The miner settings that actually matter
The five settings every miner shares: algorithm, pool, wallet, TLS and tuning. Learn what each does and how to tune one change at a time.
Which five settings does every miner share?
Every miner, whatever its brand, is set up with the same five things.
- The algorithm.
- The pool address and port.
- The wallet, with a worker name.
- The TLS choice: plain or encrypted.
- The tuning options.
The first four decide whether you mine at all. Only the fifth is about speed.
Take the first four from the How to Mine page. Treat the fifth as optional homework.
How do worker names help with several rigs?
Add a short worker name after your wallet address, with a dot between them. Each rig then shows separately on the dashboard.
Without names, every rig reports as one anonymous worker. Then you cannot tell which machine dropped.
Use plain letters and numbers, and keep the name short.
Should I use TCP or TLS?
The same port serves both here. Use stratum+tcp:// for a plain connection, or stratum+ssl:// for an encrypted one.
TLS costs nothing meaningful in performance. It hides your wallet address from anyone watching the network path.
On any connection you do not fully trust, use TLS.
How should I tune my miner?
Intensity, threads and per-GPU flags trade stability for speed. The defaults are chosen to work everywhere, so each step away from them is your experiment.
- Change one setting at a time.
- Run long enough to trust the number. Read the dashboard's 24-hour average, not the console's instant readout.
- Keep notes of each change and its result.
The GPU tuning article in this help center covers the full method.