How to Mine Ethereum and Get Paid in Monero (XMR)

Rich Fowler
4 min readFeb 26, 2021
Just finding shares of ETH and getting rewarded in XMR

Pool: Moneroocean.stream

Port: 11024

Miner: Phoenix Miner 5.5c

GPU: 1 Nvidia GTX 1660 Super

So, I’m not a tech-savvy guy. I can follow instructions and get things to work. Sometimes all we need is that little bit of code or a clear explanation.

If you’re reading this, you probably already know how to use your graphics card(GPU) to mine Ethereum, or your processor (CPU) to mine Monero (XMR). I’ll skip all that because there are a million topics covering simple mining. This article assumes you already have a Monero Wallet of some kind (NOT AN EXCHANGE ADDRESS). If you don’t, you can download a wallet at getmonero.org or use Exodus Wallet.

Certain mining pools (this example is based around Moneroocean.stream) allow you to mine in one coin and get paid in another. I am not talking about dual-mining (two coins mined at the same time). This is pointing your GPU at a Monero pool, mining Ethereum, and being paid in Monero.

There are basic instructions on moneroocean.blogspot.com which you can read here:

__________________________________________________

To mine Ethereum on MoneroOcean pool you should:

Use pool address gulf.moneroocean.stream:11024
Use your XMR wallet address as user name (XMRWALLET)
Add ~ethash at the end of your password, like gpu_miner_name~ethash
Use nicehash stratum mining mode
For example:
gminer: miner.exe — server gulf.moneroocean.stream:11024 — user XMRWALLET — pass gpu_miner_name~ethash — algo ethash — proto stratum
TRM: teamredminer.exe -a ethash -o stratum+tcp://gulf.moneroocean.stream:11024 -u XMRWALLET -p gpu_miner_name~ethash — eth_stratum_mode=nicehash
Phoenix: PhoenixMiner.exe -pool stratum+tcp://gulf.moneroocean.stream:11024 -wal XMRWALLET -pass gpu_miner_name~ethash -proto 4

________________________________________

Now, they show you three examples of mining software and the command line to get it to run. For my rig, I chose Phoenix Miner as I have a NVIDIA 1660 Super, and the instructions for the first two miners (gminer and teamredminer) looked like AMD cards were better suited and I wanted the easiest route.

Download Phoenix Miner here:

The Download button on the website will take you to a MEGA.nz file sharing site, do not be alarmed. Simply download the zip and remember where you saved it.

The zip file you download must be opened with 7zip, and the password is “phoenix” without the quotes. Once you’ve extracted all contents, open the folder and you will see several batch (.bat) files. Pick anyone you like that mentions Ethereum. What you are going to do is right-click, Edit, and then when you’re done, you will save it as (for example: Eth2Xmr.bat) or something you will remember. Remember to change the save as, to “All file types” or it will save it as a text file, which will be useless.

You must use Port 11024 for ETH mining. The contents of your file should look like this (wallet address removed, mine happens to start with a 4 and end with an X):

setx GPU_FORCE_64BIT_PTR 0
setx GPU_MAX_HEAP_SIZE 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_SINGLE_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
PhoenixMiner.exe -pool stratum+tcp://gulf.moneroocean.stream:11024 -wal 4thisisntmyrealmonerowalletaddressbutputyourowninhereX -pass RSF1660~ethash -proto 4
pause

Save the file as whateveryouwant.bat in the same directory as PhoenixMiner.exe

Test run the miner by double clicking on whateveryouwant.bat. If you encounter any errors, try closing the command window, and right-clicking on the file and ‘Run as Administrator’.

As with most mining software, your Windows Defender / Antivirus is probably going to flag it as potentially harmful. Just allow it to run and it should start the initialization sequence and start mining.

The next question you may have is this: Why would I mine for XMR when Ethereum is worth so much more?

Ethereum will eventually change from PoW(mining) to PoS(staking).

XMR is relatively stable in price right now.

Minimum payouts, and payouts in general, are more frequent with XMR due to much lower fees.

Depending on your hardware and overclock settings, you will probably make a comparable rate of reward. For example:

GTX 1660 Super (Hynix Memory)

MSI Afterburner Settings: Power Limit: 70, Core Clock -194, Memory Clock -502, Fan Speed 70

Ethermine (ethash algorithm): 31 Mh/s average, approx $2–3.50 daily, depending on the fluctuating exchange rate, $1,500 at time of writing.

Moneroocean: 33.12 Kh/s (converted) approximately $2.40 daily, based on $205.00 at time of writing.

The GPU is still hashing at 31–32 Mh/s, but the moneroocean pool takes that speed and applies a conversion rate to show you what you’re getting as a XMR reward.

Something to keep in mind if you use mobile miner monitoring apps (I use Mining Observer). They will show the raw hash rate (not the converted rate), so mine thinks I am actually pushing XMR at 33 Mh/s which would bring in around $800 daily which is obviously not the case. Just be aware, check your actual pool dashboard for correct stats.

Hopefully this little guide will help some of you who, like me, need just a little bit more information than is normally presented to the seasoned miner.

--

--