So you’re here on Steemit, which means you’ve been introduced to cryptocurrencies. Now you’re seeing articles about mining, cloud mining, payouts, hash power, and many other terms that may be confusing. Never fear, I’m here to help dispel your confusion and help you learn more about mining by setting up mining on the computer you already own!

Introduction to Mining

First, let’s talk about mining itself. There are generally two types of cryptocurrencies. Proof-of-worth (POW) coins and proof-of-stake (POS) coins. Bitcoin is a POW coin. This means that in order for transactions to be approved on the blockchain, a series of puzzles must be solved by CPUs or GPUs through a process called confirmation or verification. Using computer hardware to perform these CPU and GPU cycles is called mining, and rewards are paid to miners in bitcoin. Alternatively, STEEM is a POS coin, so the rewards from the blockchain go to users who have a stake in the currency. If you’re interested how this translates to rewards for witnessing, posting and curating, the Steemit FAQs do a great job of explaining it.

Mining Bitcoin has become a worldwide phenomenon, causing graphics card shortages across the world and the rise of cloud mining. Consequently, the difficulty of mining has increased tremendously. This means that using your PC to mine Bitcoins will not be profitable since the rewards would not even pay for the electricity to power your PC. However, mining other coins may still be a possibility for you.

Image source: GetMonero.org

A popular coin to mine right now is Monero (XMR). You can read all about it on its website, or on CoinMarketCap. Monero experienced a surge in price about a month ago that caused it to become very attractive to miners. I had begun mining Monero back in June when I found out it was easy to set up on my home machine, so the price increase was nice, but now that Monero is more popular to mine, my payouts aren’t as large since the difficulty has increased. Despite this, I’d like to show you how you can begin mining Monero on your PC today.

How to Mine on Your PC

There are many ways to mine cryptocurrencies on your current PC setup, and many of them are as easy as downloading software, signing up for an account, and clicking GO! However, often these methods collect fees and may not utilize your hardware fully or reserve some of your hash power as a form of payment for their service. The method I am outlining today will put your mining potential in your hands! Payouts from this method will be deposited directly to your own wallet without ever being in the control of a third party. Your computer’s full computational powers will be utilized also, so your payout could be higher over time. Ready to get started? Just follow these steps:

1. Check Your PC’s Hardware

This is an important first step since the specific mining software I am going to show you how to use requires a 64-bit Windows operating system and also has separate versions for CPU mining, AMD graphics card mining, and Nvidia graphics card mining.
Here are instructions for determining if you have a 64-bit operating system.
Here’s how to determine if you have an AMD or Nvidia graphics card.

If these methods do not work for you, do a quick Google search for other methods, or comment and I can provide other methods.

If you have a 64-bit operating system, great! You’re ready to move on to the next step! If you have a 32-bit operating system, this mining tutorial will not work for you. There are other miners for 32-bit operating systems, but I won’t be covering those here.
If you have an AMD or Nvidia graphics card, you’re in luck. This means your mining ability will be even better. Remember which brand you have, and move on to the next step.

2. Get a Monero Wallet

There are many options for this. There are some desktop wallets for XMR, but you can also use online wallets such as MyMonero. I’ve found MyMonero to be simpler, but if you prefer a hardware or desktop wallet, feel free to use one. You’ll need a wallet deposit address for this mining technique, so once you’ve signed up for or set up a wallet, get your deposit address and you’re ready to install your mining software.

3. Download Mining Software

There are a few options for software to mine XMR. The one I’ve been using is called XMR-stak, which is developed by GitHub user fireice-uk and only available for 64-bit Windows operating systems, as I stated earlier.

There are three different versions of the miner. One for CPUs, one for AMD GPUs, and one for Nvidia GPUs. Every PC has a CPU, so your first step will be to grab XMR-stak-CPU. If you have an AMD or Nvidia graphics card, also download the appropriate version for your brand. Here are the download links:

Download XMR-stak-CPU from GitHub

Download XMR-stak-NVIDIA from GitHub

Download XMR-stak-AMD from GitHub

The files will download as archives, so you’ll need to unzip them before running (I suggest 7zip)

Note: My antivirus software flagged these files as false positives for malware. This may happen for you, which will require you to add exceptions in your antivirus software for the miner files. Since this process varies depending on your antivirus, the best way for you to figure it out is to do a quick Google search for “adding exceptions in [your brand of antivirus software]

You may also need to download and install Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 3 RC to obtain a couple of .dll files that may be missing from your PC.

Now that you’ve downloaded the appropriate files, we’re only a few steps away from getting started!

4. Connecting to a Mining Pool and Configuring Mining Software

Mining pools are simply large groups of miners who all connect to the same server and solve problems together. This allows blocks to be found more quickly on the blockchain, which means that rewards will come more often. I suggest using a pool, because they’re very easy to set up with the XMR-stak miner.

The pool I’ve been using to mine XMR is MineXMR.com. Go ahead and bookmark that website, because you’ll be using it to check the status of your mining and payouts. The pool charges 1% of your mining rewards in fees, but that’s a small price to pay for being able to use the services of the pool.

You’ll notice on the Get Started page of MineXMR.com there is a pool address as well as information about ports. If you scroll down the page, you’ll find a list of compatible miners, and some helpful instructions for getting them set up. Get your wallet address ready, because it’s time to get the mining software set up and ready to run!

Once you have extracted the files downloaded for your appropriate versions of XMR-stak, you’ll see a text file in each folder labeled “config.” Open this with Notepad, and scroll until you see a section that says

"pool_address" : "pool.supportxmr.com:3333",
"wallet_address" : "",
"pool_password" : "",

Replace “pool.supportxmr.com:3333” with “pool.minexmr.com:5555”

Put your XMR deposit address between the quotation marks beside “wallet_address”

Use “x” as the pool password.

The resulting code should look something like this:

"pool_address" : "pool.minexmr.com:7777",
"wallet_address" : "49z2jEpSCtNQc7iGHWCTUR6U1D43uF1EzcZe5aCToNJaVyYNfsSjMB5PuADQfSwPNu8QCD7KJN6yWec6NVoepXb2QweWYm4",
"pool_password" : "x",

You will need to do this for both the XMR-stak-CPU config file and the graphics card versions config files.

CPU Mining Config settings

There are a few more settings we’ll need to tweak in each config file. First for XMR-stak-CPU, at the beginning of the config file, you’ll see

"cpu_threads_conf" :
null,

The config file describes how to assign this value, but first, you can try letting the program guess for you. Close the config file, being sure to save, and then launch the file “xmr-stak-cpu” before editing the cpu_threads_conf section, and it will benchmark your CPU and generate the code for you. It will probably look similar to this:

Copy the code generated by the program in the command window using CTRL+C, then open the config file again, and paste it in place of

"cpu_threads_conf" :
null,

So that it looks like this:

"cpu_threads_conf" :
[
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 0 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 2 },
],

Once you’ve done this, close the config file and be sure to save it. If you have an AMD or Nvidia GPU, move on to the next section. If not, skip down to Step 5.

GPU settings (AMD and Nvidia)

Open the config file in the xmr-stak-nvidia or xmr-stak-amd folder, and be sure the pool info, your wallet address, and the password have all been entered correctly. Then scroll to the top of the file and look for

"gpu_threads_conf" :
null,

There are some instructions for how to populate this area right above this line, however, it’s usually best to let the program attempt to populate it for you, similar to the above process for the CPU miner, so close the config file and be sure to save. Then launch the xmr-stak-nvidia or xmr-stak-amd executable file. The window that appears will look something like this:

The program will generate a code to try for your GPU, so you can copy it out of the command window using CTRL+C, and then reopen the config file, and paste the code you copied in place of

"gpu_threads_conf" :
null,

It should look something like this upon completion:

"gpu_threads_conf" : [
{ "index" : 0,
"threads" : 64, "blocks" : 4,
"bfactor" : 6, "bsleep" : 25,
"affine_to_cpu" : false,
},
],

One setting that you can tweak to improve your GPU’s performance is the “threads” number. Try increasing this number then save the config file and run either xmr-stak-nvidia or xmr-stak-amd. If the window opens and then immediately closes, you’ve increased the value too high. Otherwise, continue increasing the number until you’ve found the optimal value. This can increase your hash power considerably.

Those are all of the settings that need to be tweaked, so we’re finally ready to start mining!

5. Start Mining!

With that, you’re ready to fire up your CPU or GPU miner, so close all of your config files, being sure to save, and then open the executable file named “xmr-stak-cpu” located in the folder, “xmr-stak-cpu” that you extracted earlier. If all of our settings changes were successful, the miner should fire up and give you a screen that looks something like this:

You may see some error messages due to the config file settings, but as long as you see the message “New block detected,” that means you are mining!

Give the miner a few minutes to work, and you’ll be able to see what hash power you’re generating. Simply open the mining window and press the “h” key on your keyboard. A message will display the current hash power. If you would like to see the results of your mining, wait a few minutes, and press the “r” key. If your miner has produced any results, they will be shown in a table in the window.

These instructions are the same for the GPU miner. Simply open the xmr-stak-nvidia or xmr-stak-amd file, and you should see the message “new block detected” if everything has gone correctly. Like the CPU miner, you can use the “h” key and the “r” key to check your hash rate and results, respectively.

It should be noted that the CPU miner and GPU miner may be run simultaneously, but be sure your computer is in a well-ventilated spot. Running these mining programs for an extended period of time can cause your computer to heat up very quickly, especially your GPU.

Common Errors and Troubleshooting

• Check to make sure your PC is capable of running the mining software. Refer back to Step 1
• Be sure you have the correct .dll files installed. Refer to Step 3.
• Check your configuration settings again to be sure there aren’t any errors. Refer to Step 4.
• If it still does not work, you can ask a specific question in the comments below.

So Now What? Where’s the Money? When Do I Get Paid?

Certainly these are everyone’s biggest questions when it comes to mining. However, if you’re just using your everyday PC, you won’t see any kind of results any time soon. One way to check to see how long it will take to receive a payout is to use the “Estimate Mining Profits” section on the MineXMR.com home page. Using the hash power numbers you’ve generated from the mining programs, you can plug them in to find out if it will be profitable. Remember, the minimum payout is 0.5 XMR, so you can calculate about how long it will take for you to receive any actual cryptocurrency. Don’t forget that mining on your PC also consumes more electricity than your average use, so you’ll have to calculate this into the equation. If you have a high-end graphics card, you can also estimate your earnings using this mining calculator.

To get an idea of how you’re doing, you can check your results at the bottom of the MineXMR home page. Simply put your wallet address into the field, and you’ll see the amount you’ve earned, as well as when your last share was submitted. You can check more detailed stats by using the “Worker Stats” link at the top of the page.

Disappointing results? That’s fine, because hopefully you understand mining a lot better now. If you do happen to have a nice graphics card, then maybe in a few weeks, you’ll see a payout in your wallet! Congrats. You can do whatever you wish with it. Trade it for STEEM, hold it and hope the value goes up, or use it to exchange for goods and services.

Final Thoughts

I hope you have enjoyed this post, and perhaps now you’re mining some Monero! I wanted this to be informative for anyone unfamiliar with mining, so if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask them. I may not have gotten everything exactly right, and I’m sure that I could have explained some concepts better, but that’s what this community is for: learning and improving!

I’ve been mining Monero since June, and I’ve only gotten 1.1 XMR. That’s with an old Nvidia GTX 660. Ultimately, you have to have a dedicated mining rig to be able to make a significant profit, but if you have old PCs or don’t use yours much, it could be worth it to use your unused PC for mining. Let me know how it’s working out for you!

Mining other cryptocurrencies can be accomplished in similar ways. Now that you’ve figured out how to set up XMR mining, you can seek out information about mining your favorite crypto! Good luck!

Finally, this post was inspired by an inquiry by @AwakenToLife over at #TheUnmentionables, so shout out to him and to the community of supportive users in the Unmentionables Discord Group. If you’re looking for a group of people to support your posts and help you master all things Steemit, come join us today!

Unless otherwise noted, images were obtained from Pixabay.