In this complete guide, we explain how to start mining ERGO and get the ERG token as a reward for participating in block validation.

The development of new consensus mechanisms and eco-friendly crypto mining (using energy sources other than electricity) are accompanied by improvements to existing consensus algorithms, in this case PoW (proof of work).

We will also review what ERGO is, how its PoW algorithm Autolykos works, and how to set up a miner in the 2miners pool using AMD or NVIDIA GPUs.

Elon Musk and Crypto Mining

To understand how ERGO works and the improvements applied to the Autolykos algorithm, it is necessary to briefly explain why the ERGO team has developed a sustainable cryptocurrency mining method that is different from Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Elon Musk is known for his liberal views and his openness. The topic this time is cryptocurrency and the amount of electricity Bitcoin consumes.

Energy usage trend over past few months is insane https://t.co/E6o9s87trw pic.twitter.com/bmv9wotwKe

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2021

It’s no secret that crypto mining consumes a lot of energy. The environmental implications of different economic activities are frowned upon today by governments and environmental groups (although in the case of the oil industry there seems to be no disagreement).

Despite all of the above, cryptocurrency mining has also evolved and large mining farms are now utilizing green or clean energy to meet GPUs and ASICs’ energy needs. Energy from fossil fuels, wind, hydropower, and solar is mostly used to replace our daily electricity needs.

What is ERGO

According to ERGO’s official website, (https://ergoplatform.org/es/), it is a new economic model on blockchain based on smart contracts, to make secure, transparent and accessible decentralized finance DeFi to ordinary people.

ERGO price

The ERGO token is currently cost:

Ergo (ERG)

$ 1.63

ERGO’s developers believe in crypto mining

Like crypto mining investment firm Ricemining, ERGO believes that to decentralize power and make a fairer and more secure protocol, the Proof of Work protocol is the best option because it is widely studied, has security guarantees recognized by blockchain experts and is compatible with lightweight miners (low-end and mid-range GPUs). You can read more about ERGO’s vision for the PoW protocol here.

Consensus protocol: Autolykos

This proof-of-work-based consensus protocol was devised with the future of crypto mining and sustainability for miners and the network itself in mind.

Autolykos is resistant to ASIC mining and compatible with low-end GPUs because it uses less memory to run than Ethereum or Bitcoin, for example. Since the design of the Autolykos protocol, the mining equipment works at a lower temperature which increases its lifetime.

ERGO-compatible graphics cards (GPUs)

It is possible to mine ERGO and extract the ERG token with low-end, mid-range and high-end GPUs from both AMD and NVIDIA. Listed below are the GPU series and models that support ERGO:

*You can click on each GPU model to open the product specifications on the manufacturer’s website.

ERG Token

The ERGO token, (ergios in plural), has a deflationary supply just like Bitcoin.

This means that after a certain period, 8 years to be exact, all available ERG tokens will have been mined, a total of 97,739,925 ergios.

So, how will ERGO miners earn ERG tokens when all the tokens have been released? This is where the ERGO crypto economy comes into play.

The principle of crypto mining is based on the fact that the miners in charge of verifying transactions and adding them to the blockchain blocks receive a certain amount of tokens in return as a reward for their work. But, in deflationary algorithms such as Bitcoin or Ergos where there is a limited number of tokens, how will the work done be supported if there are no tokens to pay for it?

Ergos proposes 2 methods of rewards for miners:

1. Transaction commissions: Once the supply of tokens has been exhausted, miners will continue to earn rewards for verifying transactions within the network. (The same as Bitcoin and *Ethereum offers until today).
2. Token storage fee: Ergo proposes that if there are “ergios” tokens without moving within the network for 4 years, miners will charge a fee for each byte of storage occupied. This new approach makes ERGO profitable in the long run as miners will have 2 sources of revenue.

*Recall that Ethereum will move to the Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm by the end of 2022.

How to mine ERGO

To mine ERGO with your PC, mining rig or gaming GPU, you will need:

1. GPU with at least 3GB of RAM (see table above).
2. Download the appropriate mining software for your GPU.
3. Have a virtual wallet compatible with the ERG token.
4. Connect to a mining pool.

Point (1) is covered in the above table of AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards compatible with the Autolykos (ERGO) algorithm.

Mining software for mining ERGO

Depending on your graphics card (GPU), you can choose the best cryptocurrency mining software among:

• lolMiner
• nbminer
• TeamRedMiner
• T-Rex

Ricemining’s recommendations if you are a first-time ERGO miner

lolMiner and nbminer work with AMD and Nvidia GPUs.
TeamRedMiner works only with AMD cards, while Nvidia is only suitable for Nvidia GPUs.

ERGO compatible virtual wallet

There are several virtual wallets compatible with the ERG token: mobile wallets, desktop wallets, and cold wallets. To select the wallet that is most convenient for you to receive your ERG cryptocurrencies for mining, visit the official wiki here.

Which mining pool to choose for ERGO mining

In this guide we use the 2miners pool, so the settings apply to this pool. If you want to use another pool, visit the pool’s website and look for the mining settings.

Configuring your cryptocurrency mining software with your wallet

Once you have downloaded your chosen ERGO mining software and installed your virtual wallet to receive your ERG tokens, you must edit the .bat file that comes with the mining software to add your data, such as the address of your wallet and the pool you want to connect to for mining (remember that you need to connect to a pool to mine together with other users and receive your earnings based on your mining power (mh/s)).

Here’s how to edit the .bat file to start mining based on the cryptocurrency software you downloaded in the previous step.

Unzip the .zip of your mining software and find the startup file with the .bat extension, in TeamRedMiner for example the file you need to edit is called “start_ergo.bat“.

Once the configuration file is open, go to the end and you will see something like this:

Delete the 2 lines marked in red, copy and paste the following instruction:

teamredminer.exe -a autolykos2 -o stratum+tcp://erg.2miners.com:8888 -u YOUR_WALLET_ADDRESS.RIG_ID -p x

Just replace “YOUR_WALLET_ADDRESS.RIG_ID” and paste the address of your virtual wallet you created earlier, this is where you will receive your ERG tokens for mining in the 2miners pool.

Done, save your changes and run the teamredminer.exe application.

Configurations for mining with other mining software

nbminer software configuration to mine ERGO:

nbminer -a ergo -o stratum+tcp://erg.2miners.com:8888 -u YOUR_WALLET_ADDRESS.RIG_ID

lolMiner software configuration to mine ERGO:

lolMiner.exe –algo AUTOLYKOS2 –pool erg.2miners.com:8888 –user YOUR_WALLET_ADDRESS.RIG_ID

T-Rex software configuration to mine ERGO:

t-rex.exe -a autolykos2 -o stratum+tcp://erg.2miners.com:8888 -u YOUR_WALLET_ADDRESS.RIG_ID -p x

In all cases, you must replace the text YOUR_WALLET_ADRESS.RIG_ID with the address of your virtual wallet.

Other ways to earn cryptocurrencies by Investing in Crypto Mining

If you are not yet encouraged to mine for yourself, remember that through Ricemining you can invest in cryptocurrency mining and earn cryptocurrencies for 36 months on a contract basis.

Similar to a mining pool, when you invest in Ricemining you get a contract with pre-set mining power which gives you monthly earnings according to your hash power.

The main advantage is that you don’t need to buy mining equipment or use your GPU.

If you enjoyed this guide to mining ERGO, please rate the article with 5 stars below and if you have any questions please leave a comment for our team to help you. You can also take a look at how to mine Zcash.

Mine ERGO (erg) or ETHEREUM (eth)?

Ethereum will soon stop using the PoW algorithm so it will no longer be possible to mine, so if you are wondering whether it is better to mine ERGO or ETHEREUM, erg is the best option.

Is it profitable to mine ERGO?

Currently cryptocurrency mining is still profitable despite the market crisis or cryptowinter. The ROI has spread because cryptocurrencies are worth less. When Ethereum migrates to PoS, perhaps ERGO will be more profitable than it is today.