If there is one subject of conversation that seems to be everywhere these days, it is the cryptocurrencies. From the investors to the general public, and the media, almost no one can stop talking about them. It is for good reason too, since cryptocurrencies have managed to bring about a revolution in the financial sector.
Their influence and dominance remains not just limited to one country but spread across almost the entire world. From the western nations such as the United States of America, Canada, UK and the like, all the way to the eastern nations such as Japan, India, Russia, and many more, Bitcoins are literally everywhere.
Even the few of those who have never invested a single penny in their lives, are currently planning and thinking of schemes revolving around cryptocurrencies to invest in. All of this is a direct consequence of the fact that these currencies are known to bring about fabulous returns, almost negligible losses, and a gigantic potential to earn huge profits.
It almost seems hard to believe now that it all started when the Bitcoin made its amazing debut back in 2009. Since then, the domain of cryptocurrencies blew wide open for anyone to reap the benefits from.
Now one of these cryptocurrencies happens to be Dash. Although slightly lesser known than the hugely popular Bitcoin, Dash, if studied in depth and researched on well before starting an investment, can actually prove to be quite profitable, even more so than the Bitcoin.
It actually takes care of a few chinks in the Bitcoin’s armor and reinforces it with its own special brand of features. It is fast, secure and offers a worthy alternative to Bitcoin, making it a good candidate for the next big thing to invest in.
But in case you’re planning to spend your money on buying Dash coins, let us present you with a better alternative. What if you could obtain Dash coins, without even directly spending any money on them? For the uninitiated, this is possible with the help of mining.
Mining for cryptocurrencies is the process of verifying blocks on the crypto blockchain such that new transactions are added and verified. It enables cryptocurrencies to remain decentralized and at the same time, lets the miners earn a few coins for themselves. The way it works is that each miner needs to solve some complication mathematical problems and algorithms, and whichever person manages to get to the solution in the least amount of time, is awarded a few coins.
So, in a way, you get to obtain coins for yourself without spending any real money. The only place you will have to spend money though will be on a decent mining rig which can handle your mining operations and let you easily accumulate a good wealth of cryptocurrencies for yourself.
The only catch is, neither are these machines cheap with respect to their price and nor are they economical with respect to their maintenance costs, since they end up sucking a whole lot of electrical power.
For all these reasons, it is best to remain careful and plan well before buying a miner for yourself, lest you choose a model that makes more losses than profits. To help you not make such mistakes, this article provides a comprehensive review of one amazing miner for Dash, the Antminer D3.
The Antminer D3 Review
Hash Rate
Hash rate refers to the number of problems a miner can solve in one second. Obviously, the higher the hash rate of a miner, better will be its performance. As for the Antminer D3, it actually offers a pretty decent hash rate of 15 GH/s.
Power Consumption
The one aspect of miners that often results in a lot of interested buyers ultimately drop the idea is the power consumption. Mining is not an all-out profitable business, and a few losses along the way are bound to happen. However, it is all good if your net result stays somewhat on the positive side. As for the negative, the one big factor driving your losses is the excessive need of power on these miners.
Since they carry out a lot of heavy lifting and perform some pretty big tasks, such as verifying transactions on the blockchain and solving complex mathematical algorithms, it is only natural that they seek more power. However, this need often becomes a problem for users, since with greater power consumption come higher energy bills.
On the plus side though, innovations are already in place and more research is always being conducted to develop better and much more energy efficient miners which can actually minimize energy costs while maximizing profitability.
As for the Antminer D3, it consumes a total of 1200 W, which is pretty moderate on the power rating scale.
Power Supply
While some miners come with a built-in power supply, others are not so much equipped and require the user to buy one separately. Unfortunately, the D3 belongs to the second category, which means you need to look for a decent power supply capable enough to power the device before you start working.
Where to Buy Antminer D3
The one problem with miners is that they are not that easily available. While some of the more popular ones are found on Amazon, eBay or other similar e-commerce platforms, the lesser known ones are somewhat harder to look for. However, if all else fails, you can always buy them from the official website of the manufacturer, which in this case is Bitmain.
Simply log on to Bitmain’s website and you will find a purchase section where you can easily browse for your desired miner, the D3 for example, and proceed to the checkout page. As for the payment process, you can pay for your purchase through Bitcoins, Litecoins or even wire transfers.
Additionally, the Antminer D3 is also available on eBay, making it one of the more easily accessible devices out there.
About the Manufacturer
Bitmain is arguably the most trusted and popular cryptocurrency miner manufacturing company in the market. They are known to be diligent, customer-focused and quality conscious of their products. They already have a long range of models of mining rigs, not just for Bitcoins or DASH but a number of cryptocurrencies, making their reach in the market possibly the widest and most influential.
However, just like any other big brand, Bitmain too does not come without its fair share of complications and secrets. Pretty recently, the brand came under a lot of fire for adding a secret backdoor to their products. As for understanding what the back door was, you need to have a little bit of technical know-how. In simple terms though, this backdoor was installed into the firmware of Bitmain’s hardware devices, Antminer for example. Now it allowed for the company to actually carry out check-ins with some central service every ten minutes.
Each of the check-ins transmitted or sent over confidential information such as the Antminer serial number, IP address and MAC address. Now the exact usage for all of this data is completely dependent on the discretion of the company but they could use it to cross-check sales information from customers and even delivery records. All this seriously puts the customer’s own privacy at risk and should have been carried out with the customer’s due permission.
As for the risk associated, there has been no proven record of any sort of malicious intent on the part of the company, but this is nevertheless something you should be aware of if you intend to buy the product.
Warranty
Although miners generally have a good life, a good warranty period is always appreciated. As for the Antminer D3, you are offered a decent warranty period of 180 days, during which you can get the product replaced or repaired completely free of cost in case there occurs some problem with the machine or if it randomly stops working.
Mining Equipment
If there is one severe complication that often takes place with cryptocurrency miners, it is that they heat up pretty fast. Just like any other device that carries out some heavy lifting in terms of the processes it handles, these miners too are susceptible to high temperatures and overheating.
Even our own trusted smartphones and laptops are not free of this problem, for even they tend to heat up randomly when plugged into a power source for prolonged periods of time or when used extensively and heavily for a long time. Fortunately, miners also come with a solution.
Especially designated fans are attached to the miner which has the sole purpose of keeping the device temperature in check and making sure it stays within the prescribed limits. If the temperature somehow manages to jump up too much, the power consumed by the fans automatically rises to make them spin faster and, as a result, carry out faster and better cooling.
On the downside, this is the very reason that miners often result in aggravated energy and power bills.
Price
How can it be a complete review unless we don’t tell you how much you will actually end up spending on the rig? Now there are several factors that contribute towards the price of a specific product. Some of the primary ones happen to be availability, demand and the overall performance of the product. If something performs exceedingly well, it is only natural that the demand for the item will increase, and as a result, the prices will certainly go up.
As for the Antminer D3, the news isn’t that good. At $2699, the D3 is one of the most expensive miners on the market. It is in fact almost as expensive as the best performing Bitcoin miner on the market, and easily exceeds the cost of a lot many other decent performing rigs available. A pretty plausible cause for this high figure is that Dash coins have been proven time and again to be extremely profitable and effective, even more so than a lot of other cryptocurrencies out there, including the Bitcoin.
Perhaps this is why the high price is a means to justify the excessive profits you stand to gain from dealing in Dash.
Now that we are through with an exhaustive and pretty comprehensive review of the miner that is Antminer D3, we present to you a few tidbits and information on why Dash is the currency of the future and why it needs to be taken seriously.
Birth of Dash
The one big problem with Bitcoin is the associated transaction confirmation times. Let us say you end up spending your Bitcoins on some product, or maybe some other cryptocurrency. How long will it be until your transaction is verified by the seller and your purchased product is dispatched over to you?
Actually, there is no definite answer. It may take pretty long before the seller acknowledges the fact that the Bitcoins you sent have been duly received, and until that happens, you are not in any way liable to receive the product you bought. Obviously, there are specific laws and regulations for maintaining and regulating all of this, but the fact remains that Bitcoin transactions are slow, to begin with.
Now Evan Duffield, a major cryptocurrency enthusiast, recognized this problem and instantly felt the need for a better and much faster cryptocurrency that learns from Bitcoins’ mistakes and corrects them in the best manner possible. And so, on the 18th of January 2014, Evan went on to create Dash, which was formally called Xcoin, which was later changed to DarkCoin, and finally went on to become Dash which is an amalgamation of the words Digital Cash.
Dash was created with the sole purpose of being a much more effective solution to common problems faced by cryptocurrencies than Bitcoin. It actively focused on the key issues faced by it and went on to rectify them since its inception. Additionally, just like Bitcoin, there will always only be a limited supply of Dash coins in the world. As per statistics, as of now, there are about 7.85 million Dash coins in the market, and the total cap has been set at 18 million.