Learning about Cryptocurrency trading and Mining cryptocurrency requires certain technical knowledge from the miner. First of all, you need to assemble the farm itself, and then you also need to connect to the pool correctly. It’s not easy to do it intuitively, and the instructions on the Internet don’t always give a clear understanding of what to do and how to do it.
We hope this tutorial will be one of the most useful on the web, and it will be as easy as possible to start mining Ethereum Classic with this tutorial.
Ethereum Classic appeared in 2016 after a massive hacking attack known as the DAO hack. Back then, an attacker was able to use a vulnerability in the Ethereum code to steal millions of coins. Even at that time, it was a very serious amount both in terms of money (about $50 million) and as a percentage of the entire ETH market. To mitigate the consequences of the attack and allow users to keep their assets, the developers decided to make a hardfork and roll back the transaction history to the moment of the attack.
Not everyone supported the idea of the hardforge. Part of the community was against making any changes to the code because it is inconsistent with the philosophy of cryptocurrency. It should be independent and not influenced by the human factor. That was the slogan behind Ethereum Classic, which was essentially a copy of the old Ethereum (before the hardfork).
Today, Ethereum Classic is a rather weak cryptocurrency. Many people chose to stay on ETH. Especially, as it became known from the latest news, after the successful 51% Attack on the ETC network, the community lost interest in this coin.
Today blockchain Classic remains unchanged (Ethereum updates are not synchronized with Ethereum Classic), unpopular (capitalization of ETC today is only $776 million vs $53 billion for ETH) and rather dangerous (in August 2020 the blockchain was attacked by 51% three times).
On the other hand, it is more accessible for mining, as the network hash rate is much lower, and it is also more volatile, which can be a plus for those who earn on exchange rate fluctuations.
Another advantage of ETC is that it is insured against developer errors.
The Ethereum blockchain recently underwent a London hardfork, which will directly affect mining profits. Under the old algorithm, the remuneration of Ethereum miners was formed from a base reward for each block found and a commission collected from the senders of transactions included in the block. Since the London hardfork, the scheme is changing: miners will only get the base reward, and commissions, regardless of their size, will be burned. However, a “tip” – a voluntary reward that transaction initiators can send to miners at will – has been introduced. As a result, miners will receive only an amount close to the base reward, which causes a significant reduction in the profitability of mining. Experts estimate that as a result of these changes, the income of miners will decrease by 20-35%.
It has caused a lot of criticism, and if things go wrong, ETH mining may become less attractive than ETC mining.
In any case, now you can mine both Ethereum and altcoin Ethereum Classic, so the choice is yours. And we’ll get back to the instructions.
Since the ETC blockchain is based on the ETH blockchain, the algorithm and technical characteristics are the same. Both cryptocurrencies are mined using the Ethash algorithm. The only difference is in the hashrate of the network and the capacity threshold for break-even mining, as well as the reward per block. Note that the ETC block is much faster to find.
At the time of reading this, the information may be different, so it’s better to compare the current information on WhatToMine.
It’s worth noting that Classic is more accessible for solo miners – with a smaller hash rate, you can get more blocks. But that doesn’t make up for the price difference. Mining Ethereum through a pool at today’s rate is still more profitable. But, again, it’s worth comparing the numbers at the time you read this article.
ETC mining is still profitable if you believe in its potential. Then it’s wise to connect now, accumulate cryptocurrency in your wallet and sell it in the future at higher prices.
Now let’s talk about the equipment for mining. ETC is easy enough to mine with GPUs. When connected to a pool, their number does not matter. Nvidia 1080 and 1080ti cards proved to be the best ones to work with ETCs. You can also use AMD with a good hash rate, e.g. Radeon VII. It is important that each of the cards has at least 4 GB of RAM.
Experienced miners advise assembling up to 6 GPUs in one setup. You can try different variants yourself and compare the efficiency.
You also need a wallet to which coins will be saved. We can recommend Exodus or Coinomi. You can also create a web wallet by following this link. It is not difficult.
From the software, you can choose Ethminer. It is compatible with both Nvidia and AMD, with both Windows and Linux operating systems. But it is still better to put Linux on your computer for mining, as it is more productive and safe.
We will take a fairly popular program called Claymore Miner. You will need to download its archive from the official site, unzip it and replace some data in the text documents. In the bat file (start.bat) you will need to find the line that starts with EthDcrMiner64.exe and replace UserName with your ETC wallet number, and replace WorkerName with any name you can think of. Registered users can put their login on the site instead of their wallet number under UserName. Example of filling in for unregistered users:
0x09ab1303d3CcAF5f018CD511146b07A240c70294.whiteminer -epsw x -esm 3 -allpools 1 -allcoins -1
Then, you need to install HiveOS, register and insert your computer and pool data there. Consider using the popular Hashalot pool.
Coin – ETC.
Wallet – a wallet, which you added in point 2.
Pool – select “Configure in Miner”.
Miner – Claymore Dual with configuration: POOL: mining.hashalot.io:3404, WALLET: Your Wallet, PSW: x.
No special configuration is required because Hashalot is already on the HiveOS pool list.
What to do if you don’t have HiveOS installed? There is an alternative way to register a miner – through the NiceHash website. There, after logging into your account, you will need to fill out a form.
In it we insert:
Algorithm: DAGGER-HASHIMOTO(S)
Stratum Server: mining.hashalot.io
Stratum port: 3404
User: Your ETC-wallet or username on Pool Hashalot
Password: x
If you did everything correctly, you may start mining. Your stats will be automatically uploaded to pool.hashalot.io – and you will be able to see a more detailed report.
With the right setup, you connect to the pool and start searching for blocks along with everyone else. The principle is that all miners search for a block at the same time, and if they mine it, the reward is divided among all the participants. Your part depends on the share that you have sent (a small part of the problem). That is, even if the solution is not found by your computer, and even if you disconnected before the reward was received, you are still credited with the cryptocurrency in a fair proportion.
So, here’s your farm. It has been working for a while and now you want to withdraw your reward. There are three options.
First: the reward is automatically credited immediately to your wallet (with 2% commission deducted). This is not always convenient because you have to pay a commission each time you make a transaction.
Second: you set up automatic withdrawal on the site Hashalot in the Balances section. Then, for example, when you reach 100 ETCs the funds will be automatically transferred to your wallet without withdrawing commission from the pool.
And the third option is to withdraw manually. Usually, transactions are processed quickly, but sometimes there are delays due to blockchain overload.
We hope we have explained clearly enough how to start mining Ethereum Classic solo or in a pool.
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