In the last article, I showed you all the hardware that is needed to build your very own Bitcon miner. I didn’t really dive into any explanation on how to actually start mining for Bitcoins. So today, I am going to give you step-by-step instructions on how to set up your Bitcoin mining software.
Bitcoin Wallet
Before you can receive any Bitcoins from mining, you need to set up a Bitcoin wallet. There are many wallets to choose from but I prefer Coinbase. The reason I recommend Coinbase is because they have a very user friendly interface and have a lot of venture money backing them. They are known as the Paypal of Bitcoins and I have to agree with that comparison. They even have a referral program, like Paypal, where you can earn $5 when signing up. Here is my referral link if you would like to take advantage of that offer.
Once you have your Bitcoin wallet ready to go, you need to create a Bitcoin wallet address. This is a long string of numbers and letters that allows someone to send Bitcoins to your wallet. We need to input this address into are mining pool so that we can get paid for the mining that we will do.
Mining Pools
Joining a mining pool increases your odds of finding Bitcoins while mining. This is a network of miners that join together and combines their computing power to solve block chains. When a block is solved, the Bitcoins that are rewarded are split among the miners based off of their contribution to solving that block.
You can join as many mining pools as you like but I prefer BitMinter as my primary pool and Slush’s Pool as my secondary pool. You should always have at least one back up pool in the event that your primary pool goes down. Your Bitcoin mining software will automatically connect to your next available pool. This ensures that your mining rig is not left in standby when a pool goes offline.
Which ever pool you choose, you need to give that pool your Bitcoin wallet address that we created earlier. Most pools will have an “auto cash out” option that lets you enter your wallet address. The “auto cash out” option tells your pool to automatically send the Bitcoins that you’ve earned to your wallet whenever it reaches a certain threshold.
Next you need to create a worker for your mining pool. The worker’s username and password will be entered into your mining software (we will go over this further down). You do not need to have a secure worker username or password. If any one uses your worker’s username and password, they are giving YOU credit for the mining efforts that they do.
Bitcoin Mining Software
As mentioned in part 1 of this series, we will use MinePeon linux operating system to run our Raspberry Pi miner. Head over to Sourceforge to download the MinePeon image. While you are there, you will also need to download Win32DiskImager, this is used to write the MinePeon image on to your SD card. Once both files are downloaded, go ahead and insert your SD card into your computer, then open up Win32DiskImager.
Simply select the location on your drive where you downloaded the MinePeon image. Then select the correct drive that represents the SD card you inserted. (Make sure that the SD card has no information that you want to keep because this will erase everything!) Go ahead and click WRITE, this will write the MinePeon image onto the card, making it a bootable operating system for your Raspberry Pi miner.
Insert the SD card into your Raspberry Pi and power up the unit. We will now go over how to set up MinePeon operating system.
Setting Up MinePeon
After booting up your Raspberry Pi mining rig, you can log into it’s dashboard by using your computer’s browser. You need to first find the IP address of your Raspberry Pi. The easiest way to do this is to log into your router and look for the device named “MinePeon” this will give you the IP address that you need.
Type in that IP address into your browser and hit enter. You will be prompted to enter a username and password for MinePeon. The default credentials is “minepeon” for the username and “peon” for the password. After entering in this information, you will see a security warning. This is perfectly normal and just proceed anyways. You will then be prompted to re-enter that same username and password.
Once you have successfully logged in, you will finally see MinePeon’s user dashboard. This main status page allows you the monitor the performance of your mining rig. You want to immediately enter your mining pool’s worker information.
Head up top and click “Pools” to enter your worker information.
Mine those Bitcoins!
Great job everyone, you are now officially mining for Bitcoins! See, it wasn’t that difficult was it? The great thing about this Raspberry Pi Bitcoin miner is that it takes up very little space and can be left mining 24/7. Since it’s such a small unit, it really does not affect your energy consumption.
Hopefully this article has helped you set up your Bitcoin mining software!
Feel free to donate 🙂
BITCOINS: 1Le8gFkvCD3HucMMUjZ1CTsczqjqoE2kXB
LITECOINS: LWj56L89trF4zpeFtnwWsgyAUa962YkGut
Hello Fred!.
Thank you for your awesome tutorial.
I followed your video but I have a problem to set up a wired router.
During setting up a router, I cannot access to Minepeon. I access my verizon fios router and I cannot find any ip that shows Minepeon.
and I tried every wired connected ip to upload Minepeon on new browser but it wasn’t worked.
Did I have any mistake?
once again thank you for your awesome video tutorial!!! I love it.
Min
Hmm, maybe try to re – write the minepeon image onto the sd card again. It may have had an issue.
Thank you but I did that several times it seems like pi doesn’t turn on when I connect the pi to usb hub. can you tell me how difference when pi connect to the USB? such as some part got the light or etc?
If your raspberry pi is turning on, you should see a few lights near the ethernet cable. This is with the case off
Thank you Fred you video is very helpful to mining.
Now it seems like I start to mining with slash’s pool.
Minepeon status shows that minter one is dead, but slash one is alive.
Yah it’s good to have backup mining pools. Some pools go down for maintenance or ddos attacks
hello Fred.
I’m sorry for telling you again but I thing mine is not working ordinary.
I am try to use Antminer u1.
I copied URL from your video above.
The problem is my LED indicator from antminer has red light and some said it’s not working that should be green light on it.
Do you know what I wrong?
the MinePeon file is a zipped file, do you unzip before copying to SD card?
I can’t find the Minepeon IP (router installed) so I cant access minepeon dashboard to input anything.
That happned to me too. Writing onto the sf card is doing fine but after inserting sd and power up rsbr pi it wont show on the ntwork.
You don’t need to unzip it.
Just follow the video.
Ip. you should access your internet modem such as 192.162.1.1 form.
then, find a minepeon ip.
Open new browser and type your minepeon ip you might access minepeon after that.
good luck
Yup, Min has it right
Hello Fred,
Can you make a video about
set up for the antminier using respberry pi?
Hi,
Thanks for such informative videos.
Can we use this Rasberry PI setup to mine for other types of crypto coins, like Light Coin and Doge Coin?
Thanks, Robert
No, this setup can only mine for sha-256 coins like bitcoin. You would need use a gpu miner for scrypt coins like litecoin and dogecoin. I have another post on how to build one of those too.
Thanks very much.
Are there any other sha-256 coins apart from Bitcoin?
And, is it possible to connect more than one powered usb hub to a rasberry, for Bitcoin mining?
Thanks, robert
Hey Fred,
how do you check the amount of Hashs you need to mine 1 BTC? As far as I am aware of the amount of Hashes you need to mine 1 BTC is increasing more and more. So to find out if it is lucrative to invest in a BTC miner you would check this out. Lets say I have to invest 500€ in my miner and it will only give me like 0.1 BTC a month I need to run it 10 months just to make up for the buy costs. Not to mention the fact that the difficulty is likely to increase in that time again.
Do you mine as you main Source of income or is it more of an “hobby” for you? If this is to much detail for this webpage you could write me an E-Mail. I would have even more questions regarding Bitcoin/Litecoin.
Thx, Tommy
It would be most helpful if you could do a vid on connecting multiple powered usb hubs to a single Rasberry Pi, and also explain how many block eruptors it is safe to use on each 10 port hub.
Thanks for a great site!
I found a blog showing how to do this that might help others
http://rdmsnippets.com/2013/07/24/mining-bitcoins-with-usb-block-erupters-a-raspberry-pi-and-minepeon/
robert
Hey Fred!
Awesome video.
But I have a problem when I type in the ip into the browser and sign in there is no warning it just tells me to sign in again and when I do it asks me again. Even when my Raspberry pi is on and is booted up.
Help if you can!
It will ask you at least twice. Were you able to sign in?
No I was not, I did it twice but it just asked me again to sign in.
Thank you,Fred
Where can I buy this USD and others,Can you assist please
How do you add more erupters , is it plug and play or do I need to tweet the settings when adding more? What is the limit of erupters I can add to one raspberry pi?
Can this setup work to mine other types of coin?
how much i can earn per month 2.0 gh asic miner? and how much the electric bill?
thank you
Ok so I am planing to buy some of the hardware you suggested. I started mining without it, and I noticed the difficulty was 40,640,955,017, which is incredibly high. Wont that make the mining a lot slower because I heard the higher network difficulty, the harder it is to get bit coins from mining. Is there a way to solve this?
Fred, Your video is fantastic. I would never have attempted to build this device if you didn’t have this post. I followed everything flawlessly up until you said “log into your router”. I’m not exactly the sharpest knife in the kitchen when it comes to computers, so would you PLEASE elaborate on just how I do that. I am running Windows 7 if that has any bearing on the subject. I think that is all I need to complete the process. Thanks again!
I just want to ask if how much is the possible outcome if I have a 999mghs of erupters in 1 day and can I do mining even I will just use a pocket WiFi and what hardware can I use. Thanks.I like ur video
Sir Fred I follow you, thanks for your tutorial, I am a trader of bitcoin @ the philippines i learned how to send and recieved for 3months, sir i want to expand my knowledge and planning to create and owned also a mining rig,, My Background is Computer Hardware Technician.. I want you to become a mentor.. Thank You sir..
where can i buy brand new block eruptors and whats the price range (NEW)
Hey Fred with this setup I was wondering how much money you can make with it?
My friend I really like you tutorial on mining bitcoin will live to reach you so please could you get back to me in my email so discuss more.
Hi fred, can we only use mine peon? i mean you just write the mine peon image to the SD card, but what about using bitminter site? how we can proceed with that site because i dont know how to write any image with bitminter
i want to purchase this all hardware can u help me for information of place or website?