As Bitcoin surges above $10,000 for the first time in more than a year, there is a growing interest among crypto enthusiasts in mining. Although Bitcoin’s hash rate, which marks the difficulty of mining a new block, is rising, if this uptrend in prices continues, there are profits to be had. With that in mind, in this article, we’re going to look at some of the best Bitcoin mining programs. Which programs work well, what they’re designed to do, and what their limitations are.
CGMiner
CGMiner is arguably the most famous and well used Bitcoin mining software. It is an opensource program that has been around for at least five years and only continues to improve. One of its key features is the broad developer community, which is always available to answer questions and fix bugs found in the software.
Unlike some mining programs, CGMiner is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. It is, however, a command-line program and takes some technical understanding to operate. However, just because it’s CL does not mean it lacks in features. Users can monitor their hardware, adjust fan speeds, and the program is capable of scaling to any hash rate without a network delay. It also has support for multiple pools making it easy to switch between them.
Finally, CGMiner is written in C, and it supports several different ASIC miners. This ensures that as mining operators upgrade their hardware or switch over to new miners, they won’t need to switch to a new program.
MultiMiner
Unlike CGMiner, which uses a command-line interface, MultiMiner has a slick graphical interface. MultiMiner is a desktop application. It is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. This makes it especially attractive to users who are new to cryptocurrency or who do not have experience working with CL programs. Like CGMiner, it is open source, there is an active developer community, and there is even an app available to monitor machine performance.
One of the best features of MultiMiner is that it allows miners to switch between different cryptocurrencies easily. For instance, a miner could switch between Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin, and Litecoin, depending on which is the most profitable to mine. It also allows miners to easily switch between different hardware setups such as ASIC or FPGA miners. MultiMiner automatically detects the available mining hardware and then lets the user choose which coins they would like to mine. MultiMiner also automatically detects network devices, and it allows for the remote monitoring and control of multiple MultiMiner setups.
BFGMiner
What makes Bitcoin mining especially interesting is that it can be run from a tiny computer. The Raspberry Pi costs less than $50 and requires a negligible amount of electricity to run. While this may not be of concern since power-hungry ASICS will always account for most power usage, the Raspberry Pi has other advantages in that it’s incredibly portable and takes up little space.
To mine Bitcoin with it, however, specialized mining software is needed. BFGMiner is the solution. It’s another opensource crypto mining program, and their GitHub readme section has instructions explicitly related to running the software on the Raspberry Pi.
Awesome Miner
For mining operations with more than one rig, or services with different kinds of miners designed for different coins, Awesome Miner is the right choice. It allows for up to 200,000 ASIC miners or 25,000 GPU or CPU rigs. That should be enough for almost anyone.
The program has a graphic interface and is easy to understand right from the beginning. In addition to mining for Bitcoin, it comes programmed with several different encryption algorithms from SHA-256 to X11. This allows it to be used to mine other cryptocurrencies like Zcash or Ethereum.
From the dashboard, a user can check on the temperature of their devices and see and diagnose any problems. Interestingly, Awesome Miner has a custom script engine that allows for unique triggers to be set. For instance, setting up API access is comfortable with this program configuring, which pool should be mined. While the program is designed for windows, it can be accessed via the web on any computer or tablet.