Prior to me joining Steemit 3 weeks ago, if you had asked me about blockchains or cryptocurrency you would have been greeted by a blank stare. I don't know that much more now but day by day my knowledge grows while trawling through the blogs on Steemit. I had heard the term 'crypto mining' before, where you use a home computer or dedicated 'mining rig' to mine for crypto currencies. The more powerful the computing power of the GPU (graphics card/s), the more you could mine. To set up crypto mining seemed too convoluted for me so my interest was just a passing one until I read about Nicehash in an article online.

In theory it was simple: you download their software from HERE, install it, enter your bitcoin wallet address for it to deposit your mined coins into, run a benchmark for it to determine your settings and you are all set. Sit back and watch the Bitcoins roll in!

I decided to give it a go. My computer isn't the fastest or the most powerful but my GPU, an Nvidia GTX 980, is no slouch when it comes to gaming. I figured as it is on 24/7 it might as well earn me a passive income. Nicehash miner installed and configured, I set it to work.

10 minutes in and I quickly realised why this might not be such a good idea: firstly, the GPU is utilized at 100% capacity and the 3 Windforce fans on my card quickly kicked in to cool it down. It's not the quietest of graphics cards. The heat exhausted out of the back of my PC started to become worrying: my office space doubles as my bedroom, not the largest of rooms. With the fans going at full blast the noise became unbearable. Usually my PC is whisper quiet and I wouldn't be able to sleep through this. As the session went on the heat built up in my room until it was uncomfortable. Bear in mind too that I use my PC for 3D design: with the GPU being run at 100% by the miner, there would be no processing power available for my software.

According to Nicehash, I would be mining £2.78 / $3.54 per day. By my calculations that is $24.78 per week, $99.12 per month or $1,189.44 a year. Not bad you might think. You must remember though that your PC will be drawing more power, adding cost to your electricity bill. Taking the average kW/h used, I then deducted 20% from my potential earnings. This brings the income to $2.83 a day, $19.82 a week, $79.29 a month or $951.55 a year. I decided that on balance, the potential income versus the added noise and heat, coupled with the fact I would be unable to use my PC for my design work - would not be worth it to me.

Cloud mining allows you to rent computing power remotely in order to mine crypto currencies. The advantage is that you don't have the problems of noise and heat or energy costs. I did my research and heard good things about Genesis-Mining so I signed up. Currently the only options to mine are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero. In order to test the waters I decided my limit initially was to spend $30 worth of Bitcoin. For that I could get 0.2 TH/s of power to mine Bitcoin or 1 MH/s for Ethereum. I visited CryptoCompare and entered the hash power I would buy, making sure to zero out the power consumption and price as Genesis-Mining would be paying for that. According to the figures 0.2 TH/s of power would earn me the following.

So in 12 months my initial investment of $29.99 is slightly more than doubled. I then checked what 1MH/s of Ethereum mining could earn me. The figures are below.

As you can see this is a much better proposition. Bear in mind that the contract to mine Ethereum lasts for 2 years, so for my initial investment of $30 I get a return of $75.27 x 2 = $150.54 - 5 times my investment and a profit of £120.54!

I placed my order for $30 worth of Ethereum mining power and set it to work. If you look at the allocation screen in your account you can choose where to allocate your power and how it should be paid out. If you look towards the bottom you can see an option to be paid out in Steem! Currently I am not doing this as I am unsure what details it needs for my Steem wallet - Bitcoin and Ethereum payouts just need your usual wallet addresses. I will investigate this further.

I am happy to have dipped my toe into mining cryptocurrency. This would not have been possible without Steemit: I have withdrawn some Steem Dollars and traded them for the Bitcoin needed to invest. As I continue my journey I will slowly order more hash power on Genesis-Mining and see my profits increase, slowly building up my crypto portfolio.

If you would like to sign up to Genesis-Mining I have an affiliate code that will get you 3% off your hash power order - I will also get a hash power upgrade from this. My code is 1TSOZa