Will The NICEHASH Dilemma Push Newer Miners to Get More Technical About Their Profit Taking?
If you been on the Nicehash Twitter, you may have noticed I been pretty heavily on their posts all week trying to wise up some of the younger miners who are literally lost all week on how to actually mine without a button pressing variation of mining. Its a sad story this situation for Nicehash, I don't take what they are going through as a company lightly at all but there is an important lesson to be learned from this recent hack, some I was not aware of going on until I got more active with users under their platform.
On Wednesday, December 6, 2017 I awoke to my bedroom being slightly colder than normal. This was the first symptom for most of us on Nicehash that morning, our pc generated heaters seemed to go on the fritz. Personally I went on my pc to see if maybe my system had a BSOD but when I pulled up my Nicehash miner, it went from $200 potential earnings before I went to bed, to $0 when I looked at it. Immediately I knew something was up, but as an old school miner I also figured get my miners on a direct mining pool and that was about a minute ordeal to get the profit making back in action for me.
Like everyone else I awaited word from Nicehash about the situation, when it hit me that they got hacked my first thought was about security and why such a huge company was hosting so much earnings for so many people in one single wallet. This still is not really a public piece of info on how they will come back and avoid hackers like they got hit. Nor do we really know where all our potentials earnings will be when the system fires up...I suspect we all just have to kiss our money goodbye but this is something I am quite tired of in crypto, loss after loss has found us here at my household since this recent boom and I think systems in crypto need to wise up its time to put in better security for its users.
Is Nicehash Really All People Know About Mining?
I have been a miner for quite a long time. I have folders full of BAT files for pools, I have taken my first year of mining so serious that i probably own every fork created of CCMINER, CGMINER, DUAL MINERS, and so on. I have personally found in crypto and mining you got to have everything set up wisely to bounce around to really get at those profits due to the ups and downs in coins so much.
The thing that astonishes me about this situation with Nicehash is not even their security risks on users or the loss they also have created for themselves, its just a shitty situation for all and Nicehash may or may not be the culprit of the leak anyways.
What is really astonishing me is the confusion about mining and how to adapt from this shut down with Nicehash and everyone looking for another alternative easy button pushing program like Nicehash was. This is not mining at all, Nicehash was never as profitable as direct mining on pools and I am sadden to see how much the new crowd doesn't grasp that one. I have spent the last week teaching full time almost on how to get setup on pools, how to create BAT files, and the messages are piling up so much I am shocked how many people call themselves miners and only stuck with Nicehash to claim that title.
...Why Was I Using Nicehash The Very Week This Happened?
I still ask myself that very question. Of all the weeks I decided to take a breather from running to pool to pool, I happened to get my farm on Nicehash the week of the hack. This is not really normal for me, its very rare I don't do the leg work myself because its usually more profitable to check out Whattomine (https://whattomine.com) and get to work on the top dog coin of the moment. But I also work as a marketer for cryptos, and due to that sometimes I just happen to not have the time to spare to mine like I used to. So I pointed to Nicehash and got suckered into this mess as well. $200 is a loss, that isn't a lot maybe but during the holidays that did not help.
Nicehash ever was a money maker like other pools can be. I need to keep stressing that due to what I am seeing with the carnage of new guys not grasping that aspect. Its a convenience and does make you money but the real mining is in BAT files, signing up for a hundred pools and managing your income on your own terms. Being rented out through your invested hardware is just a nice backup to use when you have no time to direct mine.
Then the Scams Came Out
I can't count how many people are asking me if Kryptex is a good site. Guys its 50% less earnings and they run a referral service scam to sucker people in that are were hit hard on this hack. I have no clue when these guys came out but its pretty evident to me their marketing campaign just happened to fire up right after this mess. I would seriously avoid them and a few others claiming to be a Nicehash alternative right now.
I tested Kryptex for a user and my earnings on that site is a joke. $40 a week for 6 1080 TI's, 2 1060s, and 2 1080s is not worth the bother. On direct pool mining i am getting almost $100 a day on some pumped coins so I hope you read this if your thinking of those sites because your really just wasting electricity in my personal opinion.
Scams got to stop in crypto, too much of that is running around. What bugs me, is the effort these scammers are putting out there, the same amount of energy could be spent on making crypto great. So much easy money to be made in this blockchain revolution legitly that I hope the scammers wise up that there is better avenues to go.
So Should Users Go Back to Nicehash When its Back Online?
I think Nicehash still has a place in crypto. The team behind this is also hurt by these hackers, probably more so than the individuals renting their miners. I welcome them to come back if they get the issue corrected and make good for the losses so many incurred. Now isn't the time for Nicehash to be greedy and try to rake in the losses fast. They need to work with their community and unify a better system for all.
I personally think they need to offer more payout options. Locking peoples mining earnings up for a week for a Bitcoin payout is risky. If a hack happens again, bigger lump sums again end up stuck and lost. I have suggested on their Twitter numerous times for daily payouts in Litecoin, Monero, or any other coin that comes with a less TX fee for users. They get their money and we get ours every day. Bitcoin can remain an option for those patient to wait all week but for me, I can't see myself using Nicehash till I see limited daily payouts in another cryptocurrency after this situation.
Nicehash has brought a good thing for average users but its also a crutch that I sense is bad for the average joe miner. Knowing how to adapt to pool issues, knowing what coin to horde and sell manually is a huge benefit to the education of coming up in cryptocurrencies. This of course isn't Nicehash's fault, having easier ways of doing things is an advancement but this hack has shown me that many are lost and losing a lot of potential income trying to figure this out.
Personally I think there is a lot of thought people need to do and some research at this stage to educate themselves on crypto. Guys like me that got in early had a lot of reading to do and not so much material out there to educate ourselves. Now a days I am noticing there is a wealth of info but so many wanting everyone to tell them how to do things that its a bad habit I sense will create what old schoolers call "dumb money". New people need to realize there still is a competitive nature in crypto. Misinformation for some trolls is a key to their own success so I would be very careful about asking around for things you may not understand. Read, watch videos and take the time to really know this space so you can benefit and not hurt yourself for lack of knowledge.
Profit Switching Option: Awesome Miner
One thing I will say about this hack on Nicehash that did benefit me, I finally broke down and paid $70 for Awesome Miner (http://www.awesomeminer.com) which I been eyeing for my mining farm for awhile. Its hell to setup probably for the average user but once you know what is what and add in your pools, this thing is killing it in profits for me. And I don't have to keep sifting through BAT files for pool change ups anymore.
I suggest those wanting a more technical autopilot mining system to take a look at Awesome Miner. I have no regrets switching full time to using it, and actually finding more money out there than I was even getting manually profit switching.
Anyways I wanted to highlight these things I been seeing all week. I bit my tongue about the Nicehash situation because I wanted to really see how this unfolded. I do wish Nicehash the best and they over come this problem, wouldn't be crypto without Nicehash around for an old blood like myself. But I have to stress to them, till they get some form of daily payouts in a more logical currency, I may have to just keep with my Awesome Miner running. Oh, and please for the love of Crypto, Nicehash you should add more profit switching coins out there, I think since you been down what is hitting well is not on your algorithms lately.
To all that took losses like I did on this mess, I hope you recover and I hope you learn from this experience!
Hahahaha Im using awesome miner too now. I'm still not shure if MultiPoolMiner is the better option (more miners and greater options for pool integration if you want to mine electroneum for example). Ill see where the jurney will take me.
At least NiceHash finally promised to pay all the stolen money back until the end of january: https://steemit.com/nicehash/@mad-cat/nicehash-will-pay-stolen-btc-back-they-say
Maybe if they proove to be trustwordy again I'll go back there. My biggest mistake and regret was to use their intern wallet to save on some fees.
Yea I seen that today, I screenshotted the heck out of my remaining balance lol. I just hope they follow through with that one, they got hit hard but they do need to remember a lot of that money was other peoples funds too. I think they will provide but we got to wait.
I probably won't be returning to them though, I never really used them only when I didn't have time to keep tabs on the profits, NICEHASH has always been below the top on most mining calculators and I just figure keep going manual with Awesome Miner. I used to use MultiPoolMiner also but I am finding way more profit hitting with Awesome Miner, its just hell to set up lol. You really got to get it tweaked and fine tune a lot of pools, and I found manually adjusting profit API's helps, but its tough to get working fully. I have about 200 pools now in mine, I been at this a long time so I am pretty much on all pools out there.
By the way, Electroneum works fine through Awesome Miner, just make sure you use a custom miner, actually for most of them its best to use modded miners anyways, but it all depends on your rigs what is best suited, so lots of trial and error at the beginning.
For now I am kind of sticking with Zcash for mining, it may not be top dog for mining but I sense it might be worth holding onto just a little longer, so I pointed my Awesome Miner to the ZEC nanopool, going pretty smooth now.
I will say this, I do have a lot of love for Nicehash, I been giving them a lot of hell lately but its only because they slipped bad on that security. I think if they just implement payout options of other coins, then they maybe worth returning to but until they get it that the miner fees are horrendous right now for more BTC payouts, I just have to avoid. So much is changing in this space since I began, some good, some really bad but I do hope Nicehash will always be around as an option for new people to get a taste of what mining can do