How to Get The Most Profitable Cryptocurrencies to Mine and More in Google Sheets

John Young

Published in

Spreadstreet

6 min readDec 5, 2017

One of the most challenging aspects of cryptocurrency mining is finding the most profitable coins to mine.

A few services exist, but nothing beats what the creators of WhatToMine.com have done in a few short months.

The big benefit of the data offered by WhatToMine is a ranking of cryptocurrencies by mining profitability.

The =SS() function, available in Google Sheets as part of the Spreadstreet Google Sheets Add-in, allows the user to pull in two seperate endpoints from the WhatToMine API:

Stats — Used to compare the profitability of all GPU based cryptocurrencies
ASIC — Used to compare the profitability of all ASIC coins

How to install

1. Go to the “Add-ons” menu, and click on “Get add-ons”.

2. On the Add-ons panel, search for “Spreadstreet”, click on “+ FREE” to install it.

3. Choose under which account you want to install the Add-on.

4. `Spreadstreet` needs to connect to an external API, click on “Allow”.

Note on security: All add-ins within the store go through a review. This is a wonderful security measure, especially in the Crypto industry, which is rife with scams and hacks.

5. Make sure the add-on is activated in your sheet:

Go to Add-on > Spreadstreet > Help
Click on View in store , then click on Manage and check Use in this document:

Tadaa! You are now able to use the =SS() function to pull in all sorts of amazing data within the cryptocurrency space.

How to use for GPU-Mineable Coins

How does WhatToMine calculate profitability for GPU-mineable cryptocurrencies?

All values are based on a default configuration and hash power of 3 Radeon RX480 graphics cards
Price is formulated from the following exchanges: Abucoins, Bitfinex, Bittrex, Bleutrade, Cryptopia, HitBTC, Poloniex, YoBit
Hash rate and wattage vary by algorithm. See the main page of WhatToMine for default values
Calculations are based on mean values, so final results will vary

What is the calculation missing?

Calculation does not account for future changes in price
Calculation does not account for future changes in network hash rate
Block rewards are fixed, future block reward reductions not taken into consideration
No significant changes to the underlying algorithm are assumed (for example, the Casper update)

Get most profitable GPU coins
Call the function =SS(“get-stats-whattomine”, true) to return various stats from GPU-minable cryptocurrencies.

13 different GPU mining algorithms available, including: CryptoNight, Ethash, NeoScrypt, Equihash, Groestl, Skunkhash, Blake (14r), Pascal, LBRY, X11Gost, Blake (2b), Lyra2REv2, and Myriad-Groestl
Data returned includes: Coin, ID, Tag, Algorithm, Block Time, Block Reward, Block Reward 24, Last Block, Difficulty, Difficulty 24, Net Hash, Exchange Rate, Exchange Rate Volume, Exchange Rate Currency, Market Cap, Estimated Rewards, Estimated Rewards 24, BTC Revenue, BTC Revenue 24, Profitability, Profitability 24, Lagging, and Timestamp

Example usage using the GUI:

Open the Add-in

2. Click “Add” to view the list of available APIs

3. Click on the “WhatToMine” icon

4. Click “Stats”

5. Click “Insert”

6. Click “Run”. This will paste values into the currently selected Cell, and save that in the main GUI for future retrieval

Example usage using the =SS() Formula:

=QUERY(A:W,”select A, T where T is not null order by T desc”) returns the most profitable GPU-minable cryptocurrencies.

How to use for ASIC-Mineable Coins

How does WhatToMine calculate profitability for ASIC-mineable cryptocurrencies?

SHA-256 values are adapted for Antminer S9, Scrypt for L3+ and X11 for D3.
Price is formulated from the following exchanges: Abucoins, Bitfinex, Bittrex, Bleutrade, Cryptopia, HitBTC, Poloniex, YoBit
Hash rate and wattage vary by algorithm. See the main page of WhatToMine for default values
Calculations are based on mean values, so final results will vary

What is the calculation missing?

Calculation does not account for future changes in price
Calculation does not account for future changes in network hash rate
Block rewards are fixed, future block reward reductions not taken into consideration
No significant changes to the underlying algorithm are assumed (for example, the Casper update)

Get most profitable ASIC coins
Call the function =SS(“get-asic-whattomine”, true) to return various stats from ASIC-minable cryptocurrencies.

5 different ASIC mining algorithms available, including: SHA-256, Scrypt, X11, Qubit, Quark
Data returned includes: Coin, ID, Tag, Algorithm, Block Time, Block Reward, Block Reward 24, Last Block, Difficulty, Difficulty 24, Net Hash, Exchange Rate, Exchange Rate Volume, Exchange Rate Currency, Market Cap, Estimated Rewards, Estimated Rewards 24, BTC Revenue, BTC Revenue 24, Profitability, Profitability 24, Lagging, and Timestamp

Example usage:

=QUERY(A:W,”select A, T where T is not null order by T desc”) returns the most profitable GPU-minable cryptocurrencies.

Common issues and how to fix:

Do not keep your sheet open at all time. This will prevent the rates from refreshing. The rates will auto-refresh each time you re-open your sheet.
The add-on may not work right away on other old spreadsheets. You need to do this to activate Spreadstreet: Open the old sheet, click the menu Add-ons / Spreadstreet / Help / View in store, and then click Manage and in the dropdown menu click Use in this document .