Mac Alt Coin Mining

[kschneezy]

Hello everyone. I'm excited and interested about decentralized currencies and was wondering if someone would be able to help me figure out how to mine some alt coins from my mac?

I am not the most tech savvy individual and have attempted to mine for a couple of days now but am really in need of some help because google searches haven't lead me anywhere


MOD EDIT:
Split and renamed topic

[Trillium]

Hello everyone. I'm excited and interested about decentralized currencies and was wondering if someone would be able to help me figure out how to mine some alt coins from my mac?

I am not the most tech savvy individual and have attempted to mine for a couple of days now but am really in need of some help because google searches haven't lead me anywhere

You should make a separate thread about your problem and provide us with as much information about your setup as possible. Theres a mining support subforum too if you get out of newbie jail.

[kschneezy]

Macs aren't meant to be used for mining. You will probably ruin your mac and no alt coin will be worth that.

There seems to be a smaller community of miners that use macs which i found on the forum from this link https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=216672.0

So that leads me to believe it is ok to mine alt coins from a mac. Anyone have any experiences or knowledge about mac's failing/having trouble after mining alt coins?

[elements]

I am also interested.

And also I find it pretty shitty that most altcoins exclude mac users.
Most only offer either a win or a linux client. Mac is everywhere nowadays so this seems a bit unfair.
If we want decentralization addressing this problem is part of it, too.

[occrest]

I am also interested.

And also I find it pretty shitty that most altcoins exclude mac users.
Most only offer either a win or a linux client. Mac is everywhere nowadays so this seems a bit unfair.
If we want decentralization addressing this problem is part of it, too.

I am using BitMinter to mine with on my Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard.   So far it is not overheating, tho the hash rate leaves a lot to be desired.    I am only getting around 7mhps no matter how I tweak it.

[smscotten]

Nothing wrong with using a Mac. Mac Pros have great cooling. Mine doesn't go over 45°C even when I CPU mine on all eight cores. My MacBook Air runs 60°C  just being powered up! Now, those smaller machines are designed to dissipate heat real well, but when I see temperatures that would boil water I do have some concern.

My suggestions: first, get a fan control and temperature monitoring utility so that you can keep an eye on the temperatures and run the fans faster before the processor starts getting hot instead of waiting until after. Second, whatever mining software you're using should allow you to limit the threads. If you have two cores, only mine on one. If you have eight, mine on five or six. You'll see the OS switches the task from core to core periodically so you're not just scorching one while leaving the other cool.

Or if you have AppleCare, just keep regular backups and drive that i7 at 105°. If it overheats, make them give you a new one. (Yes, I'm kidding. I can spell "moral hazard".)

If you have a Mac Pro you have PCIe slots you can put GPUs into. I have not tested this hypothesis but I believe that you don't need to get a "supported" card if you don't care whether it shows video.

And of course, don't expect to get rich mining. Nowadays you need to put up some serious money in order to get a chance for return on investment. And if you do sink money into mining hardware (ASICs et al) you can use the Mac as a controller with zero risk to the Mac since it's not doing the heavy lifting.

Be mindful that electricity usually costs money. CPU mining is almost guaranteed to cost you more than you get in cryptocoin. GPU mining is pretty likely to as well. http://splicer.com/2013/07/01/bitcoin-worth-electrons-its-printed

For software, I use MacMiner. The UI has some rough edges but it works pretty well, packages precompiled binaries of the mining software you'd want to use anyhow, and The Panda is great with support.

[kschneezy]

thought it would be more relevant to post this here as well
   
Re: [ANN] The Definitive List of Mac Altcoin Wallets
Today at 04:20:10 PM

Sure! I do a bit of pooled CPU mining. If I didn't make myself clear before I think it's a worthy endeavor even if it's not strictly profitable. What kind of Mac do you have? Do you know what the graphics processor is?




Processor  2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
Graphics  AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB

and also have access to a macbook pro which has a processor of 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB

I am attempting to mine from macminer from suggestions from people but only see bitcoin and litecoin as an option on there. Is there anyway to mine altcoins through macminer? Furthermore I cant even begin to mine from macminer as it comes up with an error message of
dyld: Library not loaded: /Applications/MacMiner.app/Contents/Resources/curl/lib/libcurl.4.dylib
  Referenced from: /Users/hollyschneider/Downloads/MacMiner.app/Contents/Resources/bfgminer/bin/bfgminer
  Reason: Incompatible library version: bfgminer requires version 8.0.0 or later, but libcurl.4.dylib provides version 7.0.0

I agree it is a worthy endeavor even if I dont turn an immediate profit because I am more interested in helping the community of cryptocurrencies than securing financial gain

[kschneezy]

i was actually able to fix the error message that i mentioned in the previous post

[smscotten]

I'm glad you got the error message squared away because I haven't encountered that. Though it looks like there was just some library that needed updating. Anyway…

That 6750M should work fine to start you out. It's not fast (I looked it up here) but it's faster than the card I got started with and it should allow you to mine scrypt-based currencies (which I never got to work with my old NVidia card). It's more than enough to get you going for some small amounts of coin.

With MacMiner's config, you can use the "Bitcoin" information for any SHA-256 coin and the "Litecoin" information for any scrypt-based coin. He automatically has a few failover addresses in the client including his own pools which don't require a login, so do put a BTC and LTC address in so you can get paid if your primary pool goes down and it automatically starts mining on the failover pools.

Check out http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency/ for a pretty good list of established (and some not so established) coins, with the algorithm each uses. The calculator is handy for generally keeping track of what will be profitable to mine on but prices fluctuate a lot and sometimes difficulty does as well. It's one thing to know what the price-to-difficulty ratio is now—it can't tell you what it will be at the end of the day. My guess is for starting out put "50" in both the SHA-256 MH/s field and the scrypt KH/s field but after you do a bit of mining you'll know empirically what values to put in.

So really, read up on the currencies and decide which ones you want to support. I believe that competition is good for the whole field but most altcoins are going to end up dead in the water. A lot of the hopeful-sounding talk around them is wishful thinking. In the other thread I talked about picking a brand-new currency and solo mining it—it's not because I have any confidence in the longevity of any coin started in the last 72 hours. You can also look at Cryptsy to see how the coins have traded against each other in the past. Personally, I look for auction and commerce sites to see whether there is hope that actual goods and services could be traded with the coin. Use your best judgment; most of the altcoins are useless but that's no reason not to support one(s) that you like and think should succeed.

Here endeth the unsolicited advice. Good luck!

[smscotten]

Are you talking about mining cause that thread is about alt coin "wallets" not "mining".

You know that almost all of the wallets in that thread act as miners as well, right? Yeah, of course you do.

[smscotten]

So yeah... are you still mining for stupid alt coins that aren't profitable to break your mac?

Personally, I pretty much only mine for stupid alt coins on my Macs. My Bitcoin mining is all FPGA although there too, bfgminer is running on the Mac, at least until my Beaglebone arrives. I use CPU mining to test pools and to test new coins.

I confess that I wouldn't be as cavalier about running a laptop or a Mac Mini at 100% CPU 24/7 as I am running on my Mac Pro—I've handed this Mac tougher punishment than mining. Earlier in the thread I made some suggestions for keeping heat within tolerable limits.

Bottom line: learn on what you've got before spending money on equipment you don't know how to use.

[kschneezy]

I'm glad you got the error message squared away because I haven't encountered that. Though it looks like there was just some library that needed updating. Anyway…

That 6750M should work fine to start you out. It's not fast (I looked it up here) but it's faster than the card I got started with and it should allow you to mine scrypt-based currencies (which I never got to work with my old NVidia card). It's more than enough to get you going for some small amounts of coin.

With MacMiner's config, you can use the "Bitcoin" information for any SHA-256 coin and the "Litecoin" information for any scrypt-based coin. He automatically has a few failover addresses in the client including his own pools which don't require a login, so do put a BTC and LTC address in so you can get paid if your primary pool goes down and it automatically starts mining on the failover pools.

Check out http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency/ for a pretty good list of established (and some not so established) coins, with the algorithm each uses. The calculator is handy for generally keeping track of what will be profitable to mine on but prices fluctuate a lot and sometimes difficulty does as well. It's one thing to know what the price-to-difficulty ratio is now—it can't tell you what it will be at the end of the day. My guess is for starting out put "50" in both the SHA-256 MH/s field and the scrypt KH/s field but after you do a bit of mining you'll know empirically what values to put in.

So really, read up on the currencies and decide which ones you want to support. I believe that competition is good for the whole field but most altcoins are going to end up dead in the water. A lot of the hopeful-sounding talk around them is wishful thinking. In the other thread I talked about picking a brand-new currency and solo mining it—it's not because I have any confidence in the longevity of any coin started in the last 72 hours. You can also look at Cryptsy to see how the coins have traded against each other in the past. Personally, I look for auction and commerce sites to see whether there is hope that actual goods and services could be traded with the coin. Use your best judgment; most of the altcoins are useless but that's no reason not to support one(s) that you like and think should succeed.

Here endeth the unsolicited advice. Good luck!

I am grateful for all the people like you who have gone out of their way to help me understand crypto currency better and to mine them. I have done quite a bit of research into the altcoins and know which ones i agree with and think will succeed. Ive come across a few people who tell me i lack the hardware to mine any coins. I am wondering if you share that opinion?

Another question I have is what exactly do you mean by putting 50 in both SHA-256 MH/s field and scrypt KH/s field? On my macminer and under miner settings i see next to scrpyt says thread concurrency and wondered if I was supposed to type 50 there and couldnt figure out where to put the 50 with SHA-256..

[smscotten]

I am grateful for all the people like you who have gone out of their way to help me understand crypto currency better and to mine them. I have done quite a bit of research into the altcoins and know which ones i agree with and think will succeed. Ive come across a few people who tell me i lack the hardware to mine any coins. I am wondering if you share that opinion?

Another question I have is what exactly do you mean by putting 50 in both SHA-256 MH/s field and scrypt KH/s field? On my macminer and under miner settings i see next to scrpyt says thread concurrency and wondered if I was supposed to type 50 there and couldnt figure out where to put the 50 with SHA-256..

Oh no! Sorry, I meant on the Coinwarz website profitability calculator. 50MH/s is a rough guess at how fast your video card will solve SHA-256 and 50KH/s is a rough guess of how fast it will solve scrypt. I didn't mean those numbers should go in MacMiner. Sorry for any miscommunication.

As far as whether you have the hardware to mine "any" coins, well, that coinwarz calculator will give you an estimate of what to expect. So you can probably mine about a half dozen DGC per day, or 100 SBC, or two days for one PPC, four days to get one TRC, or four months for one Bitcoin. Therein lies the value of pooled mining: you don't have to wait for a whole block, you can get your payments in a variety of intervals. Do pay attention to the minimum payout thresholds of mining pools—they vary.

So do you have the hardware to participate and do a small part in a grand distributed computing financial movement? Hell yeah! That's what the "distributed" part means. Do you have the hardware to raise enough money to be worth spending? In a couple weeks you might raise fare to ride the streetcar—and you might spend more than that in electricity. It's not about what you "can" or "can't" do—you should just have realistic expectations.

My (again, unsolicited) advice is to give it a whirl. If in a week you see the window open on your computer and think, "oh, is that still running? what was I thinking?" you can turn it off. If you spend the entire week excitedly checking your hashrates and voraciously trying to learn more, then maybe invest (I use the term loosely) in something that will do more than your current setup, and give your Mac a well-deserved rest. And of course there are many possibilities in between those options.

Don't let gweedo's attitude scare you off, but do be mindful of what he said about melting your GPU. smcFanControl is your friend, and start with lower intensities. When I mined on my GPU I didn't burn anything but it did make my computer sluggish and really difficult to use if the intensity was over 5. Your mileage may of course vary.

[apollojmr]

I am thankful for coming here and seeing the help that is given. I am a mac user and its very good to see current info on mining. BTC