Crypto Currency Platforms: A Brilliantly Broken Industry
Ah, the world of cryptocurrency platforms. Where incompetence meets greed, all wrapped up in a shiny tech-bro package. So, I decided to sign up at Binance.com, Crypto.com, Coinbase.com, Coinlist.com, and Coindesk.com. And let me tell you, it was like wading through knee-deep sludge made of incompetence and utter disdain for their own users.
Getting validated at Binance? Three months of my life I’ll never get back. And the “support”? Calling it terrible would be an insult to the word ‘terrible.’ They claim to offer customer support, but their MAIN interest? Oh, that’s right—making money! And they’re not even subtle about it. DON’T FORGET THAT!!!
By the way, before you even consider signing up on one of these garbage platforms, do yourself a favor and check their TrustPilot reviews. Spoiler alert: They’re mostly bad! But why should they care? They’re too busy swimming in their precious crypto profits to bother with something as trivial as user experience.
Binance, in all its technological brilliance, has chat support. But it doesn’t always work. And when it does, you’re either talking to a glorified chatbot or a support rep who sounds like their brain has been on airplane mode since birth. Genius.
Coinbase? More of the same. A hot mess of lazy support and painfully slow processes. Just accept the fact that decent support on these platforms is a myth, a cruel joke played on users who dare to expect basic decency.
Oh, and Nicehash? Hilarious. They have both mining and trading platforms. Of course, they’ve been hacked like everyone else. And what’s the solution? Simple: just take a year to compensate your customers after conveniently benefiting from a massive drop in Bitcoin’s value. Some say it was planned. I say it fits right in with the rest of this clown show.
And let’s be real, they don’t care about you or your hard-earned money. They care about sucking up every last cent you’re willing to throw at them while serving you the bare minimum of functionality. Why put effort into customer satisfaction when they’ve already got your cash, right?
Well, that’s a few years ago now and I thought it could be fun trying to mine myself. Well knowing it would probably never pay off because where live we have the highest electricity prises in the world!
So I signed up at NiceHash! It looked like the most checked and professional platform at the moment.
And then a few things to check and prepare.
Controlling the Temperature on Your Graphics Card
Silicon is sensitive to temperature, and the hotter your graphics card gets, the shorter its lifespan will be. Ideally, you want to keep your card below 80 degrees Celsius. However, I prefer to keep mine even cooler at 70 degrees Celsius to ensure longevity.
To do this, I installed GPU Tweak from ASUS. I did that because my graphics card is an Nvidia 1070 TI. If you’re using MSI hardware, MSI Afterburner is a great alternative. And for those with an Inno 3D graphics card, you can find suitable software online. These utilities allow you to overclock or underclock your graphics card and set a desired temperature limit.
Of course, cooler temperatures do slightly reduce performance, but it’s a worthy trade-off for preserving your hardware. Do your own research to find a temperature that works best for you.
Mining Profitability
Mining cryptocurrency is generally inefficient unless you live in a country with low electricity costs or have access to free energy. High-end graphics cards are required, and the cost of electricity can easily outweigh any potential profits.
Using a wattmeter (costing around $50), I calculated that I wouldn’t see any profit until the exchange rate hit $262,435. Given the minuscule amount mined per hour (0.02 USD), it’s clear that traditional mining on a personal computer is not a path to riches.
If profit is your goal, investing directly in coins is a far more sensible approach. Mining is only lucrative if you have cheap or free electricity, a powerful mining rig, and an optimized setup that makes use of the heat generated for other purposes, like warming your house.
Getting Rich by Mining?
For anyone looking to actually make money from mining, you need a dedicated mining rig, and it has to be as cost-effective as possible. Additionally, you need to reside in a country where electricity is cheap, such as India or China, where prices can be as low as 0.8 cents per KWh. Compare that to Scandinavian countries where it can be 40 cents per KWh, and you’ll quickly realize where the real profits are made.
If you want to make mining work, consider integrating your mining rig’s heat output into your home’s heating system, allowing you to reduce costs on both heating and cooling. And of course, make sure you’re mining in a tax-friendly environment to maximize your gains.
Otherwise it’s only for the fun of it – like I do it!