Like most cryptocurrencies, mining is one of the ways you can make money participating in the crypto space. Since the inception of Handshake mining in early 2020, miners have actively joined the bandwagon intending to reap the rewards that come with mining HNS.
Is Mining Handshake Profitable?
Yes. Mining Handshake (HNS) is a profitable venture.
Even though the difficulty of mining coins continues to meet obstacles and reduce profitability, coins such as Handshake can give you great rewards for your participation as a miner.
Miners join pools or work independently on the complex cryptographic sums, which lead to the production of a Handshake coin.
However, solo mining isn’t as profitable because significant firms are mining on a large scale today. So, the best way to reap something from mining Handshake is by joining mining pools. Mining pools group small miners in the network, each contributing their share towards mining a single block.
Mining Handshake through pools ensures participants have a certain income expectation according to their effort. Also, you can’t get any excellent results through CPU mining unless you use a GPU or an ASIC.
Learn more: 5 Best Mining Pools for Small Miners
How to Mine Handshake
Below is a 5-step guide on how to mine HandShake:
Step 1: Create a Handshake payout address.
Here are the three main ways you can create a Handshake address, and each method has varying security levels.
- You can use Bob Wallet – great for beginner users.
- You can use the Handshake full node (HSD) – best for maximum security.
- You can set up Namebase through account creation if you don’t have issues with who keeps your wallet keys.
Ensure you pick an option that guarantees you maximum safety.
Step 2 – Select and Sign up for a Handshake mining pool.
Today, four major mining pools support Handshake mining. A majority of the mining pools have a standard procedure for signing up. Therefore, pick one that meets your needs and open an account with it.
Step 3 – Select mining software and install it on your OS.
You can find various mining software on the internet to help you mine Handshake coins. The best examples include NBMiner and 6miner, which work with Linux and Windows.
If you face difficulties installing your software, you can refer to the forums and communities for support.
If you’re running a Linux distribution OS, here’s how to fix your software.
- Find and download the correct software file from Github – it should be a .tar file.
- Unpack files from your .tar file.
- Open the extracted folder.
- Run and configure the installation.
Step 4 – Sync the Handshake miner with your mining pool details.
After completing the setup and installation, you must ensure your Handshake miner and your mining pool of choice can communicate. Since every miner has its unique configuration features, getting the final stage right is essential in collecting your rewards and sending them to your Handshake address.
Best Mining Pools For Handshake
There are numerous mining pools for mining your Handshake coins in the market. We’ll list some of the best ones you can join and start on your journey as an HNS miner:
F2Pool
F2Pool is one of the oldest mining pools for crypto. Starting with Bitcoin, the F2Pool continues to add other coins running the Proof of Work mechanism. Today, there are more than 40 cryptocurrencies you can mine using the F2Pool.
Running a Pay Per Share Plus, you get guaranteed daily automatic payouts but part with 2.5% in fees when mining with the F2Pool. Also, you can use F2Pool to mine other altcoins like Bitcoin (BTC) and Zcash (ZEC).
The F2Pool runs a clean and comprehensive user interface in English; therefore, with basic knowledge of pool mining, you can start using it and grow.
Here’s how to mine Handshake with the F2Pool.
Purchase sturdy mining hardware
Mining Handshake is profitable when you mine through GPU cards. Although you can mine via ASICs, mining rigs are costly.
Create a wallet address
Having an HNS wallet is essential to help you control the rewards you make from mining. Namebase or Gate are some of the popular wallets you may use. You will receive up to 10 HNS which is the standard payout threshold.
Download mining software
You can pick a good mining software from the list of familiar programs like NBMiner, 6Miner, and HandyMiner.
Set Up your mining software
Each mining application has a different way of configuring. Follow the instructions from their official website for more.
Start mining
Once you have the software active on your hardware, launch it and start tracking your payouts, hash rate, or revenue. Also, you can run your F2Pool application, which is user-friendly.
Pros
- It has excellent security features.
- It supports over 40 cryptocurrencies.
- It makes daily payouts to its users.
- It has a clear and transparent earning structure.
Cons
- You can’t leave your account inactive for long periods.
- Costly to mine.
Poolin
Poolin is another remarkable mining pool that works well with Handshake (HNS). Poolin runs on the Goldshell HS1 mining software for miners on Windows and offers Handyminer for Linux-based miners. Also, you can find their Android or iOS mobile applications helpful in monitoring your activities.
On average, most HNS miners using Poolin will make $2, when close to 800 active workers mine simultaneously. The mining pool charges friendly prices and offers excellent pool hash rates.
Follow the following guide to mine HNS with Poolin on Windows OS.
- Find and download the STSW_STM32102_V1.5.0.rar (STM32 serial driver). You can choose your operating system before installing it.
- Download recommended mining software from Github i.e., Goldshell miner v1.0.4 and up or Handyminer CLI & GUI.
- Set up your hardware correctly.
- Set up your mining pool settings – on your Goldshell Miner, insert the URL of the pool, and sign in with your login details.
- Begin mining your HNS.
- Follow your hash rate sequence to ensure the rate doesn’t fall below the threshold of 105GH, with an allowance of +/-5%.
- You can change pools when you wish by inserting a new URL and repeating the process.
Pros
- It supports multiple tokens.
- No mining fees for BTC and ETH.
- It’s decentralized.
Cons
- Challenges on withdrawals.
HashPool
HashPool is a crypto mining pool that offers mining services for most up-and-coming coins, including Handshake and other coins like Kapsa (KAS), BSHA3, and Nexus (NXS). It runs a DDoS-proof security system to ensure your crypto investments are safe all through.
Also, HashPool provides a mining platform with cheaper fees but offers excellent returns for its users. Miners earn anywhere from 100 CKB upwards, depending on their effort. HashPool is in partnership with some upcoming blockchain companies like Nervos Network, DigiByte Blockchain, and FreeCash.
HashPool has a great community on Telegram and Discord, where you can interact with other miners and follow through with updates from the team. If you need support, you can write them an email and await their response.
The HashPool mining pool offers a straightforward interface that only requires your crypto wallet address, and you can start mining.
Pros
It supports multiple wallet addresses.
Cons
It has limited coin support.
What Do You Use To Mine Handshake?
As listed above, you can use any Handshake miners to participate in solo or pool mining. Basic crypto knowledge and the know-how for running a mining pool are all you need.
Ensure you pick a miner that best suits your needs as a user. It must be easy to use, charge affordable fees, be secure, and more.
Should You Mine Solo Or In A Pool?
The urge to earn from the cryptocurrency market continues to push users towards crypto mining. Crypto mining is a great way to earn active and passive income, but it depends on how you choose to participate in the mining event.
Mining crypto can be a daunting task for users, especially beginner miners. However, we’ll talk about the two common types of mining Handshake; solo and pool mining.
Solo Mining
Solo mining is the most common way you can mine Handshake. Whether you own a CPU, GPU or ASIC like Antminer, solo mining entails setting up the entire mining system yourself. Even though the rewards can be significant, you have to handle all the costs, like electricity bills and the purchase of mining equipment.
However, it isn’t very easy to practice solo mining if you want to mine top crypto coins like Ethereum or Bitcoin. There is a visible difference for Handshake, but it’s not that enticing on rewards.
Learn more: 4 Best Mining Pools For Antminer L3+
Pool Mining
Pool mining isn’t far from solo mining. The difference lies in the way you participate. While solo is for a single participant, pool mining comprises an unlimited number of miners coming together to solve complex computations and help increase the chance of generating a coin block.
Unlike solo mining, many computers help break down the complex sums, which lets miners gain profits for contributing their share of a Handshake block. Mining pools guarantee better returns than running solo.
It’s cheaper as you can join the pool with whichever device and get your payout per share for your contribution. However, you need several things to join a mining pool, like joining fees and a mining pool address, where you’ll receive your payout.
Are Bigger Mining Pools Better?
Yes. Bigger mining pools are better.
As the term suggests, bigger means it has pros and cons in similar capacities. Therefore, depending on your abilities as a miner, you can join a big mining pool if you want to join a team with tremendous computation power.
Also, there are various other advantages to being part of a bigger mining pool.
Pros
- Great computation power
- Effective for mining
- Great reputation.
Cons
- Most big mining pools are partly centralized.
- It can be costly to join.
- Unfair profit sharing.