Last night, I had a debate with my mining partner on this topic. It was a battle between Ethereum and Zcash. According to WhatToMine - Zcash should be the more profitable option (by a lot) but mind you, the last time we run the test, Zcash was at its high.
As drawfs, engineers and for the love of science, we ran a competition.
Goal
Find out between Ethereum and Zcash which is more profitable for mining. Safety first.
The Rigs
| Ethereum | Zcash | |
|---|---|---|
 |  | |
| GPU | 5 R9 290X | 5 R9 290X |
| Miner | Claymore 9.6 | Claymore 12.5 |
| OS | Ubuntu 14.04.01 | Ubuntu 14.04.01 |
| Driver | fglrx from AMD | fglrx from AMD |
| Fan speed | 75% | 75% |
| Under Volt* | -28 | -20 |
*The Undervolt values were chosen to use the minimum amount of electricity while performing the highest hash rate without overclocking and dual mining.
Experiment Setup
We were mining on flypool for 12 hours. We started the two rigs at the same time to reduce variance in the environment.
The data
| Ethereum |  |
| Zcash |  |
Notice the wave pattern in the chart? Our guess is its claymore's dev fee kicking in at that time. We also seemed to had some internet outage (and that is the most annoying thing ever - no internet, no mining)
If we look at the estimated payout based on the 12 hours experiment, the projected earning are:
| Estimated Payout | Ethereum | Zcash |
|---|---|---|
| Week | $66.05 | $28.79 |
| Week | 0.24723 ETH | 0.10372 ZEC |
| Month | 283.07 USD | 123.38 USD |
| Month | 1.05ETH | 0.44451 ZEC |
What we forget to capture is the power consumption but the difference between the two rigs are within 50watt range.
And the winner is Ethereum
Updating config files and switching back to Ethereum mining. Off we go.
Special note - love the dramatic cover photo for the post? Read my review and watch GLOW on Netflix.
Special note 2 - wonder how I setup my first rig? Read my mining guide
Photo credit: Screen Rant