First off, what is Dogecoin? For those who do not know, dogecoin
is an altcoin. It's a digital currency (cryptocurrency) that was created to be
an alternative for other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
Dogecoin can be used to buy goods and services, and you can also exchange or
trade it for other currencies.
The creation of the Dogecoin logo was based on a Japanese dog
known as the Shiba Inu, hence the name dogecoin. The dog's picture had been a
popular online meme, so the creator, Billy Markus, actually created the coin as
a joke which then turned into reality when a member of Adobe's Systems
marketing department, Jackson Palmer, bought the website and started working
with Markus.
Now that you have a little bit of insight on the history of
Dogecoin, let's get to why we are here today -the mining of Dogecoin. Although
the dogecoin industry isn't as large as the Bitcoin industry, the mining of the
cryptocurrency happens almost the same way the Bitcoin is mined -through the
use of specialized hardware. Mining dogecoin verifies transactions, secures the
network and allows miners to be paid a token of the cryptocurrency as a reward
of their hard work and dedication to the system.
There are three ways to mine Dogecoin. The mining can be done
through the use of graphic cards, specialized hardware, and mining pools. Given
the fact that the Dogecoin industry is not as developed like the BTC industry,
it took some time before Dogecoin miners were created. The creation of Dogecoin
was based on a Scrypt network which made it impossible for ASIC miners to mine
dogecoin until 2014 when miners that could mine on Scrypt were created. While
graphic cards are the good ways to mine Dogecoin, they are not very profitable.
THE DIFFERENT DOGECOIN MINING PROCESSES
The first step you need to take if you are going to be mining
dogecoin is going to dogecoin.com to open yourself a wallet. You'll need to
download the dogecoin wallet client which allows you to store your crypto coins
on your computer. Once you have successfully done this, the next step is to
download the Dogecoin blockchain. Once you have successfully downloaded the
full blockchain, you'll now have to decide whether you want to join a mining
pool or you want to go solo by using your CPU or your GPU. Let's take a look at
the different mining processes.
MINING POOL
A lot of people prefer to join a mining pool for Dogecoin and a
lot of other cryptocurrencies. This is because when a mathematical problem is
solved and the payout is about to be made, the payout is usually for the miner
who's lucky enough to solve the problem. This simply means that if you are not
using a couple of extremely fast machines, the odds of getting the reward will
be very low; in fact, you might never get paid at all as the mathematical
problems are now harder to solve.
This is why a lot of people prefer to join a mining pool. A mining
pool allows users to combine their computing power and when they successfully
solve a mathematical problem, they share the reward amongst those in the group.
The reward is usually split according to the amount of computing power each
miner has been contributing. Joining a mining pool allows for a better chance
of getting paid.
There are a lot of mining pools you can join. Once you have
decided on the mining pool to join, you'll then decide on whether you want to
make use of a GPU or a CPU Miner. This guide will be based on joining mining
pool.
USING A GPU MINER
GPU miners are a lot more effective than CPU Miners. But for you
to enjoy the efficiency of GPU Miners, you need to ensure that your graphic
cards are discrete. In fact, it's better to make use of AMD cards as they are
more efficient than NVidia cards.
In order to mine with the GPU of your computer, the first step
you'll need to take is to download a software known as CGMiner. When
downloading the software, ensure that the one you are downloading is the latest
version as the older versions have stopped supporting the Scrypt network. In
fact, make sure the software you want to download is anything from the version
3.7.2 upwards. Anything below that won't work for the mining of Dogecoin. You
can also download GUIMiner as an alternative to CGMiner. While CGMiner works
with the command prompt on Windows, GUIMiner uses a graphical interface. Also
ensure that you disable Google Chrome's malware protection because the app
usually notes these software as malware.
The next step now is to ensure that all of your graphic card
drivers are up to date. If you're having an ATI graphics card, you can download
OpenCL driver. You don't necessarily need to install the CGMiner software. You
can just unload the zip file and place the extracted content in a location on
your hard drive. CGMiner works through the command line, but you can also
execute it using a batch file.
Simply put, a batch file is a saved command prompt script. You can
even write it in a notepad. For your batch file to be complete, you'll need to
get some information from your mining pool, and these information include:
· The Pool Service URL- This URL will be specifically for mining. It's not the one you
usually input into your browser. Most mining URL starts with the word
"Stratum" and most mining pools readily provide this information.
· Port Number- Port number from your pool service.
· Your Username – The user you created when you were signing up with the mining
pool.
· Worker Name and Worker Password- Before you are allowed to mine in a pool, you'll have to be a
"worker" in the mining pool. You can either pick the name yourself or
it can be assigned to you by the pool. You’ll also have a worker password for
your worker profile.
Once you have all of these information ready, the next step is to
go to the folder where you have the CGMiner.exe file. Once you've located the miner,
right click anywhere and create a new .txt (text) file. This will open your
notepad, then you can type in the following:
Cgminer.exe -scrypt -o url:port -u username.workname
-p workerpassword
The bold words will be the info you have collected from your
mining service. Once you have done this, click on save and change the name of
this newly created text file to GPUMiner.bat. Click yes when Windows asks you
for confirmation. Once it has been saved, double click on the new .bat file and
CGMiner will automatically take it from up from there, displaying how much
progress you have made with your mining process.
CPU MINING
If you don't have enough cash to buy good graphic cards, you can
still make use of your CPU though the mining process won't be as fast and
feasible as when you make use of a GPU miner. The setup of a CPU miner is
basically the same as that of a GPU miner. You'll be needing the same
information and you'll be creating a batch file. The major difference between
both processes is that in CPU mining, you'll be using a software called
CPUMiner. Once you've followed the GPU mining process to the script phase,
you'll input the following:
minerd.exe -o url:port -u username.workername -p workerpassword
Click on save like the directions in the GPU process and continue
following the directions till the end. Once you double click on the saved file,
the CPUMiner will start mining your Dogecoin and also display how much progress
you have made.
CONCLUSION
That's all there is to mining dogecoin. You can choose to go solo
instead of joining a pool, but going solo is bound to yield little or no profit
if you are not running a couple of well enhanced GPU miners. Remember to enter
your wallet address into the mining pool's website so as to be able to manage
your earnings.
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