Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency is decentralized digital money designed to be used over the internet. Bitcoin, which launched in 2008, was the first cryptocurrency, and it remains by far the biggest, most influential, and best-known. In the years since, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum have grown as digital alternatives to money issued by governments. There are now over 20,000 different cryptocurrencies in circulation.
Buying
The easiest way to acquire cryptocurrency is to purchase on an online exchange like Coinbase, which is the world's most trusted and most secure platform to buy, sell and manage crypto.
Top Assets
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Tether
- XRP
- Cardano
- Dogecoin
- Solana
- TRON
- Litecoin
- Polygon
https://www.coinbase.com/browse
Exchange Rate
BTC / GBP - how many bitcoins to get to £1
Exchanges
Binance
Convert
You can convert between cryptocurrency for free in Binance.
Convert from US Dollar Coin (USDC) to US Dollar Tether (USDT) with zero fees.
- Binance > Convert > Amount > Convert > Confirm
Then, you can use your USDT to run a Crypto Trading Bot.
Coinbase
Transfer
Transfer from Coinbase to Binance for FREE
Use the MATIC Polygon network to move US Dollar Coin (USDC) from Coinbase to Binance with zero fees.
- Binance > Wallet Overview > Deposit > Crypto Deposit > Select Coin > USDC > Select Network > MATIC Polygon > Deposit Address > Copy
- Coinbase > My Assets > USD Coin > Click the 3 dots > Send > Amount > Paste Address (from Binance) > Continue > Change Network > MATIC Polygon > Send
API
Prices
curl -s https://api.coinbase.com/v2/prices/ETH-USD/spot | jq -r .data.amount
ByBit
AI
BotCrypto - Crypto Trading Bots
Trading
Pionex
How do I transfer assets from Coinbase to Pionex?
Links
A Complete Guide to Cryptocurrency Trading for Beginners
Investocks - Investocks allows you to actively invest in most popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin and more, profit from market rallies and declines, or hedge your existing cryptocurrency holdings.
Staking
Staking is a process by which individuals lock their cryptocurrency (their "stake") to support the security and operation of a blockchain network. When someone stakes their coins, they are essentially helping to secure the chain and validate transactions on the blockchain.
Staking is only possible on blockchains such as Ethereum and Cardano based on a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. PoS differs from the proof-of-work (PoW) used in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, where miners use computing power to validate transactions. Staking coins makes users' holdings less liquid because the coins are tied up in the staking process.
Individuals can usually still access their staked coins but may only be able to use them for other purposes once they are no longer staked. You can unstake your crypto at any time, and your crypto is always yours.
Example rates ...
- Solana = 4.35%
- Ethereum = 3.29%
- Cardano = 2.00%
Coinbase Help - Earn Rewards with Staking
Binance Help - What is Staking?
Stablecoins
Stablecoins are tokens pegged to an external asset, such as gold or the U.S. dollar, which ensures price stability. These coins are usually backed by the external asset, commonly USD, minimizing risk. Nonetheless, some stablecoins are collateralized by other cryptocurrencies, which elevates the risk factor. Stablecoins are generally less volatile. For instance, USDC remains fixed at $1 and is supported by numerous financial institutions. In a highly unstable market, stablecoins offer stability by being collateralized.
- US Dollar Coin (USDC) = 4.60%
Hardware Wallets
A crypto hardware wallet is a secure physical device for storing and managing cryptocurrency private keys offline.
https://www.howtogeek.com/804636/best-crypto-hardware-wallet/
Tax
UK Tax Law - Easily sync wallets and prepare HRMC forms
Mining
Cryptocurrency mining is the process of validating transactions and adding them to a blockchain by solving complex mathematical puzzles, typically done using powerful computers to earn rewards. (Thanks My ChapGPT:)
Mining is the process that Bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies use to generate new coins and verify new transactions. It involves vast, decentralized networks of computers around the world that verify and secure blockchains - the virtual ledgers that document cryptocurrency transactions.
Hash Rate
How Is The Hash Rate Measured & its Unit?
Hash rate is a unit measured in hashes per second or [h/s] and here are some usual denominations used to refer it.
Hash rate denominations
1 kH/s is 1,000 (one thousand) hashes per second - "kilohash". 1 MH/s is 1,000,000 (one million) hashes per second - "megahash". 1 GH/s is 1,000,000,000 (one billion) hashes per second - "gigahash". 1 TH/s is 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) hashes per second - "terahash". 1 PH/s is 1,000,000,000,000,000 (one quadrillion) hashes per second - "petahash". 1 EH/s is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (one quintillion) hashes per second - "extahash".
List of Mining Pools
Braiins Pool - superb!
https://wheretomine.io/pools/all
Solo Lottery Mining
This is the least amount of effort for the slimest chance of a high reward (about 180 Billion to one).
XMRig
XMRig is a high performance, open source, cross platform RandomX, KawPow, CryptoNight and GhostRider unified CPU/GPU miner and RandomX benchmark. Official binaries are available for Windows, Linux, macOS and FreeBSD.
Installation and Usage
System Tweaks
First, if you have 4GB or more RAM for your rig, then enable Huge Pages support in Linux, which will improve your mining performance ...
sudo bash -c "echo vm.nr_hugepages=1280 >> /etc/sysctl.conf" sudo sysctl -w vm.nr_hugepages=1280
Reduce CPU Usage
In your config, look for something like:
"rx/0": [-1, -1, -1],
The number of -1's will be the number of threads the miner will use (in the above case, it's configured to use 3 threads). Just start removing -1's until you get the overall CPU usage you're looking for.
Compile Software
Generate Configuration
Generate your config file using the XMRig Wizard, which will look something like this ...
{
"autosave": true,
"cpu": true,
"opencl": false,
"cuda": false,
"pools": [
{
"coin": "monero",
"algo": "rx/0",
"url": "stratum+tcp://randomxmonero.auto.nicehash.com:9200",
"user": "NHbLd5exQeCGGyWnopVoLHLbzexKN5z8iq7p.raspberrypizero2",
"pass": "x",
"tls": false,
"keepalive": true,
"nicehash": true
}
]
}
Start XMRig
Then, save it to a file and use that on the command line ...
./xmrig -c /Users/paullittlefield/xmrig_config.json
If successful you will see the following ...
* ABOUT XMRig/6.20.0 clang/13.0.0
* LIBS libuv/1.46.0 OpenSSL/3.1.2 hwloc/2.9.2
* HUGE PAGES supported
* 1GB PAGES unavailable
* CPU Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4308U CPU @ 2.80GHz (1) 64-bit AES
L2:0.5 MB L3:3.0 MB 2C/4T NUMA:1
* MEMORY 6.2/8.0 GB (77%)
DIMM0: 4 GB DDR3 @ 1600 MHz 0x484D54343531533641465238412D50422020
DIMM0: 4 GB DDR3 @ 1600 MHz 0x484D54343531533641465238412D50422020
* MOTHERBOARD Apple Inc. - Mac-189A3D4F975D5FFC
* DONATE 1%
* ASSEMBLY auto:intel
* POOL #1 stratum+tcp://randomxmonero.auto.nicehash.com:9200 coin Monero
* COMMANDS hashrate, pause, resume, results, connection
* OPENCL disabled
* CUDA disabled
[2023-08-10 21:47:09.349] net use pool randomxmonero.auto.nicehash.com:9200 34.149.22.228
[2023-08-10 21:47:09.350] net new job from randomxmonero.auto.nicehash.com:9200 diff 238106 algo rx/0 height 52433
[2023-08-10 21:47:09.350] cpu use argon2 implementation AVX2
[2023-08-10 21:47:09.350] randomx init dataset algo rx/0 (4 threads) seed c5596b1df4d0b3f5...
[2023-08-10 21:47:09.942] randomx allocated 2336 MB (2080+256) huge pages 0% 0/1168 +JIT (592 ms)
[2023-08-10 21:47:20.091] randomx dataset ready (10148 ms)
[2023-08-10 21:47:20.091] cpu use profile rx (2 threads) scratchpad 2048 KB
[2023-08-10 21:47:21.257] cpu READY threads 2/2 (2) huge pages 0% 0/2 memory 4096 KB (1167 ms)
[2023-08-10 21:47:39.118] net new job from randomxmonero.auto.nicehash.com:9200 diff 238106 algo rx/0 height 52433
NVIDIA CUDA
The CUDA plugin build is optional and only required if you like to use NVIDIA GPUs. Follow instructions on https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads to install CUDA then do the following ...
git clone https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig-cuda.git mkdir xmrig-cuda/build && cd xmrig-cuda/build cmake .. -DCUDA_LIB=/usr/local/cuda/lib64/stubs/libcuda.so -DCUDA_TOOLKIT_ROOT_DIR=/usr/local/cuda make -j$(nproc)
Then, continue with the main XMRig installation.
https://xmrig.com/docs/miner/build/ubuntu
NiceHash
NiceHash is the world's leading hashpower marketplace, where you connect your computers as miners and earn Bitcoin for every share.
Links
CPU and GPU Mining with NiceHash QuickMiner
NiceHash Rig Manager User Guide
Connect HiveOS rig to NiceHash
Mining Hardware
| Type | Name | Speed | NiceHash Profitability |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU M 380 @ 2.53GHz | 0.20 kH/s | 0.00000035 |
| CPU | Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4250U CPU @ 1.30GHz | 0.25 kH/s | 0.00000111 |
| CPU | Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6200U CPU @ 2.30GHz | 0.75 kH/s | 0.00000125 |
| CPU | AMD FX(tm)-4350 Quad-Core Processor @ 4.20GHz | 0.95 kH/s | 0.00000104 |
| GPU | Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 | 7.15 kH/s | ???? |
| ASIC | LKETC Dragon | 130.00 kH/s | on public-pool.airdns.org low difficulty |
| ASIC | GekkoScience 2PAC | 9.80 GH/s | on Braiins Pool |
| ASIC | GekkoScience COMPAC-F | 120.80 GH/s | on Braiins Pool |
| Example | Example | Example | Example |
Disable X on NiceHash OS
- Set your SSH password and/or SSH Key in the
configuration.jsonfile on the root of the USB drive. - Use the USB drive in your computer and boot as normal.
- Watch the NHM4 Information screen for registration and check your web Dashboard for the rig to appear correctly.
- Log in to your rig over SSH and type 'sudo -i' to become root.
- First, disable X with the command
systemctl disable lightdm.service - Second, make the boot console only with the command
nano /etc/default/gruband change the lines so that it they readGRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text nomodeset quiet consoleblank=60"andGRUB_TERMINAL=console - Type the command
update-grubto save your changes. - Then, type
rebootand watch the magic happen :)
Help
How to make a Coinbase withdrawal from NiceHash
Hiveon
Hiveon is the ultimate mining platform which allows users to setup, mine and control processes more effectively and hassle-free across thousands of rigs all from a single place. Everything you and your team need to keep your farm at peak efficiency.
- Farm = a group of rigs which mine.
- Rig = a mining device equipped with a motherboard, CPU, RAM, SSD/HDD, and GPU.
- Worker = a piece of hardware which will mine.
Setup
I really needed these simple, step by step instructions because it is not clear and some of the links are dead (sigh).
STAGE 1
- create an account at Hiveon
- confirm the link in the email
- log in
- your first farm will be automatically created
- click add rig
- follow the wizard to download the Hiveon OS and burn it to your USB drive
- in the wizard, download the rig.conf file
- when the USB drive has finished being created, take it out, then back in and mount HIVE partition
- copy that rig.conf file to the HIVE partition and then unmount the drive partition
- pull out the drive and put it in your mining rig computer
- start the computer and watch your Hiveon Dashboard for the rig to appear in your farm
STAGE 2
How to create a wallet and a flight sheet, and to start mine in Hiveon OS
My God, this was hard work...
https://hiveon.com/forum/t/nicehash-read-error-end-of-file/81387/8
Help
Change the repo used in the HiveOS ubuntu distribution ...
Dashboard > Farm > Rig > Settings > Repo Select: http://download2.hiveos.farm/repo/binary
When you try to upgrade and it fails with the following error:-
selfupgrade && sreboot (failed, exitcode=100)
Open a web shell and type the following ...
sudo -i rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf
Edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hiverepo.list and delete all of it then add this line ...
deb [trusted=yes] http://download2.hiveos.farm/repo/binary /
Then, continue with these commands ...
apt-get clean apt-get update apt-get check selfupgrade sreboot
Links
Connect HiveOS rig to NiceHash
The most profitable Ethereum Classic mining pool for GPU rigs
How to Install Hive OS to a M.2 SATA or mSATA drive
Bobcat Miner 300
The Bobcat Miner 300 is a wireless hotspot miner that allows users to mine Helium (HNT) cryptocurrency by providing wireless coverage and processing wireless transactions.
Setup
Current firmware version: 1.0.3.17 My firmware version: 1.0.2.1Z_11217
Plug in your Ethernet cable first, then turn it on. Find out the IP address by using a network scanner then connect to it with your web browser. This will load the 'Diagnoser Diagnostic Dashboard' Then, click Reset to reset it, which will force it to firmware update over the Internet (and not it's antenna). When prompted, type "I Agree" and then YES, and then type in the username and password:-
username: bobcat password: miner
Wait. Wait some more. During The LED light will turn white, yellow, red, yellow and then green. This can take days. Wait for the light to go GREEN.
Continue with the Quick Start Guide.
Help
https://zendesk.bobber.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412905659675-How-to-Get-OTA-Updates-
https://cryptoguzzler.com/bobcat-miners-everything-to-know/
https://www.reddit.com/r/HeliumNetwork/comments/12v5mbg/bobcat_miner_stuck_at_error_wait/
https://www.reddit.com/r/HeliumNetwork/comments/15b8h7d/setting_up_bobcat300_uk/
https://device.report/bobcat/MINER3001
Fix OLD Firmware Bug With NEW Nebra Firmware
NEBRA Firmware and Instructions
DISCORD INSTRUCTIONS
This method is tested and verified now on Linux and Mac ... (Image only currently works on g290 and g295)...
We also support g280 (which is the 1gb bobcat, this uses a different image though and can run using SD card. See https://support.nebra.com/support/solutions/articles/24000085839-getting-started-with-bobcat-1g
sudo apt update sudo apt install snapd sudo reboot sudo snap install core sudo snap install rkdeveloptool --edge
Follow these instructions to install the Rockchip flashing tools depending on the OS you run on your PC: https://wiki.radxa.com/Rock3/install/rockchip-flash-tools.
If you try to compile on Linux and you receive this error ...
configure: error: C++ preprocessor fails sanity check
Then you look in side the error.log file and find this ...
cpp: fatal error: cannot execute 'cc1plus': execvp: No such file or directory
Then you install these extra programs ...
sudo apt-get install gcc g++
Then you can continue to compile ...
aclocal autoreconf -f -i CXXCPP=/usr/bin/cpp ./configure make
Copy the software to your main system location, ready for running ...
sudo cp -av rkdeveloptool /usr/local/bin/ sudo ldconfig
Test to make sure it works ...
rkdeveloptool -v
Download and extract/unzip the Helium Nebra OS image for the Bobcat RK3566. https://github.com/NebraLtd/helium-bobcat-rk3566/releases
Open the case of the Bobcat unit so you can access the two small buttons on the board labeled "reset" and "recovery" or similar. You will need a T9 Torx Screwdriver - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193865952874 or just the end bit https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334425081302
Use a micro USB cable to connect the Bobcat to your PC (below instructions for Mac and Linux). The Bobcat has two micro USB connectors; use the one that's accessible from the back panel (labeled "USB_OTG" on the PCB).
Power the Bobcat via its regular power adapter while connected to the PC via micro USB.
Press and hold the "recovery" button; quickly press and release the "reset" button; release the "recovery" button after about 1 second. This will put your device into the so-called "loader" mode.
Then run ...
sudo rkdeveloptool ld
... which should print a device in "loader" mode.
DevNo=1 Vid=0x2207,Pid=0x350a,LocationID=102 Loader
Then run ...
sudo rkdeveloptool ef
... which should take about one minute to erase the flash.
Erasing flash complete.
Then you need to reset the board by pressing the reset button, and afterwards run ...
sudo rkdeveloptool ld
... which should print a device in "maskrom" mode.
DevNo=1 Vid=0x2207,Pid=0x350a,LocationID=102 Maskrom
Then download and install the new ROM with ...
wget https://dl.radxa.com/rock3/images/loader/rock-3a/rk356x_spl_loader_ddr1056_v1.10.111.bin sudo rkdeveloptool db rk356x_spl_loader_ddr1056_v1.10.111.bin
... which downloads and installs the bootloader used for various rkdeveloptool commands.
‘rk356x_spl_loader_ddr1056_v1.10.111.bin’ saved [453056/453056] Downloading bootloader succeeded.
Then run ...
sudo rkdeveloptool td
... which should succeed communicating with the device.
Test Device OK.
Then run ...
sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 /path/to/extracted_nebra_image.img
... replacing with the actual image path. This will write the OS image onto the eMMC at address 0.
Write LBA from file (100%)
Then you just need to reset (press reset button) the board and enjoy Nebra firmware.
You will need to use Ethernet initially. And you can set up the WiFi again using the Nebra app over Bluetooth.
You can verify its working by checking the following ...
- device will appear in your network with hostname of nebra-xxxxxx where the Xs are the last 6 digits of the MAC address (this will be a different MAC address to what is printed on the device label)
- after the unit has fully booted you will see a green light flashing
- after the unit has fully booted you should see a Bluetooth device advertised for 5 minutes after it boots up (either via the Nebra hotspot app or another Bluetooth scanner app)
- after the unit has fully booted up you should be able to access the Nebra diagnostics page on the local IP address of the miner or the hostname mentioned above using http://nebra-xxxxxx/ or http://nebra-xxxxxx.local/ where the Xs are the last 6 digits of the MAC address (this will be a different MAC address to what is printed on the device label)
- after the unit has fully booted you should be able to see an SSH client on port 22222 (you won't be able to log in but you should be able to see/ping it)
Good luck.
REALLY GOOD INFORMATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING PAGE
Docker
Hardware Miners
altcoin usb miners. Work great for beginners and novice alike. Windows drivers installed on hardware so it's basically plug and play. Cgminer and bfgminer work great with linux. A USB hub and a few of these miners and you will have your own little mining farm. Raspberry pi makes good controller board.
Top 10 USB ASIC Miner - USB Flash Drives
USB ASIC SCRYPT 144KHS DRAGON LITECOIN MINERS
GekkoScience
https://github.com/kanoi/cgminer
https://pool.braiins.com/ - worked first time!
Instructions
Build the software ...
sudo -i apt update apt install build-essential autoconf automake libtool pkg-config libcurl4-openssl-dev libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libncurses5-dev zlib1g-dev git screen -y mkdir cgminer-kanoi git clone https://github.com/kanoi/cgminer.git cgminer-kanoi cd cgminer-kanoi ./autogen.sh CFLAGS="-O2 -Wall -march=native -fcommon" ./configure --enable-gekko make ./cgminer --version
Check the hardware ...
PLUG IN THE ASIC
dmesg | tail -n20 [ 4957.097527] usb 2-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd [ 4957.198835] usb 2-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6015, bcdDevice=10.00 [ 4957.198843] usb 2-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 [ 4957.198846] usb 2-1.4: Product: FT232EX [ 4957.198848] usb 2-1.4: Manufacturer: FTDI [ 4957.218436] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic [ 4957.218450] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for generic [ 4957.228500] usbcore: registered new interface driver ftdi_sio [ 4957.228516] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for FTDI USB Serial Device [ 4957.228594] ftdi_sio 2-1.4:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected [ 4957.228634] usb 2-1.4: Detected FT-X [ 4957.230178] usb 2-1.4: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0 root@356fbd891b0e:~/cgminer-kanoi# lsusb Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0781:5567 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0000:0606 Bus 002 Device 006: ID 0403:6015 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd Bridge(I2C/SPI/UART/FIFO) Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0000:0606 USB Hub 2.0 USB Hub 2.0 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Start the software ...
COMPACF
screen -d -m /root/cgminer-kanoi/cgminer --gekko-compacf-detect -o stratum+tcp://eu.stratum.braiins.com:3333 -u myusername.nuc-asic-compacf -p mysuperpassword123
... and with tweaks ...
screen -d -m /root/cgminer-kanoi/cgminer --gekko-compacf-detect --gekko-compacf-freq 460 --gekko-mine2 --gekko-start-freq 250 --suggest-diff 442 -o stratum+tcp://eu.stratum.braiins.com:3333 -u myusername.nuc-asic-compacf -p mysuperpassword123
2PAC
screen -d -m /root/cgminer-kanoi/cgminer --gekko-2pac-detect -o stratum+tcp://eu.stratum.braiins.com:3333 -u myusername.raspberrypi-asic-2pac -p mysuperpassword123
... and with tweaks (needs checking) ...
screen -d -m /root/cgminer-kanoi/cgminer --gekko-2pac-detect --gekko-2pac-freq 460 --gekko-mine2 --gekko-start-freq 250 --suggest-diff 442 -o stratum+tcp://eu.stratum.braiins.com:3333 -u myusername.nuc-asic-compacf -p mysuperpassword123
If you see any of these errors, try taking the miner stick out of the USB socket and plug it back in again.
No device found! GSD 0: Error, disabling now.
LKETC
This is a cheap USB crypto miner that is really no good for NiceHash or any other pool.
Just use it on Con Kolivas' solo mining pool instead.
Image of USB Bitcoin Miner with black box and gold writing
https://github.com/wareck/cgminer-lketc
Help
How do I move crypto between my Coinbase Wallet and Coinbase.com account? | Coinbase Help
