This is number 9 of the mining articles for beginners and hobby miners, if you're interested at having a go at mining some other coins then check out the rest of my blog here.

Before I begin there are a couple of things to remember; Firstly unless you have an extensive mining setup you're unlikely to get rich (or break even) and Secondly I take no responsibility for any issues you run into if you try this at home (be smart download mining software at your own risk).

This is for informational and fun purposes only; I don't claim to be an expert. If you're reading this and you are more experienced and spot any issues, by all means point it out in the comments and I'll try make the necessary updates.

For this article, we're going to look at 'mining' BANANO (BAN) tokens. I've put mining here in inverted commas because BAN are not actually mined, instead they are airdropped. In this process what we're actually doing is contributing our GPU/CPU resources to support medical research (i.e. complex protein folding). As a result you can earn BAN for your troubles, think of it as a win-win. You get some BAN and you also get to contribute to making the world a better place by advancing scientific knowledge.

In terms of what is BANANO, it is a relatively young cryptocurrency that is a fork from NANO and is playfully described by the team as:

Banano is a feeless, instant, rich in potassium cryptocurrency powered by DAG technology disrupting the meme economy.

I don't pretend to be an expert on BAN, however what really caught my eye about this project was the willingness to pair with medical research which are in dire need of computing resources (now more than ever). If you're keen to just earn a few BAN and then trade them go for it, BAN has been listed on quite a few exchanges now with both ETH/BAN and BTC/BAN pairs. Anyway, enough of that lets get started with the process.

Step 1: The Wallet

First off the bat we need to get ourselves sorted with a BAN address so that we can scoop up all those tasty tokens. The options recommended on the BAN site are BANANOVAULT (browser based wallet) and KALIUM (an app wallet). For the purposes of this article we'll set up the BANANOVALUT, though if you have have a wallet, or prefer the app then by all means jump ahead.

1 - Click on create a new wallet (if you don't have one already of course)

2 - If you get a pop-up for windows security and you're not using ledger just hit cancel

3 - Now click on create wallet

4 - On the next page you'll see a few bits of security information, make sure you back this up to a secure location. a) Your Seed key b) Your Mnemonic Phrase c) Once backed up click on "I've saved my seed/mnemonic" to move on to the last step



5 - Finally enter and re-enter a strong password that will be used for interacting with the wallet in future (don't forget it!).

6 - With that complete just click on "view accounts" to move to your main wallet page where you will be able to find your address.

Step 2: The Mining Software

So as this is a little different from other 'mining' it involves using a singular piece of protein folding software that that we will get to in a min. But first of all we need to go along to https://bananominer.com/ and get our team/personal ID so that we can set up to receive payouts (you can think of this as a bit like a mining pool).

1 - Before heading over to the BananoMiner site you'll need to your payout address to hand a) If you want to use the default address in your wallet, just mouse over it and click on the "Copy Account Address" button to add the address to your clipboard b) Otherwise, if you want to add a new address specifically for this then click on "Add New Account" in the top right and then mouse over it as before and copy.



2 - Next let’s go over to the BananoMiner site and past our address into the main page and click start now

3 - On the next page you will see your user ID and your team ID. Make a quick note of these, though don't worry if you lose them, you can go back to the site and enter in the same address to get the information again.

4 - Once you've click "Start Folding" you'll be redirected to this page where the folding software downloads can be found. Download this to a secure location on your computer and go through the setup process. I shouldn't take more than a couple of mins, the end of which allows you to start the application.

Step 3: The Pools

There are no real mining pools here, what you will have however is a team ID by which BananoMiner will be able to associate your BAN address with the work done and therefore send the payouts. You should have completed this in the previous step so, if you haven't already then go back and do that first.

Step 4: Mining

So once we have the software downloaded and installed we're on to the final stages.

1 - Start up the protein folding software if you haven't already, then: a) Click on "Set up and identity" b) and on "Start Folding"



2 - To set up your identity we need that User ID and Team ID that we got earlier: a) For the Name add your User ID b) For the Team number add the Team ID c) At this point you can click save to move forward, though there is some extra security options (who doesn't like security) d) Click on 'Get a Passkey' to go to another screen (see step below) e) Once you have your Passkey add it here



3 - If you opted for the Passkey above you'll be taken to this screen and just need to put in your name and email address. It will send you the Passkey which you can go an use on the previous step

4 - Once you are all set up with your identity, you'll be take to the main mining screen (this is all on your browser, while the miner is active you can get back to this by navigating to the address on this page so saving as a bookmark makes it quicker). On this page there are lots of neat things to take notice of: a) There is a dropdown where you can select a specific disease area (if there is something you are really keen to support look here) b) A section that includes a link to the stats page your point are awarded after the work is complete but you can pause/stop/restart whenever you want c) The main details of what you're using to fold and the status of the workload and and the points you'll earned. Note that points are not equal to BAN, the Bananominer FAQ suggests checking on discord what others get for this info. d) Down in this section you can see the power mode (so if you want to run it in the background and not affect your CPU performance then this allows you to control it. Also you can set it to only fold when you are not using the computer. e) Finally, this is a nice added touch and it gives you information on the project you're helping with. Really Neat feature!



5 - This is what I get when you click on "Learn more" in the project section above. As you can see my CPU and GPU are doing their part to help the fight against COVID!!

That is it, Congratulations you're mining BAN!!

Erm, well not mining.....actually it should be;

Congratulations you're Protein Folding and hopefully moving us one step closer to understanding and treating some of the most complex and pressing diseases of our time!!

Doesn't have the same ring to it though.

Finally, if you don't want to work just from the web browser interface you can also open up "FAHControl" from your start menu and have a bit more control over all of the information, it looks like this:

Hope you enjoyed the guide, good luck y'all!

Donations Welcome (BAN):

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