How to check if the mining software is trustworthy?
In this guide, we will show you how to make sure that mining software is trustworthy or at least increase the odds of downloading safe mining software.
The cryptocurrency and blockchain industry originate from ideas of anonymity, cryptography, and privacy. While this has many positive aspects, there are also some potentially negative consequences.
We need software developers to develop tools that help us use blockchain technology. Since blockchain promotes the idea of privacy, many software developers want to stay anonymous.
This means that not all mining software is signed nor the person or team behind it is known to the public. At NiceHash we sign all our software binaries and we ask all of our plugin developers (3rd party miners) to sign their software too. Signing the software requires a Certificate Authority Certification.
How to check if the mining software is signed?
Follow these steps to check if the binary is signed.
- Right-click on the downloaded file (do not run it!)
- Click on Options
- Locate the Digital Signatures tab
- Double click on the certificate
- Click on View Certificate to examine it.
If the file does not have a signature, the Digital Signatures tab will not be seen.
NiceHash Miner Digital Signature
How to make sure that the software is safe?
Sometimes even malicious software can get signed. Here are some additional checks that you can take to make sure the software is safe:
- The software is signed with a legit CA certificate.
- The software has a GitHub repository.
- The official website has a valid certificate (let’s encrypt does not count).
- The general public is talking about it.
- Read the ToS and find the company details.
- The software has independent reviews and user feedback.
- The company has an official Facebook page (with a verified badge) and other active social media pages.
- Company representatives are known to the public through LinkedIn.
How to check if the software has a GitHub repository?
GitHub is a website where developers can publish and store their software code. Other users can then download the files.
Navigate to GitHub and search for the miner/software in the top right corner.
Things to keep an eye on if the software is distributed via GitHub:
- Amount of older releases. More releases mean more active development hence more trustworthiness.
- Check the developer profile. The more projects that the developer has worked on the better the odds that the software is legit.
- Check for Issues. If there are legitimate issues posted by other users, the software is more likely to be trusted.
Note that not all software is publicly accessible on the GitHub page. A software that is published via GitHub rather than via some file sharing platform has a high chance of being trusted.
The company has an official Facebook page (with a verified badge) and other active social media pages.
Check social media pages. Most likely every mining software has at least one of them. The most common one is Facebook.
Find the official page on Facebook. A good sign is a verified badge that looks like this:
If you are still not sure if the mining software is safe to use, you can always post a question on our Subreddit or Discord server.