to the hash power contributed, is still subject to the vagaries of chance: your pool might find three blocks out of 10, then wait for 200 blocks to find another one. Even so, your earnings are almost certain to be more steady with a pool; the tradeoff is that you only earn a small cut of each block the pool finds.

Another aspect of pools to consider is security. Some pools have excellent reputations, but others fall on the spectrum from questionably managed to outright scams. Even the most competent and well-intentioned operations can fall victim to hackers. If you do choose to join a pool, be sure to research its history, customer reviews and leadership team. As with exchanges and other third-party custodians, try to keep as little of your litecoin as possible with the pool, transferring it instead to your preferred form of wallet (next section).

Finally, keep in mind the market concentration of the pool you want to join. It can be tempting to join the biggest pool since it likely offers the greatest chance of finding blocks frequently and turning a profit. If your pool reaches half the network’s hashing power, though, it represents a risk to the litecoin network itself. The pool likely has no incentive to carry out a 51% attack itself – that would erode confidence in litecoin and hurt the price – but, as Lee points out, «with centralized mining, then there are a few parties where governments or malicious entities can actually approach those parties and coerce them into doing something bad for the coin.»

6. Wallets

You’ll need a place to store your litecoin, known as a wallet. You have a range of options, which impose tradeoffs in terms of security and convenience. The best balance is probably to download the Litecoin Core client. This will take up around 15 gigabytes of space since the client downloads the entire litecoin blockchain (unlike with ethereum, you can change where these files are stored, so it’s possible to keep them on an external hard drive).

The core is the most reputable wallet software for litecoin, suggesting that it’s relatively secure. It can be used to send and receive litecoin, making it relatively convenient. As long as it’s kept synced with the network, it also contributes to litecoin’s overall health: running «full nodes» (full, synced copies of the blockchain) helps to keep litecoin decentralized, whether you are mining or not.

On the other hand, if your priority is security, it’s best to keep your litecoin stored in one or more cold wallets – ones that have never been connected to the internet. People dealing with large sums of cryptocurrency sometimes generate key pairs on fully air-gapped computers. Others use paper wallets, storing their keys in physical form as QR codes or strings of numbers and letters. Some even advocate «brain wallets»: remembering a series of random «seed» words that can be used to recreate a private key.

At the other extreme are the exchanges, which provide the most convenient experience available to cryptocurrency holders. By keeping your litecoin on an exchange, you’re able to swap it quickly for fiat currency. Relatively, that is. Even the best exchanges experience frequent trading outages. Historically, cryptocurrency exchanges have been prone to massive hacks and spectacular collapse. Exchanges keep your private keys in custody, so while you might legally or notionally control your litecoin, you cannot move it. You can only ask the exchange to do so.

7. Workers

Choosing a pool can be stressful. So can choosing a wallet. Litecoin itself is just about unhackable, so long as no pool gains more than 50% of the network’s hash power, but every additional layer between you and the litecoin network requires a measure of trust and potentially threatens your security.

Which is why the process for setting up a worker is such a nice respite: basically no precautions are required. A worker represents a computer or mining rig on a pool. You might have just one, or you might want to set up several, each corresponding to a different machine. Each worker will have a username (all housed under your username at the mining pool) and a password. You can make the password «1234» or «password,» if you want. If someone compromises your worker, all they can do is mine cryptocurrency for you.

8. Profitability

Calculating the profitability of your litecoin mining operation depends on a number of factors: your hash-rate, the fees your pool charges, the cost of your electricity, the upfront cost of your equipment, and the price of litecoin. A number of mining profitability calculators are available online to help you make these calculations. CoinWarz is one example.

9. Resources

Hopefully, this guide has helped you get a grasp of the concepts involved in litecoin mining, the decisions you’ll have to make, and some of the considerations that should factor into those decisions. Once you get started, though, you’re almost certain to have specific questions regarding your pool, your hardware, your software, and your exchange. Forums are the best place to get answers: your question has probably already been asked, but if it hasn’t, you can pose it yourself. Litecoin mining and litecoin subreddits are great places to start.

Источник