Warning! Not totally related general newbie rant
This isn't easy. As a newbie wanting to mine ANY coin that is minable and returns at least some profit, I decided to go for Monero and a mining pool. I came to this conclusion because you cannot solo mine any coin it seems, that boat sailed several years ago. I chose Monero because it is ASIC resistant and recently hardforked (by consensus) to prevent a recent popular ASIC miner from being usable. It seems that with my R9 290 I might just be able to make a very modest profit. I can add more cards later for an increased hash rate.
So, I needed a Monero wallet, so I downloaded and ran Monero GUI for Windows. Let it sync the 49GB blockchain file and clicked mine in the advanced tab just to see what it was all about. I got around 75 h/s on my CPU solo mining. I then proceeded to look for how I can configure my wallet software to mine from a pool. Well it can't, why not? who knows? Perhaps Monero don't want to encourage pool miners in order to reduce centralisation I thought. Anyway turns out that's the norm across coins, official coin wallet software can solo mine but not pool mine (a bit pointless if you can't solo mine anyway realistically on a regular PC which 99% of the population of the world have?). I also made some observations with my monero gui wallet. On my main gaming rig, I downloaded the entire 49GB in one night. On my laptop it took a week? No idea what I was doing wrong. Also, as an experiment, before downloading the 49GB hidden data.mdb file, I tried to copy it and replace the partially downloaded file on another system to see if I could avoid the waiting time. Didn't work, assumed as much but wanted to see if I could get away with it. Surely the data in there is the same across nodes? Anyway another seemingly reasonable incorrect noob assumption.
Turns out I didn't need to worry at all anyway. Pool miners don't seem to need to have the blockchain downloaded in order to mine. They can just use mining software and a wallet address. Could have attempted starting mining straight away had I known that. Is this another reason why default wallet software should support pool mining? Least then pool miners would be supporting and verifying the full chain.
So, open google, "Monero Pool Mining", ah yes, lots of pools, no idea what makes a good one but lets pick the one with the most hashing power because reasons. Maybe they solve the most blocks and therefore guaranteed more frequent payouts of probably 0.000000001 XMR. Although I think I read somewhere that the minimum payout is 0.3 XMR? Anyway no idea, don't care right now, I wanna MINE!!!!! I want to see those wallet numbers go up! Even if its only by tiny amounts. It would be somehow psychologically satisfying, as if my efforts are not completely futile. I used to run seti@home back in the day, didn't care about the electric cost then running a single system, same goes now, just want to see some fruits to my labour.
So, ok, I can use anyone of these pool mining clients I found with a google search. Let's pick Claymore, it says AMD GPU mining, so let's go with that one and hope for the best. Pretty straight forward so far, download, extract, place in Program Files and click start.bat! Simples, wait no, you didn't think it would be that easy did you? No but I did hope. Yes I did see the config file but there's no reason why a noob proof client couldn't automatically create an address for me, detect my hardware and settings, and start mining from a pool for me is there? Click and go! To be honest though, I did actually put my wallet address and pool address in the config file before clicking start.bat, but that was all I did. Clearly not enough. Now my IP is banned!? What did I do? All I want to do is mine, sheesh now I'm getting banned for being a typical lazy human. It looked promising for a second when I saw 709 h/s, yes! 709 that's roughly what I was expecting for my R9 290. But what's all this "Share rejected (93 ms)!" nonsense. What's a share? and why was it rejected? Did I offend someone?
Clearly I don't know what any of this means, should I? Somethings not right here. "watchdog - thread 0, hb time 391" Oh nooos, the watchdog is on to me. I hope it is a friendly dog. Nope, not friendly, look what it said: "Incorrect hashing protocol in use. Please upgrade/fix your miner", fix it? I didn't write it? I have no idea what its doing? Protocol? I don't know what protocol its using? TCP/IP maybe? Sheesh!
Oh, and now I've been banned! "IPAddresscurrentlybannedforusinganinvalidminingprotocol,pleasecheckyourminer", I'm sorry I forgot, stupid people clearly aren't allowed to mine, the community wants the world to adopt cryptocurrencies but forgot to factor in the fact that 90% of the world can't work this stuff out easily. A great deal of effort is required. Time and Effort. If we want people to embrace cryptocurrencies then it needs to be as easy as possible. Easy enough that my mother who doesn't know the difference between FaceBook and Internet Explorer can do it.
Well I'm stumped. I have no idea what this all means. I know I've configured something wrong somewhere. If I could code properly, I would have made this a lot simpler because I'm not sadistic and I'm sympathetic to the human condition. I would have made a Windows GUI that generates a wallet for you, detects your hardware, and then automatically selects an appropriate mining pool (with an option to easily manually change it of course). The client would then frequently remind the user that although it got the job done for your lazy ass, settings are far from optimal and you could be missing out on energy efficiency and profit. A warning and daily tooltips that explain in detail everything. An all in one package application. It would also have an advanced tab for everything needed for people who do actually know what they are doing and for those lazy ass noobs to eventually find and slowly come to understand (with a huge reset to defaults button for when they inevitably balls it up though).
Ok, so enough complaining, here's the details for the humanitarian among you who still wants to help me despite me being a poor specimen of my species:
OS: Windows 10
Miner: Claymore CryptoNote AMD GPU Miner v11.3 - POOL
GPU: AMD R9 290 (Just one for now)
Pool: pool.supportxmr.com
Port: 7777
08:34:09:915 1c44 args: -xpool stratum+tcp://pool.supportxmr.com:7777 -xwal 454hAoDCpkk7Sj2oybJsgSXhgLzVnXZxGQSDCVYjuHDY7VGXyNQdojs1S75NMr27EHVyd12PuM9yrWw
PodNzWvrUNKjNgpz -xpsw x
08:34:09:919 1c44
08:34:09:924 1c44 ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
08:34:09:931 1c44 º Claymore's CryptoNote AMD GPU Miner v11.3 º
08:34:09:935 1c44 ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ
08:34:09:936 1c44
08:34:09:936 1c44 b533
08:34:10:152 1c44 XMR: 1 pool is specified
08:34:10:152 1c44 Main Monero pool is pool.supportxmr.com:7777
08:34:14:756 1c44 OpenCL platform: AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
08:34:14:762 1c44 OpenCL initializing...
08:34:14:772 1c44 driver 10.0.2527.8
08:34:14:776 1c44 AMD Cards available: 1
08:34:14:780 1c44 GPU #0: Hawaii (AMD Radeon R9 200 Series), 4096 MB available, 40 compute units (pci bus 2:0:0)
08:34:14:784 1c44 GPU #0 recognized as Radeon 290
08:34:14:787 1c44 card 0, m1 4096, m2 3264 w 320
08:34:14:791 1c44 POOL version
08:34:14:795 1c44 b141
08:34:14:798 1c44 Platform: Windows
08:34:15:053 1c44 start building OpenCL program for GPU 0...
08:34:15:058 1c44 done
08:34:15:804 1c44 GPU #0 algorithm ASM, -h 640, -dmem 1 (Memory used: 2624MB)
08:34:15:809 1c44 Total cards: 1
08:34:15:883 2808 XMR: Stratum - connecting to 'pool.supportxmr.com' <37.59.52.83> port 7777 (unsecure)
08:34:15:927 1c44 "-allpools" option is set, default pools can be used for devfee, check "Readme" file for details.
08:34:15:931 1c44 Watchdog enabled
08:34:15:935 1c44 Remote management (READ-ONLY MODE) is enabled on port 3333
08:34:15:940 1c44
08:34:17:867 2808 send: {"method": "login", "params": {"login": "454hAoDCpkk7Sj2oybJsgSXhgLzVnXZxGQSDCVYjuHDY7VGXyNQdojs1S75NMr27EHVyd12PuM9yrWw
PodNzWvrUNKjNgpz", "pass": "x", "agent": "xmr/1.0"}, "id": 1}
08:34:17:867 2808 XMR: Stratum - Connected (pool.supportxmr.com:7777) (unsecure)
08:34:17:914 2808 got 381 bytes
08:34:17:914 2808 buf: {"id":1,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":null,"result":{"id":"32f78387-1dfc-4a7e-bb68-aa20ffad882c","job":{"blob":"0707eec790d7059b796f846ce190e5f9856d915391b42e59929123b67b0e8701cf2a71cbac1cd20
0000000dd1918e4497e30d025384c39b008a5cb791e9af2950fdad08b2e9e018fc30d3703","job_id":"WLiYhvA4+sWccc1YiYZZdPs3Esm9","target":"169f0200","id":"32f78387-1dfc-4a7e-bb68-aa20ffad882c"},"status":"OK"}}
08:34:17:930 2808 parse packet: 380
08:34:17:930 2808 new buf size: 0
08:34:46:006 1c44 GPU0 t=52C fan=22%
08:34:46:006 1c44 watchdog - thread 0, hb time 235
08:34:46:006 1c44 watchdog - thread 1, hb time 235
08:34:46:006 1c44 watchdog - thread 2, hb time 2078
08:34:46:021 1c44 watchdog - thread 3, hb time 2078
08:34:49:848 2808 got 310 bytes
08:34:49:853 2808 buf: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"job","params":{"blob":"07079ac890d705c98067b748f61070d3f3bc22b8bec1f19bf41edb0d369007d4b28246417abeb90
00000003e9acae934a9673893d4a2446a2ff4389428048828ce86c077bc596778bf6b9108","job_id":"SthY8bgBc18nBkcaFB716WDlfss5","target":"169f0200","id":"32f78387-1dfc-4a7e-bb68-aa20ffad882c"}}
08:34:49:858 2808 parse packet: 309
08:34:49:862 2808 new buf size: 0
08:34:49:867 2808 XMR: 04/28/18-08:34:49 - New job from pool.supportxmr.com:7777
08:34:49:872 2808 target: 0x00029f16 (diff: 25000H)
08:34:49:877 2808 XMR - Total Speed: 709 H/s, Total Shares: 0, Rejected: 0, Time: 00:00
08:34:49:882 2808 XMR: GPU0 709 H/s
08:34:49:993 35c4 Job changed, drop current round
08:34:49:993 35c4 GPU 0, dropped current job (cp 2-3)
08:34:50:008 2920 Job changed, drop current round
08:34:50:008 3540 Job changed, drop current round
08:34:50:008 366c Job changed, drop current round
08:34:57:609 2920 XMR: put share nonce 831c
08:34:57:615 2920 XMR round found 1 shares
08:34:57:619 2808 XMR: 04/28/18-08:34:57 - SHARE FOUND - (GPU 0; share value 0x00021a7f)
08:34:57:624 2808 send: {"method": "submit", "params": {"id": "32f78387-1dfc-4a7e-bb68-aa20ffad882c", "job_id": "SthY8bgBc18nBkcaFB716WDlfss5", "nonce": "1c830000", "result": "538d812158c6065a62af45b67e929aa916c1e449d49618000d0e83a47f1a0200"}, "id":4}
08:34:57:709 2808 got 78 bytes
08:34:57:713 2808 buf: {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"Low difficulty share"}}
08:34:57:717 2808 parse packet: 75
08:34:57:721 2808 Share rejected (93 ms)!
08:34:57:725 2808 {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"Lowdifficultyshare"}}
08:34:57:729 2808 new buf size: 0
08:35:00:624 2808 got 310 bytes
08:35:00:629 2808 buf: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"job","params":{"blob":"07079ac890d705c98067b748f61070d3f3bc22b8bec1f19bf41edb0d369007d4b28246417abeb90
0000000752d8a070f91f4842bc9079cbb7374a57dd0851e57806c9a7f2bb107129c1fc508","job_id":"NfV22lkqFRZz4JNGoCVa/lfmAMjF","target":"7d300300","id":"32f78387-1dfc-4a7e-bb68-aa20ffad882c"}}
08:35:00:633 2808 parse packet: 309
08:35:00:637 2808 new buf size: 0
08:35:00:637 2808 XMR: 04/28/18-08:35:00 - New job from pool.supportxmr.com:7777
08:35:00:637 2808 target: 0x0003307d (diff: 20548H)
08:35:00:637 2808 XMR - Total Speed: 708 H/s, Total Shares: 1, Rejected: 1, Time: 00:00
08:35:00:653 2808 XMR: GPU0 708 H/s
08:35:00:807 35c4 Job changed, drop current round
08:35:00:807 35c4 GPU 0, dropped current job (cp 2-7)
08:35:00:807 2920 Job changed, drop current round
08:35:00:807 3540 Job changed, drop current round
08:35:00:827 366c Job changed, drop current round
08:35:16:080 1c44 GPU0 t=59C fan=22%
08:35:16:080 1c44 watchdog - thread 0, hb time 391
08:35:16:080 1c44 watchdog - thread 1, hb time 406
08:35:16:080 1c44 watchdog - thread 2, hb time 2219
08:35:16:096 1c44 watchdog - thread 3, hb time 2219
08:35:46:158 1c44 GPU0 t=63C fan=23%
08:35:46:163 1c44 watchdog - thread 0, hb time 1172
08:35:46:167 1c44 watchdog - thread 1, hb time 1188
08:35:46:171 1c44 watchdog - thread 2, hb time 3016
08:35:46:175 1c44 watchdog - thread 3, hb time 3016
08:36:00:676 2808 got 310 bytes
08:36:00:681 2808 buf: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"job","params":{"blob":"07079ac890d705c98067b748f61070d3f3bc22b8bec1f19bf41edb0d369007d4b28246417abeb90
000000036c6f3ed4e967d9142f22225f37f9fb4f1649b0206f363ff0964d9496f7c220308","job_id":"Ocn3i1cWyVJN5/oZ4PqdgUrG6x9W","target":"b4c80400","id":"32f78387-1dfc-4a7e-bb68-aa20ffad882c"}}
<skipping a load of text for post limit>
08:40:34:992 2808 got 147 bytes
08:40:34:997 2808 buf: {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IP Address currently banned for using an invalid mining protocol, please check your miner"}}
08:40:35:001 2808 parse packet: 133
08:40:35:006 2808 Share rejected (32 ms)!
08:40:35:011 2808 {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IPAddresscurrentlybannedforusinganinvalidminingprotocol,pleasecheckyourminer"}}
08:40:35:016 2808 new buf size: 0
08:40:42:475 35c4 XMR: put share nonce 6c3f3
08:40:42:480 35c4 XMR round found 1 shares
08:40:42:485 2808 XMR: 04/28/18-08:40:42 - SHARE FOUND - (GPU 0; share value 0x0009db45)
08:40:42:490 2808 send: {"method": "submit", "params": {"id": "32f78387-1dfc-4a7e-bb68-aa20ffad882c", "job_id": "MCun/lMK8sZWNtZkIcbZsvVp7vdX", "nonce": "f3c30600", "result": "98f5ee00f1208190df8a893b1d31330460a18f75a9b5248867a5767445db0900"}, "id":4}
08:40:42:523 2808 got 147 bytes
08:40:42:528 2808 buf: {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IP Address currently banned for using an invalid mining protocol, please check your miner"}}
08:40:42:532 2808 parse packet: 133
08:40:42:537 2808 Share rejected (31 ms)!
08:40:42:542 2808 {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IPAddresscurrentlybannedforusinganinvalidminingprotocol,pleasecheckyourminer"}}
08:40:42:546 2808 new buf size: 0
08:40:46:698 1c44 GPU0 t=72C fan=29%
08:40:46:704 1c44 watchdog - thread 0, hb time 594
08:40:46:709 1c44 watchdog - thread 1, hb time 2438
08:40:46:713 1c44 watchdog - thread 2, hb time 594
08:40:46:717 1c44 watchdog - thread 3, hb time 2453
08:40:53:442 366c XMR: put share nonce 77fc8
08:40:53:447 366c XMR round found 1 shares
08:40:53:451 2808 XMR: 04/28/18-08:40:53 - SHARE FOUND - (GPU 0; share value 0x000a26bc)
08:40:53:456 2808 send: {"method": "submit", "params": {"id": "32f78387-1dfc-4a7e-bb68-aa20ffad882c", "job_id": "MCun/lMK8sZWNtZkIcbZsvVp7vdX", "nonce": "c87f0700", "result": "14d83a4170a83aae9b42dd0d2f4681aea555f920f77bdd133342095dbc260a00"}, "id":4}
08:40:53:488 2808 got 147 bytes
08:40:53:493 2808 buf: {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IP Address currently banned for using an invalid mining protocol, please check your miner"}}
08:40:53:498 2808 parse packet: 133
08:40:53:502 2808 Share rejected (47 ms)!
08:40:53:507 2808 {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IPAddresscurrentlybannedforusinganinvalidminingprotocol,pleasecheckyourminer"}}
08:40:53:513 2808 new buf size: 0
08:40:57:234 35c4 XMR: put share nonce 7bdf3
08:40:57:239 35c4 XMR round found 1 shares
08:40:57:243 2808 XMR: 04/28/18-08:40:57 - SHARE FOUND - (GPU 0; share value 0x000676e5)
08:40:57:248 2808 send: {"method": "submit", "params": {"id": "32f78387-1dfc-4a7e-bb68-aa20ffad882c", "job_id": "MCun/lMK8sZWNtZkIcbZsvVp7vdX", "nonce": "f3bd0700", "result": "a5a29abfff866a23f555e9f416be624ca63f77f31311e0c237fcd443e5760600"}, "id":4}
08:40:57:280 2808 got 147 bytes
08:40:57:286 2808 buf: {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IP Address currently banned for using an invalid mining protocol, please check your miner"}}
08:40:57:292 2808 parse packet: 133
08:40:57:297 2808 Share rejected (47 ms)!
08:40:57:303 2808 {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IPAddresscurrentlybannedforusinganinvalidminingprotocol,pleasecheckyourminer"}}
08:40:57:308 2808 new buf size: 0
08:40:58:953 3540 XMR: put share nonce 7bd65
08:40:58:958 3540 XMR round found 1 shares
08:40:58:963 2808 XMR: 04/28/18-08:40:58 - SHARE FOUND - (GPU 0; share value 0x00090da0)
08:40:58:967 2808 send: {"method": "submit", "params": {"id": "32f78387-1dfc-4a7e-bb68-aa20ffad882c", "job_id": "MCun/lMK8sZWNtZkIcbZsvVp7vdX", "nonce": "65bd0700", "result": "3bf9e5fa977bfcc7abdd82d5637fefc01196fbf399547092dcb9a52ba00d0900"}, "id":4}
08:40:59:000 2808 got 147 bytes
08:40:59:004 2808 buf: {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IP Address currently banned for using an invalid mining protocol, please check your miner"}}
08:40:59:009 2808 parse packet: 133
08:40:59:013 2808 Share rejected (47 ms)!
08:40:59:018 2808 {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IPAddresscurrentlybannedforusinganinvalidminingprotocol,pleasecheckyourminer"}}
08:40:59:023 2808 new buf size: 0
08:41:06:302 3540 XMR: put share nonce 843d5
08:41:06:302 3540 XMR round found 1 shares
08:41:06:318 2808 XMR: 04/28/18-08:41:06 - SHARE FOUND - (GPU 0; share value 0x0009223d)
08:41:06:318 2808 send: {"method": "submit", "params": {"id": "32f78387-1dfc-4a7e-bb68-aa20ffad882c", "job_id": "MCun/lMK8sZWNtZkIcbZsvVp7vdX", "nonce": "d5430800", "result": "970f5ea11f4c93007e1985aa00c9c62510bb7913381ccb3dc4ba5b503d220900"}, "id":4}
08:41:06:365 2808 got 147 bytes
08:41:06:365 2808 buf: {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IP Address currently banned for using an invalid mining protocol, please check your miner"}}
08:41:06:365 2808 parse packet: 133
08:41:06:365 2808 Share rejected (47 ms)!
08:41:06:384 2808 {"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-1,"message":"IPAddresscurrentlybannedforusinganinvalidminingprotocol,pleasecheckyourminer"}}
08:41:06:387 2808 new buf size: 0
08:41:16:775 1c44 GPU0 t=73C fan=29%
08:41:16:775 1c44 watchdog - thread 0, hb time 1250
08:41:16:775 1c44 watchdog - thread 1, hb time 3062
08:41:16:775 1c44 watchdog - thread 2, hb time 1250
08:41:16:791 1c44 watchdog - thread 3, hb time 3093
08:41:38:911 19a8 Quit, please wait...
08:41:38:927 3540 GPU 0, dropped current job (cp 2-7)
