Can anyone recommend a good cryptocurrency to mine on commercial grade equipment? Before we begin, I should clarify that I don't even care so much about it being profitable - this is just for fun - I'm pretty new to this and just learning so I just want to get comfortable with the process.
I did look into mining STEEM. The minimum requirements are 8Gb RAM (16 preferred). I only have 4Gb RAM :/ Intel HD Graphics 4400 card clocked at 200MHz. The processor is a 1.80 GHz dual-core Intel Core i3-3217U.
I also have a smartphone, which has 3Gb RAM (Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 617, Octa-core; 64-bit, 4 x 1.5GHz + 4 x 1.2GHz).
I have tried mining other currencies, but as of yet have failed to successfully mine anything.
I run Linux Mint primarily, but also have a Windows 7 partition I use sometimes.
I've looked into Litecoin, Nyancoin, Solaris, and a few others. Solaris (XLR) especially intrigues me. The NIST5 algorithm claims to run the most efficient, lowest temperature mining there is. The currency itself claims to be fairly distributed and decentralized. [Solaris Website]
People who bought Solaris a month ago when I did will now appreciate their money being worth 3x what it was. [source] However, as always I should point out that this currency is highly volatile and trading at low volumes, so if you choose to get involved you may lose all of your principal and also even if you get substantial returns you may find it difficult to find anyone who wants to buy the currency.
My (lack of) progress so far: On my Linux Mint distro on the laptop I attempted to build and compile BFGMiner, Minerd CPU Miner, and CGMiner, with no success other than causing Cinnamon to constantly crash (another problem I desperately need help with because the forums are not being helpful! :/ )
I did join a pool for Solaris, so I have my login info and I've set up workers and all that. I still haven't for any of the other coins because I just want to pick one and stick with it!
Now, over on Windows, I did get a mining program up and running for Solaris. However, it didn't seem to be working. There was like an error or something where it kept coming back 100% bad blocks or something I forget the actual terminology but point being it wasn't working!
I have been actively petitioning the Solaris forums for help on these issues but they have not responded yet.
Then there's my Android phone. I did get a free app, called "miner", that says it will do scrypt (LTC, DOGE, etc), sha256d (BTC, etc), X11, cryptonight, and a number of others, but not NIST5.
I don't want to keep joining pools and making accounts and installing software for things I'm never going to use!
Please, if you have any advice to offer, which cryptocurrency should I attempt to mine and on which device???