Frequently Asked Questions

No. Malairte is designed to be mined on CPUs and GPUs that most people already own. A modern desktop, a gaming PC, or even a recent laptop can mine MLRT. There is no ASIC for Malairte, and that is intentional - the goal is to keep mining accessible so anyone can participate, not just industrial operators.

Yes, with some care. Modern laptops have capable CPUs and many gaming laptops have decent GPUs, so they can mine MLRT. The two things to watch are heat and battery. Laptops have small cooling systems compared to desktops, so run on a hard surface, keep vents clear, and consider raising the back with a small stand. Always run on AC power, never on battery, and cap the power draw so the fans do not run flat-out continuously. Many laptop miners run only when the lid is open and the user is around, not 24/7. Treat it as a learning rig or an occasional contributor rather than a workhorse.

Work through this list in order. First, confirm the miner connected to the pool - look for a line like "connected to" or "logged in" in the output. If you see "connection refused" or "host not found" the pool URL or port is wrong. Second, verify your wallet address is correct in the config; a typo means the pool rejects every share. Third, give it time - on a slow CPU it can take several minutes to find your first share at default pool difficulty. Fourth, check your firewall is not blocking the outbound connection. Fifth, look for "no jobs" or "stale" messages, which usually mean network instability. If you have done all of that and still see nothing after 15 minutes, switch to a different pool to rule the pool out.

Generally yes, with sensible precautions. A modern desktop is designed to run continuously - servers do it for years. The risks at home are dust buildup, heat, and a poor-quality power supply. Clean the dust out every few months with compressed air, monitor temperatures with a tool like HWMonitor or lm-sensors, and make sure your PSU is from a reputable brand and not overloaded. Use a surge protector or a UPS if you have unstable mains power. Do not leave a laptop mining unattended for days at a time - they are not built for it. And keep the room ventilated; even a single PC adds noticeable heat to a small room in summer.

Mining is not inherently more damaging than other sustained workloads like gaming, video rendering, or scientific computing. What matters is heat and dust. A GPU running at 65 degrees Celsius for years will be fine; one running at 90 degrees Celsius constantly will not be. Keep temperatures in the safe range by capping power, cleaning fans, and ensuring good case airflow. Replace thermal paste on older cards after a couple of years if temperatures creep up. Avoid aggressive overclocks - the small hashrate gain is not worth shortened hardware life. With reasonable settings, the hardware will likely become obsolete long before it physically wears out from mining.

No, and you probably should not. The miner only needs your receive address, which is a public string of characters - not access to the wallet itself. You paste the address into the miner config once, and from then on the pool sends rewards to that address. Your wallet (and your private keys) can stay closed on a separate, offline machine for safety. Many experienced miners do exactly this: a dedicated mining PC that only knows the receive address, and a separate well-protected machine or hardware wallet that actually holds the keys. This way, even if the mining PC is compromised, the funds are not at risk.