My miner is getting old. I've had it a little over a year now, and I bought it used -- who had it like a year as well. The hashing rate is now gradually slowing down due to wear and tear and the AMD GPU cards. My history with this miner has mostly been with ETC with some mining of ZCash as an experiment. The price of ETC is very, very good right now compared to when I started mining, but it seems I have gone from getting 1 ETC per day to it taking like 10 days get a single coin payout. The obvious answer would be to update my tech and get a new rig, and I am considering that. However, even if I do that, I see no reason to throw out the old miner. So, that has left me with a question.
Do I stop mining ETC and point my rig at a lesser coin? My thought is that a lesser coin will do less wear and tear on older GPU's that have basically been going none stop for more than a year. So, I am currently in the research phase of figuring out what to do in a possible post ETC phase for this particular rig. Right now, I have been considering Pascal Coin. Even to a mining noob like myself, there are somethings that I have found appealing. For instance:
- Their was no ICO on the launch of this coin. In the current crypto boom, there have been a lot of scammy initial coin offerings. The fact that Pascal did not do this suggests a confidence in their own technology.
- It was not pre-mined at all. Pre-mining coins usually seems to be a possible sign of a scammy developer. Pascal had, what seems to me, a clean launch.
- It's on Nanopool. Some people might quibble about fees here and there, but that does seem to be a fairly trustworthy pool. I have gone after ETC and ZCash on Nanopool with no complaints.
- Claymore has a miner for it. Again, some might quibble over the details, but Claymore is established, and the fact that they have a dual miner for Pascal adds a little more credibility. I have been using both Claymore and Nanopool, and so sometimes it's just easy to go with what you know.
- The tech, from what I understand, is different than some competitors, from the code it was written in to how and what it does with a blockchain.
My one complaint is this:
- Pascal is not traded as widely as other coins. Right now, the biggest exchange it is on is Poloniex. Many of us here on Steemit have experienced Poloniex glitches of some sort, especially when it comes to depositing Steem and SBD tokens. However, I do realize this could be a growing issue with a new coin. If it gains a little traction, it could eventually end up on Bittrex and other places.
Currently, I am still on the fence. I cannot walk away from ETC right now because I halfway through mining one coin. It will likely take four to five more days to get that payout. That's giving me some time to think. I realize that mining Pascal would be a total experiment. However, when your miner begins to not be able to keep up with a coin, it's best quit and look elsewhere. This has happened with other people and Bitcoin and Ethereum. It seems to be happening with me and ETC right now. Of course, if anybody has and advice on that, I more than willing to listen.