Last time we learned how to earn some money (in crypto-currency) by renting some of our unused hard drive space.

Today we are going to earn more money, still while doing... nothing...

Ok, so how to do this ?

You probably own a computer right? Maybe several (desktop, notebook?) Have you ever thought about all the time your expansive machines are doing... nothing? They just sit there, watching you...

Do you know the average time spent by a drill to actually really screw something ? 19 hours! Just 19 hours of continuous use in its all life! The rest of the time, it's sleeping somewhere...

You bought your computer right? And these babies are not cheap if you want a good one! And they think they can live under your roof doing nothing? This has to change! It's time to make them work for your familly and make them profitable for your you!

What are computers good at ? Bingo! Computation! So we are going to use that and make them work !

Install the software

Go to minergate.com and download their software. Install it on you computer.

Then create an account on minergate.com, and keep the window open.

Then launch the software and login in with your account. You can also directly create your account from the software, but you'll need the website a little bit later, so...

By the way, i strongly recommend to secure your account with a 2 factor authentification. Minergate uses Google authentificator (Android or iOS) wich is really good and free (install it on your mobile phone !).
You can set the 2-step verification in your account on Minergate's website :

And now what ?

If you have launched the software and you're logged in. It should look something like this :

Do not push that big green button (i know you want to but refrain yourself! ) saying "start smart mining", it is not smart at all! Go to the Miner tab. It should look like this :

Then depending on what you want to mine just select the number of cores you want to assign to the currency (if want to do CPU mining) click the "start mining" link. Do not assign all your computer's cores to mining otherwise, your computer will start to slow down and will not be usable. Keep one core out of business, you may find that your hashing power (the computation power of your computer) will increase if you don't use all the cores.

If you have a very good graphic card you may be able to use GPU mining at the same time. This will use the microprocessors on your graphic card. They are, in general, far more effective for calculation. You'll see a big jump in your hashing power! But i've found that GPU mining with MinerGate is not always very stable depending of your machine (If you have a good graphic card, say a Geforce 970 or 980, or event better an AMD RX 480 stay tuned for part 3 next week, we will take care of these babies...)

What is CPU or GPU Mining ?

If you care about crypto-currency read below, otherwise skip to the"What currency to mine? How do i choose ?" part.
For crypto-currencies, mining is trying to find the key of a complex math problem by calculation. If you find the key, the crypto-currency network will grant you with some coins : you're mining. That's how you earn money. Once you've found one key, everyone on the network start again to solve the same math problem but with different parameters (just a little bit more complex than the previous time). Every amount of time (around 10 minutes for bitcoin right now) a key is found. But with time the complexity rises and time for calculation too. So quickly people couldn't just find keys just by themselves with their own computer. "Vires numeris" (the power is in number). So quickly miners gathered themselves to build "pools", where they joined their forces in computation. Each computer giving it's hashing power (computation power) to the group. When the group find a key they share the profis by splitting the gains proportionnaly to the hashing power you put in the pool. MinerGate is a pool, a big one, and it shares the profits between its users. Ok, if you're still reading this, thank you for reading so far! Now let' try to find something to mine...

What currency to mine? How do i choose ?

So first we have to do a small benchmark to know what your computer is good at in computation. You see, processors do not work all the same way, especially for graphic cards processors (GPU). The benchmark will give you your hashing power !
Launch the benchmark by going to the benchmark tab in the software. This time, you can click on the big green button!

Then depending on your hashing power and the difficulty to mine the crypto-currency you want, you'll choose what to mine. In anycase, do not expect to mine bitcoins! This is very hard for small computers even for small mining rigs of 5 or 6 graphic cards right now. But hey, you can try for fun and see what you get...

Let's choose one, say Dashcoins (be carefull these are Dashcoins not Dash coins). Most of the crypto-currencies in MinerGate are relatively young, so they are not impossible to mine, otherwise what would be the point ? Dashcoin could be a good pick, you can mine it with a CPU (especially if you have a good core i5 or i7) the difficulty to mine the coin appears on MinerGate website (that's why i told you to keep it open) :

Depending on your hashing power you'll have to choose the right one for you. Try it for a day and see what you get.
If you can get some coins everyday, or even just a small amount of strong crypto-currencies (like Ethereum(ETH) or Monero (XMR)) that's good.
Don't freak out if some of these coins do not have a big value, mine them and keep them, in one or two years they might really be woth it. You're investing in the future ! Remember, bitcoin was not at 2500$ at the beginning. You can also try to learn more about the crypto-currency you're mining. You might want to choose one you believe in or like more. This may also engage you to know more about crypto-currencies (if you do, i suggest you look at Jerry Banfield, he's very funny and interesting) and mostly the Blockchain (it's going to change your life in the near future).

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, if you do, don't hesitate to promote it, i'd really appreciate it. And if you want more, stay tuned if you want to know another good way to make (more) profit while doing nothing next week !

I wish you a nice day !

Nevil