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Monero mining is a process done by miners to verify transactions on the network and add them to the blockchain together in the form of a block. This results for them in a reward in the form of new coins that are emitted as a reward for block solving. Network speed is mainly determined by the average time between individual blocks. This results in the transaction process that takes up to 130s (request =<1s, broadcast =<5s and max. time between blocks =<120 seconds). The transaction process is shown in the Figure 7.3.
Transaction request generated by the client transfer ADDRESS AMOUNT
Request broadcast to network nodes, shown showtransfers pool
Transaction is added to the block waiting to be mined.
Miners are verifying transactions in the pending block.
Every 2 minutes new Monero block is mined and added to the blockchain.
Miners are rewarded by block reward.
Receiving party’s wallet becomes aware of the transaction.
- Obtaining Monero and Running the Network
7.1 Mining nodes
As was mentioned at the beginning of the Chapter 7, mining is the main reason for transaction processing in Monero network, and as the mining process has rewards for successfully solving the block, this encourages many different entities to mine.
Mining in pools
Very often, miners combine their computational resources into one of the pools on the network. Due to the higher total hash rate, there is a greater chance of solving the block thus gaining the reward of newly emitted coins. After solving each block, the reward is distributed equally to miners connected to the pool according to PPS (per-per- share) or PPLNS (per-per-last-number-of-shares) system [61]. As of 09.29.2018 total hash rate of the network was 577.72 Mh/s (100%), in known pools 530.79 Mh/s (91.88%) and unknown part of the network 46.93 Mh/s (8.12%). Unknown part represents either pools that are not listed or solo miners on the network.
Solo mining
Represents "all or nothing" approach when it comes to the rewarding system. As solo miner’s hash rate has to compete against all other solo miners as well as big pools, the chance of solving the block is rather small [62]. On the other side, when solo miner solves the block successfully, the whole block reward is assigned to the mining address. With high- end, multiple GPU setup, the miner can achieve about 3.2 Kh/s; this would mean chance about 0.46 % of gaining the block reward.
Web mining
CryptoNight algorithm mining stands out above others in the way how cryptocurrency can be mined. For Monero there are JavaScript-based miners like CoinHive available, that results in individual websites embedding this script and mining using the visitor’s resources. This can result up to 300 hashes per second for users with powerful CPUs and is a viable alternative to advertisements when visitors spend more than 10 minutes on the website [63]. Typical examples of this approach are warez websites offering free online movies and torrent trackers.
Botnet mining
Using other peoples resources for mining, often also called crypto jacking (a more broad term for hidden cryptocurrency mining without users approval), have become increasingly popular in Monero. As the cryptocurrency provides privacy features as well as a wide range of mining software that is available for every major platform. In the current cloud era of computing, this represents vast prob- lems for both service providers and their customers. Providers experi- ence increased power consumption, cooling requirements, customers, on the other hand, are required to pay more for consumed system resources [64].
Cloud mining
Represents managed services by specialists that offer mining power us- ing cloud service providers. Due to managed service providers (MSP) markup, this way of mining is not as profitable and not recommended among Monero community in general. Arrows indicate flow of the resources: Payment for service; Payment for compute time; Delivered hashrate
7.2 Mining software
Official
Can be obtained at the official web of the Monero cryptocurrency project athttps://getmonero.org/downloads/. This is an official wal- let software that includes solo mining client and cannot be used for pool mining.
Community-driven
Is a category that incorporates open-source mining software projects that have source code published on the Github. Mostly used are:
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XMR Stak - Consolidates CPU, AMD and Nvidia GPU mining under one multiplatform application with integrated webserver and autoconfiguration capability. - URL:https://github.com/fireice-uk/xmr-stak
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XMRig - Three separately released miners with autoconfiguration GPU and CPU capability. - AMD:https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig-amd - Nvidia:https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig-nvidia - CPU:https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig
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CCminer - Nvidia CUDA miner - URL:https://github.com/tpruvot/ccminer/
Proprietary
Having closed source code that community cannot inspect, mining software of this category has less reputation compared to the community- driven. This is caused mainly by the fact that the exact produced hash rate and client reported hash rate differed in the past at least regarding the MinerGate miner available athttps://minergate.com/download s/gui.
7.3 Mining malware
As Monero algorithm is designed to be memory demanding, it is suitable to mine it using both CPU and GPU as mining software offers support for both hardware components as mentioned in the Section 7.2.
The fact that Monero can be effectively CPU mined means for malware miners much easier way how to gain any profit from infected computer as they do not need to have any specific GPU drivers or features implemented. Because of this, they are easier to deploy on a wide range of devices [65].
Monero position in the malware world
When malicious software developer considers the cryptocurrency technology to build on, cryptocurrency features are one of the most important aspects that drive this decision. In the case of Monero, its features are as much important for its users as for the malware developers. The main reason for using Mon- ero is that it offers private features as well as support for mining on almost every device available [66]. Thanks to its features and active development, Monero is one of the most active cryptocurrencies that are used in the malware world with more than 57 million USD already mined. As of 2019, Monero is iden- tified to have the most active malware campaigns per cryptocurrency, followed by Bitcoin and zCash [67].
Types of malware miners
Main categories of malware miners are derived from the way how the unwanted software is delivered to the target device. Most common ways of ingestion are:
- Website with JavaScript miner software, also known as Crypto- jacking as mentioned in the Figure 4.4.
- Exploiting vulnerabilities in the operating system or application software.
- Bundled in legitimate software.