MinerGate Review: Is It a Legit Mining Operation?

Mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be complex, and it’s generally left to the techies who know what they’re doing. Even if you have the brains and the mining hardware for the process, it’s a volatile existence for the individual miner.

Some companies are, however, bringing cryptocurrency mining to the average user. Downloadable software is available to bring lots of “small-time” miners together to combine their resources. These groups of people are known as miner pools, one such example being MinerGate.

In this MinerGate review, you’ll find out about how MinerGate works, what its main features are, and what users think of the software.

What Is MinerGate?

MinerGate is an open mining pool where people use their computers to add hashing power to that of thousands of other miners. The user interface is openly downloadable and allows people to quickly start mining Ethereuem, Bitcoin, and a selection of other altcoins. It helps to break down the usual complexities found in mining.

MinerGate allows anyone to grab the program and run it on his or her computer. Large, powerful units can, of course, add more power, but smaller, amateur miners can use a normal PC or laptop. They can even run the smartphone application if they’re so inclined. It sounds great, but realistically, the lesser your device, the less you can earn. A phone is nearly pointless in terms of hashing power. The average laptop will put a little more starch in your pants, and it can make it fun to get involved, but returns will still be limited. Of course, it all depends on the coin you mine as well.

While MinerGate is quick and simple to use, there are complex algorithms running in the background. In just a few clicks, it exploits the maximum capability out of your hardware based on how much you want to dedicate. You don’t need to get involved in any of this with a program like MinerGate; simply let it do the hard work while you while away the day on low-processing tasks.

The MinerGate team will reward you based on how much input you are committing. If you’re looking to boost your passive income, then it’s a neat solution. You can put your computer to work while you aren’t using the hardware.

There are lots of other mining pools around, but many require a little more knowledge to run and can only mine one cryptocurrency. MinerGate has the distinct advantage of working from both the CPU and GPU to mine multiple cryptos for maximum profit. For example, you can run both Ethereum and Monero mining simultaneously.

How to Use MinerGate

The beauty of MinerGate is how easy it is to fire up and start mining. Here’s a quick run-through to show you the steps.

Step 1: Swift sign-up process at minergate.com

You only need an email address—no verification or laborious forms.

Step 2: Download the software

The website should detect your operating system.

 

Step 3: Install MinerGate

Install and open MinerGate like any other program on your operating system.

Step 4: Use the Benchmark feature

This allows MinerGate to analyze your hardware and let you know what you can achieve.

Step 5: Start mining

Either click Smart Mining for the most profit or manually select a cryptocurrency.

Main Features

You’ll see that there are a few different options and functions built into MinerGate.

The first page will encourage you: Start Smart Mining. Smart mining automatically mines the most profitable cryptocurrency for you. How much this takes market prices and difficulty into account is hard to know; nonetheless, it’s an enticing feature if you want to get started with no complications. All you need to do is select your core output and let it do its thing.

You’ll also see a Benchmarking tab, which might be a good place to start before you do anything. In a few minutes, the software will analyze your hardware to see what you can achieve. I ran this on my Surface Pro, which is ideal for writing and content work. It’s a hybrid laptop-cum-tablet, so it’s not really geared toward mining. The result was a $25 earning potential over a year. Not super inspiring—but maybe better than expected.

The Mining tab is probably the most complicated, but it’s pretty easy to get your head around. You can quickly select which crypto to mine with the CPU and which to mine with the GPU. Again, you can designate different amounts of power to each mining process. I tested this on my laptop, putting all four cores to work on mining. Very quickly I could hear the power output from the hardware, and after checking the task manager, I found that it was indeed giving the system a complete workout.

MinerGate Cryptocurrencies and Fees

There is a decent chunk of coin available on MinerGate. Over a dozen options are on offer for you to mine including Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero.

Be aware that Dashcoin is not the same as Dash. There have been reports of users mining a lot of Dashcoin only to find that it can’t be deposited into their Dash wallets.

The fees don’t seem over the top either. The flat fee of 1% or 1.5% is pretty favorable compared to some competitors.

MinerGate Community Trust

The court of public opinion wavers quite heavily on the subject of MinerGate. Word of mouth is the driving force behind any brand, and MinerGate seems to be littered with poor experiences—with some even labeling it a scam. While it’s easy to download and run, fund withdrawal seems to be a stumbling block for some.

Many report deposits into their cryptocurrency wallets elsewhere not appearing, with records of failed transactions on the blockchain. Others simply say they never see their money.

That being said, there are some who use the software with success often, although these scenarios are a little harder to find. Furthermore, most people who praise MinerGate usually attach their affiliate links to their reviews, so it’s less trustworthy in my opinion.

It’s very worrying to hear from so many frustrated users who are trying to withdraw funds. There’s plenty to see and love about the simple functionality of MinerGate, but if you can’t get your money, then it’s a waste of time.

Another issue is that many users are complaining about the lack of transparency of the MinerGate mining pool. They claim that MinerGate is displaying lower hash rates for your hardware than what is actually being used. This means that the platform is effectively telling you that you earned less than you actually did and keeping the difference.

Very little is known about the company as a whole, with its About section just stating that it’s run by a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts—always a red flag where scams are concerned. It’s a common misconception that the team behind MinerGate is also the team behind Changelly, which builds trust. However, after speaking with representatives from Changelly, I can now confirm that these are two different companies.

I’ve asked our mining expert Ian to compare MinerGate’s performance to one of the alternatives – Claymore miner. Here’s what he had to say:

Here are two pics from the same rig running 4 Rx 470’s:  

Minergate running @ 985H/s and 

Claymore at 2499 H/s (meaning 2.5 times faster)

Now the question is whether that delta is malicious and they are “stealing” or redirecting hashpower somehow when using their interface vs. Claymore’s.  I lean towards not and here is why: 

When using Claymore on Monero I was still mining directly to my Minergate dashboard and wallet, getting the full yield of Claymore’s power.  If they were really stealing I would think they would not actually give you the coins. People pointing to the platform itself saying it’s not as good is rubbish, because there are few developers in the world that can build a miner to run as well as Claymore. 

Genoil is good and he can’t beat Claymore – is he stealing too?  I think that for what they built – a GUI miner interface that can CPU and GPU mine at one click of the button it is very good. It’s just not highly tuned and optimized like Claymore’s. 

MinerGate Review Conclusion

The great news is that you can download MinerGate, install it, and start mining within five minutes. That’s pretty cool even if you have no technical experience or just want to try it for fun.

The user interface is easy to get on with; it’s all neatly laid out, and it hides all of the complicated mishmash associated with cryptocurrency mining.

One rather large problem relates to the ability to access one’s funds. The wallet function has recently been moved from the software to the MinerGate website. If withdrawals were a technical issue, then maybe this has been fixed. The jury is still out though.

Finally, nothing can hurt a company more than a bad reputation. In this case, it seems that MinerGate hasn’t proven itself enough to be a reliable source of income. At the moment this is the most important thing to consider, in my opinion. I actually ran MinerGate through the Bitcoin Scam Test, and the company came out legit, but the test isn’t 100% accurate. Use it at your own risk.