The guide below will give you links to all the resources you need from the Ravencoin mining software to mining pools. Let’s get started. Stay in touch with Techcoins.

As Bitmain and other ASIC manufacturers continue to release new rigs for mining new algorithms the crypto currency community has increasingly been turning to ASIC resistant algorithms and coins in an effort to maintain the decentralization promised by crypto currencies.

One coin that got a lot of interest a few months ago on Reddit and Twitter, and remains both popular and profitable for home miners, is the Ravencoin (RVN).

There are more profitable coins, but Ravencoin has remained near the top when it comes to profitability, and chances are that will continue, thanks to the ASIC resistance of the algorithm the coin uses. If you haven’t heard of Ravencoin before the following guide will get you on your way to mining this neat little coin with either an Nvidia or an AMD GPU.

What is Ravencoin?

Ravencoin was developed as an open-source, decentralized peer-to-peer network that is implementing a block chain specifically designed for transferring assets from one party to another. If you want to take a deeper dive into the project and its capabilities, here’s a link to the Ravencoin mining white paper.

Ravencoin is a fairly new project, having been launched in January 2018 as a fork of Bitcoin. Like Bitcoin it was created with no pre-mine and no ICO. Furthermore, it is a complete proof-of-work coin with the network fully secured by miners. It uses a unique X16R algorithm that was designed specifically for Ravencoin mining and ASIC resistance.

Learn more: Asset Transactions with Ravencoin

X16R & ASIC Resistance Ravencoin mining

One of the reasons Ravencoin mining has gained popularity so quickly is the X16R algorithm it uses for proof-of-work mining.

The X16R algorithm is actually 16 different algorithms, which are used randomly during mining and the order depends on the hash of the previous block. Because of this randomness it’s extremely difficult to program an ASIC machine to mine the X16R algorithm. And even if someone tried to make an ASIC for the algorithm the developers could simply change the algorithms being used in X16R.

So, it’s fairly safe to assume that the X16R algorithm will remain ASIC resistant for a very long time.

Ravencoin Wallets

As is true for any mining you need a wallet to send your coins to. You can get the latest version of the official Raven wallet from Github, where it’s available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Ubuntu, cenos7 and fedora27. Download the wallet and go to File -> Receiving Address to create a new wallet address.

You should also encrypt the wallet by going to Settings -> Encrypt and following the prompts.

Next you’ll want to download the appropriate mining software for your GPU.

Ravencoin uses a unique X16R algorithm that was designed specifically for Ravencoin mining and ASIC resistance.

Ravencoin Mining Pools

The final piece of your mining puzzle is to choose a mining pool for Ravencoin. It’s best to use a mining pool rather than trying to solo mine. While Ravencoin is ASIC resistant, it is still too difficult to solo mine unless you have a farm of GPUs. You’ll find lots of available pools with fees ranging from 0% to 2%. Below are some of the most popular pools and their hashrate. Note that it isn’t always best to choose the most popular pool because that promotes centralization.

Suprnova.cc – Largest Ravencoin mining pool with 398 GH/s

Ravenminer – 330 GH/s

Ravenminer EU – 106 GH/s

BSOD – 106 GH/s

A Hash Pool – 16.5 GH/s

Keep in mind that at the end of the day (or week as it is) your earnings will even out no matter which pool you use. That means there’s really no best pool, only pools with lower fees and different payment types and minimums. Pick any pool that suits you and it will be the best for you.

For this guide I’m using Ravenpool, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best.

RVN Mining Profitability Calculator

There are several ways to estimate your mining profitability with Ravencoin. The first is through WhattoMine.com. The second is Raven Calc, which gives you the same information as WhattoMine.

Finally, you can use the bot in the Ravencoin Discord channel by entering “!hash xx“, where the “xx” is replaced with you hash power. The bot is pretty accurate.

Conclusion

Hopefully this guide has given you what you need to get started Ravencoin mining. There are few coins that are set to remain ASIC resistant as well and as long as Ravencoin mining, meaning you should be able to continue mining it with your GPU for a very long time. The same is not true for many altcoins.

If you didn’t click through to check out the Ravencoin Discord bot you really should, if only to join the community there, which is now over 10,000 users and is quite active. They can help you with any Ravencoin mining related problems or questions you might have.

Aside from being mineable with a GPU, the project is also focused on giving a useful block chain product. With a strong community and complete transparency the project continues growing. I also like the fact that Ravencoin launched with no pre-mine and no ICO , and is avoiding the use of master nodes and staking in favor of mining, which is a far more decentralized consensus mechanism.