Here’s a quick step-by-step guide for newbies on how to mine Ethereum Classic on Nanopool

Getting started with Ethereum Classic mining is now easier than ever. All you need is a PC with a GPU (Nvidia/AMD) of 4GB minimum as Ethereum Classic heavily relies on memory usage while the core processor sits idle. You'll also need a miner and an Ethereum Classic address to receive your mining reward. Check the list below and make sure your hardware/software meets the requirements:

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 GPU you have meets the requirements.

Step 1: Get Your GPU Drivers Installed

Double check the drivers are installed in advance or if you installed them previously you can skip this step. 

• For Nvidia drivers, click here and enter your GPU info then click “Start Search”. Download the current driver version from the results. 
• For AMD GPUs, go here and choose "Support & Drivers". Enter your GPU info and click "Display results" then click the download button for your current driver. 

Once downloaded, install the drivers like you normally would (next, next, OK, etc.) and reboot your RIG. You see your GPU’s are recognized correctly if you go into Device Manager (search in Windows search bar) and if you don’t see any warning marks on your GPU’s you're good to go to the next step. 

Step 2: Obtain an Ethereum Classic Wallet Address 

There's a number of ways you can get an Ethereum Classic address through, such as at an exchange  or you can play it safe and use one of the local wallets. If you already have an Ethereum Classic address, just jump down to the next step. Remember, some exchanges don't allow deposits from pools or don't allow very small deposits, so double check with the site before mining directly to an exchange address, whereas setting up a local wallet requires to wait a while for the blockchain to download.

Bear in mind, storing your funds at an exchange/web-wallet is always associated with a risk 

If you don't to use a local wallet as it would require you to wait while the full Ethereum Classic blockchain downloads (it also takes a lot of disc space on your PC). Feel free to register at an exchange/web-wallet to obtain an Ethereum  Classic address, however we advise you to use one of the Ethereum Classic wallets called the Mist Wallet since it has friendly and familiar GUI, thus it's easy to use and you should not have any troubles with it. The wallet is available for Window, Linux and Mac OS.

Step 3: 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. And we also have to increase your Virtual Memory (aka swap file) to 16 GB that is required for Ethereum Classic mining.

• Go to your Windows Power Settings and set it to Never sleep 

• Head to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/ Services. Scroll down to Windows Update and turn it off 

• 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 (not necessary for Nanominer) 

• Go to Control Panel/System and Security/System/Advanced System Setting and set your Virtual Memory to to 16384 MB (this is 16GB) if you have 2 GPUs of 4GB memory and to 32GB if you have 4 of them

Step 4: Download and Set up a Miner

There are various of miners out there to choose from that are not covered here as we are doing to use our own miner called Nanominer in which our team put a lot of time and effort to make it simple to use and efficient to mine, so you should not have any trouble with it.  

• Depending on your OS, download Nanominer for Windows or Linux 

• Extract the miner to any folder you like and navigate to it

• Locate and edit "config.ini" file with any notepad app

• Fill the following into the file:

[Ethash]
wallet=0x123...
coin=ETC

Then set your Ethereum Classic address next to the "wallet" line which is pretty much enough to start mining. The next steps are not necessary but if you have more than one RIG, it would be much more convenient if you set a different name for each so that you'll be able to track them on the pool individually. You are also advised to set your email address in if you want to receive alerts form the pool when your worker (RIG) goes offline. You email will also be your password to access the settings. If you don't want to receive the alerts, you can just use a passphrase instead. As it's not mandatory, feel free to jump down to the next step.

Add "rigName =" line under the wallet to indicate your RIG name 

Add "email =" line to indicate your email/passphrase  

NOTE: Nanominer will connect to the pool's default server, and It might be not the best choice for you as there's latency and you want the server you connect to to be as closer to your location as possible. Therefore, by adding the follower parameter at the bottom of your Nanominer's config.ini file, you can be sure that Nanominer will pick the server that has the lowest ping time from your location and your network latency will not affect your mining as the pool and the miner will communicate at the highest speed possible. 

"sortPools=true" this will enable automatic pool's servers sorting based on their ping speed

Full configuration example:

[Ethash]
wallet=0x9eab4b0fc468a7f5d46228bf5a76cb52370d068d
coin=ETC
rigName=Rig002
email=ex1mple@email.com
sortPools=true

Once everything is filled, save and close the file.

Step 5: Start the Miner

Start the miner by running the nanominer.exe file. Nanominer will start, run the commands to set those environment variables, initialize each of your GPU’s, build the DAG file on each of your GPU’s and start hashing away. After a while, you'll be able to find your account on the pool.

Step 6: 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 Ethereum Classic 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 7: 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 8: 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:

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.