How to mine Bellscoin, the ‘original meme coin’, alongside Litecoin and Dogecoin

On 27 August 2024 the mining pool ViaBTC added support for the meme coin Bellscoin (BEL). Users can mine it alongside Litecoin (LTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE) via merged mining. To mark the launch, the pool will not charge fees for mining BEL until 27 September.

Here is how to mine Bellscoin—and why some consider it the “original” meme coin.

What is Bellscoin

The cryptocurrency Bellscoin was launched by Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus. He introduced it on the Bitcointalk forum on 28 November 2013. The coin’s concept was inspired by the popular video-game series Animal Crossing.

“In the Animal Crossing universe, the main currency is ‘bells’. To get them, you need to collect fruit, catch bugs and fish, dig up fossils, and exchange these items for bells. In the cryptocurrency world, we just mine them!” ― said Billy Markus.

Bellscoin was released eight days before Dogecoin, so the project is billed on its website as the “original” meme coin.

Despite its status as an early mover and a new “joke cryptocurrency” concept, the coin failed to gain significant traction. Fame went to Dogecoin; Bellscoin was gradually forgotten.

A decade later, amid a meme-token frenzy, a group of enthusiasts reviewed the project’s source code and decided to revive Bellscoin.

How to mine Bellscoin

Bellscoin runs on the Scrypt algorithm, also used by Litecoin. It can be mined with ASICs such as the ANTMINER L9/L7 and the ElphaPex DG 1 plus.

In July 2024 the team released BellsCore V3 with merged-mining support. The upgrade was activated a month later at block height #144,000.

BellsCore V3 is here!

After much hard work, the code is finally complete, and the pre-release build is ready. All critical features are functioning, though some minor updates may follow

We are now actively communicating with exchanges and pools to migrate to V3. Once it’s… pic.twitter.com/bIc3hzxF6b

— Bellscoin Blockchain ? (@BellsChain) July 20, 2024

Merged mining is the simultaneous mining of two or more cryptocurrencies on the same hardware, first implemented in 2011 by the Namecoin project.

Many altcoins have used it since, but Dogecoin (DOGE) has proved the most popular. The cryptocurrency switched to merged mining in July 2014 — seven months after launch.

ViaBTC has supported merged mining for Litecoin, Dogecoin and Bellscoin since 27 August 2024.

“Thanks to the support of Litecoin founder Charlie Lee in 2014, miners were able to earn DOGE in addition to their LTC rewards. The addition of Bellscoin (BEL) will further increase their potential income,” representatives of ViaBTC commented.

Litecoin miners can choose the Pay Per Share+ model or Pay Per Last N Share (PPLNS) to receive rewards in BEL and DOGE. DOGE is distributed only via the PPLNS model.

“Miners just need to sign up with ViaBTC and connect to the Litecoin pool to start earning rewards in BEL and DOGE,” representatives of ViaBTC said.

ViaBTC supports automatic, fee-free withdrawals of BEL to the CoinEx exchange. Until 27 September the pool will not charge fees to new or existing Litecoin miners.

To take part in the promotion, choose LTC mining on ViaBTC. The system will calculate BEL rewards under the PPLNS model and credit them to the client’s account.

Takeaways

Bellscoin boasts more than a decade of history: a project forgotten back in 2013 is returning on a wave of meme-token popularity.

According to Miningpoolstats, many large pools now offer merged mining for Bellscoin, including F2Pool, Antpool and ViaBTC. Users of the latter can mine BEL fee-free and automatically withdraw coins to CoinEx to lock in income in USDT.