Raspberry Pi - How to mine Monero (XMR)

Mining is indeed possible on the Raspberry Pi 3 and 4 models, which can give satisfactory results. With the 4 model you can expect faster mining. We will not be mining big coins like bitcoin or etherium. We will be mining Monero coins. There are several reasons for that, which I have pointed out just below.

This article is specifically designed to inform those who are not familiar with cryptocurrencies. It details what it is, its functions, and how users can mine them using Raspberry Pi single board computers. In addition, readers can find out how much they can earn from mining cryptocurrency. This guide is perfect for those just starting out in this field.

Spoiler: this case is not profitable. This project will rather be interesting for those who would like to try themselves in this business and for the implementation of an interesting project.

What cryptocurrency can be mined on Raspberry pi?

If you already know this information, you can move on to the next chapter. Cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency which is used as a means of payment for goods and services, in simple words, it is money. The peculiarity of cryptocurrency is that you can make the process of a monetary transaction without involving a bank.

Most likely you have heard of a coin called bitcoin, it refers to large coins, but there are other kinds of coins besides bitcoin. In this article, we do not tell you how to mine bitcoin or etherium, because mining such large coins is too difficult a process for a single board computer like a raspberry pi.

Monero coins, on the other hand, are the best. A little bit below I pointed out why Monero is the optimal coin to mine on a raspberry pi. The cryptocurrency needs to be mined to support the blockchain. (I know it’s not quite clear, let’s get into it now) Let’s first understand what a blockchain is. As we said earlier, the main thing about cryptocurrency is that you can send money without involving a bank. This begs the question, who then monitors the transaction? The transaction is monitored and tracked by all the people associated with the cryptocurrency in question. Cryptocurrency is decentralized. You could say that users record transactions in a notepad, and that notepad is called a blockchain.

In mining, you will often encounter such an expression as a hash. Hesh or hash-function is one of the main components of modern cryptography and blockchain algorithm. Haching is a transformation of any amount of information into a unique set of symbols, which is inherent only in this array of incoming information. This set of symbols will be called Hash.

We generate a hash of a transaction and combine it together with a bunch of other transactions around the same time, group them into a block, and then associate another block with it and another block with it… and you get a chain of blocks, a blockchain. This blockchain, this ledger or diary of a cryptocurrency, which contains every transaction ever made for that cryptocurrency. To make sure that it cannot be altered, tampered with, or hacked, you need miners. Miners make sure that the blockchain is secure. The job is to add new blocks to the blockchain. In cryptocurrencies, when money is transferred, the transaction request is placed in a sort of waiting room.

Transactions are waiting to be processed by miners and written to the blockchain forever. What should our mining machine do? It has to solve a kind of puzzle-a cryptographic hash puzzle. If our computer can solve it, we get the honor of adding the next block to the blockchain. We will be generously rewarded for our efforts. If you manage to add a block to the blockchain in bitcoin, you will be rewarded with BTC 6.25, which equals $317,538 (as of this writing). Obviously, it’s not that easy because we’re not the only miners. There are plenty of other people trying to solve the same puzzle. There is only one correct answer and they are all competing to find the answer first.In this article I won’t go into the hash puzzle solution, just know that it is a very difficult mathematical problem.

That is why Raspberry Pi is not suitable for mining bitcoin, etherium or any other very well -known cryptocurrency. The more miners, the more difficult it is to solve this crypto-head-headed. There are a bunch of people who minute bitcoin and etherium. They use powerful video cards or things such as ASIC-Mainers, which are created only for mining. ASIC is deciphered as an “integrated special -purpose scheme” (English: “Application Specific Integrated Circuit”):

Regarding such large giants, Raspberry Pi has no chance of bitcoin extraction. So, now let’s talk about Monero and why this is the best option for us than bitcoin or etherium. Monero does not like asic major. The creators of Monero think this is bad for the blockchain. If someone has many of these ASIC Mainers, then they will be able to add more blocks than anyone else and get more control over what is added to the blockchain and, accordingly, it will become more centralized, which can lead to a monopoly. Monero decided to act differently. They decided to use the Random X algorithm, which makes mining using Asic Mainers not profitable.

The goal of Monero was that anyone could engage in mining, any computer and even a small device such as a raspberry pi. This leads to their blockchain being more decentralized, where many more people have the ability to write a block into the blockchain.

We will need

Raspberry Pi (third or fourth).
MicroSD memory card (I have 64 gb. After installing everything you need, the memory was filled to 5.8 gb).
Adapter for a memory card.

Downloading the necessary software for the Raspberry pi

You need to install Raspberry Pi Imager. Here is the link:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/

Click Download for MacOS / Windows / Ubuntu for X86 or through the terminal:

sudo apt install rpi-imager

We will need 64 bit

https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspios_lite_arm64/images/

We go to the folder with the last date. At the time of writing, the folder was used with a date 2021-11-08, download the ZIP file and unzip the folder.

Open the Raspberry Pi Imager, click the Choose OS> Use Custom and select our unmarked .img file. After that, connect our memory card to the computer and select it via Choose Storage.

Open Advanced Options via Ctrl+Shift+X.

Enable SSH and set the password to enter our Raspberry Pi.

We set Wi-Fi for connecting via Configure WiFi.

We save (Save) and begin the recording.

We will be warned that everything that is in the memory card will be deleted and ask if we want to continue. Click yes.

The recording will take a couple of minutes.

We pull out the memory card and insert it into Raspberry Pi.

Now we need to connect it to the power, but first I advise you to check the connected devices to Wi-Fi and after turning on the Raspberry Pi, checking it again, you can easily find out the IP Raspberry Pi.

Checking the connected devices to Wi-Fi can be done in different ways. I did it through the terminal.

For Windows:

ipconfig/all

For linux:

 ip a #

For Mac:

arp -a

After that we connect to the Raspberry Pi through the terminal, we write the IP Raspberry Pi that we learned above:

ssh pi@192.168.100.4

They will ask us if we want to connect to Raspberry Pi, write Yes. After, they will ask for the password, enter the password that we set via Advanced Options. If everything is done correctly:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $

This means that we have successfully entered and can start filling Raspberry Pi for mining.

Installing Crypto-Mining software

Let’s update our repositories:

sudo apt update

We will install pre -required programs:

sudo apt install git build-essential cmake libuv1-dev libssl-dev libhwloc-dev -y

Cloning the repository:

git clone https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig.git

We go into the folder:

cd xmrig

We create a folder and go there:

mkdir build 
cd build

We install the program by creating it from the source code:

cmake .. 
make

It will take a decent amount of time. I took me about 30 minutes. Progress is convenient to monitor the percentage of the execution that comes on the left.

Preparing a Monero Wallet

We will minute Monero cryptocurrency and will receive XMR money/coins. To store them, we need a digital wallet. We follow the link:

https://www.getmonero.org/downloads/

Download for the corresponding OS, install and open. Choose the desired language and click on. Choose a simple mode. We create a new wallet. Here we will be given a mnemonic phrase that we need to write down for ourselves. We need it when restoring the wallet. After, set the password for the wallet. Click to create. They will immediately ask us a password from the wallet that we only set. If we go to the left menu on the expense, we will be able to see our accounts. We need the address of our account to launch mining here.

Let’s start mining XMR

If we are in the same folder, we enter the command:

./xmrig -o gulf.moneroocean.stream:10128 -u 41d...zd

or this command if you rebooted the raspberry pi:

xmrig/build/xmrig -o gulf.moneroocean.stream:10128 -u 41d...zd

gulf.monerooceon.stream:10128 – mining pool . The fact is that the power of one Raspberry Pi will be very small to solve the problem that the system gives us. The mining pool is a place where other people (computers) gather in order to solve a complex hash-head-headed, get XMR money and divide it in accordance with who decided how much.

451 … ZD – your score where the award should go.

Also, if you use more than one mining machine, you can add a command to give names (PI1) to your machines: -p pi1

After the launch of this command, mining begins on our Raspberry Pi.

We can monitor the process.

The appearance of New Job means that our car has taken a new problem for solving.

The appearance of Accepted means that our decision was made and we were rewarded for this.

The appearance of rejected means that we were too slow to make a contribution in solving the problem.

Also, there are several commands to verify and receive information from the process. By pressing the with button, we will receive information on this connection.

By pressing the h button, we can see our recessing speed. This is a kind of speed of our mining.

By pressing the s button , we will get information how much decision was made.

Is it profitable to minute Raspberry Pi and how much can you earn on it?

Open:

https://moneroocean.stream/

And put our wallet there. Now we can see at what speed mining comes:

I have about 10h/s . We need this information for further calculations.

Open mining calculator:

https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/btc?HashingPower=40&HashingUnit=TH%2Fs&PowerConsumption=1500&CostPerkWh=0.12&MiningPoolFee=1

Choose a crypto that is a minimum, in our case, this is XMR, drive the mining speed, energy consumption and electricity price. If you do not take into account the cost of electricity, with the course at the time of writing the article, my Raspberry Pi 3 earns $ 0.01047 or XMR 0.00005732 per month:

On Raspberry Pi 4 (8 GB RAM), the speed can reach up to 100h/s. Obviously, mining on Raspberry Pi is not the most profitable business. But I think to enter this area, this is a rather simple and affordable way. Also, if you have a free Raspberry Pi, why not try to engage in such an interesting project.

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