How to Mine Bitcoin Gold: Complete Beginners Guide

Bitcoin Gold is a mineable cryptocurrency that utilizes the Proof of Work algorithm Equihash. This is the same algorithm used by Z-Cash. The benefit of this is that Equihash is ASIC resistant, therefore mineable with a regular PC. This gives everyone the opportunity to join in and start mining. This guide will illustrate how to setup your computer to mine bitcoin gold.

Before you download the necessary programs, there’s a few things you need to make sure you have.

To start mining you will need:

• Windows 7 or newer 64-bit OS
• if nVidia GPU mining, GPU with compute capability
• if AMD GPU mining, GPU with OpenCL support
• Newest driver updates for GPUs
• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
• Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2013
• Internet Connection
• Bitcoin Gold Wallet

First, we will setup a Bitcoin Gold wallet so you can receive payouts. Either download Coinomi, the official Bitcoin Gold wallet, or use an exchange wallet like one on Binance. The Bitcoin Gold address you are given must be inputted into the software later on.

Depending on whether you’re using an nVidia GPU, or an AMD GPU, different software will have to be installed.

For AMD

For AMD, you will utilize Claymore’s Miner. Click the download link as shown, and extract to a folder of your choice.

Once extracted we can configure the miner by editing the config file to set our Bitcoin Gold address, as well as set our mining pool. The choices for Bitcoin Gold mining pools are:

• BTG Pool Pro (1% fee)
• Bitcoin Gold Pool (0.9% fee)
• Pool Gold (1% fee, 0.01BTG min. payout)

For this guide we will use the BTG Pool Pro. Choose the server closest to you. For me, the server would be ‘us.btgpool.pro:3857’. There’s two modifications that must be made to the files. Open the start.bat file, and add:

set GPU_FORCE_64BIT_PTR=1
set GPU_MAX_HEAP_SIZE=100
set GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
set GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT=100
set GPU_SINGLE_ALLOC_PERCENT=100
ZecMiner64

Once that is completed, save and close. Now open the config.txt file and add:

-zpool stratum+tcp://eu.btgpool.pro:3857
-zwal yourwalletaddress.workeraddress
-zpsw x
-allpools 1

For me, i’ll select the US server as shown. Make sure to also include the port number. In the config.txt, I will insert ‘-zpool stratum+tcp://eu.btgpool.pro:3857’. Simply add your Zcash wallet to the wallet section by adding ‘-zwal YOUR_WALLET_ADDRESS’. You can also add a worker (each individual computer will be tracked) by adding -zwal YOUR_WALLET_ADDRESS.YOUR_WORKER_ADDRESS’. The last addition is ‘-allpools 1’, this ensures that the miner will start mining Bitcoin Gold otherwise it will not start.

Additionally, you may want to remove or modify -epools to ensure you do not switch over back to a Zcash pool if theres a failure on your main mining pool. To do this simply add # in front of the pools, or add additional Bitcoin Gold pools.

Before you run your mining software, it is recommended to increase your virtual memory at this point to ensure the mining software runs smoothly.

To ensure you have the correct virtual memory enabled, search for system in the start menu. Open system and on the left hand side click ‘Advanced System Settings.’ Go under the advanced tab, under performance settings, and advanced again. Then click ‘Change’ under virtual memory. Uncheck the box that states to ‘Automatically manage paging file size for all drives’ and then input a custom size of 16384 (or whatever is the maximum allowable value) into the Initial and Maximum size fields. This will prevent you from having any errors with virtual memory.

And that’s it, you’re ready to mine Bitcoin Gold. Simply click the Start.bat file and you should start mining. You can also look up the statistics of your miners on the pool website that you’re using by inputting your public address into the mining pools webpage.

For nVidia

For nVidia, you will utilize EWBF’s Cuda Miner. Download EWBF’s miner as shown, and extract to a folder of your choice.

Once extracted we can configure the miner by editing the start.bat file to set our Bitcoin Gold address, as well as set our mining pool. The choices for Bitcoin Gold mining pools are:

• BTG Pool Pro (1% fee)
• Bitcoin Gold Pool (0.9% fee)
• Pool Gold (1% fee, 0.01BTG min. payout)

For this guide we will use BTG Pool Pro.

For EWBF’s mining software, we will be configuring the start.bat file. Simply right click to edit in notepad. Once opened, we can set the server address, and your Bitcoin Gold public address. For this guide we will use the ‘us.btgpool.pro:3857’ server, but choose the server closest to you as per those listed on the website. Insert this string into your start.bat file:

miner --server eu.btgpool.pro --port 3857 --user GLHraJJfsNknm5wGCqSJ7V6cGDnA6gAV8y.worker --pass x --pec

Your Start.bat file should now be configured similar to mine as seen below.

Before you run your mining software, it is recommended to increase your virtual memory at this point to ensure the mining software runs smoothly.

To ensure you have the correct virtual memory enabled, search for system in the start menu. Open system and on the left hand side click ‘Advanced System Settings.’ Go under the advanced tab, under performance settings, and advanced again. Then click ‘Change’ under virtual memory. Uncheck the box that states to ‘Automatically manage paging file size for all drives’ and then input a custom size of 16384 (or whatever is the maximum allowable value) into the Initial and Maximum size fields. This will prevent you from having any errors with virtual memory.

Mining Bitcoin Gold

And that’s it, you’re ready to mine for Bitcoin Gold. Simply click the Start.bat file and you should start mining. You can also look up the statistics of your miners on the pool website that you’re using by inputting your public address into the mining pools webpage.

Advertise Here