Mining SHIELD
Introduction
The SHIELD blockchain is (currently) secured by proof-of-work (PoW), a system involving miners competing to hash blocks with GPU and ASIC machines.
If you want to mine SHIELD with your CPU, please know that it is not a good idea, and is therefore not explained here. The six SHIELD algorithms are much better suited to GPU and ASIC machines, and this will not change unless we add new algorithms via hard fork.
SHIELD is a multi-algorithm coin. Some types of hardware give better performance on some algorithms over others, and miners can mine any of their supported algorithms they choose. SHIELD can currently be mined with six different algorithms, specifically: scrypt, x16s, x17, lyra2v2, myriad-groestl and blake2s .
The below table shows the list of SHIELD algorithms, and which hardware/services support mining with it.
1) Choose your software
For NVIDIA GPUs
For AMD GPUs
2) Mining configuration
Overview 1 - The variables
For GPU miners on Windows, you should create a text file with a .bat extension, in the same folder that you placed the.exe file for your chosen mining software. This .bat file is your mining configuration, and requires the following information:
the algorithm you want to mine
the URL of the pool you want to mine at (known as the stratum URL)
the port of the pool you want to mine at
a username for the pool
the password for that username
Overview 2 - Types of pools
There are generally two types of pools: those that do not require signup (no-signup), and those that do. No-signup pools are mainly YiiMP-based pools; most of SHIELD's pools are YiiMP-based pools. Pools that require signup may use other backends.
The main differences:
No-signup pools (e.g. YiiMP pools)
the username in your mining configuration is your wallet address
the password is not an actual password, but a way to give configuration options to the pool
for example:
xis the default password. This means "no configuration options".c=XSHis a password to use in case the pool has trouble identifying which coin you want to mine.d=100is a password to use to set your pool mining difficulty, for either network efficiency, or better detection of your mining speed.There are more configuration options you can use, and you can chain these commands together as a single password, separated by commas (e.g.
-p c=XSH,d=380)
Signup-required pools
the username in your mining configuration is related to the username you signed up with
Sometimes it's the same as your signup username, and sometimes you can add a worker name to the end, separated by a dot (e.g.
-u myusername.myworker). This worker name lets you investigate statistics for your different mining rigs separately, by the worker name.
the password is usually not the password you signed up with, but a custom password you can set on the pool's worker options page.
As most of SHIELD's pools are YiiMP-based, this guide will only explain how to mine with no-signup pools (pools which do not require registration).
To mine at a signup-required pool, you may need to adjust username and password (and perhaps also stratum URL and port) according to specific instructions you can find on the websites of these pools.
The following are example mining configurations for ccminer (NVIDIA GPUs) and sgminer (AMD GPUs), as well as for NiceHash and MiningRigRentals. You can add extra options according to the help documentation of your particular miner, but most miners (even non-ccminer and non-sgminer) accept very similar (if not the same) syntax.
<ALGO>, <URL>, <PORT> and <WALLET_ADDRESS> are variables that you need to replace. Examples of what to replace them with are shown in step 3.
NVIDIA (ccminer) configuration:
for example:
ccminer -a lyra2v2 -o stratum+tcp://xsh.umine.org:4533 -u STKcaQS8MVBs1C457k89pCvverLvH58a1w -p c=XSH
Options used:
-afor algorithm:-a <ALGO>-ofor stratum URL and port:-o stratum+tcp://<URL>:<PORT>-ufor username:-u <WALLET_ADDRESS>-pfor password:-p c=XSH
AMD (sgminer) configuration:
e.g. sgminer -k lyra2REv2 -o stratum+tcp://xsh.umine.org:4533 -u STKcaQS8MVBs1C457k89pCvverLvH58a1w -p c=XSH
Options used:
-kfor algorithm:-k <ALGO>-ofor stratum URL and port:-o stratum+tcp://<URL>:<PORT>-ufor username:-u <WALLET_ADDRESS>-pfor password:-p c=XSH
NH configuration:
To add a mining configuration for NiceHash (NH), you need to + Add new poolon your My pools page.
Custom Pool Name: a nickname for your configuration
Algorithm:
<ALGO>Stratum Hostname or IP:
<URL>Port:
<PORT>Username:
<WALLET_ADDRESS>Password:
c=XSH
MRR configuration:
To add a mining configuration for MiningRigRentals (MRR), you need to Add A Pool on your Favourite Pools page.
Name: a nickname for your configuration
Type:
<ALGO>Host:
<URL>:<PORT>Workername (-u):
<WALLET_ADDRESS>Password (-p):
c=XSH
3) Personalising your configuration
You will need to replace <ALGO>, <URL>, <PORT> and <WALLET_ADDRESS> before your mining configuration is complete.
i) ALGO
You may choose which <ALGO> to use, and this depends on what algorithms both your mining software and your chosen pool supports.
With SHIELD, you can choose from the algos: scrypt, x17, lyra2v2, myriad-groestl, blake2s, x16s.
These may have different name variations depending on the miner that you use. Try using the --help flag with your miner, or entering the /kernel folder to find these alternate names.
For instance, ccminer uses the names lyra2v2 and myr-gr, whereas sgminer uses lyra2REv2 and myriadcoin-groestlinstead. Both naming conventions refer to the exact same algorithm.
ii) URL
Here are some pools that support SHIELD. Please visit the pool homepage to make sure that your chosen algorithm is supported on that pool, and for finding your port.
The value that goes in the <URL> field is the pool's stratum URL.
Note that some pools have either multiple URLs, or require some modification of the URL. For example, BSOD has multiple stratum URLs, one for each region (eu.bsod.pw, us.bsod.pw, asia.bsod.pw), for better, more tailored mining performance; while Qpool requires you to put your chosen algorithm in the <algo> field (for instance lyra2v2.qpool.info).
Algorithms: S (scrypt), L (lyra2v2), M (myr-gr), B (blake2s), 6 (x16s), 7 (x17)
iii) PORT
The <PORT> you need to use is often algo-specific, and located on the pool homepage. For YiiMP-based pools (i.e. most of them), it is usually situated next to the algo or coin name in a large table of algos, coins, symbols etc.
e.g. Focus Pool has x16s on the table on the right-hand side, with port 3663.
iv) WALLET_ADDRESS
The <WALLET_ADDRESS> you want to use to collect your mining rewards needs to be generated, and looks like STKcaQS8MVBs1C457k89pCvverLvH58a1w
The recommended wallet to use to generate an address is the Electrum wallet, though you can use the Webwallet (https://wallet.shieldx.sh), the Core wallet, a Paper wallet (https://paper.shieldcurrency.com), etc. Please do not use an exchange deposit address.
IMPORTANT
Some pools that support multiple SHIELD algos (such as AntMinePool and Bilbotel) require you to use a different wallet address for every algorithm.
If you use the same wallet address on two different algos on the same pool, you may get a Stratum authentication failed error! We recommend making a different .bat file for every algo (with different wallet addresses in each) to avoid this.
That's all, happy mining!
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