Burst Coin is one of the most interesting cryptocurrencies today. At time of writing, it´s the only ecological green coin that exists. With the "Dymaxion", released on 27th of December 2017, it prepares the way for a new kind of cryptocurrencies.

This thread will handle the mining process which runs under a technique called PoC (Proof of Capacity). While all other cryptocurrencies are premined or PoW (Proof of Work) and PoS (Proof of Stake), Burst uses the available storage to mine. This results in a low energy wasting process, for example, Bitcoin needs 250 Kilowatt per hour while Burst only needs 0,5 Kilowatt per hour.

To take part of the mining process, you need to take some preparations.

What you need

• QBundle Burst wallet and plotting software
• blockchain file
• a Harddrive with > 1TB recommended
• fast processor and/or graphics card

First of all, you need to download the Burst Wallet and configure it. I recommend to download the QBundle because  everything you need is inside this bundle. Visit https://www.burst-coin.org/download-wallet and select QBUNDLE. You will be forwarded to GitHub to download the newest version. Additionally, download the blockchain file on https://www.burst-coin.org/download-wallet at the bottom of the side.

!! Some browsers and Antivirus Softwares prevent these files to be downloaded because they detect a virus. That´s a wrong report, the software is free of any virus or adware as long as you just use the links on the Burst webside. !! 

!! Example on Chrome: To enable the download, go to browser settings, select advanced settings and look for data protection and safety. Here, disable "Protect me against harmful sites". This are just default steps, it may differ from browser to browser and version to version. !!

If you have downloaded both files, store them in a new directroy named by your choice. 

!! Add an exception to your firewall and windows defender. Open your firewall, open the settings and look for a category like "Exceptions". Add the folder path to the exception, so every file inside should be executing without problems. For Windows defender, open your Smart Screen manager or App & Browser management. Deactivate all options for the time of installing. If this doesn´t help, deactivate your firewall for the time you install Burst wallet !!

Extract the QBundle into your created directory. A few files and folders are created. Now, extract the blockchain file into the QBundle directory. If you have already a folder named "burst_db", overwrite the folder with the extracted one.

!!Now allow the following .exe inside the windows defender: BurstWallet.exe, all .exe files inside BlagoMiner folder by open App & Network protection -->Firewall & Network--> allow App. Select all the .exe files and add them to the exception list. !!

Now, start the BurstWallet .exe. You will be guided through the registration and password process. You will get a long passphrase which consists of several words.

!! You must know your passphrase, if you loose it, your coins get lost. There is no option to restore them. Write it down on a paper, and additionally, store it inside a text file in two different offline storages like an external harddrive or an usb stick. To secure this, ideally the storages are protected with a password too. !!

If you have everything installed successfully, the wallet is ready to sync. This happens automatically, that´s why we put the blockchain file inside the directory. It will be faster to do this, because there is a huge part of the file which not need to sync from server.

Now you are ready to plot your harddrives. Plotting means, there will be created a file on your harddrive which contains nonces. In easy words, nonces are like small data parcels that are needed to find a block. The more nonces are available, the better the chance to find a block. 

You can do it in two different ways. You can use the plot tool inside the wallet or you can download xplotter and do it manually. 

Plot Tool:

First of all, write down your numeric name of your wallet. Go to the left and click on your Burst adress. Select "Copy Numeric Account ID" and paste it inside an empty textfile. Now select "Tools" and "Plotter". The Plotter will open, now you have to select the harddrive which you want to plot. Then add the numeric id inside the next field. Third step is to select the size you want to plot. I recommend more than 1TB to plot if available, the more storage you give to plot, the higher the possible rewards in Burst coin. Now you have to set the start nonce, which is 0 (zero) if you haven´t plotted a drive before.

!! Important note: if you want to plot multiple harddrives, you have to know the last nonce number of the harddrive that you have plotted before. Example: First drive is plotted from 0 - 769200. The next harddrive must start one nonce after that. In that case, you must enter 769201 as the  starting plot of your next drive. Be very careful about this, if you do anything wrong, you have to plot the whole drive again and that is painful. !!

If you don´t know how many nonces you have to plot, there is a helpful tool called Nonces Calculator. Visit http://www.mediafire.com/file/jdaudpmcq4hsad2/Burst+Nonces+v1.0.xlsm.

Now set the number of threads you want to use and the memory size. The threads should not exceed the  number of cores you have on your computer, virtual cores included. For example, you have an Intel i7 6500 with four cores and four virtual cores, then you can select 8. The memory should be 2 GB less than total available. If you have 8 GB Ram, select 6GB and let the 2GB for some other work for your pc.

Press "start plotting", lean back, let the pc do the work. 

!! Plotting is a very long process that needs several days. Example: Plotting a harddrive with 2 TB with a Intel i7 6500 needs about 40 hours. Stronger CPU or GPU and more RAM should do this faster, but also needs hours or days. To be sure the plotting works, look at the command window that opens after you have start the plotting. If there is an ongoing process without error messages, it works!p

If the harddrive is plotted, you should have a file here which is in the folder Burst/plots and should named with numbers separated with underline. The first number is your numeric ID of your wallet adress. The next number after the underline is the starting plot, then the ending plot and the last is the number of plots total.

!! For your next harddrive, add the number of total plots to the start plot. Example: 0 + 769200 = 769200. The starting plot of your next harddrive so should be 769201. The second harddrive should then have a file with the starting plot 769201 and ends with plot 1538401. This is just an example, it depends on how many nonces you want to create. Important note here is: the next starting plot must be the last ending plot +1. !!

XPlotter

If you haven´t the XPlotter inside the folder path c:/user/youruserfolder/AppData/roaming/BurstWallet, you can download it from GitHub: https://github.com/Blagodarenko/XPlotter/releases. If this link is not valid anymore, you should simply google Xplotter download.

!! You have to do the same here on the firewall and browser as I mentioned before. Also the xplotter should be excepted on the browser, firewall and windows defender !!

If you have downloaded and unzipped the file, open the "RunThisAsAdmin.bat" file with a text editor.

It should look like this:

@setlocal

@cd /d %~dp0

XPlotter_avx.exe -id 17122222222222222222 -sn 0 -n 769200 -t 8 -path H:\Burst\plots -mem 6G

@pause

Explain the numbers behind the commands:

-id = your numeric wallet adress

-sn = starting nonce

-n = number of nonces that you want to plot

-t = number of threads

-path = the path where your plotfile is created

-mem = total memory. 

Enter the same configurtions as I explained for the Plot Tool above. If you have configured the file, save it and start it as administrator. The plotting process starts now.

Well, that´s the whole plotting process which is sometimes painfull and time intensing. From my experience, with a storage of about 5 TB, you can make about only 8 Burst coins per day. But this could differ from Pool to Pool and depends also on the size of your plotted hardware. The more Burst are mined completely, the harder to find a block and get rewards.

!! don´t forget to activate all options in your browser, windows smart screen and antivirus software after you are finished !!

Selecting a pool will be an upcoming post in a few days.