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How to start mining cryptocurrencies with your computer in under 5 minutes

Pablo Chanivet García
4 min readNov 26, 2021

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Sometimes mining can be may seem very complicated for the most average computer users, and for this reason I decided to share with you this quick guide to get you excited about mining crypto, and SHIB in particular.

Regardless of your technical skill knowledge and your computer capacities, you can start mining Shiba Inu with your laptop in under 5 minutes by following this guide, so if you’re up to it, let’s start!

Step 1 — Get a wallet

I’m pretty sure that if you’re reading this guide you could skip this first step, but since this is a 0 to 100 guide I decided to add this chapter.

I usually recommend my clients to install Metamask as a Chrome extension. Metamask is an extension for accessing Ethereum enabled distributed applications (DApps) in your browser. You can download it from here.

Also you can use Atomic wallet or Exodus or any other wallet.

Select the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and copy your address.

Step 2 — Download XMRig

XMRig is a miner tool, a type of threat that is used to mine cryptocurrencies. Be aware that some anti-viruses detect XMRig as malware because it is often deployed to infected computers to mine without the owner’s consent. For avoiding problems, add it to the excluded files of your anti-virus to avoid analyzing it in virus scans.

You can download the latest version from the GitHub repo: https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig/releases

Step 3 — Update config files

The first file you need to edit is the pool_mine_example.cmd file. This file is conformed by three lines of code, similar to that:

cd %~dp0
xmrig.exe -o pool.hashvault.pro:3333 -u 48edfHu7V9Z84YzzMa6fUueoELZ9ZRXq9VetWzYGzKt52XU5xvqgzYnDK9URnRoJMk1j8nLwEVsaSWJ4fhdUyZijBGUicoD -p x
pause

You need to update the xmrig command by updating the url of the mining service (the url before the -o param). This URL depends on your location, so select the one closer to you:

  • Europe: rx-eu.unmineable.com:3333
  • USA: rx-us.unmineable.com:3333
  • Asia: rx-asia.unmineable.com:3333

The next thing you need to update is the username. This username is conformed by the coin you are going to mine (SHIB for this example), your wallet’s public address that you obtain from Step 1, and the worker ID. This worker ID could be any name you want to give to each node where you are running the miner, just like a tag so you can easily identify it later under the pool stats.

Also it is important to include an additional code after the worker ID to drop the mining fee from 1% to 0.75%. You can use the following code: #e4xd-wmzl

Finally you should have something like this:

cd %~dp0
xmrig.exe -o rx-eu.unmineable.com:3333 -u SHIB:0xe1b48edfHu7V9Z84YzzMa6fUueoELZ9ZRXq9VetWz.myminer1#e4xd-wmzl -p x
pause

The next configuration file you need to update is the config.json. In this case you need to modify “url” and “user” values of “pools” object with the same information you use for the previous file. This results in something like this:

"pools": [
{
"algo": null,
"coin": null,
"url": "rx-eu.unmineable.com:3333",
"user": "SHIB:0xe1b48edfHu7V9Z84YzzMa6fUueoELZ9ZRXq9VetWz.myminer1#e4xd-wmzl",
"pass": "x",
"rig-id": null,
"nicehash": false,
"keepalive": false,
"enabled": true,
"tls": false,
"tls-fingerprint": null,
"daemon": false,
"socks5": null,
"self-select": null,
"submit-to-origin": false
}
],

Step 4 — Run the pool_mine_example file

Just right click over pool_mine_example file and execute it as administrator. If everything goes correctly, you should see the following logs on your screen:

XMRig execution

Congrats, now you are running XMRig and you have become a miner!

Step 5 — Log into the miner service to check your stats

For validating that your node is running correctly and to see your generated coins, you can open unmineable.com. Unmineable is a mining pool which allows you to mine with your CPU using RandomX and pay you in any coin you select.

For finding your miner, you only need to paste your wallet’s public address in the search bar.

unMineable

Hope this guide was useful for you, if you have any doubt or problem, please let me know and I’ll try to help you.

See you in the next post!

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Pablo Chanivet García

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.