So, you’ve just learned about crypto mining, and want to try it out… If not, that’s okay. I’m sure you’re here for some other reason(like trying to get your rig to connect and mine, after hours of tinkering with a one-line launch command…). Anywho, let’s talk about what we want your machine to do, and not my previous failures.
How it works
Your machine will copy and download encrypted data, from another machine on the blockchain(just like yours!), and confirm it matches with the other existing copies. Once your gpu slaves away power, and time(seconds), you will re-upload your copy to the blockchain. Once it’s confirmed and accepted to be the same as the others you will get payed out in the cryptocurrency you’re mining. To simple it down, your computer is making sure that data is getting passed around the blockchain correctly, then getting rewarded for it. Easy concept? Right?
Getting Ready To Hash
Finding The Software
There are many options to choose from. However, for this example we will be choosing one called “Claymore’s Miner“(the most common). There are easier to use services/miner combo’s like “NiceHash” out there. However, they take out a higher % of your earnings, and end up rewarding you in Bitcoin(and you want the most profit, and the coin you want to mine toward, I hope).
Downloading Claymore’s Miner
Downloading the miner is simple, as you can find it on github, for free. Simply find the latest release, and unzip the file somewhere on your machine. This software will only work with a linux or windows OS. Who even uses osx?
Picking A Coin
Don’t pick a coin that’s doing the most profitable “right now”. You’ll want something that ends up having a long-term growth, to get the most out of your mining operation. After making up your mind, make a wallet for said coin. You can use a web-browser based wallet(if there is support for one), or a hardware based wallet. I’d recommend hardware based, to reduce the risk of someone hacking into it, and taking your profits(this doesn’t matter if you’ve got malware on your machine… You should double check, and know your safe before you start mining).
Finding A Pool
No, we aren’t swimming. A pool is a collection of miners like you, who group up and use their power together to mine. The pool will automatically split up the earnings, and give you what you deserve. Solo mining is near impossible, unless you have an unrealistic amount of hashing power… In that case, what are you doing here.
Specific pools are made to mine specific coins. You can find yourself a pool by googling your coin name, and “pool” after it(I hope you can do this on your own). For my example, I’ll be mining Ubiq on epicpool. It’s important to note, that different pools take out different percentages of your gains, for themselves. Make sure you know how much you’ll be losing, while picking one.
It’s also good to make sure your pool gives realistic payout minimums… To where, you will actually get paid out for your hard work.
Connecting To The Pool
Somewhere within the pool website, you should find a one-line “Stratum” code, that’s used to connect to it. Thankfully, It’s usually on the home-page, from what I’ve noticed.
In my case, “EthDcrMiner64.exe -epool ubiq.epicpool.club:8008 -ewal <WalletAddress> -eworker <Worker> -epsw x -allcoins 1 -allpools 1”.
Make a new text file in the extracted “Claymore’s Miner” folder, and name it “Whateveryouwant.bat”. It’s important, to make sure it’s saved as a .bat file, not .txt. This will be the file that launches the miner, and connects you to the pool. There should be other files in here, like “Start-ETH-Only.bat”.
Paste the “Stratum” code, from the pools website.
Now, replace the <WalletAddress>, with your wallets address. Obviously. Then, name your machine within the <Worker> tags.
Save it. Close it. Launch it.
Boom.
Monitoring Your Results
The pools will always allow you to see how fast it thinks your hashing, and how much of a reward you have pending. They also usually have some other nice features, like payout history, and etc.
Extra
Now… You can always overclock your video cards to get a higher hashrate. However, that’s a talk for another time.
It’s also important to watch your temperatures, as running them too hot can cause a reduced life-span of your cards… Or a house fire. Read more about that here.
If you’re having any problems getting your machine set-up and hashing, feel free to message me via Discord, “.sid#7800”. Or, E-mail me via [email protected].
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