Mining configuration: Simple vs. Advanced

Recently, we have added a new option to our worker’s config page for those that don’t use advanced configuration parameters and would like a quick way to configure their worker. From now on, each mining client has an option to select between simple and advanced option.

In this post, we will shortly introduce both and what are the most important things you need to look out for each of them. We will also introduce a few examples where you actually must use advanced configuration as using simple one doesn’t cover all the settings that the pool or mining client requires.

We will show you an example of CryptoDredge mining client as it allows mining on different systems and different algorithms. The things that will be explained in this post can be used for other mining clients as well.

Simple mining configuration

In a simple mining configuration, you are presented with four different fields.

Three of them are dropdown menus and one is an input field:

• Coin: You can select a coin on a multi-algo option from the dropdown menu. We will list you only the coins and multi-algo options that are allowed by this mining client. This means that if we don’t have algorithm X listed under the mining client, you cannot select coins that can be mined with X. If you do believe that mining client supports the algorithm X, you can use the advanced configuration and your mining config will work. You can also let us know about the missing algorithm and we will add it to the list.
• Pool: You can select any pool tag that you have defined in the address editor. Make sure that the port is included in the saved pool tag.
• Wallet: You can select any wallet tag that you have defined in the address editor. If the pool requires a username as the identification (for example Suprnova or Mining Pool Hub), you will need to save a wallet tag with your username (and not the actual wallet address).
• Password: You can set a custom password that will be added as a password parameter. This includes setting c=BTC to multi-algo pools that require such a password parameter.

When you set up these different combinations, a simple, default configuration command will be generated and run on your system.

We will show you some other examples of a simple configuration for different CryptoDredge algorithms: X16R, Lyra2REv3, MTP, and X16S.

1) Zergpool X16R mining

• For the coin, we have selected option X16R - Zergpool;
• The Zergpool X16R address stratum+tcp://x16r.mine.zergpool.com:3636 is saved under the pool tag ZP-X16R;
• The Bitcoin wallet address is saved under the BTC wallet tag;
• The password is set as c=BTC as required by Zergpool.

2) NiceHash Lyra2REv3 mining

• For the coin, we have selected option Lyra2REv3 - NiceHash;
• The NiceHash Lyra2REv3 address stratum+tcp://lyra2rev3.eu.nicehash.com:3373 is saved under the pool tag NH-LYRA2REV3;
• The Bitcoin wallet address is saved under the BTC wallet tag;
• The password is set as x as NiceHash doesn’t require any special password parameter.

3) XZC mining

• For the coin, we have selected option XZC;
• The XZC address xzc.2miners.com:8080 is saved under the pool tag XZC;
• The Zcoin wallet address is saved under the XZC wallet tag;
• The password is set as x as 2miners pool doesn’t require any special password parameter.

4) Zpool X16S mining with LTC payout

• For the coin, we have selected option X16s - zpool;
• The zpool X16S address stratum+tcp://x16s.eu.mine.zpool.com:3663 is saved under the pool tag ZPOOL-X16S;
• The Litecoin wallet address is saved under the LTC wallet tag;
• The password is set as c=LTC as required by zpool if you want to get paid in Litecoin.

When you save changes and refresh the worker’s config page, the generated configuration will be available for you under the advanced mining configuration section. This means that you can use a simple option to set up tags and apply other advanced configs later on.

Advanced mining configuration

In the advanced mining configuration, you are presented with a large text field where you can enter the config. You can enter the config you are usually using manually or use tags for faster configuration.

This text field also has few actions at the right bottom:

• Load from template: Allows you to load the configuration from the config template library. Once the template is loaded, changing the template from the config templates page won’t affect the worker’s configuration.
• Reset to default: Allows you to reset your config to the default one. Useful when you made changes that broke your config and you want to start over.

Each mining client has its own parameters and its own style on how to configure it. Some of them, especially the newest ones, use the algorithm parameter that you must not miss out (mining X16R coin to algorithm X16S won’t work). But even if they are all using the algorithm parameter, each of them defines the algorithm value differently. For example, some will define CryptoNightR algorithm as cnr others as cryptonightr. It is up to you to check what value is used for the algorithm part. You can usually find this info on their Bitcointalk thread.

Let’s check how would advanced configuration look like for the examples we presented in the previous chapter.

1) Zergpool X16R mining

• We had to set the algorithm parameter -a to x16r;
• The Zergpool’s X16R address stratum+tcp://x16r.mine.zergpool.com:3636 is saved under the pool tag ZP-X16R and used as a pool parameter -o;
• The password parameter -p is set as c=BTC as required by Zergpool;
• The user parameter -u is set as (WALLET:BTC).(WORKER) where Bitcoin wallet address is saved under the BTC wallet tag and (WORKER) will be replaced with the worker’s name.

2) NiceHash Lyra2REv3 mining

• We had to set the algorithm parameter -a to lyra2v3;
• The NiceHash’s Lyra2REv3 address stratum+tcp://lyra2rev3.eu.nicehash.com:3373 is saved under the pool tag NH-LYRA2REV3and used as a pool parameter -o;
• The password parameter -p is set as x as NiceHash doesn’t require any special password parameter;
• The user parameter -u is set as (WALLET:BTC).(WORKER) where Bitcoin wallet address is saved under the BTC wallet tag and (WORKER) will be replaced with the worker’s name.

3) XZC mining

• We had to set the algorithm parameter -a to mtp;
• The XZC address xzc.2miners.com:8080 is saved under the pool tag XZC and used as a pool parameter -o;
• Password parameter -p is set as x as 2miners pool doesn’t require any special password parameter;
• The user parameter -u is set as (WALLET:XZC).(WORKER) where Zcoin wallet address is saved under the XZC wallet tag and (WORKER) will be replaced with the worker’s name.

4) Zpool X16S mining with LTC payout

• We had to set the algorithm parameter -a to x16s;
• The zpool’s X16S address stratum+tcp://x16s.eu.mine.zpool.com:3663 is saved under the pool tag ZPOOL-X16S and used as a pool parameter -o;
• Password parameter -p is set as c=LTC as required by zpool if you want to get paid in Litecoin;
• The user parameter -u is set as (WALLET:BTC).(WORKER) where Bitcoin wallet address is saved under the BTC wallet tag and (WORKER) will be replaced with the worker’s name.

Four important things to know when setting advanced configuration

When you are setting advanced configuration there are few things you need to know to not break your config.

• Tags color: All tags need to be blue - no red tags are allowed. You can save your config with red tags, but this means that you will need to define them later on in address editor. Red tags cannot be replaced by the system as there is no value available to replace them with. Blue tags, on the other hand, will be replaced with the values that are saved in the address editor.
• Algorithm parameter: You always need to check if there is an algorithm parameter required by the mining client. If it is, you can find the coin you want to mine on our coins page and find the name of the algorithm there. You must find the correct value to enter under the algorithm as the parameter is usually case sensitive and needs to be entered exactly as required by mining client.
• Other parameters: For some pools, sometimes you need to define other parameters as well. There are some clients that require setting a special parameter if you are mining on NiceHash stratums, for example.
• Brackets: You must not leave brackets around the name that is not a tag. For example, (myrig) is an invalid entry. You should either use (WORKER) which will be replaced with the worker’s name automatically by the system or use only myrig where myrig is the name of your worker.

Cases when you must use the advanced configuration

There are some cases when unfortunately you won’t be able to use a simple mining configuration.

Pools with special requirements

One such case is mining on Mining Pool Hub, which requires user parameter and worker parameter to be set in a form (USERNAME).(WORKER). For example, Phoenix ETH miner requires both - user and worker parameters - so mining on Mining Pool Hub should be defined exactly as follows.

But do note that not all mining clients have worker parameter. For the ones that do, you must use it in the way described above.

GPU manufacturer defined as a parameter

Some mining clients have a parameter where you need to define your GPU manufacturer. Without defining it, your config won’t work. For example, Bminer requires to identify AMD GPUs with -devices parameter and if you have Nvidia GPUs they will get detected normally.

Stratum type/protocol defined as a parameter

Some pools have different stratum types/protocols and some mining clients require of you to define the stratum type/protocol in a special parameter. For example, Bminer uses -uri stratum:// as a default scheme, but if you want to mine Beam, you will need to use the -uri beam:// scheme. Without this definition, your config won’t work.

We didn’t list a certain algorithm under the mining client

Sometimes we don’t list a certain algorithm under the mining client - it could be purely accidental or it could be on purpose as we found out that the mining client is unreliable for that algorithm. You can still use such mining client with the algorithm that it supports, but you will need to use the advanced configuration in such case.

Additional parameters

Sometimes, you want to include different parameters, such as intensity, fan control, watchdog, fee, pars, or anything else and this is when you will need to use the advanced configuration.

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