Back again with another mining article (7th in the series, 8th if we're counting ETN), 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.

Additional Hardware Requirements: This is an algorithm that is quite intensive on GPU memory, you need to have at least a 6 GB card for it to work. Otherwise, if you have a 4GB card I'd suggest perhaps RVN, VTC, ETH or ETC as alternative coins to mine.

So let's begin, this time we're looking at another privacy token Zcoin (XZC). XZC is another coin that utilizes an algorithm (Merkle Tree Proof, MTP) that aims to be ASIC resistant, which is always a good starting point for hobby miners. If you're interested in learning a little be more about the project and perhaps what differentiates it from Zcash (another well known token) take a look at the roundup here: What is Zcoin (XZC)? [A Comprehensive Guide to Zcoin]. I'll not really dig more into this coin as it isn't the purpose of the article, let's get mining!

Step 1: The Wallet

It is important to make sure you have a wallet, the best place to start is the main site https://zcoin.io/get-zcoin/. For this example I'll assume you've downloaded the main Zcoin wallet. After downloading/installing you will need set up a new wallet, you can do this by selecting 'create new wallet' (1) and then before selecting the number of words for the back up pass phrase (2) and then clicking 'OK' (3).

Remember to backup your passphrase to a secure location otherwise you may lose access to your wallet. Afterwards you'll need to wait for it to catch-up on the blocks, this can take a while feel free to move on to the other steps while it does that.

Step 2: The Mining Software

There are are a few different mining tools out there for XZC. The main site actually lists a few which is helpful, from that list the single out two as being 'official' CCMINER (for Nvidia) and SGMINER (for AMD)

Go ahead and download the zip file and extract into a secure folder. Note after unzipping the folder you should see the following application (or the ccminer equivalent):

If you don't then it is likely your antivirus software has intercepted it and put it into quarantine. To avoid this go into your antivirus and add an exception for the folder when you intend to unzip the miner (and all subfolders).

Step 3: The Pools

Right so we have a wallet and we have a miner, the next step is to find a pool where we can mine our XZC. There are a lot of pools out there with a variety of fees/payout levels etc. I'm going to suggest just couple here that don't require any signup, though a duckduckgo search (the google of the future) can find you more if you want to shop around.

Zellabs - https://zellabs.net/coins/xzc Fee = 1.0% Min Payout = Custom, assigned by password variable.

MintPond - https://mintpond.com/#!/zcoin Fee = 0.9% Min Payout = 1 XZC (though if there is an option to set this as low as 0.002, just click on 'Min Payout' at the bottom of the page to get info on this)



The choice is completely up to you, MintPond is probably better for hobby miners but requires a bit more set up if you want to set the Min Payout lower.

If your hashrate is feeling up to it, or you're just feeling lucky you can also Solo mine.

Zcoin Solo Pool (Solo) - https://xzc.solopool.org/ Fee = 1.5% Min Payout = N/A (current reward is 14 XZC for a block)



Step 4: Mining

So we've prepared everything we need now on to the mining process:

In the wallet lets set up a mining address click File > Receiving Addresses (1) then click New (2) add a label for the address (3) and click OK (4). Note that the address label is what will show up in your wallet so I like to use them to keep track of different miners/pools. It is also recommended you change this frequently.

Next navigate to the miner folder and look for the example .BAT file called "test" (or something similar if you are using a different ccminer). Lets, copy this and make anew version called "zcoin_miner_start", then right click then and select 'edit' (if you get a windows protector pop-up you can select 'more info' and then 'run anyway' to open the file). The .BAT file will open up in notepad normally. The file contains the command line text that we need to update.

First of all let's start removing the text highlighted above and replacing it with

sgminer.exe --kernel mtp -u walletAddress.workerName -p -o stratum+tcp://zcoin.mintpond.com:3000

Now we need to go back to our wallet and right-click on our newly created address and copy it to the clipboard and replace the "walletAddress.workerName" section of the .BAT file with this information.

Save and close the .BAT file and we're ready to go. Now all you need to do is double click the .BAT file and a command window should open up that looks like this. Congratulations you're mining XZC!!

Disclaimer: I've only got a 4 GB card so I had to find this stock image of the cards mining (above), that is why you'll notice they have 3 GPUs set up (which is a tad more advanced). I will follow up with a CPU mining article over the coming weeks.

Now that you are mining you can check your stats, on MintPond's site. You do this by either searching for your address or putting https://mintpond.com/#!/zcoin:<YOUR MINING ADDRESS> into your address bar on your favorite browser (#BRAVE). You do not need to leave your XZC wallet open all the time but I recommend opening it every few days so it can catch up on the blocks (also back it up regularly File>Backup Wallet).

If you want to check your profitability on other coins/algorithms then go ahead and look at either:

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

Donations Welcome (XZC):

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