Mine to support

1. Download xmrig

xmrig is the standard open-source Monero miner. Get the binary for your OS from the official site:

Download xmrig →

Heads up: Windows Defender and many antivirus tools flag any miner as malware on principle, even legitimate ones you ran intentionally. If yours quarantines xmrig, you'll need to add an exclusion. Source code is on GitHub if you want to build it yourself.

2. Run it pointed at the Fleshball pool

Open a terminal in the folder you extracted xmrig into and run:

./xmrig -o stratum.fleshball.org:3334 --tls \
    -u 45XcQJ4bcQh7GBev8G34oEVwsKKQPVZ8kMpFGEKBWtf8emuG8BhASEX8K4xe1Y8uuuSphsvz9KwjK4V3QhCFZ57h4nDhNAH \
    --rig-id=your-nickname

The pool requires the -u field to be a real Monero address — that's a stratum-protocol thing, not a custody control — so we use FleshSimulator's own address (the same one block rewards go to). The --rig-id flag carries your leaderboard label separately, and is what shows up on the live and all-time leaderboards on the homepage. Replace your-nickname with whatever you want shown (your Twitter handle, an alias, "anonymous" — whatever). The address can also be your own; it doesn't matter, because the pool's 100% fee means block rewards always go to pool-wallet (FleshSimulator's address) regardless of what you put as the login.

Or use a config file (recommended for long sessions)

Save this as config.json next to xmrig:

{
  "autosave": true,
  "cpu": { "enabled": true, "max-threads-hint": 75 },
  "opencl": false,
  "cuda": false,
  "pools": [
    {
      "url": "stratum.fleshball.org:3334",
      "user": "45XcQJ4bcQh7GBev8G34oEVwsKKQPVZ8kMpFGEKBWtf8emuG8BhASEX8K4xe1Y8uuuSphsvz9KwjK4V3QhCFZ57h4nDhNAH",
      "pass": "x",
      "rig-id": "your-nickname",
      "tls": true,
      "keepalive": true,
      "nicehash": false
    }
  ]
}

Then run ./xmrig. The max-threads-hint: 75 caps it at 75% of your cores so your system stays responsive — adjust to taste.

3. Watch your contribution show up

Within ~30 seconds of starting, you should see your nickname appear on the live pool stats. Your hashrate is contributing to whatever block the pool is currently mining.

When the pool finds a block, the Monero network pays the entire reward (~0.6 XMR right now) to FleshSimulator's address. Block-finding is a Poisson process — at small pool hashrate the expected interval between finds is long (think days-to-months, not minutes); the donation model is "many donors mining steadily" not "your kWh finding the block." You don't get a payout — that's intentional, this is a donation.

Will this slow down my computer?

Mining uses CPU cycles. By default xmrig is fairly aggressive — set max-threads-hint in the config to 50-75 to keep the machine responsive for normal use. On a desktop you won't notice; on a laptop your fans will spin and battery life will drop.

How much electricity does this cost me?

Honest answer: more than you think relative to what you're "raising." A modern desktop CPU does maybe 2-10 KH/s; the entire Monero network does several GH/s (see the live network hashrate above). Your contribution is real but small. The point is solidarity and aggregate pressure, not maximizing your individual donation. If raw efficiency is your concern, send XMR directly from the homepage — it's strictly better per-watt-spent.

What if my computer can't mine, or I just want to send money?

Two easy options: donate fiat (card/PayPal) on the official GiveSendGo fundraiser, or send Monero straight to the address on the homepage. The XMR address is the same one that block rewards go to — from the recipient's perspective the funds are indistinguishable.

Can I redirect the funds to my address by editing the user field?

No. The pool builds blocks where the coinbase pays a single hard-coded address (FleshSimulator's, set in configs/pool.conf as pool-wallet). The "user" field in your xmrig config is just there to satisfy the stratum protocol's address-validation requirement; the leaderboard nickname rides separately as rig-id. Neither field can override the coinbase destination. Why this is enforced.

Is the pool taking a cut?

No. Pool fee is set to 100% — meaning 100% goes to the wallet address (FleshSimulator's). Operator fee is 0%. There are no payouts to construct, so there's no opportunity for the operator to siphon. Verify it yourself.

What's the minimum spec? Should I use my GPU?

Anything from a 5-year-old laptop to a beefy gaming desktop will contribute meaningfully. Phones and Raspberry Pis technically work but their hashrate is so low it's mostly symbolic.

Use your CPU, not your GPU. Monero's RandomX algorithm is deliberately designed to be CPU-friendly and ASIC/GPU-hostile — a modern CPU will usually outperform any consumer GPU you point at it, and burn a fraction of the wattage. For reference: an RX 9070XT (a current high-end gaming GPU) does ~1 KH/s on RandomX, while a 7-year-old i5-7600 does ~2 KH/s on the same workload. The GPU also pulls 200-300W at full tilt vs. a CPU's 30-100W, so the dollars-per-hash you'd be donating to your power company would dwarf the dollars-per-hash you're donating to FleshSim. Leave opencl and cuda disabled (they're off in the config above).

Can I run xmrig on a server / VPS / work computer?

Run it on hardware you own and pay for the electricity on. Don't run it on someone else's machine without explicit permission — that's "cryptojacking" and it's a real legal problem regardless of how good the cause is. Most VPS providers also forbid mining in their TOS; check yours.

How do I stop?

Press Ctrl+C in the xmrig terminal, or close the window. There's nothing to "unsubscribe" from — the pool sees you connected, sees you disconnected, end of story.