Cryptocurrency trading with the help of crypto exchange platforms is one of the most common ways to profit from cryptos, but many crypto enthusiasts also choose crypto mining as a viable method for making money from digital currencies.
Bitcoin (BTC) mining is definitely the most popular type of crypto mining on the market, especially since BTC has the highest price per coin, which is drastically higher than any other coin or token. However, numerous altcoins can also be mined with the computing power of GPUs connected to mining rigs or with the help of more advanced ASIC miner machines.
Nicehash.com is one of the most popular cryptocurrency mining platforms on the market. It provides all-around services regarding crypto mining, such as renting hashing power, giving your hashing power up for rent, mining pool services, cloud mining, and even has a built-in crypto exchange platform.
In this guide, we are going to take a detailed look at the NiceHash platform, how it works, what are the services it offers, which cryptos are available on the platform, and how often does it pay out users.
The NiceHash Platform
The best expression to describe NiceHash in just a few words is to call it a hash power brokerage platform. This means that the platform utilizes the hashing power of its users by connecting hash rate sellers and buyers while profiting from the platform fees.
A lot of people want to engage in crypto mining, especially in BTC mining, since a single coin is worth more than 50,000 USD and thousands of crypto beginners or long-time enthusiasts want to get in on the action. However, starting your own crypto mining operation can be quite expensive. The early days of crypto when people efficiently mined Bitcoin with their PC’s CPU have passed a long time ago. Today the only efficient method for crypto mining is with the help of powerful mining rigs, computers with two or more connected top quality GPUs, which produce sufficient hashing power to make mining a profitable business.
To create your own rig, you need to invest considerable sums of money, because the really efficient GPUs are very expensive, plus you need at least two of them to profitably mine cryptos. On top of the initial investment for the mining rig, you also need to take into account the electricity consumption, because these computers consume a lot of power.
This is where NiceHash comes in – a platform that can make crypto mining far more convenient and cheaper to potential investors. With NiceHash, you don’t need your own rig. All you need to do is set up an account, connect a payment method and crypto wallet and rent some hashing power. Then, you can just sit back and watch your wallet get filled with freshly mined cryptos, which are paid out in the form of BTC on a regular basis. If you have a powerful mining rig but you don’t want to personally manage it, you can lend your hashing power to other users through NiceHash, while profiting from a nice rent fee.
Company Background
NiceHash is a Slovenian company with headquarters in the Slovenian city of Maribor, but it’s officially registered as NICEHASH Ltd. in the city of Tortola on the British Virgin Islands. The platform was founded in 2014 by two crypto enthusiasts, Marko Kobal and Matjaž korjanc. It was among the first platforms to provide hashing power brokerage services to users all over the world.
Today, according to their website, the company operates in more than 190 countries, with more than one million daily workers, 650,000 active daily mining service users and more than 9 million orders served. These figures are quite impressive because they show that there are hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world who are interested in crypto mining but don’t want to buy a rig and maintain it personally. The launch of NiceHash was an ideal solution for such people because they could finally become crypto miners, without having to personally invest cash in a mining rig.
Even though NiceHash provides top-quality services, it hasn’t been immune to controversy. One of its founders, Matjaž korjanc, was criminally indicted and convicted to a long term prison sentence of nearly five years back in 2010, because of his role in the creation of the Mariposa botnet hack that hijacked over 12 million computers worldwide, with the aim of stealing user credentials and bank card information.
After serving his prison sentence, Matjaž korjanc founded NiceHash, which became the global synonym for hash power brokerage services but the platform was a victim of a vicious cyber-attack that stole 60 million US dollars worth of BTC back in 2017. Luckily, the platform retained user trust and loyalty by reimbursing all of the affected user accounts.
NiceHash Legal Regulation
Users are generally very concerned with the legal aspects of crypto platforms because there’s a lot of scammers on the market that claim to provide fast, cheap and reliable services. In order to be sure that the platforms you use are legit, always check whether they’re regulated by some official government institutions.
NiceHash, for instance, is regulated by the European Union Commission and complies with its crypto regulations. The company itself is registered in Slovenia as H-BIT d.o.o., a limited liability company that is obliged to file regular business reports, tax reports and operate according to the prescribed crypto rules of the European Union.
Moreover, the fact that NiceHash operates globally doesn’t mean that it can avoid reports regarding their international businesses, because the fact that they are registered in the EU means that their business is regulated under European laws. All this goes to show that you can use NiceHash without fear of any scams.
How Does NiceHash Operate
If you’re a hash power seller, you don’t even need to get registered on the platform since you’re just lending your computing power. This means that sellers can remain fully anonymous on NiceHash, while buyers need to fill out the registration form that can be finished in just a couple of minutes and then start buying.
The NiceHash mining service supports 34 different hashing algorithms with several tens of different mineable cryptocurrencies. Some of the most popular mining algorithms such as the SHA-256, X11, X15, Equihash, and Scrypt are all available on NiceHash. The platform is also connected to 23 different mining pools and it can automatically connect the mining rigs which are part of the platform to specific mining pools in order to maximize mining productivity.
If you’re wondering which coin or token is best suitable for mining at the moment, you can check the profitability calculator at Whattomine.com before you start buying hash power.
In order to start ordering hash power, you need to deposit some BTC as the only payment currency supported by the platform and start with as little as 0.01 BTC. Then you’ll need to choose whether you want to use the EU or US marketplace. Keep in mind that the hashing power prices are all shown in BTC, regardless of the coins you wish to mine because Bitcoin is the official currency at NiceHash.
Available Cryptocurrencies
While Bitcoin is certainly the most popular digital currency for mining, there are also other coins that can be very profitable for a mining operation. Thanks to the fact that NiceHash supports numerous popular hashing algorithms, users can choose between a wide range of mineable cryptos. The available cryptos include Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), Zcash (ZEC), Decred (DCR), and other popular digital assets.
Even though you can mine various cryptocurrencies, you can’t receive payouts in those cryptos. You’ll always be paid out automatically in Bitcoin.
Profit Calculator
When engaging in cryptocurrency mining, profitability is a key variable, because earning some easy cash is the main reason why people want to mine cryptocurrencies. Before you start using NiceHash as a seller of hashing power, you should calculate how profitable it would actually be to rent your computing power.
NiceHash has a handy profitability calculator where you can check how much money you could make with your hardware. The calculator allows you to fill in the electricity bill expenses based on the power consumption of your hardware.
Service Pricing
The service pricing on NiceHash is flexible and it fluctuates depending on the market supply and demand. The prices are always changing in real-time, every 10 seconds to be precise, and the information on which the price changes are based is pulled from numerous exchange platforms and marketplaces. This goes for both buyers and sellers.
If you’re looking to buy some hashing power and mine coins, you basically have two plans at your disposal. You can initiate a standard bidding order with a low starting price and gradually build up your bid against other buyers until you win the bidding and buy yourself some hashing power. This option is cheaper than the other one, even though you might get outbid by other users.
The other option is to place an order with a fixed price if you want to avoid the hassle of changing bids and competing with other users. The price at which you’ll make a deal will probably be higher than standard bidding, but once you make an agreement, the price can’t go up no matter the market circumstances. This can sometimes lead to a fixed price deal being much better than standard bidding if the price of your mined crypto goes up considerably.
Platform Fees
The price you pay for buying hashing power and the BTC you earn for renting your own computer to others is one thing, but there are also the NiceHash platform fees that you need to take into account.
NiceHash pricing
For rigs with a mining balance of at least 1,000 satoshis, or 0.00001 BTC, the platform fee for selling hash power is 2%, which goes to the NiceHash platform wallet address.
Each buying order incurs a non-refundable fee of 0.00001 BTC, plus a 3% fee that’s deducted from the amount of Bitcoin spent on purchasing hashing power.
NiceHash Mining Pools
A great thing about the NiceHash platform is that it automatically enables users to join different mining pools, where they can pool their computing power with other miners and gain more profits. Being part of a mining pool is generally far more efficient than being a solo miner because you aren’t competing with thousands of miners for the block reward. In a mining pool, users share block rewards between pool members in proportion to the hashing power of each miner.
NiceHash supports 23 mining pools and you can join any one of them, depending on the cryptos you’re mining.
A Step-by-Step Guide for Purchasing Hashing Power on NiceHash
These are the steps you need to follow to become a hash power buyer:
- Create a user account on NiceHash, this will only take a few minutes.
- Transfer at least 0.001 BTC to your account, because this is the minimum amount necessary to facilitate a hashing power purchase.
- Choose the cryptocurrency you wish to mine and select the adequate mining pool.
- Some pools may require you to register before using them.
- Create a new worker. A worker is an expression used for a single mining operation on NiceHash. If you want to mine two different coins, you need to create two workers. For example, if you wish to mine BTC and ETH, one worker will be used for Bitcoin and the other one for Ethereum.
- Once you’ve selected a crypto pool and created a new worker, you need to save these settings as one of your NiceHash pools. Once saved, you’ll have this specific mining operation viewable in the NiceHash Pools section.
- Verify your mining pool with the pool verifier option on NiceHash. You might even be able to set the mining difficulty of your worker in some mining pools.
- Now, you can place a market purchase order, using the hashing algorithm for the coin you wish to mine. You can only mine the coin for which you’ve set up a NiceHash mining pool and created a worker, so make sure you’ve selected the appropriate hashing algorithm. For instance, if you’re mining Bitcoin, you need to select the SHA-256 hashing algorithm and the mining pool you’ve joined needs to be compatible with BTC.
- Once you’ve placed a purchase order with a certain amount of BTC and managed to close the order, your worker will start mining coins.
- Now that you’ve set everything up, you can sit back and watch coins flow into your BTC wallet. You can check the earnings in your NiceHash Pools section by clicking on the worker.
A Step-by-Step Guide for Selling Hashing Power on NiceHash
There are many crypto enthusiasts who just want to make some side cash by giving the computing power of their PC for rent on NiceHash. These computers are usually personal machines with a single GPU, which is another selling point of NiceHash, as it even lets you sell the hashing power of a single Nvidia or AMD graphics card.
Selling your hashing power on NiceHash works a bit differently than purchasing it:
- Create a user account on NiceHash.
- It’s quite convenient to have a NiceHash Bitcoin wallet for payouts, because you’ll get paid more frequently, at lower payout thresholds than if you use a third-party BTC address.
- Install the NiceHash Miner software.
- Connect your NiceHash account and the NiceHash Miner software. You can link the two with the email you used to create your NiceHash account. You can use third-party mining software but it’s more practical to use the NiceHash Miner.
- Your NiceHash Miner will determine which hashing algorithm is the best to maximize your profitability, instead of having to do that manually.
- Once you’ve set up the NiceHash Miner, connected your wallet and initiated the selling process, you’re ready to start getting paid out for your hashing power.
NiceHash Payout Policy
NiceHash is all about making money, so no matter whether you’re buying or selling hashing power, you’re doing it because you want to cash out. Different platforms have different schedules, and NiceHash makes daily payouts in bitcoins.
For users that keep their funds on the NiceHash exchange platform in their NiceHash wallets, payouts are facilitated for all unpaid balances greater than 0.001 BTC, while external wallets that aren’t located on NiceHash are paid out for every unpaid balance of at least 0.1 BTC.
NiceHash payout policy
If you manage to accumulate these amounts of BTC on a daily basis, you’ll get paid every day. In case it takes you more than a day to reach these thresholds, you’ll get paid the moment you reach them.
Also, in case you’re keeping your funds in a third-party wallet and you have at least 0.001 bitcoins worth of unpaid balances, you’ll get paid weekly.
NiceHash Crypto Exchange Platform
NiceHash has its own crypto trading platform that’s great for users who want to exchange their paid out Bitcoin for other cryptocurrencies and then sell them to third parties or just transfer them to their crypto wallets as a store of value.
The exchange platform comes in two forms, suitable for beginners and experienced crypto traders alike. The Simple View platform version is made for crypto beginners who have no experience with advanced trading interfaces and complex charts. Here, users can quickly buy, sell and exchange cryptos. All you need to do is select the desired trading pair and fill in how many coins you wish to buy or sell.
With the Trade View, you’ll get access to an advanced exchange interface with more complex features, suitable for crypto traders that are used to order books and detailed market charts that show all price fluctuations and enable traders to monitor market volatility patterns. The Trade View provides expanded functionality and allows users to gain a total overview of market variables. This enables experienced brokers to implement advanced trading strategies and tactics.
You can directly buy cryptos with fiat money like USD, EUR, or other cryptos. More than 50 popular digital currencies are available on the NiceHash exchange, including BTC, ETH, LTC, Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Monero (XMR), Chainlink (LINK), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Eos (EOS), Dogecoin (DOGE), SushiSwap (SUSHI), RavenCoin (RVN), Zcash (ZEC), Dash (DASH), Uniswap (UNI) and other altcoins.
NiceHash App
NiceHash also has a mobile app that’s compatible with both Android and iOS mobile devices. The app is used for managing your NiceHash account and mining operations. Keep in mind that you can’t mine with your NiceHash app, the mining is only possible with your computer, but the app enables you to manage account settings and view all the characteristics of your mining operation.
NiceHash mobile app
You can manage your rig, access your wallet, view the hash power marketplace, place orders, receive notifications regarding your mining operation and edit your profile.
A Few Final Words…
The idea behind NiceHash is an example of how decentralized blockchain technology can be used for creating passive income sources without the need to personally maintain complex hardware and software.
Therefore, if you’re looking for a practical, easy to use hash power brokerage platform that’s also a crypto exchange, then NiceHash is a really great choice because not only can you mine cryptos or sell your hashing power, but you can also keep those cryptos on the exchange platform wallet and exchange them for other digital currencies, making an additional profit from trading.