I started to write on Steemit just 7 days ago. After writing few post in first 4 days I decided to do something what very less people are doing.
So from last 2 days I have not written anything but wasted my 32 hour. Here is the full story what I did in last 32 hours and why you should not do what I did.
[13th August 1:00 A.M]
I started my laptop and was chatting on Steem chat. Idea of mining Steem came in my mind. I had heard about bitcoin mining but never had any experience.
I used Steem search feature and searched for "Steem mining".
After reading a lot, I concluded that mining is not easy on windows. But I found a straight forward guide for Ubuntu.
That guide was - https://steemit.com/steemhelp/@joseph/mining-steem-for-dummies
In starting I was very afraid because I had never used any operating system other than windows.
But I always love to try new things. So I thought to give Ubuntu a try.
I started my old computer which was running with windows 7. From Ubuntu website I downloaded it and then on the same website I found the instruction to make Ubuntu bootable for USB stick.
I used my USB card and successfully created bootable copy of Ubuntu.
Now it was 5:30 in the morning.
But I was happy I learned something new. Before that I never had made any bootable copy. So it was good learning experience for me.
Now. it was the time to install Ubuntu on my old computer.
That part was easy and took around 1 hour with all the updates.
So I was on the Ubuntu platform first time in my life. Look was good but not much functions as we have with Windows. But I had heard that Ubuntu is best for development.
Any way it was the time to start following Steem mining guide.
I took the small break of just 1 hour and I was back on my computer at 8:00 A.M
It was very hard for me because I never have done coding. Even that guide was straight forward but I still made some mistakes. I keep following all the instructions again and again.
Lot of error came and no one was there to help me.
My computer froze up many times and I pressed the restart button in frustration again and again.
It was 5:00 P.M
And I was still stuck in that code. I again searched for other articles about mining. But I found the same guide pretty straight forward and again I started to follow the steps.
I struggled a lot with the code as it was first time in my life When I was doing so much coding.
Failed Every time.
It was 8:00 P.M
An idea came in my mind. I had heard about amazon AWS. So it was the time to give it a try.
But again...
It was first time and I had never done any server setup before.
I used my card and after few minutes I was ready with amazon free Tier.
I followed YouTube videos and used amazon EC2 to setup a virtual server. It took me around 30 mins.
But instead of Ubuntu, I installed windows. I found another article on Steem about mining on windows.
I followed it 6-7 times and end result was same.
I spent many hours to figure out the solution.
I chatted with one of Steem member and found that minimum requirement is 4 gb RAM for mining.
I was happy to know that because I thought, now I have found the solution.
Because until now I had tried on my old computer which was running with 2 gb RAM. And with virtual server I was using only 1 gb RAM.
[14th August 1:00 A.M]
I was not feeling good because last 24 hours were very tough with no solution and no sleep.
But I always follow never give up approach.
Now it was the time to try with my laptop which has 4 gb RAM. My laptop was filled with lot of information and I could not afford to lose the information if anything wrong happen.
But I took the risk.
I was now completing the steps faster because I was doing the same thing from last many hours.
But now I faced the problem which I tried to solve with no success.
I tried everything I found on internet to resolve this problem. Whole night spent to found out the solution.
Now it is 8:30 A.M
And I am at the same point from where I started around 32 hours ago.
After talking to more people I found out that mining Steem is not profitable until you are using GPU. On the other hand writing content is much more profitable.
With normal PC, We can mine 1-2 Steem per day and sometimes even less.
It was a lesson for me.
I could have written few blog post instead of trying to mine.
But I learned a lot of things and installing Ubuntu was a good learning experience.
I want to sleep now and no one can stop me. But from you guys I want to see comments.
I feel your pain and have been there before. Here's a couple of reference sites for finding what coins are profitable to mine. Then you can always buy steem with the profits.
http://www.whattomine.com/
http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency
https://bitmakler.net/mining -combines both