Dash is a long-standing cryptocurrency known for its focus on fast, low-cost transactions and optional privacy features. While it’s no longer among the top coins by market cap, Dash continues to play a role in real-world payments and remittances, especially in regions with unstable currencies.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about mining Dash in 2026—how it works, what hardware is required, and whether it’s still profitable in today’s market.
How to Mine Dash: Summary
Unlike Bitcoin, which uses the SHA-256 algorithm for Bitcoin mining, Dash uses a different algorithm called X11. Here’s a quick guide to mine Dash with Antminer D3:
- Step 1: Hook up your Antminer D3
- Step 2: Configure your Antminer D3
- Step 3: Get a Dash wallet
- Step 4: Join a mining pool and start mining
It may sound overly simplified, but there’s really not a lot more to it. Find a more detailed explanation below.
ASIC Miners and the Antminer D3
Mining is an expensive investment. It might take a long time to start making a profit on it, let alone get a return over its costs and expenses. Today, many coins are mined with ASIC miners.
ASIC stands for Application Specific Integrated Circuit. It’s basically a computer that was designed solely to mine a certain algorithm. This makes it extremely efficient, but only in this specific task.
Now, some people might ask: why not just buy the coins instead of the miner and make a profit from their price shifts? The simple answer is that ASIC miners have the potential to be quite profitable over time, and they’ll continue to bring in more mined coins.
That said, ASIC miners typically have a relatively short life span. This is due to the impact that ASIC miners have on coins or algorithms after they’re released. Once released, their impact on the network is so significant that in a short while, they cause mining difficulty to skyrocket, hence dramatically reducing the coins rewarded.
This impact is felt the most in a bear market when coin values fall and many folks can’t even afford to run their miner. On the other hand, this drop in profitability can still be offset when coins gain value, so the ASICs can help you earn more over time.
Bitmain’s Antminer D3
When the Antminer D3s were purchased in summer 2017, they were earning $150-170 PER DAY. I conservatively figured that they would drop by two-thirds (down to around $50 per day), which would still have been quite profitable. However, I grossly underestimated the impact that these ASICs would have on Dash and other X11 coins.
By the time I received my D3, profitability was down to around $5 per day. That’s a pretty drastic decline from the allure of the purchase. Just some food for thought for anyone getting into mining, thinking this is an easy life.
Setting Up the Antminer D3
Step 1: Unbox and hook everything up
- All 10 PCI-e connections (three on each hashing board, and one on the controller)
- The Ethernet cable from the D3 to your router
- The power cord
Once the power cord is in, the miner should power on automatically.
Step 2: Your Antminer D3’s interface
- Download the free Advanced IP Scanner tool.
- Install and run the tool
- Start scanning to detect devices on your network (Hit Scan)
- Once the scan is complete, look for Antminer and note the IP Address. (For example: IP – 192.68.0.8)
- If AntMiner is not found, stop the scan, turn off Windows Firewall, and start the Advanced IP Scanner scan again.
- Once the Antminer’s IP is found, copy and paste it into your browser’s URL bar.
- Use “root” for both the username and password.
- If you had to turn off Windows Firewall in Step 5, turn it back on.
Here’s how the whole process should look:
Mining Dash and Additional X11 Altcoins
In this chapter, we will show you how to join Multipool and mine X11 altcoins (such as Dash) directly.
Note: Before you proceed, make sure you have a wallet for the X11 coins you wish to mine. In this example, we mined Dash, MUE, and CANN.
- Register and log in to Multipool.
- Go to Account > Your Balances.
- Enter the wallet addresses for the Altcoins you mine.
4. Go to Account > Workers. Click Add Worker, and give your worker a name.
5. Click on Home and scroll down to find the server URL of the coin you want to mine. Copy the server URL:
6. Go back to your Antminer Miner Configuration page and paste the stratum URL+your worker name. The password should be “x.”
7. Hit Save & Apply in the bottom right-hand corner, and you’re off and mining your X11 Altcoins.
Mining Bitcoins on Nicehash
Even though Antminer D3 mines the X11 algorithm, you can still use it to mine BTC. The reason you want to do that is that it makes more sense to mine BTC when it is going up than to mine altcoins directly.
Nicehash is a good mining pool that allows you to earn BTC indirectly by mining altcoins with your D3.
(A quick shout-out to GaryCutri for his Nicehash Setup guide on Steemit)
To join NiceHash with your Antminer D3:
- Go to the NiceHash ASIC page.
- In the Select Algorithm drop-down, choose X11.
- Under Select Location, choose your region or the closest one to you.
- Click the Generate Stratum button.
- The output URL should look something like:
stratum+tcp://x11.<Your_region>.nicehash.com:3336 - Copy the URL and paste it into your Antminer’s Miner Configuration tab.
- For Worker, use the bitcoin address you want the BTC to be transferred to + any worker name with (.) between them.
- For Password, put ‘x’ as in the example:
9. Hit Save & Apply in the bottom right-hand corner, and you’re off and mining BTC.
Conclusion: Dash Miner
That’s it for our 2026 updated beginner’s guide to mining Dash.
While older devices like the Antminer D3 helped popularize X11 mining, they’re now largely obsolete due to higher network difficulty and lower rewards. If you’re serious about mining Dash today, consider newer, more efficient ASICs such as the iBelink BM-K3 or Goldshell X5.
See also: Dash Mining Calculator
FAQs
Is Dash mining profitable?
Yes. With the right setup (i.e., low electricity costs and a cooled environment), you can be profitable mining Dash. However, calculating Antminer D3 profitability should be done before spending any money. You can use our Dash mining calculator to get an idea about your chances of being profitable.
How can I buy Dash?
If you wish to buy Dash instead of mining it, here’s the fastest way to do it:
- Get a Dash Wallet (Ledger Nano X, Edge)
- Find your Dash address
- Sign up to CEX.io
- Buy Dash via the brokerage service/trading platform
- Withdraw your Dash coins to your wallet.
For a more detailed description and additional buying options, read our Dash buying guide.
Is Antminer D3 still widely used?
While older ASICs like the Antminer D3 were once popular, today’s miners use more powerful and energy-efficient hardware such as the iBelink BM-K3 or Goldshell X5.
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