How I started mining Bitcoin at home in 2021 (2024)

UPDATE / TLDR: I posted my experience using the M2 Pro Miner in a massive (and continually updated) Twitter thread talking about the setup process and my updated earnings.

Cryptocurrency is one of the hottest and fastest growing markets out there. Trillions of dollars are being made by thousands of people who jumped onto this trend early. Mining cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, and more is now a huge business.

With this many people investing in it and making money from it daily — I wanted to dip my toes into it also. I’ve always been fascinated about how technology works and cryptocurrency plays a big part in online currency.

Like a lot of new crypto-enthusiasts I had big dreams but no idea where to start so I researched … and researched … and researched some more on how to mine cryptocurrency from my home.

Instead of showing you the numerous websites, videos, and reviews I went through that allowed me to start mining at home this year, I decided to come up with a guide detailing some of the options out in the market today plus how I went and set up my own mining operation out of my house.

Using this quick step-by-step guide I will show you how to start mining Bitcoin at home without the need for a computer.

Bitcoin mining has been very popular over the years especially since we are seeing all-time highs in price, however the cost and time to build a mining rig keep people from mining crypto at home.

In this guide I will show you how to start mining Bitcoin using very little electricity (as much as a 40w lightbulb) and not having to build out an expensive mining rig.

Even though Bitcoin is hitting all-time highs on an almost daily basis you also might be interested in mining other cryptocurrencies.

The reason I want to make this decision first is that it will determine which crypto miner to focus on.

Nothing against only mining Bitcoin, but limiting myself to a single cryptocurrency takes the enjoyment out of it.

And honestly, after doing a lot of research the majority of the miners on the market are SHA256 miners which allows you to mine any SHA256 cryptocurrency including Bitcoin.

But there are also other coins and tokens out there that aren’t SHA256 that you might be interested in so spend a little time and see which ones you want to mine with the initial at home crypto mining rig.

One of the biggest advancements over the years is the ability for an average computer user to mine Bitcoin at home without having a massive mining rig.

In this guide I will walk you through three different types of miners to look at as I believe they will be the easiest to set up and start mining quicker.

USB Crypto Miner: These miners connect to your computer using a USB port, and with suitable software, they mine crypto at a certain hash rate. You can also attach multiple miners to your computer to enhance the hash output.

These miners are very easy to set up however even though it uses a USB port to power, your computer is still utilized at a higher rate which increases your power consumption.

Also you need to make sure to provide extra cooling (table fan, usb fan, etc) for the majority of these devices as they can get very hot.

For those who are looking for an inexpensive way to start crypto mining, this would be the best route to go. You will just want to make sure you consider this more of hobby mining versus wanting to profit off of cryptocurrency due to the fact you might pay more in transfer fees than you’ve spent on electricity.

One of the most popular USB Bitcoin miners is that GekkoScience NewPac 130Gh/s+ USB Bitcoin / SHA256 Stick Miner.

As this is a SHA256 miner you can mine Bitcoin and should be able to mine any SHA256 cryptocurrency.

On the power consumption side for the device itself, it looks to only consume around 5W of power.

Using an online electricity calculator using 3.5W 24 hours a day for a year would cost $13.58 (43.80 kWh at $0.31 per kWh).

I’m aren’t sure how much additional electricity would be consumed by your computer having to be running but since the majority of us leave our computers on daily already this might be an incremental cost.

As far as how much Bitcoin this device can mine, that is up in the air. Since the mining rates and difficulties change (as well as the price of Bitcoin) so often there really hasn’t been any useful data on how much Bitcoin this device mines on a daily basis. Some users have shared they are running at “approximately 65GH/s with the frequency set at 300.”

ASIC Miner: ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) miners can be thought of as a specialized cryptocurrency miner that would replace the need to use your home computer. These devices were designed and developed for one purpose only and that is mining crypto.

ASICs have become very popular in mining farms as companies can quickly get hundreds (if not thousands) of these up and running in a short amount of time.

As far as running an ASIC crypto mining from your home that is also possible.

Bitmain’s AntMiner S7 has been the go-to at home ASIC Bitcoin miner since it was released back in 2015.

Just like the GekkoScience miner, the AntMiner is also a SHA-256 miner that allows it to mine any SHA256 cryptocurrency, not just Bitcoin.

If you are thinking about profitability, I was able to find a website called ASIC Miner Value that gives an up-to-date breakdown of how profitable running any ASIC miner would be.

For the AntMiner S7 it can mine around 0.0133 BTC per year. The profitability would depend on the value of Bitcoin at the time. If we use $23,000 for BTC, this 0.133 BTC would be roughly $310.

The downside is the cost of electricity to run one of these miners. According to ASIC Miner Value, it costs around $2.87 per day in electricity to run the S7. So over the course of a year, if Bitcoin stays at $23,000, you would actually lose $1,000.

LPWAN Crypto Miner: This is a newer technology on the market and is being pioneered by a company out of Germany (MatchX) and their M2 Pro Miner.

If you are looking to mine more than just Bitcoin, the M2 Pro Miner allows you to also mine MXC (Machine eXchange Coin) and DHX (DataHighway).

The M2 Pro doesn’t require a computer to run. It needs a reliable internet connection.

This device plugs into your normal electrical outlet and uses on average 3.5W of electricity, less than a normal light bulb.

Using an online electricity calculator using 3.5W 24 hours a day for a year would cost $9.50 (30.66 kWh at $0.31 per kWh).

As far as how much you can earn using an M2 Pro Miner, I haven’t seen any official numbers. Browsing MXC’s Telegram community, miner owners are sharing numbers between $8 to $10 per day.

If you truly can earn $10 per day, you are looking at $3,650 in yearly earning with roughly $10 in electricity costs.

The current price of a M2 Pro Miner is around $2,900 USD (listed as €2.499,00 incl. VAT on their website) so technically you could be profitable by around month 9 or 10.

To give you a more hands-on look at the M2 Pro Miner, Chris with Committed3d Tech did a great video showing his setup plus going through some pros and cons of the miner.

Chris mentions in the video he’s been earning around $12-$13 USD in MXC in his first 4–5 days using the M2 Pro Miner. That is when MXC was trading at $0.0114 per token.

In this guide I will show you how to use the M2 Pro Miner as it offers an easy to use, lower power usage (low cost) mining rig that also allows us to mine multiple cryptocurrencies. But the real reason is that it seems to be the best miner on the market for profitability.

Setting up the M2 Pro Miner took me about 20 minutes with 10 of those minutes looking for a screwdriver to access the QR Code.

It really was plug-in-play with no technical knowledge needed.

Screw on three antennas. Plug in an ethernet cable (provided for you) inside the miner. Plug the other end of it to the PoE port of the power supply. Plug another ethernet cable (also provided for you) from the power supply to your internet switch (or modem … or use WiFi).

Check that the LED light is green and then it shows up as ONLINE in the app.

MXC’s DataDash mobile app does a great job of keeping you updated on how much Bitcoin you’ve earned using the M2 Pro Miner.

The app itself is pretty basic which is great! No need to overwhelm the end user. Being able to have an almost real-time look at your miner’s earnings is very helpful so you can track its profitability.

One aspect of the app that I’ll explore at a later date is the MXC staking option where you basically lock up a set amount of the token and then you’ll earn interest on it. I don’t know enough about it so I won’t get into any more detail but here’s a link on their website explaining more about MXC staking.

Congrats! You’ve now set up your own affordable Bitcoin mining rig at home.

NOTE: The original version of this guide is here. I just wanted to cross-post it to Medium so I could share this experience with other crypto enthusiasts.