original art by @stellabelle

I’ve been interested in learning about mining cryptocoins for some time now, but I haven’t done it myself…….yet. I recently met Zascha in the Dash Slack and she was awesome enough to answer all my questions about mining.

Here’s part of Zascha’s crypto journey that started with the following conversation:

“Do you know anything about mining?” KB asked.
I said, “Mining? For what?”

"Well, that is all it took.
KB went on and on and deep, very deep… and I was hooked. I know you might be wondering why I got hooked? No, it is not what you are thinking.
Well if you know me, you know I enjoy building things, I enjoy touring at home depot, I am an artsy person and I love to see and touch things, yes I am that kind of person (smile)."

Zascha answers 10 questions about her cryptocurrency mining journey:

How did you get into mining cryptocurrency?

Z: My friend, KB introduced me to his mining rigs and the rest is history.

How long have you been mining?

Z: 1 Month. I built a mining rig which I named “LOL”, and that was my first mining rig.

Can you tells us something interesting/strange about mining coins?

Z: For me, it is fascinating. It’s a nice hobby. There are many aspects to take into consideration from hardware, algorithms, hash rate, power, cost, difficulty and obviously deciding what coin to mine.

How much did your mining rig cost?

Z: My latest mining rig was a present. A big surprise and I love him.

Can you tell us more details about your mining rigs?

Z: So I call one of my mining rigs “5” and he is made by Baikal. He’s known as Baikal X11. “5” is an ASIC miner which can mine DASH as well as other coins using this algorithm.

X11 ASIC Baikal Mini Miner Specifications:

– Hash Rate: 150 MHS (±10%)
– Power: 40 W (±5%) @ 0.27 J/MH (at the wall, with 25 C ambient temperature)
– Power supply: DC 12V 5A Power Adapter with 2.5 DC Plug (Not included)
– Interface: Ethernet
– Operating Temperature: 0 ~ 40 C
– Dimension: 140mm (L) x 100mm (W) x 95mm (H)
– Weight: 475 grams

How much DASH do you mine per week?

Z: .35 per week. 18 DASH per year.

Do you mine other coins?

Z: Yes, I do. My other mining rig named “LOL” has mined ETH, ETC, and ZCL. I still need to learn more about the different coins in order to be able to make more sound decisions.

Are your mining rigs loud or hot?

Z: No, "5" is sexy, adorable, and cute. “5” is not loud or hot at all. And the best part, he does not consume that much electricity. “5” is very friendly, easy to set up and low maintenance (Thank you God!!). If my calculations are right I will pay @ $2.88 per month for his power consumption. He is great.

What are your thoughts about DASH so far?

Z: I think it has a lot of potential. There are many technical aspects that I still need to understand to be able to form a sound opinion, especially in terms of privacy. DASH places a great deal of effort on the end user experience and its simplicity, this makes it very attractive. There seems to be a big networking community for Dash and growing. Their governance model is definitely a differentiating factor.

Will you get more rigs?

Z: ABSOLUTELY! I plan to add 2 more GPU cards to “LOL”. And I’m definitely thinking about adding more sexy miners like “5”.

Anything else you want to share about mining cryptocurrency?

Z: At this moment, I have more questions than answers when it comes to mining. I want to support the network and the technology and if I can profit or break even that will be a plus. Mining is definitely helping me expand my crypto world knowledge and especially the computer world.

The process is definitely intriguing and complex. But I did not want to wait to be more knowledgable in the subject to start mining……I just went for it and I’m really glad I did.

This article originally was published in Dash For Newbies, a Medium publication I started about one week ago as part of my Dash proposal that was recently passed.

I'll be giving half of the Steem earnings from this post to Zascha.