How to Mine Monero, The Easy Way

Monero (XMR) is undoubtedly one of the best performing cryptocurrencies. This is because it is among the best fifteen coins based on market capitalization and it's unbelievably easy to mine Monero. Synonymous with privacy and security, the Crypto note algorithm based cryptocurrency makes use of ring signatures to provide anonymity when making a transaction.

Monero can be mined by anyone with a CPU or GPU. Notably, the unique algorithm makes it impossible to mine using ASIC rigs. Therefore, mining Monero using simpler hardware is a viable venture unlike its more famous contemporary; Bitcoin.

First you have to decide whether mining solo or on a pool is the better option for you. Mining solo may be less profitable for small investments and pools have the advantage of steady flow of income. That said, solo mining gives you more control over the operation.

Additionally, there is the option of a solo pool.Interestingly, this is quite similar to normal solo mining. The convenience is that users don’t have to run a full node or store the entire blockchain.

How to Mine Monero Using CPU

The basic step would definitely be to download the mining software. An example is the Wolf's CryptoNote open source CPU Miner. From the downloaded software extract the .zip file. This is important because it gives you a command line that you need to set up the software.

Using the given example, you enter the command with your wallet address and you’re good to go. The instructions are pretty straightforward for someone with a decent understanding of how command prompt and mining works.

AMD GPU Monero Mining

Like before, you download the mining software as a prerequisite. The procedure is the same as the above described CPU mining. The distinction comes at the command execution. This is because you'll need to configure the xmr.conf file, open the file with the note pad and change your url to your pool address.

For this method, there are two notable mining soft wares. These are the Wolf Miner and the XMR Stak which has a 2% Developer fee.

Mining Monero through Mining Pools

To join a decent sized mining pool, you have to enter the pool address on the mining application and state that you wish to mine Monero. The mining pols have fees but the advantage of consistent returns makes it much more reliable.

Some of the mining pools we can use for Monero are:

MineXMR- This pool has servers in France, Germany and Canada. The pool fee is 1% with about 25,000 connected users Nanopool- The pool’s servers are located in Asia and 2 for USA and Europe each.

Notably, the first server has the lowest fees. Finally, you might want to choose servers closest to you to minimize latency.