Zcash getting started with CPU mining (easily)

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Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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There are a lot of guides out there but I wanted to do a quick guide for those who want to setup mining quickly and easily.

I am going to be using the NiceHash pool for this as I do think most will want to be in a bigger pool.

Step 1: Kraken
There are other exchanges but Kraken does offer zcash trading and, more importantly, an easy way to generate/ keep up to 5 deposit addresses live. (t_address). If you do not have an account, sign up.

Once you are setup, go to Funding (top menus) then Zcash ZEC (bottom of left menu). From there you should be able to Generate New Address which will get you a t_address. That is where we will point our miner so that our share payouts get deposited. Otherwise, you can use a local wallet but then you will end up having to learn to use a wallet versus getting to a point of liquidity quickly.

Step 2: OS
After trying this a few times, you want to start with Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS not 14.04 if possible. 14.04 requires adding "Universe" repos. Just use 16.04.

Step 3: Get mining quickly
Here is the script to get a node online quickly replace t_address with the Kraken t_address above:
Code:
#!/bin/bash

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y git cmake build-essential libboost-all-dev
git clone -b Linux https://github.com/nicehash/nheqminer.git
cd nheqminer/cpu_xenoncat/Linux/asm/
sh assemble.sh
cd ../../../Linux_cmake/nheqminer_cpu_xenoncat
cmake .
make -j $(nproc)

~/nheqminer/Linux_cmake/nheqminer_cpu_xenoncat/nheqminer_cpu_xenoncat -l us1-zcash.flypool.org:3333 -u t_address -t $(nproc)
When you want to re-start the mining you can just use the last line in that code block. This setup is nice because it will do AVX2 automatically. The flypool.org does have a 1% fee but it seems to be a very big pool.

Step 4: Track Progress

This setup has a distinct advantage for ease of setup and tracking. First, you can see whenever blocks are found here via nicehash. You will get deposits to Kraken which, once confirmed, will allow you to get confirmation e-mails. It also allows you to keep a list of deposits and see what converting to other currencies will give you in terms of value.

This is certainly not a huge money maker but it is at least a fun way to do burn-in.

[Updated 2016-11-16 with flypool mining pool.]
 
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Patrick

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@marcoi - that is the standard zcash solver. You likely still want to get in a pool and with that I think you need to specify AVX/ AVX 2.0. You also need to have a local wallet.
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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Updated the first post for zcash.flypool.org

More hash power means more blocks found for a steadier flow.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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113
Just taking a note here for a sec:

zcash using the method here on the quad E7-8870 V3 machine where threads =
nproc (144)= 152 Sols/s
L3 cache/ 2 (90) = 118 Sols/s
nproc / 2 (72) = 96 Sols/s
nproc * .75 (108) = 130 Sols/s
nproc - 1 = 159 Sols/s

Seems like nproc-1 is the way to go.