Frequently Asked Questions

In depth description of BetterHash and instructions on how to use it:

How does BetterHash work?

BetterHash is a smart interface for the most popular cryptocurrency miners on the market. What it does:

- Downloads the mining tools on your PC

- Performs a benchmark (by running for a few minutes each one of the compatible ones)

- Starts and runs the most profitable combination of processor and video adapter miners

- We create for you a wallet for each currency; all income is stored in your online account - you will be able to transfer it to your external wallets or leave it in your online account

Should I go manual, or should I use Profit Switching?

When first starting to mine with BetterHash, a benchmark is needed. The benchmark tests each mining hardware in order to establish what coins can be mined using it. It also makes a rough estimation of the profits for all compatible coins, for the users that desire to use BetterHash in manual mode. Usually, after the benchmark is complete, BetterHash has a clear picture about each hardware's performance and how to use it if profit switching is eventually enabled.

When enabling profit switching however, BetterHash takes into account a few extra factors, such as the average exchange rate, the network fees, eventual network issues and more. Profit switching is more precise than the initial benchmark, since the information used by it is up to date. In manual mode, users usually rely on the initial benchmark, which can become outdated with the passing of time, hence why we recommend Profit Switching.

How does Profit Switching work?

Before being able to enable the Profit Switching option, all your miners must be benchmarked. This is a one-time operation, just to make sure all drivers are correctly installed and your miners are able to run. BetterHash then will receive the profit switching info from the server, so it will not automatically start doing benchmarks periodically. The Profit Switching option provides a continuous flow of mining, so it will not stop your regular activity when checking what is more profitable. Detailed information on this will be provided in a log file available on the Profit Switching tab in BetterHash.

For more details on the available profit switching options please click here.

When does the Profit Switching option change algorithms?

We will only switch from one algorithm to another if there's a considerable profit difference between the two of them. Doing otherwise might lead to loss instead of profit. Do not worry if you do not see any algorithm change for an increased period of time, that does not mean that the Profit Switching is not working properly.

What coin will I receive when I enable Profit Switching?

When profit switching is enabled, you are mining whatever coin is more profitable and that is the coin that you will receive. If you want the mined coins to be automatically exchanged to BTC, you can enable this setting in your online account.

What happens once I turn on Profit Switching if I have a specific GPU/CPU turned off/set to "none"?

To activate profit switching on a previously disabled GPU or CPU, you must first perform a complete benchmark. After the benchmark is over, you must make sure you select anything different than "none" in the miners list. GPUs that have the mining algorithm set to "none" will NOT be used for profit switching.

What computer specifications do you recommend for BetterHash?

Any 64-bit PC is good for mining cryptocurrency. However, if you really want to earn from this you need a powerful PC. Gaming PCs that have modern video adapters are recommended for this task. Today’s most profitable GPUs (video adapters) are NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti and AMD RX Vega 64. In terms of CPU, the most profitable are AMD Ryzen 7 1700X at 4.00GHz and Intel i7-7700K at 4.70GHz.

A weaker rig has the same number of ETH shares as a more powerful one. How is this possible?

Some pools (the ETH pool for example) are "variable difficulty pools". Immediately after starting your miners you might notice that a more powerful miner will produce more shares than the weaker one. After 10-15 minutes when the pool adjusts the difficulty in order to avoid unnecessary communication - the powerful miner will start producing less shares than before - but the produced shares are more valuable than the ones produces by the weaker miner. This is a normal behavior for "vardiff" pools. BetterHash uses both regular and vardiff pools, depending on the mined coin.

Is 2FA (Two-factor Authentication) necessary?

You are responsible for the safety of your funds. Please make sure your account is protected by 2FA. As soon as you start mining, take a few minutes to activate 2FA on your account. This will make sure that nobody other than you is able to withdraw your earnings. To activate 2FA, go to Settings/Security.

My antivirus detects BetterHash as malware. Why?

Antivirus companies try to detect as much malware on your PC as possible; otherwise, you wouldn’t buy their product. The competition between antivirus companies forced them to sometimes detect harmless files as “potential threats”. Let’s take a look at cookies: they are not evil at all. Sometimes websites store in cookies your browsing preferences to offer you a better experience next time you visit them. However, you will find many antiviruses and antimalware solutions consider them "malware". This is incorrect, and the same practice applies to cryptocurrency transaction validation. Our suggestion is to report this as a false positive because:

a. You agreed to install BetterHash, and it wasn’t deployed on your PC without your knowledge

b. You can deactivate it or stop using it at any time you like - and this is not something malware would allow you to do

c. BetterHash is also listed in the Add / Remove Programs applet of your PC, allowing you to remove it from there as well

d. You were informed about the way BetterHash works

An application should be considered "malware" only if installed on a user’s PC without their knowledge or with an improper description of its real actions.

Why is BetterHash disabling my Windows antivirus?

BetterHash does not interfere with the anti-tampering system, but does disable the Windows antivirus. We generally do not recommend our users to mine on their main PCs. If BetterHash doesn't disable the antivirus, then all future miner updates are blocked or deleted by Windows.

To start mining with BetterHash, do I need to deposit money in an account somewhere?

No, BetterHash is a free application and you don't have to pay anything in order to use it. At the moment, as we are still in the developing process of the app, so we are not imposing any fees, except the ones requested by some of the currencies' networks, such as Monero.

I uninstalled this because I kept getting this error every few seconds "EthDcrMiner64.exe - System Error The code execution cannot proceed because OpenCL.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem" so I reinstalled and kept getting the same error

The "OpenCL.dll" file is usually contained in the NVidia driver. Usually, reinstalling the driver fixes the problem.

How do I mine for Bitcoin?

BetterHash automatically mines the most profitable cryptocurrency. Bitcoin mining is almost impossible with a home PC and this is why we are mining different currencies (called altcoins). We are giving you the mined currency or the option to exchange to Bitcoin. This way you can do the exchange yourself at an exchange rate that YOU control.

Do I need an account to use BetterHash?

No, you don’t. You can use Betterhash without any account for as long as you want to. You will be able to see your mined coins on the online dashboard. However, if you want to transfer your earnings to a different wallet, you will need to create an account. If you mined on several PCs, all of them without an account, you have to keep in mind that when you'll create an account you should use the same log in credentials on all PCs so you can store your funds in the same account.

Some miners are disabled (not compatible). Why?

There are miners designed to work using your PC’s processor (CPU) and miners designed for specific video adapters (GPU). BetterHash evaluates your PC and enables only the ones that are compatible with your configuration. As an additional feature, BetterHash has the option to "force benchmark" all miners, meaning that if BetterHash evaluated the miners' compatibility incorrectly, you can force another test on the miners and possibly get them to start.

How can I receive the money generated by my PC?

In order to get your coins, you must firstly link your BetterHash to your online account. You can then transfer the same coins you mined to their specific wallets. For example, if you mined for Ethereum, you must have an Ethereum wallet so you can send your funds there. If you are mining for multiple coins, you can choose to get all your funds exchanged to BTC by us and transfer them in your BTC wallet.

I mined for several days without creating an account. What happens to my revenue?

As soon as you create an account, you'll find all your revenue in your user panel.

Can I use BetterHash on multiple computers?

Yes you can. You only need to link all of them to the same account. If you're mining on multiple PCs, you'll need to use the same login credentials in all your applications. Open BetterHash and go to Settings / Payments and click on Assign ID on each PC in order to view all your funds in the same control panel.

Is there tax implication for the money earned?

There's a lot of information on the Internet about this. This depends a lot on your country. Two ideas:

- As long as you keep the money in cryptocurrency only - there is no tax at all.

- If you convert cryptocurrency to fiat, different laws apply depending on your country.

I see the "No active workers" alert in my online dashboard, but my miners are working. Why?

The "no active workers" message appears until the first share is received from the pool. Depending on your hashing speed, the time until it switches to "Status OK" will vary. This will also happen when a payment comes from the pool to your online account, up until the next share comes. That doesn't mean that you lose money or that the miners are not working.

I closed BetterHash and the miners are still running. How can I stop them?

We made sure your mining runs continuously and doesn't stop unless you want it to, so we set the miners to run uninterruptedly even when BetterHash stops or is not responding. To close BetterHash and stop the miners from running, all you have to do is press the Stop button in the Home tab in BetterHash before closing it.

I deactivated 2FA and can't seem to reactivate it. What to do?

When you enable 2FA after you've previously disabled it, a new secret key is generated. Make sure you delete BetterHash from the Authenticator and re-add it using the new secret key.

I lost my secret key for my 2FA. What should I do?

Contact support and provide a picture of you holding your identity card. In the same photo, make a reference to BetterHash reset 2FA and have the current date displayed. Make sure your face is clearly visible and that all identity card details are clearly readable.

Why does my pending balance keep changing?

The pending balance may fluctuate according to the data we get from the pool. BetterHash receives data about confirmed shares + an estimation of the next payment. The accuracy of the estimation depends on the percentage of stale shares. Stale shares are the shares that were sent after a block was already solved, meaning they were sent too late and were no longer valid. This is why the better configuration you have, the more money you make. Because we cannot predict stale shares, this data goes to the pending balance and gets confirmed only after the final data arrives. This is why the pending balance may change, while the confirmed balance stays the same.

Why is my balance negative?

We keep an estimated fee for the altcoins withdrawals. Since this is the network fee, we cannot establish precisely how much will that be. The network fee for your last transfer was greater than the estimated fee.

What are the fees for using BetterHash?

We charge no fees at all: no usage fees, no mining fees and no withdrawal fee either (except for the regular network fee or our BTC exchange fee). We dedicated a separate page to this matter, please click here to read more.

Can I mine using my own miners?

Yes, you can mine with your own miners, as long as they run the same algorithms that are already in BetterHash and they mine for the same coins that those algorithms mine for in BetterHash. You can find more info on pools and compatible algorithms and coins by going to Settings/Pools in your online account.

I have an abnormally small hashrate/revenue/My miner is stuck on Starting. What should I do?

Firstly, make sure you're not running any torrent clients because they might occupy the port that the miner is trying to use. Also, check to see if the miner shows any errors. To run your miners in visual mode, make sure you uncheck the "Miners start hidden" option from Settings then Stop and Start the mining.

BetterHash says that my two graphics cards are not compatible and I get a notification that the program was denied access to the GPU. What to do?

If your GPU cards are Nvidia, make sure SLI is disabled and try benchmarking again.

Who are we?

We are Innovative Solutions, a software company with more than 10 years of computer programming behind. We've created Windows applications such as DriverMax, Orange Defender Antivirus, or Advanced Uninstaller PRO. You can find out more about us by visiting our website www.innovative-sol.com.

What is cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a medium of exchange just like the usual currencies, the dollar and the euro. Cryptography is used to secure the transactions and to control the creation of new coins. The first cryptocurrency created dates back to 2009. Today, there are hundreds of other cryptocurrencies, often referred to as Altcoins. In the simplest of forms, cryptocurrency is digital currency.

What is cryptocurrency mining?

A coin miner is a simple executable that validates transactions between users. You can picture it as a virtual notary. A miner doesn’t access any files on your PC, doesn’t interfere with your work either; all it does is use your processing power for mathematical computations. A miner is only a transaction validator.

One of the best explanations on what is cryptocurrency and how it works is this video made on YouTube channel SciShow. Watch below:

Does BetterHash access any personal information on my PC?

No, it does not. All BetterHash does is download and install the right miners for your PC’s configuration, start them, and make sure they keep running at optimum speed. Miners don’t need access to anything else than your processing power; they don’t access any files on your PC.