TLDR
This guide starts by introducing Dogecoin as a fun alternative to Bitcoin.
The Dogecoin mining process is then explained and broken into these steps:
- Choosing a Mining Method
- Selecting Mining Hardware
- Setup Mining Hardware and Software
Finally, the guide talks about the risks of mining Dogecoin. These risks include electricity costs, price, fire, and sound pollution.
Purpose and Overview of How to Mine Dogecoin
In the ever-changing world of cryptocurrencies, mining Dogecoin has caught the attention of many people.
Throughout the years, Dogecoin has steadily gained fans and investors alike. However, when Elon Musk started tweeting about it in 2021, its popularity surged.
This has led to an increased interest in learning how to mine DOGE.
As such, this guide will cover the following:
- Understanding how to mine Dogecoin
- Choosing a suitable method to mine Dogecoin
- Selecting the best hardware and software for mining Dogecoin
- Setting up your Dogecoin mining rig
Moreover, is Mining Doge profitable? How long does mining Dogecoins take? How easy or difficult is it to mine a Dogecoin? This guide answers those questions, illuminating the path for anyone interested in how to mine Dogecoin.
We’ll examine how much money you can make and the potential risks of mining Dogecoin. We’ll also talk about how much electricity it uses and why the place you mine can matter. So, let’s embark on this journey of how to mine Dogecoin together.
A Brief Introduction to Dogecoin
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that started in December 2013. The Shiba Inu dog from the “Doge” meme often represents it.
Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, Dogecoins creators, wanted to create a fun and entertaining alternative to Bitcoin.
Even though it began as a joke, Dogecoin has become an important part of the cryptocurrency market. Many crypto fans like it’s more affordable than Bitcoin or Ethereum. Dogecoin also has a big and active community of supporters.
The fact that Dogecoin started as a joke but is now famous shows how quickly things can change in the crypto world. It’s a reminder that the cryptocurrency market is unpredictable and always changing.
Dogecoin Tokenomics
At present, the total market capitalization of Dogecoin stands at around $8.67 billion, with approximately 139.8 billion coins in the circulating supply.
Originally, a cap of 100 billion coins was set. However, in 2014, the coin’s creators removed this cap, making it an inflationary digital currency. This decision aimed to promote a more equal distribution of the currency.
Additionally, the founders wished to prevent major stakeholders (often called ‘whales’) from accumulating a disproportionate share of the coins. To this end, they instituted a flat block reward system through mining.
In maintaining flat block rewards, the inflation rate of this meme-inspired crypto decreases as the supply grows. As a digital currency designed for enjoyment and affordability, this strategy ensures it remains accessible in the long run.
Understanding the Process of Mining
Processing a group of Dogecoin transactions(block) creates a fixed 10,000 new coins. The person who processed the transaction will earn 10,000 DOGE as a block reward. This process is known as mining.
Dogecoin can also be “merged mined.” It means you can mine it and earn DOGE plus another crypto simultaneously. The other crypto must use the Scrypt hashing algorithm, similar to Dogecoin. Litecoin is one such crypto that also uses the Scrypt algorithm.
Merged mining ensures that the network is secure. If anyone mines Scrypt-based crypto, the network can process transactions.
Step 1: Choosing Your Mining Method
But how do you start Dogecoin mining? Let’s go through the mining process below.
Solo Mining
If you choose to mine dogecoin alone, you’ll get to keep all the rewards you earn from mining. But, as many people are mining, you might go weeks or months without finding one block to mine. This is because the network difficulty for mining DOGE is high.
Mining Pools
Alternatively, you can join something called a Dogecoin mining pool. This is like a team where people pool their resources to work together. Doing so increases their chances of getting rewards from mining.
But, joining a mining pool has a cost. You need to share your rewards and pay some fees to the pool. However, it is better to earn smaller amounts of Dogecoins constantly instead of mining solo and taking a long time to earn 10,000 Dogecoins.
Popular Dogecoin mining pools include:
Dogecoin Cloud Mining
Cloud mining means you don’t have to buy and maintain mining equipment. You pay a monthly or yearly fee to a company offering online mining equipment and capabilities.
However, renting computing power from a cloud mining group has risks. Some of these groups might be dishonest and could trick you into a scam, or you might not make as much money as you hoped.
Step 2: Select Your Dogecoin Mining Hardware
Next, you must select the hardware to perform the mining calculations for Dogecoin rewards.
Central Processing Unit (CPU) Mining
You can use your computer’s CPU to mine Dogecoin. However, CPU mining will only get you a tiny bit of Dogecoin worth mining for. It will also take much time and electricity, making it very costly. Mostly, people use CPU mining for educational purposes and not to make a profit.
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) Mining
Crypto miners use popular GPUs such as the Nvidia RTX 3090 as mining machines. These graphics cards balance processing power and price — compared to CPUs.
But, it’s become harder to mine Dogecoin over time. Furthermore, GPUS takes up a lot of electricity. This means it’s not profitable to use a GPU to mine Dogecoin.
ASIC Mining
An ASIC crypto miner is a special machine for mining a specific cryptocurrency. It’s good at this job but can’t do anything else. Furthermore, ASIC miners are a lot more expensive than PCs and GPUs.
Doge mining profitability relies on the cost of computational power and electricity. ASICs have fast computing power while not using as much power as other hardware.
So, although they’re expensive, cryptocurrency miners are willing to pay for them. Additionally, Dogecoin remains one of the top cryptocurrencies to mine with an ASIC.
Top ASIC manufacturers for mining include:
Step3: Dogecoin Mining Hardware and Software Setup
Since an ASIC is the best way to mine Dogecoin, let’s go through the steps to set up an ASIC below.
Setting up an ASIC
ASIC devices have a straightforward setup process. First, connect the power cables from a power supply to the back of the device. After that, connect an Ethernet cable from the internet access point to the back of the ASIC device.
Once that’s done, you need to find the IP address of each ASIC miner on your network. Finding the IP address is easy. Log into your router and check the attached network devices.
You can also use free IP scanning software to view connected devices on the network.
To access the ASIC miner’s settings page, enter its IP address into a web browser. The system will then ask you to enter a username and password.
ASIC manufacturers like Bitmain typically use “root” as the default username and password. Login with the default password and change it for better security.
Set up a Dogecoin Wallet
You need a Dogecoin wallet to receive the mining rewards when using ASICs. Some people use their exchange account address to cash out quickly.
For convenience, others use wallets like Trust Wallet or MetaMask. However, do not use hardware wallets for crypto mining yet. This is because of limitations that could result in losing your crypto.
Start Mining Dogecoin
Sign up for an account with the mining pool you’ve selected. Then, follow the instructions the mining pool gave on connecting your ASIC and wallet to this respective mining pool.
After connecting, wait a few minutes. Then, inspect your ASIC machine’s settings page. You should see a dashboard that shows your mining activity stats, such as hash rate and power consumption. View it to verify that it’s working properly.
Look at your mining pool account settings around 10 to 20 minutes into mining. You should see mining confirmations inside your mining pool’s account settings dashboard.
Remember that each ASIC maker and mining pool may have different UI and setup procedures. The pictures and examples should give you an idea of what to expect.
Finally, check how many Dogecoins are deposited into your wallet to ensure everything works correctly. You can type your wallet address into the Dogecoin blockchain explorer. This tool will show you all the transactions linked to your wallet.
Dogecoin Mining Risks
Dogecoin mining is not without its risks and challenges, as seen below.
Electricity Cost
Mining equipment, such as ASIC miners, uses lots of electricity. Paying for electricity is costly for miners living in areas where energy costs are high. Furthermore, natural disasters or geopolitical conflicts could result in energy costs soaring.
Some cryptocurrency miners find ways to access cheap renewable energy and use it to mine crypto. Would-be miners should use online mining calculators to help estimate their profitability.
Most of these online mining calculators will consider how much hashing power your ASICs or GPUs have, their electricity usage, current energy costs, and the current price of Dogecoin.
Volatile Prices
As cryptocurrency prices are volatile, dogecoin miners may lose money if the price of Dogecoin becomes too low. The mined block rewards may not cover the cost of electricity, initial equipment investment, and equipment maintenance costs.
Fire Hazard
ASIC devices have to work very hard, which makes them very hot. They could overheat and start a fire if not kept cool enough or maintained regularly. This risk is even bigger when many ASICs are used closely in big mining setups.
Even if someone only used one ASIC, it could cause heat problems if not managed properly.
Noise Pollution
One ASIC generates a lot of noise. When many ASICs are used in huge mining setups, it creates a noise problem.
Being around loud noise all the time can affect a miner’s health. It could also cause problems with neighbors if the mining is done in a residential area.
To solve this, miners can buy special soundproofing solutions or set up mining in remote locations.
Extra Help and Resources
Extra help and resources may be found through online forums such as Reddit. Useful subreddits include Dogemining, Cryptomining, and ASICMinersTalk.
Other online resources can be found in a mining pool’s community forum. The ProHashing forums are where experienced miners discuss their experiences, share insights on profitability, and receive technical support.
Finally, you can seek websites with the latest cryptocurrency news and updates.
By actively reading these websites and participating in these communities, miners can keep abreast of the latest trends, strategies, and changes in the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency mining.
Conclusion
Though Doge mining difficulty has gotten harder, it’s still possible to mine Dogecoin profitably. This is achieved by using ASIC miners and joining a mining pool with Dogecoin and Litecoin merged mining available.
Furthermore, the Dogecoin miner’s geographic location should be a low-energy cost location, ideally with renewable energy. However, they must manage the fire risks and noise pollution of using ASIC devices.
Finally, in your quest to learn how to mine Dogecoin, help and resources are available online via subreddits, news websites, and mining pool forums.
Mining profit depends on electricity costs, the hardware used, and Dogecoin's price. Let's use one L7 ASIC miner, assuming a 1.5% fee and $0.125/kWh energy cost for merging mining Dogecoin and Litecoin.
We then enter these numbers into WhatToMine's Dogecoin profitability calculator. The calculator estimates we will earn $230.52 per month per ASIC device.
The formula to calculate the time to mine a Dogecoin block is as follows:
(The Network's Hash Rate / Your Personal Hash rate) * Block Time.
One L7 ASIC miner will mine one Dogecoin block reward once in 2.5 months based on the current Dogecoin network difficulty. As a Dogecoin block reward yields 10,000 Dogecoins, it takes around 2.5 months to mine 10,000 Dogecoins.
Dogecoin mining requires computing devices of sufficient power to perform mining. You can mine Dogecoin for free if you already have a computer and a GPU. However, ASIC mining machines will have the best results.
If you mine with ASICs, you need CGMiner or MultiMiner to manage multiple mining devices and speed up block detection remotely. Additionally, Multi Miner also supports GPU devices for mining.
For comparison, CGMiner uses a command line interface, while MultiMiner has a GUI interface for ease of use.
Susan Oh
Susan Oh is a leading figure in the integration of AI and blockchain for social good, serving as the CMO for BeOmni by Beyond Imagination and a civic technologist dedicated to creating scalable solutions. She is a board member of the Blockchain Commission For Sustainable Development supported by the UN GA Office of Partnerships, and a member of the Global Sustainability Network, a joint initiative by the Vatican and the Church of England to combat human trafficking. Recognized with the...
