Here’s a quick step-by-step guide for newbies on how to mine Zephyr on Nanopool
To mine Zephyr all you need is a PC/Mining RIG with a CPU, a miner and a Zephyr address to receive your mining reward to. Check the list below and make sure your hardware/software meets the requirements:
Zephyr's PoW algorithm is RandomX and it is heavily relies on CPU usage while the GPU sits idle.
PC/Mining RIG with a CPU |
The CPU you're going to mine with should be x86-64 |
Installed Windows/Linux OS | Make sure your Windows version is at least 7 and the OS, whether it's Windows or Linux is 64 bit |
Minimum 4GB of system RAM | You don't need much of system RAM, however you should have 4GB minimum |
Stable internet connection | Your internet speed doesn't need to be super fast, but it's crucial that the internet connection is constant (get off Wi-Fi if possible) |
Valid email address | It's not necessary to use your email, however, if you want to receive alerts form the pool when your miner goes offline, you'll need one |
Mining software (Miner) | There are a lot of miners for Zephyr mining out there but we'll be using XMRig |
Zephyr wallet address | To receive your rewards from the pool you'll need to obtain a Zephyr address. |
Unfortunately, we don't give any recommendations on what hardware to buy or which one is more profitable (search the mining forums to choose a hardware), therefore we’re going to assume you’re already running Windows/Linux on your RIG and the hardware you have meets the requirements.
Step 1: Obtain a Zephyr Wallet Address
You can get a Zephyr address at an exchange / web-wallet or you can play it safe and use official Zephyr GUI Wallet.
Bear in mind, storing your funds at an exchange/web-wallet is always associated with a risk.
Whether you got your Zephyr address at an exchange/web-wallet or through the Zephyr GUI Wallet, be very carful when copying it and don't mistype any of its symbols, don't even change its case as Zephyr addresses are case-sensitive and you will not receive your reward to the address if you accidentally missed a symbol or changed its case.
Step 2: Apply some Tweaks to Windows before mining
First of you don't want your miner to be interrupt while mining if your RIG goes to sleep. You don't want to your RIG to be automatically rebutted either, which may occur if Windows updates.
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Go to your Windows Power Settings and set it to Never sleep
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Head to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/ Services. Scroll down to Windows Update and turn it off
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If you're running Windows Defender/Antivirus make sure to add an exception to it so that it doesn't flag your miner as a virus
Step 3: Download and Set up a Miner
- Download Xmrig and make sure to choose the correct version for your OS
- Extract the miner to any folder you like and navigate to it
- Locate and edit "config.json" file with any notepad app
No matter you use Windows or Linux, once you open the file, fill in the following and set your address worker name (any simple name for your RIG) and an email address alongside the appropriate lines:
Configuration example:
"log-file": "xmrig.txt",
"donate-level": 1,
"donate-over-proxy": 1,
"pools": [
{
"algo": "rx/0",
"coin": null,
"url": "zeph-asia1.nanopool.org:10900",
"user": "WALLET_ADDRESS.WORKER_NAME/EMAIL.COM",
"pass": "x",
...
]
If you don't want to receive alerts form the pool when your worker (RIG) goes offline, you can just use a passphrase instead of email address to access the account settings.
Once done, save the file and jump down to the next step.
Step 4: Start the Miner
Start XMRig by running the xmrig.exe file, the miner will start, run the commands to set those environment variables and start hashing away. After a while, you'll be able to find your account on the pool.
Step 5: Find your Account on Nanopool
Remember there's no registration on the pool. You just need to start mining and your account will automatically show up. However, allow some time as our system needs about 30 minutes to add your account to the pool's database since your miner submitted it's first share. So please, be patient and come back to Nanopool in a while, there's Address filed on the right top in which you need to fill your Zephyr address in. Once filled, hit enter, you'll be redirected to your Nanopool account page.
Congrats! You have joined Nanopool. Spend some time to familiarize yourself with the pool and its features; you'll like the interface.
Step 6: Make sure Your Mining goes Smoothly
Let your RIG to mine for at least 6 hours (or even 12) then come back to check your account statistic on the pool. You just need to compare your 6-hour Average hashrate (Nanopool estimates avg hashrate by shares sent from you rigs) with the Last Reported hashrate (it's what your miner tells to the pool your hashrate is) and the values need to be close (the closer the better), however, allow 10% discrepancy. And if your 6-hour Average hashrate is lower by more than 10% than the Reported one, then there must be an issue and you should contact our team to figure it out.
Step 7: Predict your Profitability
There's a number of major factors your income depends on and the most obvious, easily identifiable and broad numbers that affect your mining profit are:
Difficulty increase | The more users join the network to mine Zephyr, the harder it's to find a block. |
Pool luck factor | Cryptocurrency mining is extremely luck based in its nature and when the pool finds fewer blocks than it should with its hashrate on average, it's unlucky, but when it finds more blocks, the pool is lucky. And since our pool's payout scheme is PPLNS (you get paid after the pool finds a block), your estimated reward may decrease in both cases, if the difficulty increases and the pool gets unlucky. |
Hashrate constancy | Your reward is also affected by your hashrate constancy. The more your hashrate fluctuates (network/hardware issues) the less your reward may be. |
Keep in mind, none of mining calculators are able to properly forecast the future, as they don't simply take into account all possible variables, as a result this is almost near impossible to accurately predict uncertain inputs.