How to Mine Dash in 2024 - Complete Guide

Breaking Down Dash Mining

In this section, we pay close attention to what Dash mining entails. We intend to help our readers have a comprehensive understanding of the process, as well as miners’ essential contributions. You will also be able to discover the tips you need to mine the coin profitably today.

What is Dash Mining?

As we mentioned, Dash mining is the process of creating new coins.

Let’s talk more about the Proof of Work mechanism to understand it better. It works by enabling miners to be presented with complex math problems. They then use Dash mining software to find the correct solution. This exercise helps to secure and validate the network

The fastest miner gets to create a new Dash coin and gets 45% of the rewards.

The rest of the network participants must verify the new block before it’s added to the blockchain.

Why Dash Miners are Important?

Miners complement Masternodes (MNs) to secure the system. MNs are participants with at least 1,000 Dash who agree to keep their system online at all times. They maintain the network’s PrivateSend and InstantSend functions. Moreover, they vote on critical business decisions. They can be regarded as miners with a higher stake in the Dash network.

The 1,000 Dash is used as collateral and encourages them to ensure the platform isn’t corrupted.

Masternodes take 45% of block rewards for securing the Dash network 24/7 and generating new coins.

Numerous people make numerous transactions every minute. Some of them try to dupe the system to introduce the double-spending problem. Masternodes’ validations protect against this.

Blockchain technology helps prevent this by allowing for the timestamping of blocks before broadcasting them to the nodes. Each block has a hash that includes the timestamp of the previous group of transactions. Given the blockchain’s considerable size, it’s impossible to alter the transactions without the approval of more than 50% of the participants.

Miners also play a critical role in eliminating the ‘double-spend’ problem. Before new blocks are added to the chain, they check the latest version against their own. The two must match for the Dash network to reach a consensus and allow the process to restart. This way, miners ensure that every transaction is valid, and the same coin can’t be spent twice.

Miners rely on the network’s hashrate to determine their chances of creating new blocks. This rate depends on whether some miners leave or new ones join the Dash network. A high number of miners on the platform translates to an increased hashrate. This implies an increase in competition, reducing miners’ chances of making successful guesses at the new block’s hash. It also increases network safety.

From the above information, it makes sense that miners are rewarded. They are essential to the Dash network’s functionality.

Dash Mining Limitations

Dash’s maximum supply is capped at 18.9 million. The current total supply, according to CoinMarketCap, is 10,059,731 coins.

Dash has a fixed supply to mimic fiat currencies. Unlike in the past, when governments could overprint fiat currencies at will, they currently rely on strict economic principles to set the maximum supply for their economies. Many of them understand that this is one of the best ways to mitigate inflation. Some economies still ignore this, but they have to pay the cost of hyperinflation.

Dash mining rewards drop by about 7% after approximately every 383 days.

The latest drop was on April 27, 2020. It brought the rewards down from 3.11 to 2.89 Dash per block.

The fixed supply of Dash and the block reward deductions increase the mining difficulty as more miners join the network. This increases the scarcity of this digital currency, which is vital to Dash investors.

Don’t want to wait to earn from mining? Learn how to invest in Dash using our comprehensive guide or buy from our recommended platform below!

Technical Aspects of Mining Dash Explained

We will cover the more technical aspects of Dash mining like hashrate and processing power in this section.

Given the significance of hashrate, we explore its contribution within the Dash network and the resources needed to mine Dash coin successfully.

Hashrate Simplified for Dash

• What does hashrate mean? 

The hashrate in cryptocurrency mining refers to the amount of computing power miners need to complete a Proof-of-Work task. It’s also the total amount of computational power on the Dash network, which is all the power from miners (mining machines) combined. Some blockchain platforms like Bitcoin have massive amounts of hashrate, which also makes them unsuitable for beginner miners who have limited resources.

• Why is a higher hashrate important?

A higher hashrate benefits miners, Masternodes, and the entire system. It protects the Dash network from 51% attacks.

Remember, miners and Masternodes have numerous duties to play, like presenting proposals and voting to decide their fate. Some bad actors can take advantage of a low hashrate to approve new inappropriate features, by easily co-opting 51% of the total rate. The good news is that Dash’s hash rate has constantly been increasing since its initial release in 2014.

Miners can propose changes to the network. The number of ‘yes’ votes must outnumber the ‘no’ by more than 10% of Masternode votes for the transition to be effected.

A higher hashrate also means there are many participants on the network to validate and verify transactions quickly.

• How is hashrate measured?

A hashrate is measured in solutions (hashes) per second. This refers to the number of guesses a mining machine can make within the given time.

Mining rigs with high hash power are in high demand today since users value the ability to process vast amounts of data within a short time.

Here are some hashrate conversions:

• 1Kh/s equals 1,000 hashes per second
• 1Mh/s equals 1 ,000,000 hashes/second
• 1 Gh/s equals 1,000,000,000 hashes per second
• 1 Th/s equals 1,000,000,000,000 hashes per second
• 1 Ph/s equals 1,000,000,000,000,000 hashes/second
• 1 EH/s equals 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 hashes/second

As of the time of researching on this topic, the Dash hashrate is approximately 8 Ph/s. It has dropped from the more than 11 Ph/s registered in early March 2021.

Processing Power: CPU & GPU

The current network hashrate is still incredibly high, meaning that inefficient CPU mining has become obsolete. The Intel i7 8700k CPU has a hashrate of close to 500 h/s. You can find some CPUs that can deliver up to 5 Mh/s, which is still far from the expected average needed to mine Dash.

This change in hashrate leaves GPUs as the better option. The NVIDIA GTX 1080Ti, for example, could get you as much as 32 Mh/s. Some costly GPUs can produce up to about 70 Mh/h. By considering the current total hashrate, above 8 Ph/s, you would require more than 50 GPUs to stand a good chance of earning block rewards.

Some miners have also tried to use the Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) without much success. It can deliver up to 800 Mh/s and consumes relatively less power. Nonetheless, FPGAs struggle to accommodate the required mining software and digital circuit design.

Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) miners are the fastest and can be the best alternative.

However, they consume more electricity than CPUs, GPUs, and FPGAs, and produce a lot of heat. So, miners who opt for ASIC miners end up spending a lot of money on cooling these rigs.

Hashrate needed to mine Dash profitably

With a mining difficulty of over 200M, a total hashrate of over 8 Ph/s, a minimum energy input of 1,500 watts at $0.10 per kWh, and a block reward of 1.55 DASH, individual miners can’t make a profit. Mining pools are imperative for profitable mining.

With the instability of the Dash hashrate, standalone mining is obsolete. See the current hashrate chart below.

DASH Hashrate chart from coinwarz.com

DIY Dash Mining - How to Get Started

Here, we provide a DIY guide to mine Dash. It evaluates your hardware and software needs and other DASH mining costs.

Best Mining Hardware for Dash

After putting into consideration the profitability of mining DASH, we conclude that ASIC miners are the best. You need one that is specifically designed to solve the X11 hashing function involved in the mining of the coin.

Our research found out that the $279 Bitmain Antminer D3 is one of the best affordable Dash machines. Its hashrate is 17 GH/s. This is much higher than the hashrate offered by GPUs and CPUs. Bitcoin Merch, based in the US, sells this ASIC.

Whichever hardware you choose to buy, think about the growing network hashrate. This means that over time, your machine has a smaller and smaller share of the total hashrate. This shows why Dash mining is no longer for the faint-hearted. Serious miners need to have adequate capital before they can venture into the business.

Other Costs to be Considered

Given the cost of electricity, the total hashrate for the network, and the limited block rewards for miners, it is extremely difficult to profitably mine Dash today.

If you are using a Dash mining calculator, you may find that this could translate to a profit of close to $2 per day with one ASIC. Depending on the electricity cost, this could be slightly more or less.

On Friday, April 02, 2021, it would take a miner 119.2 days to mine a single Dash coin. This figure doesn’t account for mining difficulty fluctuations as well as block reward increases and decreases. In short, standalone mining is now obsolete.

Start Mining!

To start mining the digital currency, you should download a Dash wallet. Don’t use a cryptocurrency exchange’s wallet for this purpose. Get a more secure one and then download some mining software. If you are using NVIDIA cards, download the KlausT CCMiner Client. It is well-optimized for Microsoft Windows. You can opt for the Nicehash SGMiner client if you have an AMD card.

The next step is to find an excellent Dash mining pool, as standalone mining is not profitable, and configure the Dash miner. Choose a pool near you to minimize network latency issues.

Moreover, consider the pool share. Pools with large shares of the total hashrate guarantee consistent payouts. They can also cushion you from risks in the market.

You also need to think about the reward share systems. The Pay Per Share system is excellent for miners who want to earn depending on their hashing power, regardless of real-time performance. Some pools use the Pay Per Last N Shares model, which means members must wait for a block to be found before receiving their earnings. The rewards are often higher in this case but will be less consistent over time.

If your mining pool supports both reward share systems, this might not be a big concern for you. Ensure you follow their instructions when choosing your preferred payment system.

Mining Solution and Services

Mining pools are the best mining solution today since they combine the hashing power of numerous highly efficient machines with their winning rewards. There are several mining pools out there.

One key option that you have is Antpool. It has a 26% market share and is located in Asia. It offers both reward systems, and their pool fees are between 1 and 4 per cent.

Another option is ViaBTC. Its market share is 17% and has offerings in Asia and Europe. ViaBTC has the same reward system as Antpool, and their pool fee ranges from 2 to 4 per cent.

Other options are Coinmine.pl, Dash.btc.top, and miningpoolhub.com. They are based in the EU, China, and the United States.

The process of joining these mining pools is simple. You start by purchasing your mining machine. You then download your Dash wallet and the mining software. Lastly, join a mining pool of your choice by following their onboarding instructions, which are available on their websites.

If you consider this process tedious and need help, consider using a Dash cloud mining service. This option is ideal for individuals who don’t want to maintain the rig and pay more for power.

You rent hashrate from these providers and share your rewards with the Dash cloud mining service. You pay a fee for rental, and a further charge covers machine maintenance and power usage. This makes your work easy, and you also have the best opportunity to earn passively.

Moreover, cloud mining protects your home from being a furnace! Mining rigs generate a lot of heat, but with a cloud mining service, your visitors won’t know you are mining Dash unless you tell them.

Since CPUs and GPUs won’t help you, Dash cloud mining is ideal. It allows you to partner with companies that use the best ASIC miners and saves you from the astronomical hardware outlays. This could be the only way to earn a lot of money from Dash mining today.

However, before you purchase a cloud mining contract, be sure you understand the associated risks. There are plenty of common scams that pose as ethical and seasoned companies.

Some of the companies require you to sign a clause that allows them to terminate your contract if the value of Dash declines to a given level, or your account fails to make a profit for a given period. In most cases, they don’t issue refunds if you cancel the original agreement. So, you should look for the best service and consider whether you agree with all their clauses before purchasing the service.

One of the Dash cloud mining companies we recommend is Genesis Mining. This Hong Kong-based company has been in operation since 2013. Its mining centers are spread across multiple locations for security reasons. Moreover, it has custom mining plans. However, its customer support is slow.

You can consider Hashflare, which is based in Estonia and has been working since 2014. Its contracts have an unlimited duration. Nonetheless, they charge a commission fee in case of wire transfers.

MiningRigRentals is also considered to be among the best. It’s based in the US and has been in operation since 2014, allowing you to rent hashpower from other individuals through a marketplace. They allow free pool selection, but their service fee is high.

Despite the drawbacks, these three cloud mining services have one attractive feature in common: low fraud risk.

Where to Save my Coins After Mining

After mining your Dash, you should save your coins in a secure digital wallet that supports the cryptocurrency. It is important that you store the coins in a wallet that also offers you ease of use.

With this in mind, however, be careful when choosing Dash wallets. Some options on the market might not be as safe as they are marketed to be, which can contribute to the security risks likely to expose your funds to hackers and other malicious actors.

Below is a shortlist of highly recommended Dash wallets.